The Honey & Co. Baking Book - Rose and Strawberry Jam

Today's post is going to be a Honey&Co. related post, and in that vein it should lead in with a Honey&Co. related announcement.

Sarit and Itamar read the babka post guys. And they loved it. Sarit loves the blog. She thinks I'm 'so sweet and enthusiastic and full of love'.Yes, I am still reeling from that happening. It was such an uplifting, positive, wonderful e-mail to come home to after work that I didn't stop smiling for days after. While they did ask that I not share the recipes (since they're copyrighted to Saltyard Books), they loved that I'm planning to give the book a good testing. I really can't think of any other way to thank them for such a mid-week boost. So today, we're going to talk about jam making.

I promise they were redder than that. Damn night time photography.

But first! Let me tell you about my relationship with strawberries.

Strawberries back home are on the expensive side. They cost five times more what they cost in the UK and don't taste...well...they just don't taste of anything really. They don't smell of anything either. I ate them purely because they were exotic...but secretly would crave mangoes while trying to swallow their sour red juices. In a world of papayas, mangoes and a smorgasbord of bananas, strawberries emerge as the 'exotic fruit' redolent of pale skinned, golden haired strangers in lands far away. But in comparison to the juicy longans you could get at the market for a fraction of the price, they seemed a little...blah.

This summer, things changed. The first time I tasted a summer strawberry my world exploded. Color became sound, sound became color the sky split and fireworks went off behind my eyes.  Ok, none of those things happened. But let me tell you it was pretty damn close. Finally. THIS was what all the fuss was about. I got it now. All the hype made sense.

I have spent the past two months gorging on strawberries. These big, juicy rubies have stained my lips and dribbled their juices down my chin and fingers on an almost daily basis. But ( as all good things) summer is coming to an end, and it's taking strawberries with it. In an attempt to bottle my British summer, I tried making the strawberry and rose jam from The Baking Book. Itamar did say at the book launch that if you try ANYTHING in this book, please please please make our jam.

And I can see why.

GUYS
This... I just.... I DIDN'T KNOW JAM COULD TASTE LIKE THIS.

I mean, ok. I have consumed many a jar of commercial jam (Hey Mrs. Bridges! Hello Bonne Maman! How's it going?) before. I have also consumed many home made strawberry jams, lovingly made in big pots by watchful home cooks. But see.... they always just tastes of...well...strawberries. And yes, that is what you ask for when you buy strawberry jam. But it's always just...strawberry. Good...straight up...strawberry.

This jam has ruined me. and the secret touch? Roses. They put rose petals and rose water into the jam. Just...just what? That sweet floral note just makes this jam. It gives your nose something else to concentrate on besides sugar cooked strawberries and rounds out the sweetness of the actual jam. But it's not cloying. There's just enough rose water to get things going.

 I want to bathe in this stuff. I want to smear it on my face. The perfume is unbelievable. My house smells divine. The kitchen and living room have been perfumed with strawberries and roses....this is what Valentine's Day should smell like.

That bubbled up to 3x it's original volume. It was intense.

Making jam is not for the faint of heart. That's not meant to turn you off. Do it. It'll put a little gumption in your soul. And really most of the jam making adventure is stress free, if not a little tedious. Be careful, hulling and preparing that much fruit may give you a sore wrist. Just go slow and take breaks. And read the recipe, the WHOLE recipe at least twice. I missed Sarit's jam making 101 at the beginning of the chapter and that made things a little hectic.  Imagine haphazardly stirring hot sugar and frantically reading how to test if your jam is cooked enough and then burning yourself and running to put plates in the freezer...just...just read the recipe ok? Read it twice. At least twice. You've been forewarned.

The really scary bit is when you start cooking the jam. Sarit insists on boiling at the highest heat possible which makes the mixture bubble up to over twice it's original volume. Play it safe and use the biggest, heaviest bottomed pot you have. And don't fill it to more than 1/2 full. Once you get over the fear of your jam bubbling over and catching on fire it all becomes quite fun. Nothing will make you feel more witchy than stirring a cauldron full of bubbling goo.

Bottled and ready to go!

And that's it! Divide into your sterilized bottles and let them sit on the counter overnight to make sure they seal properly. Spread over warm bread or save it for the winter months when the sun has gone down at 3p.m. and you need a reminder that it was ever there at all.

Dried Rose Petals... and the time I plucked all the roses in my garden.

What is in the soil here?? This rose was the size of my hand!!

So... I've been known to do some pretty out there things in the name of food. I once went to Dundee with John only to have his eyes bug out at the 1kg of fresh garlic I was bringing back from the Asian supermarket to make my own garlic paste. I haven't done that in a while, there were days when my fellow biology classmates could smell me coming from a mile away so it seemed like a good idea to stop.

Since buying the Honey & Co.Baking book I have been obsessed. I've gone through it atleast once a day,lovingly stroking the pages in a mildly disturbing yet eerily accurate Gollum-esq manner. I've been a kid in a candy store, scrambling to figure out what to try first. There aren't too many crazy ingredients featured in the book, yet living on a student budget you have to be prudent about spending on exotic ingredients. I shopped around for ages before buying some rose water and orange blossom water, scouring the internet to save as much as I could. I've just finished shelling a bag of pistachios by hand cause it worked out a little cheaper than ready shelled nuts (next time I won't bother, turns out the shells make up half the weight of the bag so you get a lot less anyways =.=;). In a mildly thrifty haze I was looking up the price of rose petals online when it suddenly hit me... YOU have roses in the garden, Mallini.

Ok...so I didn't actually plant them. But it seems a shame to waste if all they're going to do is look pretty till they fall off and die, no? Might as well put them to good use!

So I plucked 3 of the largest blooms there were, and got to drying them. I have to say it is a mildly tedious process to save £1.99, but if you have a bit of time and Mock the Week playing in the background it can be a pleasant experience.

Rose petals laid out to dry.

A couple of tips, don't use any petals that have turned/ are turning brown because that will cause your final product to be completely brown as well. If it just has one or two brown spots, it is worth just tearing those bits off. You want to submerge the petals in a tray of water, just to clean off any nasties that may be on them. Even after doing that you'll still have to pay attention and look out for the tiny mites that wander around. You don't want those ending up in your cooking. Finally, dry the petals by patting them with some kitchen towel first before laying them out to dry. If you lay them out damp, there's a good chance they won't dry out properly and will just go moldy. Lay the petals out on clingfilm covered trays so that they have some space between them, and leave them in an airy place that has plenty of indirect sunlight. I put the trays in our conservatory and turned on the dehumidifier to help dry them out faster.

My petals took about 2 days to dry completely, thanks to the dehumidifier. Don't be tempted to store them away before they're completely dried out and crispy, or else the petals will just go moldy later on.

And that's it! It really was amazing that these shrank to about 1/4 of their original size. They smell quite faint...not so much like roses but like grass. :-/ I don't know if that's because they had to dry for such a long time, or if the commercially dried ones are further perfumed as part of the process. The colour of the petals do intensify upon drying, and they're going to add lovely pops of colour to whatever you put them in. So now I've now got a small jar full of dried rose petals to play around with! Stay tuned, it won't be long till they're used!

All those petals into one wee jar...

Strawberry and Satsuma Fruit Butter...and the time I wanted to go back to Altnaharrie.

 

It's been a little over a week since I got back from Blenheim. Of course classes have picked up full swing, what with the exams being just over a month away. Flavours of Malaysia is coming up very soon as well, so everyone on the committee is getting ready to release some yummy Malaysian goodness over the town!! :3
 

Needless to say...the stress is building up a little. I find myself constantly in one of those there's-too-much-to-do-so-I'll-do-nothing-at-all type moods, and it doesn't help that I've just found the first 2 seasons of Ugly Betty on Netflix. Somebody give me a shock I need to get out from under my duvet and get my life back on track!!

Sometimes I find myself drifting back to Altnaharrie...long days  spent in that sun flooded conservatory...watching horses and pheasants in the field...strolling to the village co-op to pick up supplies for dinner (which led to a fair bit of improvising on my part, the co-op wasn't exactly well stocked) and most of all to the little kitchen. I spent a week of blissfully sunny days overlooking the garden cooking up little things with too much butter and not enough vegetables. This fruit butter was one of the first things I made there. It was made to fill a Victoria sponge, but there was soo much extra I had it with my granola and yogurt for the rest of the week. Lesley enjoyed it soo much that I made another batch before I left for her to have for brekkie too. :) It's one of those things you just throw together and let blip away on the stove while you have a long, leisurely breakfast. Simple, and delicious.

 

Altnaharrie Fruit Butter
- 200g strawberries
- 2 satsumas
- 2-3 Tbsp sugar ( I used Lesley's homemade vanilla sugar. Adjust according to how sweet your fruits are)

+ Wash, hull and cut your strawberries into halves. Peel the satsumas and cut off the whitish membrane that surrounds each segment. Try to conserve as much juice as possible while doing this.

+ Mix everything together in a medium saucepan and set on the lowest heat setting you can turn your stove to. Leave to cook, stirring occasionally for 45 minutes or until thick and jammy.
+ Allow to cool, then bottle up in a clean jar. Keep refrigerated. Goes great on yogurt, toast, pancakes and in sponge cakes.

Till next time! :)

Spicy Cashews...and the time | pimped my nuts.

Here's a quickie post that I'll try to get out before I completely fall asleep.

Do you like nuts? Of course you do. I particularly love cashews. Sometimes though, it gets a little dull doesn't it? Just having plain cashews. And you don't want to buy the pre-seasoned stuff cause really GOD KNOWS what goes into their flavourings. 

What to do? Spice your own nuts!

-300g natural cashew nuts

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- chilli flakes

- crushed black pepper

- Salt

- sugar

+ Heat the olive oil in a nonstick pan. Toss in a cashew nuts until they get a little bit of colour on them. 

+ When they are a very light brown, season liberally with chilli flakes and black pepper, then add salt and sugar to taste. 

+ Continue tossing in nonstick pan until golden brown and fragrant. 

+ Pour into a plate then leave to cool completely. Bottle, and enjoy!