Redcurrant Cordial

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REDCURRANT CORDIAL

I’ve never known what to do with redcurrants and have always tended to give them away or do nothing with them. However, this year John had the brilliant idea of experimenting with making cordial as a replacement for the grape/apple juice we buy to mix with soda.

We actually made 3 versions and then did a blind taste test to see which one we preferred:

The first contained 100% sugar, the second contained 50% sugar and 50% sweetener and the third contained 100% sweetener.

Completely unexpectedly, the one that we both preferred was the one with 100% sweetener as you were able to get the full redcurrant taste.

Redcurrant Cordial

For this recipe, you need something to strain the fruit from the juice and for this I used the Jelly & Jam Strainer Stand & Muslin Bag that I’d bought from Lakeland.

Rather than using sugar to sweeten the cordial, we decided to use an artificial, low-calorie sweetener containing Eritritol and Sucralose that we bought in the Spanish supermarket Mercadona in Spain .

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 kg redcurrants
  • 800 ml water
  • sugar or sweetener

METHOD

  1. Wash the redcurrants and remove any stalks or leaves.
  2. Put them in a large stainless steel saucepan and add the water.
  3. Bring to the boil, cover with a lid and simmer for about ten minutes.
  4. Leave to cool.
  5. Transfer the currants and juice to a jam strainer and leave to strain.
  6. Measure the amount of juice obtained.
  7. If you are using sweetener, calculate 50g for every 570 ml of juice.
  8. Put the juice and sweetener back in the saucepan and bring to the boil.
  9. Boil for 10 minutes.
  10. Transfer to bottles and leave to cool completely before putting in the freezer until needed. 

Chicken and Chorizo Paella

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Chicken and Chorizo Paella

I’m not getting into an argument about whether chorizo belongs in a paella or not – I like to add some cubes of chorizo and think that this improves the flavour. END OF.

The paella is cooked over the flames shortly after the fire is lit. The idea is to use the heat from the flames to fry the onions, meat and other ingredients, before adding the rice and the stock and then cooking over a more constant heat once the fire has died down a bit.

We lit the fire at 13:00 and the paella was ready at 14:00.

One of the secrets to making a good paella is to get a beautiful layer of the caramelised socarrat on the bottom of the pan. You can see how much liquid is left and by cooking the paella for a final 10 minutes on a gentle flame when there is not much liquid left, you should get the socarrat of your dreams.

 

CHICKEN PAELLA

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 green pepper, finely chopped and 1 red pepper, sliced
  • 3 or 4 tomatoes, coarsely grated
  • pinch of saffron
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 cup of green beans
  • 1 cup of garrofones (large, flat butter beans)
  • 1 cup of frozen baby artichokes
  • 20cm stick chorizo, cubed
  • chicken stock
  • 60g paella rice per person
  • salt and pepper
  • olive oil extra virgin
  • water

METHOD

  1. In a pestle and mortar, grind the saffron, garlic and a pinch of salt. Add a tablespoon or so of water and leave to infuse.
  2. Heat some olive oil in the paella pan.
  3. Add the onion and quickly fry over the flame for a minute or so.
  4. Add the green pepper and the red pepper and fry quickly.
  5. Add the chopped chorizo and fry.
  6. Add the grated tomatoes and fry for a further minute.
  7. Add the green beans, garrofones and artichokes.
  8. Sprinkle in the rice and stir well.
  9. Stir in the saffron/garlic mixture.
  10. Add the stock and the white and green beans and mix well.
  11. The rice will take about 40 minutes to cook. It is important to make sure that it has enough liquid for the first 30 minutes or so, so sprinkle over more water as required. You can always cover with a lid to ensure that the rice cooks properly.
  12. The socarrat will caramelise during the last 10-15 minutes of the cooking time so you want to ensure that the paella is moist enough by now and not add any more water than necessary.
  13. When the rice is cooked, you can leave covered for 10 minutes so that all the liquid is absorbed.
  14. Serve.

Strawberry Jam with Powdered Pectin

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STRAWBERRY JAM WITH POWDERED PECTIN

As I’ve never been able to buy jam sugar with added pectin in Spain, in the past when making strawberry jam, the only option was to boil the juice vigorously until it was thicker.

I’ve just bought some powdered pectin and so yesterday, we had a go at using it to make strawberry jam. The jam was a success and the strawberry jam had a perfect consistency.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1kg strawberries
  • 37g powdered pectin
  • 490g sugar

METHOD

  1. Combine strawberries and pectin in a large pan.
  2. Squilch with your fingers to mix the pectin in thoroughly and to squash the whole strawberries.
  3. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring all the time.
  4. Add the sugar and mix well.
  5. Bring back to a gentle boil for 1 minute.
  6. Put into clean jam jars.
  7. Put a silicone mat on the bottom of the pressure cook and add 1 litre of boiling water.
  8. Bring to pressure.
  9. Turn down the heat and cook for 10 minutes.
  10. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
  11. Run cold water over the pressure cooker to quickly release the pressure.
  12. Transfer the jars to a flat surface.
  13. Invert the jars and leave for 30 minutes before turning back.

Almond Butter

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The sun is back out today after several weeks of cloudy skies and rainy weather so I’m taking full advantage of the new power being generated: the washing is on, the sourdough is ready to baked later in the breadmaker and I decided to make some almond butter.

Almond butter is similar to peanut butter which you can now buy in the shops in Spain, although other kinds of nut butter are hard to come by.

We’ve got a small electric burner that can be used on the solar system when the sun is shining. It’s perfect for heating or simmering foods and I normally cook beans and pulses in the pressure cooker on it. Today, I decided to make some almond butter.

I put 1 cup of almonds in a stainless steel pan. Basically, I cooked the almonds for 10 minutes on No. 5 (the highest heat), 10 minutes on No. 3 and then another 10 minutes back on No. 5, stirring at the end of each stretch. I then turned off the heat and left the almonds to cool for 30 minutes.

To make the almond butter, transfer the cooled almonds to a food processor and blend until the nut crumbs turn into a liquid paste. This normally takes about 5 minutes. When you’ve reached the desired consistency, pour the almond butter into a jam jar and keep in the fridge.

 

 

 

Beef Bourguignon

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BEEF BOURGUIGON

Beef Bourguigon

I served this stew with mashed potato and stir-fried kale.

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 600g beef, cut into chunks
  • 100g bacon, sliced
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 250g mushrooms, cut into quarters
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1 tbsp tomato purée
  • 750ml red wine
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • 1 teaspoon oregano

METHOD

  1. Heat the oil in a stainless steel frying pan.
  2. Brown the seasoned beef (in batches if necessary), transferring to a plate as you go.
  3. Then fry the bacon, onion and garlic in the same frying pan, adding the thyme and oregano.
  4. Stir in the tomato purée and fry for another minute or so.
  5. Add the beef and any juices back to the pan.
  6. Add some of the red wine and deglaze the pan.
  7. Transfer to a pressure cooker and add the rest of the wine and 100ml of water.
  8. Cover and bring to pressure.
  9. Turn down the heat and cook for one hour.
  10. Leave to cool for 15 minutes or so and then release the pressure.
  11. Serve with mashed potato and some green vegetables.