a little bit of jam & cordial - Rosella Jam & Cordial

 Recently we harvested the flowers (fruits) off the Rosella bushes we had growing

 there followed a day of making jam and cordial with the picked flowers

 Start by washing the picked flowers (fruits), once washed pop into a stainless steel pot.

 Cover the washed Rosella fruit (seeds and all) with water, just enough to cover the fruit. Bring to the boil.

Simmer gently until soft. The red color should have faded from the calyx (flower petals). Remove from heat and strain contents through a sieve, discard the pulp and measure the liquid. Once you have measured the liquid go ahead and make jam and / or cordial:

Rosella Cordial: Add the measured liquid back into the saucepan and add a cup of sugar to every cup of liquid. Heat gently until all the sugar has dissolved, stirring often. Once the sugar is dissolved bring to the boil for a couple of minutes. Take off the heat and add the juice of 4-5 limes and stir in citric acid (1tablespoon per 1.5 litres of cordial). Return saucepan to heat and briefly bring back to the boil. Bottle the cordial into dry, sterile bottles and seal while hot.

Rosella Jam: Add the measured liquid back into a saucepan and add a cup of sugar to every cup of liquid. Heat gently until all the sugar is dissolved, stirring often. Once the sugar is dissolved bring to a gentle boil and continue cooking until desired consistency when jam tested is reached. The green seed of the Rosella fruit contains the pectin. So, thus far I haven't needed to add any additional pectin. Bottle the jam into sterile jars and seal while hot.

Playing with flavor: To the cordial I added a piece of fresh finely grated ginger. For the second batch of jam I combined 500grams Strawberries, about 250grams of pealed and diced pear, 3 cups of Rosella Liquid, the juice of 3 limes and 750grams of sugar.

a tea that soothes the throat

When under the weather with flu, it is so lovely to be able to wander into the backyard to gather the ingredients needed to make a tea that soothes a sore throat. 

In a saucepan place chopped lemon grass, a piece of ginger and enough water to make a couple cups of tea. Bring to the boil, turn the heat off and allow to steep for three to five minutes.

Place a wedge of lime and the leaf of perennial coriander into your favourite cup. Pour (strain if you like) the steeped liquid into the cup. Add a teaspoon of honey, give a little stir, and now it's time to sip, enjoy & soothe.

We also picked fruit from our citrus trees and juiced them along with some carrot & apple. So while this week we may feel under the weather with flu, it is also kinda nice to be enjoying the rewards from our efforts over the last couple of years of incorporating more self-sufficiency and simple living into our humble home.

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Caramelised Onions & Onion Skin Dying

5 Simple Ways to  enjoy everyday pleasures

A little bit of jam & cordial - Rosella Jam & Cordial


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caramelised onions & onion skin dyeing

Making preserves is something I've enjoyed for some time; I have fond memories of learning to make Apricot Jam with my Grandma. This morning I made up a patch of caramelized onions, they are a good accompaniment to cold meats, a great base for savory tarts and easy to make. 

You cook the onions slowly to caramelize their natural sugars, and the addition of brown sugar and balsamic vinegar helps the process along. Instead of throwing the onion skins out I popped them in a saucepan (one that is designated to art & craft tasks) with a couple of pieces of PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric. I brought it to the boil, reduced the heat and let it gently simmer while I cooked the  onions. 

For the caramelized onions: I put olive oil into a heated fry pan, added 6 sliced onions, a splash of balsamic vinegar and slowly let the onions soften. Once the onions were soften I added the sugar and a hand full of cranberries, reduced the heat and let everything cook slowly until the onions were nicely caramelized; this took about an hour. The 6 large onions gave me a 250 ml jar of caramelized onions which I keep in the fridge and use over the next 1-2 weeks. 

The Fabrics: the top piece of fabric I removed from the liquid after an hour of gentle boiling and rinsed it with hot water so it's lighter than the bottom piece which I left in the liquid for 3-4 hours. I've put together a Caramelized Onion & Fabric Dying Recipe Sheet that you can download, it's in PDF format.

Related Posts:
A little bit of jam & cordial - Rosella Jam & Cordial

Delicious Cherry Jam

Inspiration even when doing the dishes

pancakes a weekend feast

We both enjoy a cooked breakfast; so on weekends I often make up something special 

 At the moment our citrus (the mandarin & the lime) trees are full of fruit

so yesterdays' treat was raspberry, pear & white chocolate pancakes served with French vanilla ice-cream, lime coulis and a dusting of icing sugar.

delicious cherry jam

 Already we're into the second day of a New Year - Happy New Year!!! everyone. Do hope everyone had a safe and joyous Christmas and New Year celebrations. Always so much yummy fare to prepare and enjoy and all those delicious summer fruits to enjoy. We day tripped up to Stanthorpe just before Christmas and came home with a selection of stone fruit, apples and 7.5 kilos of yummy yummy cherries. Inspired by German Rumtopf I marinated several of the cherries with a combination of sugar, rum and coffee liqueur. These marinated cherries where then included into the trifle, a chocolate-cherry mud cake and drizzled across a serving of ice cream - all very delicious. Also grabbed the opportunity to make up some Cherry Jam which went beautifully with the ham and turkey.

a slice of velvet

 Enjoying a little bit of baking. Made a red velvet cake 

the cream cheese and white chocolate icing is delicious

and a little bit of lace today to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary

brekkie + book

Spotted & purchased this delightful book this morning while at Riverbend Books & Teahouse having brekkie and coffee with the Broadstroke girls. The book is called 'Baking Day' and is a collection of retro baking recipes and vintage craft put together by the Women's Weekly and published by ACP Books

The recipes and the craft projects appealed but what I really loved is the presentation. 

The illustrations, photography and layout is delightful and very inspiring.

                    

In time for Santa

I've been enjoying getting back into doing some Christmas nibble cooking this year. Apricot balls, rum balls, white Christmas, chocolate fairy cakes and one of my favorites mocha balls. In keeping with this years theme word which was expand, I've been exploring with taking still life food shots. Thought I'd share the recipe for the mocha balls

1 2/3 cups icing sugar

3/4 cup rolled oats

2 tbspn instant coffee

1 tbspn coffee liquer

3/4 cup coconut

125g butter

300g dark chocolate

Cream butter with icing sugar. Dissolve coffee in liqueur. Add rolled oats, coffee and coconut to mixture and mix well. Refrigerate the mixture for about 20 minutes and then roll into small balls. Dip the balls in melted chocolate and decorate with coffee bean or cherry.

Merry Christmas and best wishes to all

Mushroom Relish

In my "Jam n Books" Post, I had a request from Pauline for the mushroom relish recipe.

1kg mushrooms, 500grams tomatoes, 2-3 onions, 2 granny smith apples, 3-4 garlic pieces, brown sugar to taste approx one cup, salt and pepper to taste, 2-3 cups vinegar (I use brown vinegar with a splash of port/liqueur added), a selection of spices to suit own palate - ie coriander seeds, a pinch of mustard, turmeric.

Wash the mushrooms and tomatoes, chop coarsely and set aside. Peel the onions, peel & core the apples chop both coarsely and set aside. I then put everything (including garlic) through the food processor in batches. Once processed it all goes into a saucepan. Add the vinegar, sugar, spices, salt n pepper. Stir occasionally while bringing to the boil. Reduce heat so it remains simmering and continue cooking. Check the flavor as you go and add more seasoning as needed - I'm fairly sure I also added a tablespoons of Golden Syrup as my husband and I both have a sweet tooth. Stir relish occasionally during cooking, cook relish until it reaches the desired consistency - usually about 1-2 hours. Divide cooked relish up into sterile jars, seal and store. Makes about 4 x 250ml jars.