Plum and russet mincemeat

This is from River Cottage Handbook No 2
Makes 4x 450g jars
1kg plums
Finely grated zest and juice of 2-3 oranges (you need 200ml juice)
500g russet apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1cm cubes
200g currants
200g raisins
200g sultanas
100g orange marmalade
250g demerara sugar 1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 nutmeg, grated
50ml ginger wine or cordial (optional)
100g chopped walnuts
50ml brandy or sloe gin

Wash the plums, halve and remove the stones, then put into a saucepan with the orange juice. cook gently until tender, about 15 minutes. Blend to a purée in a liquidiser or push through a sieve. You should end up with about 700ml plum purée.

Put the purée into a large bowl and add all the other ingredients, except the brandy or gin. Mix thoroughly, then cover and leave to stand for 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 130'C/Gas Mark 1/2. Put the mincemeat in a large baking dish and bake, uncovered, for 2-2.5 hours. Stir in the brandy or gin, then spoon into warm sterilised jars, making sure there aren't any air pockets. Seal and store in a dry, dark, cool place until Christmas. Use within 12 months.

Variations
You can vary this recipe, but keep the fresh fruit purée to around 700ml and the total amount of dried fruit to 600g. For an apple, pear and ginger mince,eat, replace the plums with Bramley apples, the russet apples with firm pears and 100g of the raisins or sultanas with 100g crystallised stem ginger. You could also exchange the walnuts for almonds and add a couple of teaspoons of ground cinnamon.

Green tomatoes

Picked the remaining tomatoes in the greenhouse, managed to avoid blight this year :). Also picked 2 mini aubergines which never seemed to get going properly. I also brought the chillies indoors as it's starting to get colder at night.
I pulled up the finished sweetcorn out of the raised bed. I found another partly formed cob and ate it, very yummy I'm definitely planting those again next year.
The garden centre informs me I should be planting lettuce and radishes in the greenhouse so when I get a spare minute I'll get that sorted.
I combined the green tomatoes with some of next doors apples to make green tomato chutney.

Piccalilli

1kg washed, peeled vegetables - select 5 or 6 from the following:

• cauliflower or romanesco cauliflower
• green beans
• cucumbers
• courgettes
• green or yellow tomatoes
• tomatilloes
• carrots
• small silver-skinned onions or shallots
• peppers
• nasturtium seed pods

50g fine salt

30g cornflower

10g ground tumeric

10g English mustard powder

15g yellow mustard seeds

1 tsp crushed cumin seeds

1tsp crushed coriander seeds

600ml cider vinegar

150g granulated sugar

50g honey

Cut the vegetables into small even bite-sized pieces. Place in a large bowl and sprinkle with the salk. Mix well, cover the bowl with a tea towl and leave in a cool place for 24 hours, then rinse the veg with ice-cold water and drain thoroughly.

Sweet Pickled Damsons

This is from River Cottage Handbook No 2

Makes 4x450g jars.

600ml cider vinegar

5cm piece cinnamon stick

1 tsp allspice berries

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange

1kg firm, ripe damsons

750g granulated sugar

Put the vinegar, cinammon, allspice berries, orange zest and juice into a pan and bring to the boil. Boil for 4-5 minutes then strain and allow to cool.

Prick each damson with a needle or skewer. Add the fruit to the cold spiced vinegar in a clean pan. Bring slowly to simmering point, then simmer very, very gently for 10-15 minutes until the damsons are just tender. Using a slotted spoon, lift out the damsons and pack them into warm, sterilised jars.

Return the spiced vinegar to the heat, add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Boil for several minutes to reduce and thicken. Pour this hot spiced vinegar over the damsons and seal immediately with vinegar-proof lids. Store in a cool, dark place. These pickled damsons are best kept for 6-8 weeks before eating.

Garden Pesto

• 50g nasturtium leaves
• 2-3 mint leaves (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 6 or so nasturtium seed pods
• 50g pine nuts (optional)
• 75g mature, hard goats cheese or Parmesan, finely grated
• Juice of 1/2 lemon (50ml)
• 150ml hemp, rapeseed or olive oil, plus extra to seal
• Petals from 2 marigold flowers (or nasturtiums or borage)
• Salt to taste.

Liquidise all ingredients except the salt and flowers. Once you've made a smooth paste add the salt and fold in the flowers. Spoon into jars and seal. Make sure that the surface of the pesto is covered in oil at all times. Use within 4 weeks. Can be frozen

Mincemeat

Mincemeat
Originally uploaded by Purple_Fire

I still have some damsons left so I adapted my plum and apple mincemeat recipe to have damsons instead of plums.

Sweetcorn

Picked and ate the sweetcorn this weekend. The cobs didn't fully form, I think this is probably because I planted the them a little late. They were very tasty tho'.

Blackberry and Apple chutney

Mum and Dad abandoned some blackberries in my fridge and I pilfered some of next doors apples and made some chutney. Seemed a bit odd mixing onions and garlic with blackberries but we'll have to see. It turned out quite runny and I prefer my chutneys a bit more solid, I can't decide whether to put them all back in the pan and boil it up for a bit longer. 

Garden Pesto

Apparently you can make pesto out of nasturtium leaves, so I thought I'd give it a try. I added the optional pine nuts and used parmesan instead of the hard goats cheese. My marigold petals were looking quite sad, so I used some nasturtium and borage flowers instead. 

The resulting mixture is a vibrant green and tastes very yummy. I have two jars in the freezer and another in the fridge that we have to finish within a month.

Piccalilli

Tristan's favourite chutney! 

I've made 2 batches of piccalilli this year. I reread the recipe and  discovered I shouldn't have cooked the veg only the sauce, so it may taste a bit different this time. 

Most of the veg came from my parents garden I added some runner beans and yellow tomatoes from my veg patch.

Plums

Went for a walk to the nature reserve and found loads of plum trees! The yellow plums were lovely and ripe. 

Damsons

Finally got round to visiting Kate's garden while she's away and picked two bags full of damsons. So far I've made, Sweet picked damsons, damson gin, damson jam and damson ketchup, I have two damson recipes left, damson cheese and damson jelly and I have just over 3 kg of damsons in the freezer! 

Redcurrant Jelly

The redcurrant plant is amazing, I've managed to pick 4kg of redcurrants off a single bush. They all ripened in July some before others, which was handy because I could only process one kg or so at a time.
I used the redcurrant jelly recipe from the River Cottage Handbook No 2. I also made some redcurrant shrub, one batch with gin and the other with brandy. The shrub has to be left for 18 months to mature so, we'll have to wait to see what it tastes like.