Scrumptious Crabapple Jelly

Crabapples!

I was, until today, a jelly-making virgin. The numerous crabapples in our allotment were begging to be transformed into something delicious. I'd already made a clafoutis last year which was bloody marvellous and so I thought I'd give jelly a go. I'd always been a bit wary of jelly making as I imagined it to be a complex task. I can now confirm that my old notion was far from true. Here is how you go about it.




Ingredients:

• Crabapples
• Caster Sugar
• Lemon juice
• Vanilla pod/ cloves/ cinnamon-optional

The oh-so-simple method!:

• Prepare the crabapples, cover them with water in a saucepan and cook for about 20-30 mins until completely soft and pulpy. Strain this overnight in a muslin cloth or jelly bag.
• The next day, weigh the quantity of crabapple and add an equal or slightly greater amount of caster sugar, juice of 1 lemon and cook until the mixture is boiling. Simmer and continue to let the mixture boil while skimming any froth.
• I added a vanilla pod to this boiling mixture. You could choose not to or perhaps try cloves or a cinnamon bark.
• Test if its ready to set  using a cold spoon, the same way you would test whilst jam making. It took me about 30 mins for a kilo of crabapples.
• Strain into jam jars and set in a fridge. It could take up to 24 hours to set although mine only took about 3!
• Happy jelly-making!

Straining the pulp mixture overnight

Strained juice

Finished product!

Quirky Home Decor Update!

 

Columbia Road Flower Market is a spectacular London treat on Sunday mornings. My recent visit to the market resulted in a late afternoon bargain. I bought four precious catci for £5. My idea was to find  little china cups to house them. A trip to the Market Deeping Antiques market resulted in five stunning Wedgewood and Royal Albert china vases for less than £2 each. Bargain! Here is my photo diary of  housing the beautiful cacti. Ann x

Cacti for sale at Columbia Road Flower Market

   

Cacti brought home and waiting to be glammed up

Cacti with their pot placed in vintage china for re-potting later in the year.

I love thee Anthropologie!

I missed going round the much raved Anthropologie store in Paris and so delighted to pass by the London one. I was down in the big smoke to see family from Toronto and it was a good opportunity to 'showcase' the City's offerings. I am so smitten by the place. It is what I aspire my home to look like- eclectic, quirky and colourful. I love the mix of uber cool fashion and funky home accessories. The website isn't half as good as the store but sadly I forgot to take pictures. So here are some of my favourites from the UK online store. And by the way, I love the necklaces but don't love all the prices so keep an eye out for a DIY Anthro inspired necklace on Made by Ann!

Wandering Columbia Road Flower Market

I was in Shoreditch last weekend catching up with family from Canada and I just had to take them to Columbia Road. It is one of my favourite places to spend Sunday mornings in London. You can find the market by following the trail of people leaving with huge flower bunches in brown paper bags and by the lovely scents that can be smelt from a fair distance. The market opens at about 8 AM and goes on it nearly 3PM. I found that some of the best bargains were found after 1PM when sellers are getting ready to pack up. Saying that, the flowers are very reasonably priced and there is so much to choose from. It is a sheer visual and olfactory delight and if you haven't already been, I'd thoroughly recommend a visit. Ann x

Mid Summer in the Allotment

Cheat's Version of Sorpotel

My favourite Goan/Manglorean dish is Sorpotel-a spicy pork curry with oodles of pork fat. I love it so much I could live on it. But I'm lazy and never bothered making it the proper way. My dear friend Michelle shows you how to make the proper version of Sorpotel here in her very cool blog Food, Football and a Baby. My other school friend Shireen also has a fabulous blog ( Ruchik Randhap) on Manglorean food and also shares a bafat recipe for Manglorean pork curry. Father's day was looming and we were hoping to do a nice meal for the FIL. He loves a good curry and I'd made the fish, chicken, beef versions of all sorts far too many times. So Sorpotel it was. I thought I'd try and do it properly and checked out Michelle's blog. I had three main problems 1) I didn't have time to make the spice mix or source pork liver 2) My tamarind had gone out of date. 3) I had very little time to make a curry paste or parboil the meat-it was the end of a very long working week and about 10 PM! But I wasn't about to give up. Hence this cheat's version of the curry was created. The end result was still tasty and bore resemblance to the real thing.

Ingredients:

Pork loin steaks, cubed including the fatty bits ( 1 kg)

2 medium onions

1 tsp chilli powder

A pinch of turmeric powder

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tbsp cumin powder

1 tbsp garam masala

1 Cinnamon stick 

2 Star anise stars

4 cloves

2 tbsp garlic paste ( or fresh garlic crush. I can't wait for my allotment garlic to grow!)

2 tbsp ginger paste ( or fresh ginger ground)

2 tbsp Sunflower oil ( there is plenty of fat in the pork which will add to the taste and texture)

2 tbps tomato ketchup

2 tsp fish sauce or cider vinegar

Salt to taste, I usually add 1tsp

2 cups water  ( use more or less according to the desired consistency)

For the marinade:

Cinnamon powder

Chilli powder

Cumin powder

Rub it well into the meet, marinade it for a couple of hours or stick the meat in a quick marinater and give it 10 mins. (I used the VacuVin quick marinater. A word of caution if you do use this, don't pump out more than 5-6 times and don't let it stay for more than 10 mins. We had one that exploded and Vacu Vin still haven't got back to us with an explanation!)

Method:

Heat oil in a casserole dish and add the onions. After a couple of minutes, add the marinaded meat and spices and fry for about 10 mins. Add ginger and garlic and continue to fry. Add water bit by bit as the frying progresses and to avoid charring. Close the lid and cook under low heat for about 20 mins. Now taste, add ketchup and the fish sauce/vinegar and add more ketchup if required. I like mine to have more gravy so I added more water towards the end  and let it simmer for about 30 mins. Once cooked, its ready to serve. However, as any good Goan or Manglorean will tell you, sorpotel get tastier with time. The people in the know recommend cooking at least a day in advance which is what I did. If you have the luxury of time, cooking it a couple of days earlier helps develop the taste even better.

Sweet Williams in Bloom

I often talk affectionately to my plants and flowers. Especially when they start growing. When I first sowed the sweet William seeds last year, I was hoping for a nice floral display through the summer. So when that didn't happen, I did have a word with the leafy bush that appeared instead. I hadn't twigged that sweet williams are biennials. I wasn't sure what to expect this year but the plants started flowering and we now have a fabulous display. I'm so happy! These are great as cut flowers and are also edible. How fantastic! More later x