Red onion marmalade and berry jam with liquorice

Finished jars, packaged for Christmas

It's my favourite time of year for making homemade things, with Christmas coming up and cosy evenings in being just what the doctor ordered!

I made this red onion marmalade last year and it was delicious, I kept a jar back to eat this year and after keeping it is even better!
The jam was inspired by jam I had at The Modern Pantry in London. I couldn't find a recipe for it but I gave it a go with nice results. I would never eat liquorice flavoured sweets but a hint of it in jam is quite delicious!

Red Onion Marmalade

Ingredients

1.25kg red onions

3 tbsp salt

1kg sugar

500ml apple or cider vinegar

1.5tsps cloves tied in muslin

Method

First chop your onions into fine rings, this is quite important as it will have a big impact on the texture of your marmalade.

Add all the ingredients to a large pan and cook on a low boil for a long time (depending on the heat about an hour and a half) until the onions are translucent, the marmalade is thick and reaches setting point. Don't be tempted to cook it until it is totally stiff, there may be quite a lot of caramel coloured juice still when it reaches setting point. 

If you don't have muslin it is not essential but you will have whole cloves in your preserve. That doesn't really bother me but it would probably be better to use muslin which you can then remove before you decant into jars. 

This preserve is a bit more effort than usual because of all the chopping but I promise it is delicious and improves with keeping. Try it with meat, cheese or on pizza!

Berry and liquorice jam

I had in mind to try this jam after having it on toast at the Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell in London. I didn't find liquorice until this weekend though so when I did I wanted to try it straight away!

It's not really the season for jam making in that there isn't so much fruit around but I had some frozen mixed fruit in the freezer along with some blackberries I picked in August so I used that. 

Liquorice root from the rag market in Birmingham.
Can also be used to make tea!

Ingredients

2 teaspoons chopped liquorice

300g berries

300g sugar

Juice of half a lemon

Makes one large jar (I was doing a test batch!)

Method

Infuse your liquorice root for around 10 minutes in 30ml boiling water until it makes a very strong tea.

Defrost your fruit (in the microwave if you have one) and then add the sugar, lemon juice and liquorice tea. Boil until it reaches setting point (see previous post on strawberry and rhubarb jam). It may take a little longer than usual to set due to the extra liquid added.

Pour into hot jars when still hot, place a wax disc on top and screw the lid on tightly.

 I found that this combination of fruit made a very dark purple jam and I didn't have any problems with scum on the top - perfect!

Perfect jam for tea and toast!

  Packaging

 As usual I have tried to make my jars look pretty for presents. This time I used translucent gold paper and wool or twine, with some brown paper labels. I tried out my new alphabet stamps on the onion marmalade label which I think looks nice (obsessed with stamps now).

Chillies

In my view the lovely taste of chilli often gets overlooked because of its spiciness. This sweet chilli jam recipe is one way of preserving the freshness and taste of chillis without burning your tongue off. You can vary the number of chillies as you like to cater to your own tastes. I have used a recipe which gives a kick but is sweet enough to allow you to put a big dollop in a BLT.

Drying chillies, herbs and chilli jam 

Sweet Chilli Jam

Ingredients

Red peppers, chillies, red onion, garlic and ginger

Large red onion
600g plum tomatoes (you can use cherry)
5 red peppers
6 large red chillies
Thumb sized piece of ginger
6 cloves garlic
700g sugar (I use a mix of granulated and brown)
200ml cider vinegar

Method

This recipe is really easy. Just chop your veg and grate your ginger and put to the side (if you prefer you can save time by using a food processor). Be careful when chopping chillies that you don't rub your eyes and nose as it will sting! If you have any cuts on your fingers wear plastic gloves. You will have to do this at least partly by hand as you need to remove the seeds from the chillies.

Heat the vinegar and sugar in a large saucepan until it is clear and then add the other ingredients. Simmer until the mixture has a thick jam consistency (this could take about 40 minutes). This will take a surprisingly long time due to all the water in the tomatoes.

Boil for a minute and then pour into hot sterilised jars (see plum chutney post for tips on this).  Label and give to chilli lovers as a much appreciated gift!

Red pepper and chilli jam

Cost 

I got all my ingredients from the local market as tomatoes and peppers can be expensive. I was luck enough to get 1kg tomatoes, 6 peppers and a huge bowl of chillies for £2 making this a steal to make. See below for how I used the rest of the chillies!

Drying chillies and herbs

Drying chillies and herbs

If you have extra chillies you can easily dry them in your kitchen like this. String them onto thread with a needle and thread and tie them up in a warm place in your kitchen for a couple of weeks. Leave them there until you want to crumble them into sauces / stews / curries or when they are totally dry store them in a jar.
This works for leftover herbs too. I find I often have lots left when I buy herbs from the supermarket. Rosemary and thyme dry particularly well.

Eating your chilli jam

My favourite way to eat chilli jam is on my semi-virtuous hangover day fry up. This recipe is great for when you feel a bit ill or miserable and lazy and want a fry up without consuming too much animal fat. It also uses very few ingredients!

Ingredients

2 inches chorizo sausage
1 sweet potato
Green beans
1 egg

Put a very small amount of oil in a pan and fry the sliced chorizo for a couple of minutes until it starts to release it's own oil.
Microwave your sweet potato if you want to cut down on frying time and add it to the pan with your green beans (and any other green veg you feel like adding). Fry until lightly browned, push to the side and add your egg. Fry the egg until the white is all opaque and transfer to a plate. Add a large dollop of chilli jam and enjoy!

This recipe counts as two of your five a day and contains much less fat than your traditional fry up and much more flavour.

Simple chutney - spiced plum

Making a simple chutney is a great way to start if you fancy doing some preserving. You don't need any specialist equipment and if you don't get it perfect the first time you will still have a delicious chutney. I will post on jam later on as this is a bit more difficult as you need to get the setting point right or you will have a very runny (or stiff) jam.

This chutney is delicious with cheese or cold meats and makes a lovely present when packaged up nicely.

Ingredients

How it should look at the start of step 4

1kg plums

300g onions

1 garlic clove

400ml malt vinegar

400g brown sugar

100g raisins/sultanas/other dried fruit if you have it

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1cm gated fresh ginger

salt and pepper to taste

5 jam jars with lids 

Wax discs 

In an ideal world you would use fruit from your garden (or your neighbor's) but if this isn't feasible I would suggest buying your fruit from a market which tends to be much better value, reduces packaging and supports local business.

The wax discs can be boughts online, from cooking shops and sometimes from supermarkets. These are inexpensive and well worth buying to help your preserves keep longer.

How it should look at the end of step 4

Method

1. Soak jars in hot water for a few hours until the labels peel off easily, wash the jars thoroughly.
2. Place the jars in a 100 degree centigrade oven until hot or microwave (this sterilises the jars)
3. Meanwhile, quarter the plums and remove the stones. Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic.
4. Put the plums, onions, garlic, half of the vinegar and the spices in a large pan and simmer until soft.
5. Add the dried fruits (if using), sugar and remaining vinegar.
6. Stir over a low heat until the consistency of thick jam.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.



How it should look at the end of step 7

8. Spoon the chutney into the sterilised jars while still hot. Fill up to about 1cm from the top and place a wax disc waxy side down so that it covers the top. Screw on the lid (using a tea towel to protect your hands as it will be hot!).

Finished chutney

Chutney improves with keeping so keep your jars in a dark place for a few weeks before enjoying (if you can resist!).

Presenting your jars

One of the nicest things about making your own preserves is packaging them beautifully and giving them as gifts. 

Firstly, make sure the jars and nice and clean, a sticky jar will ruin the effect!

Second, write the name of the jam and month and year it was preserved on a pretty label and stick it on the jar.

Lastly, make a fabric top for your jar using an old checked shirt or pretty patterned bit of fabric.

You will need to cut a circle quite a bit bigger that the jam lid then you can cover the top of the jar and secure using an elastic band and some rustic looking string.

Variations

This chutney is a good starter but the same principles can be applied to many different types of chutney. All you need is to make sure you have the right proportion of fruit and sugar to preserve the chutney and give it a good flavour. 

This recipe can be used as a starter but you ca experiment by varying the 1kg fruit and tweaking the spices to your taste. Apple makes a good addition to many chutneys including this one. Rhubarb is a good base for chutney if you have it growing in your garden but needs other fruits to give a more distinctive flavour such as dried apricots. 

I suggest finding some good value fruit and then googeling recipes until you find one you fancy!