Marmalade

So much for Calm January! As usual, the quiet first few days of the new year have given way to busy-busy-busyness: I’ve taken on a few small work projects to keep my hand in, and these, combined with baby-care, mean the days are disappearing. Which is no bad thing: the dark days of January drag on a bit, don’t they?

Today’s other juggling act has been the making of marmalade. Seville oranges are in the shops now and the season is short, so there’s no real time for delay. Marmalade-making is meant for a slow, pottering day in the kitchen…but in our house I had to fit it in between copy-writing jobs, during nap times and after bedtime. Note: This does not lead to a relaxing few hours of cooking. But on the plus side, I discovered an unexpected upside of having a baby in the house, namely the microwave bottle steriliser that now doubles up as my jam-jar steriliser.

Marmalade

This recipe is Nigel Slater‘s and makes 6 large jars.

Take 1kg of Seville oranges and 2 lemons. Score the fruit from top to bottom, to separate the rind from the fruit within.

Score the rind of 1kg Seville oranges and 2 lemons

Next, separate the peel from the fruit and place into separate bowls.

Separate the rinds from the fruit

Using a sharp knife, slice the rind into thin strips. In truth mine are little thick – but it depends how chunky you like your marmalade. Squeeze the fruit segments through a sieve into a bowl, reserving the pith and seeds.

Finely slice the rinds and squeeze the fruit, saving all the pips and pith

Place the pith, pips and other orangey detritus into a muslin bag and secure it tightly. These contain lots of pectin, which helps to set the marmalade.

Put all the pips, pith and general orangey detritus into a muslin bag

Then get a massive bowl, measure the squeezed orange and lemon juice, and add enough water to make up the quantity to 4 litres. Add the strips of rind and the muslin bag, then leave to sit overnight.

Make the juice up to 4 litres, then leave the rind, juice and muslin bag to sit overnight

The next day, transfer the lot to your biggest pan – ideally a preserving pan – and bring to a simmer. The rinds need to be cooked until soft, the timing of this depending entirely on how thickly they have been sliced (mine took 40 minutes).

The next day, use your biggest pot to simmer the rinds until soft

In the meantime, get on with washing and sterilising your jam jars – I used the baby bottle steriliser but 10 minutes in a hot oven will do the same job.

In the meantime, sterilise the jam jars

When the rinds can be easily broken against the side of the pan, they are done. Remove the muslin pan from the pot and leave aside until it is cool enough to touch, then squeeze it hard and return any juices to the pan.

Soft rinds!

Your windows will get steamy – enjoy!

Your windows should get good and steamy

Add 1.25kg granulated sugar to the pan. You can use golden caster sugar here, which will give you a darker marmalade, but I prefer the lightness of regular white sugar. I warmed mine in the oven, which Nigel Slater does not mention, but I understand this is an important part of making preserves and it definitely won’t do any harm. Stir the sugar over a low heat until it has dissolved.

Add your warmed sugar to the pan and stir gently over a low heat to dissolve

Now ramp up the heat and boil the mixture hard until the thermometer reaches 105c. You can also use the teaspoon-of-mixture-on-a-cold-saucer trick….but I prefer the scientific approach. It can take up to 50 minutes to get to this point.

Ramp up the heat and boil until the thermometer reads 105c

Leave the marmalade to sit for 15 minutes and then ladle into your jars. Cover, cool and enjoy!

Stand the mixture for 15 minutes and then ladle into the waiting jam jars. Cover and leave to cool.

Also this week:

On the allotment: Pruned blackcurrants, redcurrants and raspberries. Ordered seeds for 2018 growing. Cleaning pots ready for sowing sweetpeas and broad beans

Cooking: Anything that’s nourishing and inexpensive, including sausages with lentil stew, daal, squash soup, Mexican braised beans with smoked ham hock, Chocolate brownie pudding with armagnac prunes

An autumn loaf

Gertie has changed from a tiny ball of fluff into a slightly bigger ball of badness. Today she discovered the dustpan and brush, which as it turns out is the perfect size for a mid-morning kitten nap. Who knew?

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Last week I did one of those soul-destroying visits to Morrisons, the kind that make you grateful that you don’t go every week (one major bonus of having an allotment). It is quite incredible that some of the finest brains in retail have produced a shopping experience that is so uniquely energy sapping. Yet in their defence, on that visit they came up trumps: fresh yeast, hidden next to the butter, at the bargain price of 50p for 200g. That’s about enough for, what, 10 loaves? Best get baking.

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Fresh yeast

Fresh yeast is by FAR the best stuff for bread. The dried stuff is all very clean and efficient but always ends up tasting, well, yeasty. Fresh yeast is a different beast altogether, with a complex depth of flavour. It’s also easy as pie to use. None of that messing around with sugar and water and waiting for it to froth…just crumble it in the flour and you’re good to go.

It’s autumn so I thought I’d make a cider loaf (autumn…orchards…apples) but no cider in the house. What we do have is apple juice and lots of it, from Clives Fruit Farm in the Shire (Upton on Severn), squeezed from their own apples. This is a single variety Cox juice. Cider, apple juice, it’s all pretty much the same. I’d go for one that is dry-ish.

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Single variety apple juice from Clives, Upton on Severn

Cider wholemeal loaf:

250g strong wholemeal flour

250g strong white flour

10g fine sea salt

150ml milk

250ml dry cider or apple juice

25g fresh yeast

This is a recipe I’ve adapted from Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries (he uses spelt flour and honey).

Put the salt at the bottom of a large bowl and add your flour on top – combine to mix. By doing this there is no chance of your salt killing the yeast. Next rub the yeast into the flour, just as if making a crumble.

Warm up the milk until when you put your finger in it, it feels neither warm nor cold, just wet. Good bit of advice that. Slosh it in, and then add the cider/juice. I do it in this order as if you mix the liquids in the jug the cider makes the milk separate into a claggy mess.

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Slosh it all in

Mix together with a scraper and then tip out onto your work surface and knead. I use the Bertinet technique (google: Richard Bertinet) which I won’t repeat here, only to say that it will make you a good baker of bread. After a few minutes you will go from having a wet mass of stodge into a springy bouncy ball of dough. Shape it into a round and place it back in your mixing bowl.

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Kneaded!

 

Place a cloth on the bowl and leave for about an hour or until roughly doubled in size. The milk and cider means that it may take longer to rise. That’s OK, just be patient.

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Risen!

 

I like this bread shaped into a round, so I use a proving basket for the second rise. Turn out your dough onto a lightly floured work surface, shape it, and then place presentation-side-up down in the basket. Dough has to be properly shaped with a ‘backbone’ to give it the structure it needs to rise properly. Just google Bertinet, he’ll tell you everything you need to know.

Leave again, this time for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven as high as it will go – 220c or higher – and place a baking sheet in there to warm up.

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After the second rise

 

To bake, have ready some baking parchment on top of a lightweight flat board, pizza peel or suchlike. Turn out the dough onto the paper and slash the top (I use a razor blade). A lot of bakers don’t use paper but it’s so much easier to manage if you do. Then slide the loaf and paper onto your heated baking sheet, directly into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes or so at the highest temperature, then turn down to 190c and finish the bake. This one took 40 minutes in total.

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The finished article

I think this loaf is actually a little over-proved, which you can tell from the way the slashes have (or haven’t) opened. No matter, it still tastes good. It’s isn’t apply, just…earthy. This loaf will keep for a good couple of days and is fine for toast after.

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Autumn cider loaf