Elderberry wine; they are plentiful at the moment. It tastes better than it smells ;)

Ingredients:

1.5kg Elderberries.

1.5kg Sugar

1tsp Citric Acid.

4.5l Water

1 sachet of brewers Yeast and 1 teaspoon of Nutrient

Method:

Strip the berries from the stalks using a fork.

Crush them in a bowl and pour on the boiling water and add the sugar.

Let it cool to until warm (21 degrees approx) then add the yeast, nutrient and citric acid.

Loosely cover for 3 days and then decant into dark bottles (stops the wine losing its colour) and leave with either an air lock or cotton wool until the vigorous ferment has completed.

Once the ferment has completed siphon off into the final dark bottles to lay down for a minimum of 6 months.

Enjoy on its own or as an addition to a summer martini!

A great way to use up those pears!

Pear wine:

1. You will need a white 9 litre capacity plastic bucket with lid, wooden spoon, 2 x 4.5 litre glass demijohn, rubber bung (with hole), plastic air lock, plastic siphon tubing, sterilising powder, large plastic funnel, 2 x empty 2 litre screw top plastic bottles, 1 x empty 1 litre screw top plastic bottle.

2. Pour the boiling water over the pears, pressing well to extract the juice. Leave for 4-5 hours.

3. Add the pectic enzyme. Cover and leave for 4 days to infuse.

4. Strain the pears through muslin and pour the liquid through a large funnel, into the demijohn.

5. Add the sugar and lemon juice.

6. Add the yeast and yeast nutrient and fit the airlock. Keep in a warm room.

7. After about 7-10 days, when the wine begins to clear and the bubbles have slowed down, siphon the wine off the 'lees' (the debris in the bottom of the demijohn) into a clean demijohn.

8. After about another 3-4 days, when all fermentation has stopped (no more bubbles through the air-lock), siphon off the 'lees' into clean demijohn. Add a Campden tablet - Campden tablets are used to kill naturally occurring wild yeasts and undesirable bacteria.

9. Stopper the jar and leave in a cool place for a further 10 days. The wine should be clear.

10. Siphon the wine into clean empty plastic bottle and store in a cool place. The wine should be ready after about 3 months.

INGREDIENTS:

4.5 litres boiling water

1.8 kg pears

2 tsp pectic enzyme

900 g sugar

2 lemons, juice only

1x7 g sachet dried yeast

3 tsp yeast nutrient

1 campden tablet

I have just made some pear & lemon preserve for the 1st time, OMG it's lovely! Would be great used as a jam, or served with pork or Stilton.

Ingredients

2 kilos (4 and 1/2 pounds) of pears, peeled, cored and chopped

3 medium lemons (strained juice and zest)

1 kilo (5 and 1/4 cups) of granulated jam sugar

1 litre (4 and 1/4 cups) of water

Instructions

Prepare the pears and place in a large covered bowl, to stop them browning.

Remove the zest from the lemons carefully to avoid adding the bitter pith. Set zest aside.

Squeeze the lemon juice and strain.

Add the water, chopped pears, lemon zest and juice to a large heavy bottomed saucepan.

Simmer very gently until the pears are just soft.

Pour in the sugar and stir over a medium/low heat until the sugar is dissolved.

Bring the heat up to a rolling boil.

Allow to boil hard for ten minutes before testing for a set.

If it has not reached setting point (what is setting point? See Tricks and tips below) continue to boil rapidly, checking for a set every four minutes or so (set the timer for this).

When the jam has set remove from the heat.

Allow the jam to stand for a few minutes and pour into warmed sterilised jars (how do I sterilise jars? See Tricks and tips below).

Cover with screw top lids or wax disks and cellophane tops.

A recipe from a friend of mine.

Tuscan Rabbit Stew:

Flour the rabbit, fry till golden & put in pressure cooker. Add tomatoes thyme and garlic. Add white wine and balsamic vinegar and cook till tender.

Something to do with pears at this time of year.

Just about to make pear liqueur:

Ingredients

2 ripe pears,

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 prepared vanilla pod

1 cup brandy or vodka

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1

Wash and chop one pear, discarding the seeds and core. Leave the skin on.

2

Place one chopped pear and the vanilla in a sealable glass jar and cover with brandy. The jar should have enough room to add another cup of liquid later in the process. Seal and shake, then let steep for 5 days.

3

Chop the second pear, discarding the seeds and core. Add it to a pot, along with the water and sugar, then stir and bring to a boil on medium heat, about 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Let the syrup mixture cool.

4

Once cooled, pour the syrup (with the fruit) into the steeping jar. Shake and let steep for 2 days. Taste, and if desired flavor is achieved, strain through a fine mesh strainer and then a coffee filter into a bottle or jar.

Every year we make an annual pilgrimage to the grouse moors in Northern England. A small team of friends walking in a line across the sea of pink heather. It's a beautiful place, that has to be seen to appreciate. Most of the worlds heather moorland occurs in the UK and in August the heather is in flower, blanketing the landscape.

We meet the night before to enjoy a few beers, a meal and banter between friends. You need a good feed, as the day on the moors requires miles of walking, across some pretty testing ground. The heather itself gets tiring when walking over for it hours, combined with long grass, occasional bracken and streams. So the grouse are hard earned.

We don't shoot many. This year the 8 guns shot 37 grouse, but this is more than enough for us and we all get a brace for the table.

We walked most of the grouse up, but we did do 2 mini drives, from the butts. On this day the wind was up, making the grouse fast and challenging to shoot. The grouse often taking on the wind speed as they fly. During the 2 mini drives, the grouse were driven with the wind and towards us. They literally come over you like little missiles. With a 20 mph wind they are probably flying at speeds of 70-80+ mph as they flash over the top of you, 10-50ft high. Too difficult for most of the guns, who find them too challenging and fast to shoot.

When we walk up the grouse, we try to walk slowly in an evenly spaced line across the moors. Every so often a covey of grouse will lift and rocket away from us in a variety of directions. Sometimes a bird or two will lift, other times a covey of 20 or more. You have no idea when, where or how many will rise from the heather. It's this unknown and the anticipation that makes the experience so exciting.

On this particular moor we saw plenty of black grouse, which was wonderful to see. There is a volentary ban on shooting Black Grouse on most moors, due to their declining numbers and so we are very careful to ensure that we don't shoot them and we haven't made a mistake to date.

By the end of the day, you feel worn out from a long days walking and we all have a few birds to take home for the table. It's a rare and special experience to us all. The beautiful pink heather moorlands and the amazing Red Grouse are a truly wonderful and very unique to Britain. I feel very privilaged that I get to experience doing this once a year. And enjoy the opportunty to be able to cook and eat one of our wonderful wild game birds.

I will try to include a grouse cooking blog. My wife makes a beautiful plum sauce for them.

It's the time of year (late August to September) when the Damsons, sloes, blackberries, crab apples, rosehips and elderberries all become ready to pick

Between us we picked a bowl full of Hawthorns.

Here is how to make the Hawthorn Berry Jelly:

1/ Cover the hawthorn berries in water. Add water to the saucepan until it reaches the top of the berries in the pan.

2/ simmer them in the pan for about hour. Mushing them up occasionally with a potato masher.

3/ Drain the hawthorn berry mush into a bowl through several sheets of muslin, for several hour or even overnight. Do not squeeze or the jelly will be cloudy.

4/ Measure the liquid/ juice that you manage to obtain and then add 7 parts sugar to 10 parts juice.

5/A the juice of a lemon.

6/ Place the lot in a pan and then bring it up to a rolling boil.

7/ Boil for around 20-30 minutes, removing the scum that forms at the top regularly. If you don't remove the scum, the jelly will be cloudy.

8/ After about 15-20 minutes. Dip a spoon in and then place the spoon in a cool place. If the liquid sets on the spoon, it is ready.

9/Pour the liquid into a clean sterilised jar and place it in the fridge to set.

10/Try on toast instead of jam, it's delicious.

You can strain the pulp through a fine sieve, if you don't mind the Jelly being cloudy. It makes the process quicker.

Ingredients:

A bowl of Hawthorns

A Lemon (juiced)

Sugar

Water

I followed my method for Crab Apple Jelly. Please have a look at this post, if you want more detail.

Enjoy!

I was given this recipe by an 88 year old lady,it was her mothers recipe.
 
2lbs.dark ripe plums.
2lbs demerera sugar.
1 teacup malt vinegar.
cloves.
Stick cinnamon.
Stone jar.
 
Wipe fruit clean & put one clove in each end of plum & push 3 small pieces of stick cinnamon into stone.

Place in jar with vinegar. Stand jar in a saucepan of water. When vinegar gets hot, gradually add sugar and cook.When the top plum is cooked,they are ready.This takes about 2hours. Keep topping up water in saucepan.
 
 
I adapted the recipe as follows:-
After putting cloves into plums, put aside.
Meantime warm vinegar stir in sugar & add a couple of broken cinnamon sticks. Keep stirring until sugar is dissolved. Place plums in syrup,bring back to heat & poach plums for about 4 minutes. Remove plums, place in sterilized jars. Bring syrup back to boil & boil until slightly thickened. Remember it will further thicken as it cools. Pour syrup over plums & seal. By this method I used a further 2lbs plums.

You will need wide-mouthed jars.

Avril's Dorset Apple Cake - looks gorgeous!

Dorset apple cake; I use my windfall apples, it is probably the cake that gets most positive comments 😉

225g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

450g cooking apples

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

225g caster sugar, plus extra for dredging

3 large eggs

225g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

25g ground almonds

1 tbsp demerara sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Grease a deep 23-24cm springform cake tin and line with baking paper. Peel, core and cut the apples into 1cm pieces, and toss with the lemon juice.

2. Using an electric hand whisk, cream together the butter, caster sugar and lemon zest in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, adding a little flour with each addition to keep the mixture smooth.

3. Sift the remaining flour and the baking powder into the bowl and fold in with the ground almonds. Drain the apple pieces well, then stir into the mixture.

4. Spoon into the prepared cake tin, lightly level the top and sprinkle with the demerara sugar. Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well-risen, brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If the cake starts to look a little too brown, cover with a sheet of baking paper after about 45 minutes.

5. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.

Remove the cake from the tin and place on a serving plate. Dredge heavily with the extra caster sugar. Cut the cake into generous wedges and serve warm with a spoonful of clotted cream, if you like.

Avrils Elderberry Wine.

And elderberry wine; they are plentiful at the moment. It tastes better than it smells. 😉

Ingredients:

1.5kg Elderberries.

1.5kg Sugar

1tsp Citric Acid.

4.5l Water

1 sachet of brewers Yeast and 1 teaspoon of Nutrient

Method:

Strip the berries from the stalks using a fork.

Crush them in a bowl and pour on the boiling water and add the sugar.

Let it cool to until warm (21 degrees approx) then add the yeast, nutrient and citric acid.

Loosely cover for 3 days and then decant into dark bottles (stops the wine losing its colour) and leave with either an air lock or cotton wool until the vigorous ferment has completed.

Once the ferment has completed siphon off into the final dark bottles to lay down for a minimum of 6 months.

Enjoy on its own or as an addition to a summer martini!