The last of the summer produce and Christmas gifts

In my previous post 2013 A Year of Progression . I promised to catch up on a long over due post.

This year (as I may have mentioned once or 300 times) I attempted to grow some salad, herbs and vegetables. I was ridiculously proud when (most) of them grew into things I could actually eat and cook with. Simple things really are great.
I had quite a few tomato plants and with the mild weather they soldiered on into October. When they stopped ripening I was left with green tomatoes.




This brought back memories of my nan's green tomato chutney. She had the greenest fingers and could bring a twig back from the dead so her tomato plants each year were impressive. Unfortunately this was one of her recipes I haven't been able to find, so I relied upon Lisa Faulkner who has a recipe in her book Recipes from my Mother to my Daughter which seemed quite similar. She only said to cook it for a few minutes but I decided to boil it down for much longer in the traditional manner of making chutney as I don't like the taste of raw onion and I was worried about whether it would be preserved enough to last.
Combined in a box with some oat cakes from a James Martin recipe and some fabulous cheese I bought at my mums local deli it made a perfect present for my friend who always loved my nan's green tomato chutney.
After it was cooked I also blended some to a fine purée and found it made an excellent alternative to tomato ketchup.




Recipe
Finely chop 750g green tomatoes, 500g cooking apple and 750g onions.
Boil them in a large pan with 600ml malt vinegar and 750g soft brown sugar for about an hour. In a small bowl mix 25g fresh ginger, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tbsp of salt, 3tbsp corn flour and freshly ground black pepper. Add to the mixture and continue to boil until it is thick and glossy and has the texture of chutney. Pour into sterilised jars and seal.

Vanessa Kimbell's Ndali Vanilla Gift Swap

I am lucky enough to have been invited to join Vanessa Kimbell's latest event. The concept is similar to the Christmas Gift Swap however this time with a focus on vanilla and fair trade. To be more specific Ndali Fair Trade Vanilla.

Vanessa went out to Uganda earlier this year see where and how the vanilla is produced and the impact that fair trade has. Over the years I have increasing looked to buy local and where this isn't possible to buy fair trade but I have to admit that often this was without really thinking why. I was buying fair trade because I 'should' not because I really understood or that it resonated with me. Reading Vanessa's posts has really brought home the reason that fair trade just makes sense. The clue is in the title. It's fair! We all know it's wrong to steal from someone so why would we underpay farmers and producers?

For this reason I'm proud to be a part of the event and very grateful to all involved, including Vanessa Kimbell, Ndali Vanilla, Fortnum and Mason, Kenwood and The Fair Trade Foundation.



We were sent some vanilla and I already had some Ndali extract



There are four categories and I have decided to enter two - sweets and cakes.

I have made some vanilla latte fudge. I decided on this flavour largely as I seem to have a slight addiction to vanilla latte's.



My second gift is a rhubarb and vanilla crumble cake as I always think vanilla and rhubarb are the perfect pairing. It's not the most beautiful cake to look at but I think it tastes divine. We were encouraged to use as many fair trade ingredients as possible. The rhubarb I was given from a friends garden so as I didn't pay for it I guess it won't be fair trade unless I make her a cake in return!



I'll post later to let you know how the day went, but very much looking forwards to it.

Recipes

Vanilla Latte Fudge

100g fair trade caster sugar
75g fair trade light soft brown sugar
227g tub of clotted cream
1/2-1 tsp of vanilla powder, depending on your taste
1tsp fair trade instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp of boiling water

Place all of the ingredients in a pan and stir continually over a very low heat until the sugar has all dissolved. I find that if you rush this part the fudge tends to be more grainy.

Stop stirring, bring to the boil and put the lid on. Turn it down and leave it for 3 minutes. Watch it to make sure the sugar doesn't start to burn.

Take the lid off and use a sugar thermometer to keep it boiling until it gets to 116 C.

Once at 116 C plunge the pan into a bowl of cold water and leave for about 20-30 secs before starting to stir. Stir it until the fudge starts to set and then pour into a container lined with greased cling film for it to set.

Leave to set overnight and then use a hot knife to slice into equal sized squares.

This is lovely with your favourite hot drink and would make a great present.

Rhubarb and Vanilla Crumble Cake

For the rhubarb compote
About 4 lengths of rhubarb
2-4 tbsp fair trade soft brownn sugar to taste
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the cake
2 eggs weighed with their shells on
The same weight of self raising flour
The same weight of fair trade sugar (I used a 50:50 mixture of caster and light soft brown)
The same weight of margarine or butter
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract.

Crumble topping
75g lights soft brown sugar
100g plain flour
75g butter

Preheat the oven to 190 C

Start by chopping the rhubarb into small chunks and cooking slowly in a pan with the sugar. If it looks like it is going to catch turn the heat down and/or add a splash of water. Cook for 10-15 mins until the mixture it quite thick and jam like. Leave to cool slightly

Meanwhile make the cake. Mix all of the ingredients together and beat well.

Make the crumble mixture by using your finger tips to rub the mixture together until it forms the texture of bread crumbs.

Line an 8" cake tin and place the cake batter in the bottom, cover with a layer of rhubarb compote and top with the crumble mixture.

This also works well with berries it apple or I'd guess any fruit which is soft once cooked.

Bake for 30-40 mins until golden on the top.

Serve as a cake with a cup of tea or as a pudding with custard.

First Birthday Chocolates

I was recently contacted by the PR company of a boutique chocolate club. I only like to give reviews of products I would potentially buy and chocolate is definitely one of them! Plus as it is my blog's first birthday I thought it would make a good present!

The Cocoa Boutique is a chocolate club who send you handmade chocolates through the post. I love the idea of receiving a surprise, handpicked selection of chocolates.

The chocolate are made by various people, including master chocolatiers.

The box and packaging was beautiful...







As were the chocolates...




I tries really hard to savour the chocolates, but after one sitting there aren't many left. They were too good! My favourite was made by Barry Colenso and was a Cocoa Dusted Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel. The balance of sweet and salt was just perfect.

Personally I wasn't keen on the ones with alcohol in but I'm sure some people would love them.

I think this would make a great, unusual gift for a chocolate loving friend.

Snowflake marshmallows

As you may have gathered by now I love Christmas, especially the time spent with family and friends. I have group of friends who I've been close to since I was at school and every year since we were 12 we've gone out for Christmas dinner. People have come and gone over the years, but tradition has remained. We don't all buy presents for each other, we do a secret Santa instead, but every year I make a little something. This year I decided I wanted to have a go at marshmallows as I've never made them before and I'd bought some snowflake cookie cutters which I thought would make good snowflakes marshmallows!

The hardest part was finding the ingredients. Liquid glucose can allegedly be bought from 'all good chemists' but even in London it took me about 5 chemists to track it down. One tried to fob me off with something that cost £11+ (it should be more like £1) and another with Lucozade (because that's just the same). And although leaf gelatine is now more popular they didn't have any in my sainsbury's so I had to go to waitrose. You also need a sugar thermometer and electric stand mixer or whisk.

You start by soaking 9 leaves of gelatine in 140ml of water.

Whilst it's soaking you boil the 450g sugar, 200ml water and 1 tbsp of liquid glucose in a heavy based pan until it reaches 127C keep an eye on it and any children around as it is very hot and can also go beyond the temperature very quickly and potentially burn.

Whilst the sugar is turning into a lovely syrup put 2 large egg whites in your stand mixer and whisk until they form soft peaks (as always make sure you get no yolk in the egg whites and the bowl is scrupulously clean otherwise they won't whisk up).

When the sugar reaches 127C carefully slide in the gelatine and water. It will bubble and potentially spit. 127C is very hot and syrup sticks so careful is the important word here!

Now turn the mixer down to a low speed and slowly and carefully pour the syrup onto the egg whites trying to hit the 'sweet spot', so that the syrup is landing in the little dip just in front of the whisk. When all of the syrup is a 1tbsp of vanilla extract (you could also add food colouring at this stage but I've never seen coloured snowflakes so I left it white) and turn up the speed slightly. At this point the mixture will be quite runny but if you whisk for 5-10 mins as the bowl cools the mixture will thicken and become lovely and fluffy and glossy.

Once you think it looks amazing pour it into a tin which has been greased with a slick of flavourless oil and then drenched in cornflour and icing sugar and try and get the top fairly flat. The recipe said to use a tin 30cm x 20cm but for snowflakes this left the marshmallows too thick so I used another smaller tin as well, probably about 20cm x 15cm and this was perfect.

Leave to set for at least an hour.





I found it too sticky to turn out of the tin so I actually cut the snowflakes directl out of the tin with my cutter. I found I had to be almost rough with the mixture and use my fingers to prise it from the tin. Once they are out dust them in a mixture of corn flour and icing sugar to stop them sticking. You can also dust all of the off cuts and keep them for you!

Next time I am wondering about using the magic liner or even cling film (greased and drenched still). I got there in the end though and popped them into lakeland's clear gift bags, tied with a little present ribbon and a gift tag/Christmas decoration dangling.

I also made a couple of extra bags for stockings.

Recipe taken from James Martin on the BBC website. He put a layer of raspberries in the middle which sounds very yummy.




#letsmakechristmas

Heart Christmas Decorations

I've been making Christmas decorations with my mum. Red and white hearts to be precise, very scandi Christmas! Now I know that they are very clearly not food related but try are in keeping with the #letsmakechristmas theme and they really are quite easy to make. My mum is far better at sewing than I am but even my poor needle skills can cope with these! You can also you the same method for year round hearts to dangle off drawer handles, door knobs, pins etc. You can also stuff them with a little lavender or a few drops of fragrance to make hearts to put in chest of drawers between your clothes.

You will need:
Sheets of felt in Christmassy colours (we used red and white)
Other matching fabric if desired (we used white and red gingham)
Matching ribbon (we used red)
Small buttons (we used white)
Embroidery thread in matching/contrasting colour (we used red)
Bond-a-web
Padding
Some thin card (any colour)
A pencil or pen
Pins
Needle
Scissors
An iron

Start by drawing a template of a large heart and a small heart on the card. You can do it by eye, use a cookie cutter or print a picture of a heart off the computer. I prefer the rounder hearts for this than the longer pointy ones. You could also do stars or stocking shapes or anything you fancied really but I like the hearts.

Fold your felt in half and pin the large heart template to the felt. Cut around the template through the two layers of felt so that you are cutting the front and back of your heart at the same time. This will ensure that the hearts are the same size. If you do this stage with material it is a good idea to iron some bond-a-web onto the back of the material before cutting out the heart to make it a little stiffer. As felt is quite thick there is no need to do this step for felt.






Unpin the template from your hearts and put to one side.

Take the small heart template and draw around it onto the smooth side of the bond-a-web. Roughly cut the heart out leaving a bit of a border around be edge. Place the cut out heart on a piece of contrasting felt or material. Take an iron and iron the bond-a-web to the material for about 5 seconds. Check the material is stuff to the bond-a-web. If it isn't iron for a few more seconds until it is. Now cut around the small heart you drew so that you end up with a small material heart with bond-a-web stuck to it. Peel off the white layer of paper from the bond-a-web. It can be quite tricky to find an edge but be patient and you will.






Now take your two large hearts and place the small heart in the middle of one of them. Iron it on for about 5 secs or until it sticks.

Now pin the two hearts together with the one with the small heart on at the front. Take your needle and thread your embroidery thread onto it. Either a matching or contrasting colour is best.

Starting at the top in the middle carefully sew a basic running stitch around the heart about 5mm away from the edge. Take your time with this and try and make all of the stitches the same size as they will be on show. If they look too different or scruffy simply unpick one and try it again.






Leave a gap of a couple of cm at the top of the heart.





Take small pieces of padding and gently push them into the heart through the gap you have left. Push them into all of the edges of the heart but don't over stuff it. Once you are happy sew up the gap.

Finish the heart by pushing the needle through the whole heart from the back to the front in the top centre. Thread on a length of ribbon folded into a hook and a button. Sew the button and ribbon onto the heart (pushing the needle all of the way through the heart each time). Try to keep the holes of the button lined up horizontally so it is neat. Finish sewing the button on by ending up with the needle at the back of the heart and tie off your thread.






You can either use these as decorations for your tree or tie them to a long length of ribbon or rope to make a garland. Enjoy!

Here are the finished results:

I'm sorry about the photo being the wrong way around but it is the right way on my laptop and no matter what I do it seems to turn around again when I upload it here

A round up of #letsmakechristmas

Over the past few months I've been busy making Christmas presents (a couple of the posts have been made by family members, but don't worry I have always credited them!). I always make some of my gifts but @vanessakimbell encouraged a whole host of food bloggers to get making with #letsmakechristmas. I do have a few last minute gifts to make, chocolate truffles, some things I can't post about yet (in case the recipient is reading) and some more mince pie gifts, but as they won't be made until the 23rd December I thought I'd do a round up now.

So here goes...

1. Delia Smith's mincemeat
2. Peyton and Byrne Christmas pudding (large and individual). Decorated versions here and here
3. Chocolate wafers dark chocolate topped with candied orange peel and white chocolate with crystallised rose petals and rose water
4. Piccalilli
5. Apple butter and decorated here
6. Apple and rowan jelly
7. Candied citrus peel
8. Lemon drizzle loaf
9. Double chocolate chip cookies here and here
10. Mulled wine spice bags
11. Onion marmalade
12. Sweet chilli jam
13. A trio of mince pies
14. Gingerbread houses
15. Blackberry vodka
16. Festive chocolate cupcakes
17. Marshmallow snowflakes
18. Chocolate truffles - also to follow but here is a previous post on truffles in the meantime.

There are also a few of posts that weren't made for Christmas presents but that would make good gifts all the same.

Festive Clementine Cake which is also gluten free
Apple and blackberry jam
Plum jam
Chocolate slabs

#letsmakechristmas

Blackberry Vodka and Homemade Secret Santas

Every year we all get together with mum dad's side of the family for a day of festive fun between Christmas and New Year. Maybe 5 years ago we stopped all buying presents for each other and instead started a secret santa, which all worked very well but wasn't quite as exciting as it could be. Last year my auntie had the fab idea of making our secret santas. We all have to make a gift for one person, the materials have to cost less than £5 and it has to be fabulous! Even the children have to make something (with a little help from their parents). The results were amazing, a seriously creative family!

So this year the stakes are high. I can't post about my Secret Santa yet in case the recipient is reading so in the meantime I thought I'd write about my dad's recipe for his secret santa (this is a dad whose only job in the kitchen is normally washing up!). I have been assured though that he did plenty of research to find a recipe for blackberry vodka.

Back in the autumn we had picked lots of blackberries which I posted about here and so both of our freezers have a good stock of blackberries.

To make blackberry vodka you need to start by weighing the blackberries. You then weigh out the same amount of sugar out and put them in a bottle or kilner jar covered with your vodka. Seal it up, give it a good shake and leave it somewhere dark and cool to mature. Ideally you need to leave it for at least 3 months, giving it a shake every week or so. You can then sieve out the fruit and pop in a bottle with a beautiful label. The jury is out on whether the fruit is tasty or not once it's out. Some have suggested serving it on ice cream and others say most of the flavour has gone so bin it. I say give it a taste and if it tastes good then eat it!

Here is the vodka maturing. You can see the blackberries have already started doing their magic as the vodka has changed colour.






Here are the finished product decanted into a bottle with labels added.






Incidentally at uni I used to regularly flavour vodka with sweets and chocolates. It sounds a bit odd but I tell you Mars bar vodka is amazing! Think baileys with a caramel flavour and a bit of a kick. Fab for making cocktails. Lots of sweets work, polo mints, skittles, pear drops. Pick your favourite and experiment. Just pop the sweets/chunks of chocolate in the vodka and give it a shake. I never used to leave it anywhere near 3 months. Maybe a week or so. Shaking every day. I haven't done it for a while though but give it a go and it's done when it tastes good! The sweets/chocolates virtually disappear so there shouldn't be a need to filter it, maybe just sieve and lumps out.

#letsmakechristmas

Gingerbread Houses

Sarah's Kitchen went on tour yesterday as my friend was having a Gingerbread House decorating party. We all turned up to find she had been busy baking away and had a house, already assembled for each of us to decorate! As I wasn't involved in the baking I'm not sure what recipe she used but I would recommend this one from Tales from a Giants Wood as I can vouch for it being very yummy!

We had bags full of sweets, icing and food colouring (the amount of combined sugar and E numbers would have been enough to cause a riot in a primary school class!) plus the obligatory mulled wine, mince pies and Christmas songs.

Everyone joined in, even though some had never iced before and there were some works of art created!

Here is my attempt





And some of the others!

A Trio of Mince Pies

Every year I go Christmas shopping to help one of my oldest friends to buy gifts for his family and we always drop in to see his mum on the way home to have a chat and a drink whilst wrapping the presents up. This year I wanted to take her some mince pies and decided to try a couple of recipes I've wanted to try for a while.

The box I had to put them in was the right size for 6 pies so I decided that 3 different pies would be the perfect number.

I made a normal mince pie with a snowflake top. A mince pie with a frangipane topping based on an alternative Christmas pie by @hollybellmummy and finally a filo and puff pastry number that was on a Jamie Oliver Christmas special a couple of years ago, but I'd never got around to trying.

I started by making some short crust pastry. I sometimes put icing sugar in sweet short crust, which is a recipe I think I originally got from Mary Berry, but for mince pies I always use a basic pastry recipe my mum taught when I was very young, which was probably passed down to her from my nan. Whilst the pastry was resting in the fridge I started on the Jamie Oliver alternative mince pies. On a flours surface. I rolled the puff pastry to a thickness of around 3mm and covered with a layer of mincemeat, lemon and clementine zest and dried cranberries. The original recipe also had chestnuts crumbled over but I didn't have any so did without.



I then rolled the puff pastry into a tight 'Swiss roll' from the wider side



I put two overlapping squares of filo pastry in a greased muffin tin. Jamie just pushes the whole sheet into the holes but I thought it'd be neater to cut squares. I always use a bit of doughy off cut of pastry as a 'pusher' to encourage the pastry into the corners without tearing it with my nails.

I then sliced the puff pastry roll into thick slices and placed one in each filo case.



I finished off by brushing both pastries with melted butter and sprinkling the top with flakes almonds and icing sugar and popped in an oven preheated to 180C for about 30 mins. I found the filo started to go brown long before the puff was cooked so I places a piece of tin foil loosely over the top to prevent burnt edges. When they had cooled I finished them with another sprinkle of icing sugar.

Whilst they were baking I made the frangipane topping by creaming together butter and caster sugar, gradually adding the beaten egg and finally stirring through the almonds to make a shiny paste.

I then rolled out the pastry and lined greased muffin tins. I placed a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat in each case and topped half with a pastry lid in the shape of a snowflake (brushed with egg or milk for a shiny finish) and half with a spoonful of frangipane topping and three flaked almonds. I then baked them at 190C for about 20 mins.

Here are the three different mince pies cooling on the rack


And boxed up ready to go




Jamie Oliver's Alternative Mince Pies

INGREDIENTS
100g good-quality mincemeat. I used some I had made using a Delia recipe
25g dried cranberries
Zest of 2 clementines and 1 lemon
250g pack of good puff pastry
1 pack filo pastry
50g melted butter
50g flaked almonds
Icing sugar, to dust

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/400ºF/gas 6.

2. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry into a big rectangle about 20x40cm/8x16 inch and 3mm thick. Thinly spread the mincemeat over the pastry, leaving a 1cm/½ inch gap around the edges and sprinkle with the cranberries and zest. Tightly roll up the pastry, lengthways, like a Swiss roll.

3. Take two muffin trays (for 12 cupcakes each) and butter each one lightly with the melted butter. Place two squares of filo pastry in each hole ease the pastry into each hole. Brush with the melted butter, then cover with a second layer of filo pastry. Brush with butter again.

Tip: You can freeze the cooked, cooled mince pies in their trays (just wrap the lot in cling film) or in a plastic container. Just reheat them in a hot oven straight from the freezer.

4. Take the puff pastry roll and, with a sharp knife, cut it into 24 slices. Place each slice, flat-side down, into a filo-lined hole. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle a few flaked almonds on top of each little pie, then pop both trays in the oven for about 25 minutes, until cooked and golden brown.

5. Leave to cool, then crack the individual pies out of the trays. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving.

Adapted from Jamie Oliver Christmas Special

Sweet Crust Pastry
8oz flour (self raising if you like thicker fluffier pastry)
4oz butter or margarine
4oz caster sugar
1 egg

Rub the flour and butter together with your fingers until it resembles bread crumbs. Stir in the caster sugar. Add the beaten egg and gradually incorporate it all together being very light of touch until it forms a ball. Tip the ball of pastry into some cling film and rest in the fridge for about 30 mins.

Recipe from my mum

Frangipane topping
50g caster sugar
50g butter
1 egg
50g ground almonds
A few flaked almonds for decoration

Cream the sugar and butter together. Mix in the beaten egg gradually and then stir in the ground almonds.

Adapted from @hollybellmummy's alternative mince pies

Old faithful recipes...Millies Style Cookies

I know I have posted about this before so apologies for there being no new recipes this time. I promise to make something new soon! I'm all for experimentation and trying new things, but in a similar way I rely on my old Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirt (that I have had for approximately 300 years and refuse to throw out despite the fact it's threadbare) when I need something cosy to wear around the house, sometimes it's also good to fall back on old faithful friends like this recipe. This is crowd pleaser recipe which I pull out when I need a quick, successful result.

Last night was ladies night with a group of lovely ladies from my old work. We meet up once a month for food, drinks and plenty of laughs. As this was our Christmas meet up I wanted to take them a gift. We don't do presents so some little bags of double chocolate chip cookies were perfect for this. I used this recipe and put them in plastic gift bags tied with Christmassy ribbon with a small Christmas decoration/metal gift tag attached.

Here is the finished result:


#letsmakechristmas

Hotel Chocolat Goodies

So the lovely people at Hotel Chocolat sent me some goodies from their Christmas selection and I promised to write a review so here goes.

The first one was a beautiful box of Turkish delight. It was bigger than I expected it to be and in a wooden presentation box so perfect for presents. I'm not the biggest fan of Turkish delight but this had a good texture, not too gelatinous and the flavour wasn't over powering. They tell me it's handmade in Turkey so maybe that's why it's so yummy! Here is a picture of the Turkish Delight and also a link to their website.







The second one was some tiddly caramel penguins. These little cuties would make a perfect sticking filler or (as I am going to do) a filling for crackers if you take them all out of the box and put one in each of my homemade crackers, much better than a set of screwdrivers in my opinion! And a great substitute for any friends and family who now want a baby penguin for Christmas after watching Frozen Planet.

Again here are some piccies and a link to the product.










In case you want to have a look here are all of their Christmas chocolates and here are their stocking fillers Enjoy!

Sweet Chilli Jam

The second thing I made was some sweet chilli jam. This is absolutely delicious and can be served as a chutney (e.g. with cheese or cooked meats) or used as a stir fry sauce or dipping sauce.

It's very easy to make. It's just all wizzed up in a food processor and then cooked for a long while until it's thick and sticky.

How hot the end result is depends on the heat in the chillies so taste a little piece first and select the strength of chilli depending on your taste or the taste of whoever it's for.

Here is the full recipe.

Ingredients

8 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
10 red chillies, roughly chopped
Finger sized piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated
8 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
400g tin of tomatoes
750g caster sugar
250ml red wine vinegar
Tip the peppers, chillies (with seeds), ginger and garlic into a food processor, then whizz until very finely chopped. Pour into a heavy-bottomed pan with the tomatoes, sugar and vinegar, then bring everything to the boil. Skim off any scum that comes to the surface, then turn the heat down to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally. Once the jam is becoming sticky (1-2 hours depending on the size of the pan), continue cooking for 10-15 mins more, stirring frequently so that it doesn't catch and burn. It should now look like thick, bubbling lava. Cool slightly, transfer to sterilised jars, then leave to cool completely. Keeps well in a cool, dark cupboard - refrigerate once opened.

Adapted from a Good Food recipe



#letsmakechristmas

Onion Marmalade

On Saturday I spent the morning making chutney's and promised to post the recipes, so here goes the first, onion marmalade aka caramelised onion chutney. It really is worth the patience needed to caramelise the onions as the result is simply yummy! It is fab as a chutney with cheese or cooked meats or in sandwiches. I would also recommend using it to make a sauce next time you have a steak. Cook the steak and whilst it is resting deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine add a spoonful of the chutney, a splash of balsamic vinegar and maybe a few fresh thyme leaves. Perfect speedy sauce!

The original recipe uses red onions and far more alcohol and vinegar, but I use less liquid and normal onions as they are cheaper and the end result doesn't seem to suffer any detriment to flavour. I also add the sugar at the same time as the liquid otherwise caramelising the onions in the sugar causes havoc with the pan and is a nightmare to clean.

This will make about 4 jam jars.

Here is a photo of the chutney before the lid is on.









And the final product ready for wrapping.









Here is the full recipe

Ingredients
2kg onions
4 garlic cloves
4 tbsps olive oil
A knob of butter
140g caster sugar
A bunch of fresh thyme leaves
250ml red wine
200ml red wine vinegar

Quarter and thinly slice the onions, then crush the garlic. Melt the butter with the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a high heat. Tip in the onions and garlic and give them a good stir and reduce the heat slightly. Cook uncovered for 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a little water or more oil if they start to stick.. The onions are ready when all their juices have evaporated, they're really soft and sticky and smell of sugar caramelising. Slow cooking is the secret of really soft and sticky onions, so don't rush this part.

Add the sugar and thyme and pour in the wine and vinegar and simmer everything, still uncovered, over a high heat for 25-30 minutes, stirring every so often until the onions are a deep mahogany colour and the liquid almost all reduced. It's done when drawing a spoon across the bottom of the pan clears a path. Leave the onions to cool slightly in the pan, then scoop into sterilised jars and seal. Can be eaten straight away, but keeps well in the fridge.

Adapted from a recipe from Good Food








#letsmakechristmas

Christmas Hamper

Today I went to my friend house for a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner. She creates all the dishes she would have if she was at home and hence I'm now feeling very full, sleepy and on a sugar high! She said she'll let me have the recipes so I'll give them a try and post the results!

I might not see her again before Christmas so took along a hamper full of goodies I had made.





From top right going clockwise there is a lemon crunchy top cake, a bag of candied citrus peel, a mulled spice bag to make mulled wine, apple butter and double chocolate chip cookies.

The recipe for the lemon cake can be found here




The recipe for the candied citrus peel is here I dusted them all in caster sugar before putting them in a Lakeland gift bag and tying with a ribbon.



For the mulled spice bag I simply tied a couple of sticks of cinnamon, some dried orange rind, 5 juniper berries, 10 cloves, 5 cardamom, 2 bay leaves and 10 black peppercorns in a square of muslin and attached instructions to place it in a pan with 75cl of red wine and sugar to taste and then gently heat the wine without letting it boil.


The apple butter recipe is here and I just decorated the jar with a square if brown paper and a ribbon.



Finally the double chocolate cookies I have written two posts about before here and in my first ever post


#letsmakechristmas