Its been a wonderful hot sunny weekend here and the fruit farms have opened in the area. Today I went and picked strawberries and gooseberries. These strawberries are really intensely flavoured, absolutely yummy. Some went in the fridge to eat this week, some went in the freezer for that hit of summer in the depths of winter. They don't freeze well at all but I am willing to overlook the texture of a defrosted strawberry when its in a pie or on a meringue with cream in order to have strawberries in December. To really get that summer taste year round though, I make strawberry syrup. Its the easiest thing in the world to do, hardly a recipe at all. Equal weights of strawberries and ordinary white granulated sugar, in a tray or bowl, in the oven at 150 degrees. Leave there, stirring every so often, until the sugar is almost dissolved. Tip carefully into the blender and pulse to smooth it all out. Tip into hot jars. Done.
The stirring every so often is important. I left the second batch whilst I did something else, and came down to jam all over the oven. Cue unladylike cursing. I am sure that the HSE would have a fit if they'd seen me cleaning the jam off the hot oven floor with a wet cloth to avoid the jam sticking to it. But I really didn't fancy spending all evening trying to chisel rock hard jam off the cold oven floor.
Unopened jars are kept in the freezer, opened jars in the fridge. I am not sure how long its supposed to keep in the fridge, but I keep it a pretty long time and I haven't died of poisoning yet. Its thicker than purchased ice cream syrup, but thinner than purchased jam. Works on icecream and other desserts as well as on baked goods. I've used it in cakes and trifles as well as for jam tarts (use a small amount, it boils over quickly... see previous paragraph).
I didn't get many jars from the strawberries this year (it does seem to vary a bit) so I might have to go back next week and pick some more.
3 comments:
Sounds so YUMMY! Thanks for the heads up on "winter" strawberries. WE can get them year round here in Texas, but they are incredibly expensive.
I remember you doing this last year, you'll be finding little sticky corners all over for weeks to come! Still, it does sound yummy. HSE - bet they'd do the same in their own kitchens!
I see you decided to go for something nice and easy on your return to sewing. I hope the sleeves aren't as bad as you think. I tried binding seam edges in bias cut lining strips - hong kong finish method. It look good on the face of the seam, but I didn't like the raw edge hiding underneath, I was certain it was hatching plans to dissolve on me later.
Isn't there a jacket method where you underline the pieces, with the lining cut SA larger and it wraps round the raw edges?? Havering problably.
Not that that would be suitable for grey-hair-inducing itsy pieces!?
Cheers,
AJ
Oh yummy! (and no not posted from home)
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