The autumnal manic preserving has continued apace and i thought i’d share with you my latest exploits. I was given a load of apples via work, from a long neglected apple tree outside the office hence producing very small fruit. The thought of peeling and chopping them all individually didn’t fill me with domestic joy so i decided to try out a recipe for ‘apple cheese’. The concept of fruit cheese in fact originated from wartime austerity whereby the pulp leftover from fruit jellies was re-used, although with a bit of compromise on flavour.

To me it’s a bit of a misnomer. Why call something that you eat with cheese, cheese? That reminds me – when we lived in Hailes Street, Lyla’s first attempt at naming butter was “butter-cheese!’. Maybe she was onto something.

For apple cheese there is nothing more to preparing the fruit than simply chopping into quarters and stewing gently with water. Ideal for those small knobbly little buggers.

Next, pass the pulp through a sieve. It will need a bit of encouragement to come through… Place the concentrated puree into a saucepan and add 3/4 of it’s volume in sugar. (100ml = 75g sugar). Boil for around an hour until it darkens and takes on a glossy texture. At this stage i tested it for setting point using the traditional method of placing a wee blob onto a plate and putting in the fridge. If set in a few minutes, you’re laughing. Literally, as there is nothing worse than unset preserves, because there is no going back once you’ve potted them.

Oil some ramekins so your little mounds of joy will slide out without too much objection.Seal with waxed paper and string or elastic, and leave to set for a few days. Then serve the little lovelies with a some medium flavoured cheese. Anything too strong and the delicate apple-y-ness gets lost.

The recipe came from this 1970’s preserving book. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s ideal for the novice but with a bit of know-how the recipes are truly authentic, and they work (which is more than can be said for internet preserving recipes, many of which are complete rubbish.)

More preserves coming up next week!

Though it’s been a delightfully sunny summer, i always look forward to the approach of the autumn. The closing in of a season encourages a natural sense of reflection in me, and my thoughts turn from what has been to what harvests may come. Last autumn we were settling in to our new house and much time was spent putting things here and there and finding a nook or corner for everything. My usual seasonal preserves were thus few and so this perhaps partly explains why i am now gathering produce and preserving it like we’re approaching a major world meltdown.

No summer is complete for me without a trip to Borderberries near Kelso to pick raspberries. At this time of year they are an absolute bargain price so i picked 3 kilos this week, and 1 kilo of redcurrants. This sun was peeking through the canes as i plucked the sweet morsels and as the lady in the next row remarked, ‘the raspb’ries are hingin’ hivvy’. (This can only be deciphered with a ear for the Borders tongue).

The key to good raspberry jam is berries as fresh as you can manage, so i set to work that same evening. The technique itself couldn’t be simpler, adding an equal weight of sugar and boiling til setting point – usually about 10 minutes later. Or refer to the jam thermometer.

If you ever consider preserving, do invest in a jam funnel. Saves you chipping rock-hard bits of jam off your surfaces for a few hours afterwards.

Day 2 and i was onto the redcurrant jelly. This involves the slightly arduous task of using a straining bag, which seems to ever evade me as it all gets horribly stuck in the material and fails to strain properly. Into the bargain, it appears not to have actually reached setting point, and consequently we have several jars of what could only loosely be described as ‘jelly’. Plus, as you can see, a very messy kitchen table.

But when all else fails, a bit of simple pimping is called for. Bring out your best Kidston fabric, dicky up the jars and you’ll be wondering why you ever left the WI.

Come september and i tend to focus on preserves i actually eat, like chutney.

July wasn’t an easy month, and with that i felt the need to mark some of the difficult days with some beauty. And what could be more delicately gorgeous than french macarons, made famous by the Parisian patisserie Laduree, but now sweeping the globe as the latest chic treat for young and old. My friend Lora was the first to master the art, and educate me on the maracon/macaroon debate (the latter a coconut affair with a glace cherry on top – so wrong). The prospect of using a piping bag seemed like way too much precision to appeal to me, but as it turned out, a very therapeutic afternoon was spent early last week squeezing these ‘little shits’ (self-named, in reference to the brown ones) onto my pencil-marked baking parchment. Before long i was applying pink colouring like a 4 year old, and turning out the following on day 3 of the maracon challenge…

Sadly, day 2 wasn’t such a merry affair, with these lime and basil macarons from Ottolenghi demonstrating all the classic flaws: cracked tops, lack of feet or ‘pieds’ (the little bubbly bits at the bottom of each half – very important), and a notably dry texture. They should be light and chewy to the taste, ‘melt in the mouth’, not the crisp sweetness of a classic meringue, though the ingredients only differ by one, namely the addition of finely sieved ground almonds. But let us not be deceived; the secret of the macaron lies not in the mere components, but the skill of the patissier at the helm. 

Macarons come in many fantastical flavours, and traditionally with a buttercream filling. I find the additional sweetness a little overpowering so i have taken to adopting a chocolate ganache filling in preference, which can be laced with alcohol of your choosing.

Macarons also provide a welcome opportunity for some very pretty photography subjects. 

But what to do with all those pesky egg yolks? There’s only so much eggs benedict one can eat, though in this house we may be attempting to break some kind of world record. This calls for another culinary creative outlet: home-made ice cream.

I perused and subsequently bought this lovely book in Waterstones last week. I have found there aren’t many reliable ice cream recipes online, so this was a welcome addition to my expanding cook book collection. This guy has been making ice cream for the family business in the Cotswolds for years. Intriguing flavours include sloe gin and damson, earl grey tea, and chocolate chilli rosemary. I made a start with coffee choc chip.

My most recent macaron batch, mocha, was perhaps my favourite. A bit bumpy on the outside, but chewy and just enough coffee and chocolate to bring about a nice flavour blend.

The macaron challenge ended on day 4, but i like to think that’s because i have mastered the art perfectly….

This has very little to do with salvaging but i just wanted to rave a little about my saturday lunch experience at Jamie’s new restaurant in Glasgow, a coalescing of my two loves – interiors and food. Albeit with a fairly corporate edge to the whole operation, i still would struggle to think of anywhere with a better combination of menu choice and careful style. Often i find you get one or the other when dining out. Firstly, the place is huge, meaning more room to display the vast collection of Le Marais and Bentwood bistro chairs. The antique pine shelves and sideboards are positively heaving with italian delicacies and voluptuous vegetables, whilst cured meats dangle invitingly from the ceiling. Napkins are (faux) vintage personalised linen. Food is served in a wide array of receptacles, from little cardboard boxes stuffed with fresh bread, copper bowls delicately lined with illustrated paper, beautiful rustic pottery pasta dishes, mini-wooden platters, cast iron teapots….

We struggled to choose from the well-composed menu, featuring many of Jamie’s signature ingredients (lemon, mint, chilli, cinnamon, anchovies). Ingredients are sourced both locally and from Italy – smoked mozzarella, tuscan fennel salami, sicilian cracked wheat, burrata…..not your average supermarket fare. Pasta is made fresh every day, and you can really tell. We went for the rice balls stuffed with mozarella and porcini, polenta chips and stuffed courgette flowers to start, followed by prawn linguine and the most intensely lemony ravioli…oooh it was good!

Now all i need is a valid excuse to go back very soon.

Shopping for cookbooks in second hand shops can be quite unsatisfying. Rows of 1980’s m&s freebies, rubbish cupcake booklets and the odd obligatory delia smith classic. Purchasing cookbooks is something i would suggest requires considerable selectivity and deliberation, given the vast array of options on the market. Which means buying second hand becomes even more of a challenge. In general, i tend to only buy books written by specific favoured chefs, ones who have actually written the book and thus tried and tested all the recipes themselves. I can heartily recommend the following 4 books, all lovingly discovered in my local charity shops.

This completes my set of much loved covent garden soup books, the above one containing more pulse and beans recipes in addition to yummy soups and other liquid glory.
Sam and Sam Clark wrote this one some years after the original Moro cookbook, both of which are based on mediterranean/middle eastern cuisine. Before opening their london restaurant, they drove from spain to the sahara in search of recipes and ingredients. This latest one is based on using ingredients grown in their london allotment, together with sumptuous spices and sweet flavours from the med.
I can’t recommend highly enough Allegra McEvedy, she is my favourite food writer having discovered her a few years ago via the guardian food supplement. Her Leon books (1 & 2) include all the recipes from the london-based fast food restaurant, plus a ton of other family heirloom kitchen secrets, plus fabulous styling to boot. This latest book was recently a bbc 1 series of the same clever name. The ‘economy’ is not based on buying cheap food, but buying something exciting (eg a massive leg of lamb) and then using it in various ways over 3 meals.    These books need no introduction! I recently toyed with buying them on amazon at a hefty cost (for, realistically, a set of book that i will never use, but feel the need to own having enjoyed the film a lot). So i was pleased as punch to pick these up last week for £1 each. Who knows – maybe one day i’ll try my hand at Quenelles de poisson, or Rognons de veau en casserole…