My creative space - cumquats

 

My mind (and my creative space) is turned to some winter preserving today with these beautiful cumquats, home delivered last night by my friend, Danielle.

So what to do with this glorious bounty?

• Orange and cumquat jelly with cinnamon
• Cumquat, orange and passionfruit jam.

Both from my favourite book on jams - Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber.

More creative people playing around and sharing over here .

Happy winter days,

suzy xoxo

Persimmon dreaming

I'm up to my armpits in persimmons. Our little tree has gone from a measly two persimmons in 2011 to gluttenous bounty this year.  We have over 100 persimmons to bake, preserve, eat, share and enjoy.  It's a race against the birds though so I can't leave any on the tree for much longer.

Aren't they just gorgeous?  Look at them here styled up on the crusty old hessian bag on top of our worm farm...we're classy photographers around here. ;)

There are so many persimmons that I've been dreaming about them...seriously!  A few of my most-favourite food bloggers know just how to inspire me, so I'm off to the kitchen to do:

• Poached Persimmon, Mascarpone and Marsala Sabayon and Pistachio Crumble Verrines by Canelle et Vanille
• Crepes with honey lavender roasted persimmons by Tartlette
• Persimmon & Pear Chutney by Food in Jars

Have you got any persimmon favourites to share? Remember that I've got 100 persimmons so I'd love to hear about them...suzy xoxo

Three day strawberry jam!

Yesterday afternoon I finished my first batch of three day strawberry jam! Three days you say? Well, you macerate and cook the fruit up in sugar and lemon juice over a couple of days before making it up on day three.

I read on Martha's blog that this is her preferred way of making jam, which I figured was a a damn fine endorsement. The man of the house bought me the book for my birthday. It is by Christine Ferber, a jam maker and pastry chef who lives in Alsace, France - ahhhh! That is just me sighing...

So back to the jam. It it much more delicate in flavour, still sweet but not overly so. The fruit is translucent because it is separated out from the jam setting process. I was (as always) a little impatient in pouring it into the bottle which means the fruit has risen, but that is just pure aesthetics. For I can tell you that Sebastien (who was home from school for the day) and I shared a great slathering of it on a croissant for afternoon tea...and it was yummeeee!!!

Orange jam!!?!

Home-made jam in our house is referred to by colour. Red jam - strawberry, Blue jam - blueberry, Green jam - kiwi fruit, Purple jam - blackberry (I know this one doesn't quite fit)...so when a friend gave me a bunch of her beautiful cumquats over the weekend I began to wonder whether I could 'sell' cumquat marmalade to the two widgets as 'orange jam'?

I'll let you know how I get on!

Keeping summer alive

It was a gorgeous winter morning today in Canberra, clear skies, crunchy frost underfoot and minus 4.5 degrees celsius!

I love walking across the crunchy grass on the way to the vegie patch for my morning ritual of making sure that the snails were kept at bay for another night....and then inside for some blackcurrant jam on hot buttered english muffins and a cup of Lady Grey tea. Yummo!

Sadly though, this is the last of the twelve jars of different berry jams that I made over summer. Sigh...