Style me up

I wasn't feeling so great yesterday, this head cold finally got the better of me. So in between packing orders, and following up on new stock due to arrive I finished reading this fantastic book that arrived last Friday. It is well written, informative and oh so inspirational! Hélene's blog, Tartlette is one of those uber-food blogs that never ceases to amaze me, and is always top of my reading list.

So feeling inspired, I figured there was no time like the present, hey I had an open jar of Brandied Cherries that I made a couple of months ago....and even some chocolate ice-cream at the ready. No fresh cherries unfortunately to help my styling, but that didn't stop me.

I have to say this food photography/styling thing is really hard, so much to think of - props, telling a story, lighting, depth of field...and the list goes on. I still have a lot to learn. But it is fun, fun, fun - and complements perfectly a little project that I've been working on.

Have a great day,
suzy xoxo

Making Raita

It has been a while since I posted anything about pickles or preserves. This is not a sign of preserving inaction I swear. I have managed this summer to make a few different berry jams, but undoubtedly the success of the season is the Raita pickles made from my very own homegrown cucumbers.

The recipe is from the Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving, by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard. I have copied it for you at the bottom of this post. I tell you making raita has never been easier.

1. Add a few teaspoons of your fantastic raita pickles to the serving bowl.

2. Add natural or greek yoghourt.

3. Mix and enjoy!

Indian Style Cucumber Relish

6 cups diced peeled cucumber
2 cups thinly sliced onion
1 tbsp pickling salt
2 cups white vinegar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp whole cumin seeds
2 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds

1. Place cucumber and onion in a non-reactive bowl and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Drain vegetables in a sieve, rinse twice and drain thoroughly.

2. Combine vinegar, sugar, seeds in a very large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add vegetables and return to a boil for 30 seconds.

3. Remove vegetables from liquid with a slotted spoon, pack into hot, sterilised jars. Pour liquid over cucumber to within 1cm of rim.

4. Process 10 mins for 250ml jars and 15 mins for 500 ml jar in canner.

Makes 6 cups.

Putting up

With the warmer weather I'm starting to turn my mind to planning my preserving for the summer. I've kept myself occupied with the odd bit of jam or boozy fruit here or there throughout winter, but it's the anticipation of summer's bounty and "putting up" for the long dark winter that I enjoy the most about preserving.

So, I've been playing blog skippidy do da and found three new gems that I've added to my side bar. The lovely Pickle and Preserve the guys that taught me what "putting up" is at Saving the Season and the oh so simply named, but choc full of great ideas Food in Jars .

Oh - and I know that it's an old photo that I've used before, but it's still my favourite!

Crabapple delight!

I can't stop staring at these beautiful flowers. I've never even seen a crabapple tree before, and here I am with three of these most beautiful trees in the garden....I can feel some crabapple jelly coming on!

It's bottling time again!

Ever since I started my preserving journey twelve months ago I have been eagerly been anticipating the return of cherry season. I'm lucky because the prime Australian cherry growing region is around Young, which is not far away, and that means that the cherry growers come down each week for my local farmer's markets. Before I continue I should add the disclaimer that cherry season is all but over, and hence the contents of this post occurred a couple of weeks ago. But back to the cherries!

Last year I gifted some Cherries in Vanilla Vodka, which went down with such enthusiasm, that one of the recipients arrived in my house throughout the year with a new bottle of Absolut ready for more. So for this season I repeated the same successful batch, along with a new one - Brandied Cherries.

Here are my cherries looking so perfect,its like opening a box of beautiful Christmas baubles.

....and here they are after preserving in sugar, brandy and water. The recipe is from a book I highly recommend to fellow preservers - A Year in a Bottle. The liquid in the background is left over syrup which makes wonderful ice-cream topping.I think I'll give up on the water-bath method of preserving after last year's flop, and keep with boozy fruit to hold us over the cold winter months!

Boozy fruit!

To those that may remember, I started my preserving journey earlier this year when summer was at it's peak and fruit aplenty. Whilst the jam making has gone from strength to strength, preserving fruit ah not so good . Yes sure, the fruit is preserved, but the aesthetics leave a bit to be desired. The man of the house thinks I am just being precious, but I do not like my fruit to rise to the top. In Suzy's imagination, my (fantasy) walk in pantry has jars and jars of gorgeous fruit ready to be eaten all year round!

A good friend of mine says I just need to kidnap a nanna at next year's Canberra Show, and hold them hostage until they show me how to do this fruit thing properly. The syrup is not too heavy, I used the least amount of sugar recommended! The fruit is packed tightly, at least I think it is!

So today I tried again - but this time with BOOZE! This is an ode to mulled wine and my favourite desert fruit - the elegant pear...


Details (provided for 1litre jar) - Sterilise jars in the usual manner and have them warm and at the ready. Pack jars with peeled pears, whole if you can and leave the stalks on. In each jar place 75g sugar, 6 or so whole cloves, 2cm piece of ginger julienned, a cinnamon quill and a few zests of orange. Half fill the jar with red wine, then top up with water. The picture above is the jars ready to start bubbling away!

Place in a pre-heated 130 degree oven for 3 hours, with the lids on, but not the screwcap (if that makes sense to you).

TIP - Place them on a tray, as they can boil over and I kept topping up with boiled water whenever the level got down, and again at the end before sealing.

I haven't tasted them yet, but they are floating about in a beautiful thick syrup! Yummo - now the question is can we wait a month before trying?

Scary Jack Frost!

I think I had an unrealistic idea of my maternity leave. I imagined all sorts of fantastic garments and homey things running off the sewing machine, many blankets skipping off the crochet hook and time to learn that elusive, but ever so popular mystery known to everyone else as knitting. The truth be told, I had just forgotten how much time it takes to demand breast-feed. Let alone trying to spend quality time with the boy-child.

But there are times when the distractions of the boy-child are just so great. This morning he called me outside to show me "Scary Jack Frost." For those mums of Thomas-mad boy children (and any random girl fans out there) you will know the episode where Percy gets stuck outside and covered in ice, causing all the other engines to cringe in fear thinking him scary jack frost! Oh to have the imagination of a three year old again.I did manage a batch of orange marmalade for my dear old dad, but it hasn't set properly so I will reboil it up tonight and post the result tomorrow. Unlike the plum and strawberry jam I had a lot of trouble regulating temperature with the marmalade. Too low and it didn't really boil furiously enough, and too high made it spill over the big pot. Hence the failure to set I believe. Who cares right when there's scary jack frost in the house.

Suzy makes Jelly too!

Well I'm in full hausfrau mode this morning. Dishes done, beds made, washing done...and some preserving to boot!

Although I wasn't very successful back in January with the straight preserving of stone fruit, the jam that I made was awesome. Yeah I know I sound up myself but I don't care. One of the books that I read to start me on my preserving journey was this one by Sally Wise.

This morning I made the Apple & Mint Jelly and it looks great, tastes fairly sweet so will post once we do the great taste test tonight with some sumptuous lamb. Although I am now rather suspicious about the colour of store bought mint jelly, it is almost fluro green compared to mine. The mint in my version isn't added until after cooking, but the mixture is still hot so it will dull the brightness of the herb. Me thinks food makers add colouring! It must be the week for jelly though, Kuka has made some Chili Jelly too - check it out here.

While I'm on the subject of lamb, I don't understand why it is so expensive these days. Even damn lamb shanks! For those in the Canberra area I've been buying mine direct from the farmer. Check out his website. The lamb is divine, organic and for $185 you can buy a whole one. But last Sunday I had no back strap or fillet left so had to buy it at the normal markets - 27 bucks a kilo - I nearly passed out!

She's mad I tell you...

Well that's what they will be saying about me for making jams and preserves in 35 degree heat. But the man of the house made the trek to the farmer's markets yesterday to get the goods, and the shiny new Bell Mason jars were in the corner saying "fill me, fill me", so I had to oblige.

I did have a little help for the Sunday session, as I had never made jam before a couple of work people came over, one to help and one to talk. But was happy to have the talker here as she arrived with a bottle of ABSOLUT in hand (and a Tonka for the boy!). The plum jam is just to die for, haven't eaten the strawberry yet. BUT......

The preserved peaches and nectarines not so good. The fruit has floated to the top of the bottle, leaving an unsightly gap at the bottom of the jar. They are still edible, but half of the fun was going to be looking at pretty rows of preserved fruit. It can't be that the syrup is too heavy as I made the lightest version. Can anyone help me? PLEASE! I have 3 more kgs of fruit to jar and I want it to look purty.

Bubblin' over with excitement...

Tacky title I know, but I'm soooooooo excited. Today I received a parcel from my MIL with some books and things that she picked up at the LifeLine Book Fair in Brisbane, she also included a scrapbook with some recipes that her mother had saved.

You see this week will mark a new phase in Suzy's hausfrau metamorphosis - I'm about to embark on the bottling journey. Bottling fruit, making pickles, preserves, jams etc. I'm most looking forward to making things like Spiced Cherries, to be served with vintage cheese - yum.

Anyway back to the scrapbook, it's full of these kinds of recipes........
but why am I so excited, 'cos look at the cover.....












this brings back so many memories of being a kid in the '70s. AND I even had this scrapbook...long lost, but now it's back. Yippee! Who did you want to be, the blonde one like I did?

So for the bottles, I have been eyeing off and communicating with the headoffice (via a work colleague) in Deutschland for these sexy ones, which in fact are very cheap compared to the Fowler brand, but once I add in the shipping it just doesn't make sense...so have ordered these
and all 60 of them should arrive this week. I've just come home from the markets and yep stone fruit is still there. So next week expect some postings on bottling. See you, I'm off to stare at my ABBA cover.