I MADE SOME MARMALADE IN JANUARY - HERE IS RECIPE

TWO NICE THINGS HAPPENED INDOORS THIS MONTH OF JANUARY

1  I made some marmalade and then

2  I made a second lot of marmalade because it has to last the whole year and we love it.

HERE IS THE METHOD I USE

I used my old Preserves for all Occasions book (Penguin) which I find indispensable where jams etc are concerned.

Preserves for all Occasions

The author Alice Crang (back in 1953) says you can use a pressure cooker to cook the oranges, if you have a pressure cooker.  So:

you need that, some clean jars and lids (old pickle jars is what I use), about 1 lb 8 oz Seville oranges and the same weight of sugar (plain white granulated),

Cook the whole oranges (washed of course) in about 1 and a half pints of water, in the pressure cooker for about 15 minutes.  Allow it to cool and then remove lid of cooker.

Marmalade, quantity from 1lb 8 oz Seville oranges

Take out the oranges and keep back  the water on one side.  

Next, the time-consuming bit, and you need a sharp knife and something good on the radio.

Cut the orange peel into thin strips, and also put the pips and any orange flesh in a piece of muslin cloth (which  you might have to go out and buy specially!)

Tie the muslin into a bag shape.

You can do the next bit in the pressure cooker pan but I prefer to use my old preserving pan as it is bigger, has sloping sides and a spout thing.

Add the sliced orange peel and the bag of pips and orange flesh to the water and  heat them, then

Gradually add all the sugar, stir till sugar has dissolved.  At this point you:

boil the mixture vigorously

Takes about 20 minutes till it gets to the "setting point".  Remove the muslin bag of pips

Test for setting by putting some marmalade on a cold saucer, do this several times if the first drips of marmalade do not seem to have set (the marmalade makes a film and flows very very slowly when the saucer is tilted).

Allow the marmalade to stay in the pan about 20 minutes, then stir it carefully, to mix in the peel throughout, as you don't want all the sliced peel to stay at the top of the jars.

Then you know it is OK to put in the warmed jars, and cover.  

I find it helps to put labels on with the date you made it, then you can eat up last years marmalade before you start on this years!

RAY'S WINTER SQUASH SOUP - EASY

GOOD SOUP RECIPE FROM MY PAGES 

I put this easy soup recipe in the 'Pages' section of this blog, but in case you missed it, here it is again, and it is a good winter soup, devised by 'him indoors'

RAY'S SPECIAL SQUASH SOUP FOR WINTER 

HOW TO COOK THE SOUP - MAN TYPE RECIPE

SQUASH SOUP FOR WINTER

1  Put at least 2 pints of water into a large saucepan

2  Add 2 crumbled vegetable stock cubes (preferably low salt kind)

3  Put saucepan on hob to get very hot

4  Prepare the squash,  peeling off hard outer skin, removing seeds and cutting squash into small chunks

5  Put squash chunks into the pan to boil till soft, then

6  Prepare 3 medium onions plus 3 medium potatoes. Cut into very small pieces.

7  Fry onion and potato pieces in hot oil until soft, in a frying pan

8  Crush and chop 2 to 3 small red chillies, add to onion and potato in pan

9  When vegetables are soft, tip all of them into the saucepan of squash

10 Add some more boiling water if you think there is not enough liquid (or you want a lot of soup)

11 Add to the saucepan a dessert spoon of dried mixed herbs, plus a teaspoon of Tomato Paste

12 Add one tin of chopped tomatoes

13 After simmering for say 40 mins check to see that the ingredients are cooked and assimilated

14 Take out from saucepan 1 pint of the mix of veg and liquid, put on one side (use a jug)

15 Blend the remaining soup (you can use a hand-held blender stick thing)

16 Return the 1 pint of unblended veg to the saucepan (to give chunky bits)

17 Add pepper and salt to taste. 

18 To serve, you can add a bit of single cream, grated cheddar or parmesan cheese,  sausage.

19 Or add Worcester sauce or tomato ketchup. One could use a combination of all of these.

VEGETABLE GARDENING IN LONDON 2014

GOOD THINGS HAPPENED IN 2013 - AND THE SUN SHONE

One of my best experiences was the Wild Food Walk which I participated in, at Petersham Nurseries, near Ham Common.
It was in December (which is now so last year!).  Here is a link to my two blog posts about

PETERSHAM NURSERIES  and

THE FORAGING WALK WITH CLAUDIO BINCOLETTO

The Petersham Nurseries also produces a Blog and there is an interesting post on 1st November, which I think is written by Claudio, he is writing about truffles 'Truffles - Myths, Legend & Reality".  Here is a link November's Wild Food Walk

THE ALLOTMENT SITE IS MORE OR LESS COVERED IN FLOOD WATER!

The winter vegetables I have grown are  still standing. Some brassicas: sprouts, kale and winter sprouting broccoli, which is not yet sprouting, of course.

Today I went up there, wearing wellies, and had to splash my way along the path to cut some brussell sprouts.  I also dug up some more parsnips, it was a job to lever them out of the soggy mud, I can tell you!

To wash them I doused them in a puddle on my plot, not very hygienic I know!  But have you ever tried to wash sticky clay of parsnips, or other roots, with no running water?  The water supply on the allotment is turned off every winter, and is not back on again until April. 

About half the plots on our site now have areas which are under water. One or two are almost 80% flood, very disheartening for the plot owners, that is if they bother to come over a look.

This time of year it is not usual to see more than one or two other people there, and the main task is to lug bags or barrow loads of soggy manure - the kind that is mixed with wood shavings - we do not usually have the better horse manure mixed with straw.  Apparently stables now economise by bedding their horses on sawdust.