*cough, splutter, sniffle*

[mlsdesigns]

I still can't shake this wretched cold, and now it's settled in my chest and I can't stop coughing :( I've been trying to sew some, and succeeding in a small way. Yesterday and today though I've been preserving!
Our next door neighbours brought us some of their home grown raspberries, so yesterday I made cordial with the fruit (yummy!!), and then turned the pulp, which would usually go into the bin, into some 'black butter' and some fruit cheese, basically both like jam, but thicker and more solid. The butter is an 18thC nursery food, using the leftovers from making jelly for the dinning room to feed the children and servants! Fruit cheese is even thicker and set in molds so you can turn it out to serve on a cheese board (lots of people have heard of membrillo, a quince cheese from Spain, this is the same idea,) it's another very old recipe again using the leftover pulp. Quite green really :)
we also had a punnet of strawberries in the fridge form the supermarket. I made them into cordial too, needless to say it didn't make much! But the pulp was sitting there this morning, saying 'I'm sure I could be useful for something!' ... But still being in the cordial making mood I turned all the sad old lemons in the fridge into lemon syrup for lemonaid, and I had such a big saucepan full I decanted a few big ladlefulls into the strawberry saucepan to see if the smears of red round the edges would make it a nice pink lemonaid colour. It did, but it wasn't very pink, (not pink drink worthy anyway!!) so I dumped the jelly-bag full of strawberry pulp into the syrup and left it to steep like a giant Psychedelic tea bag while I bottled the lemon syrup. The strawberry pulp made the pink lemonaid a fabulous pink colour, and it now tastes of strawberry too! So I think next time I have some stawrberries sitting in the fridge that need using, I'll make strawberry lemonaid with them instead of just cordial, it'll go further!!
Well, I suppose I've procrastinated enough for one day, I better get to swewing I suppose!

Comments

[my-stitching.livejournal.com]

Hope you feel better soon!

[marcine.livejournal.com]

Hope you feel better soon!

[girliegirl32786.livejournal.com]

Feel better soon!

I'm totally intrigued by the idea of fruit cheese. Recipe?

[mlsdesigns.livejournal.com]

Ok, here's what I did. Heat raspberries just till juices run (or store in freezer, thus breaking down the cell walls) mash with potato masher till very mushy, then strain through a jelly bag to extract juice. Measure juice and add 1lb of sugar to every pint of juice (English pint, so 20floz) and a little citric acid if you like it sharp. Heat to dissolve and bring to just under simmering point - enough to kill bugs and enzymes and things, but not so much it gives it a cooked flavour. Immediately pour into bottles with screw tops, invert to get the hot liquid to sterilise the neck and lid, cool, label and store in the fridge, drink diluted with cold water, hot water, soda water or pour on ice cream.
Then take pulp from jelly bag and push through a sieve to get purée with no seeds, if you want you can add the same weight of sieved apple purée too, bulks it out without changing the flavour. Then to every 1lb of purée add 1lb of sugar, heat to dissolve sugar, then boil to setting point (only takes a minute or so cos it was so thick to start with, makes a very fresh tasting jam, cook a little bit longer for black butter) and pot some in a couple of jam jars, then keep the rest over a low to medium heat, stirring all the time till VERY thick. Might take an hour. You want it so thick that a spoon dragged across the base of the pan leaves a little trail that fills slowly so you can just see the bottom of the pan for a second before it fills in. Pour into little jars with wide necks, (I used tea light holders, you want to be able to turn them out onto a plate, so don't want any kind of lip or ridge for it to get stuck behind, think jelly moulds) that you have greased with glycerine or a flavourless oil. Cool, cover and label, store in a cool place, apparently improves on keeping, we've not tried any yet!