Rhubarb and angelica jam

Angelica is an interesting herb. It is one of the key ingredients in gin, fixing and stabilising the other flavours. It grows wild in Uist, and just about now, at the start of July, the flower stems are emerging. It is a biennial plant, growing in the first year, and flowering in the second year before dying. The flower stem itself is the best bit for preserving, which will affect seed production for the following year, so harvest wisely. 

For this recipe, use 50g chopped candied angelica for each kilo of rhubarb. It makes a rhubarb jam flavoured with a hint of gin. 

I think that adding the angelica and lemon juice at the start allows the angelica flavour to disperse well into the other ingredients. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1kg rhubarb
  • 50g angelica, chopped
  • juice of two lemons
  • 1kg sugar

METHOD:

  • Chop the rhubarb into 1cm lengths, and finely chop the angelica, and put into the jam pan with the lemon juice, and covered in sugar. Stir well and leave overnight
  • The next day, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes, until thick. Pour into prepared jars. 

Rhubarb and ginger jam

The classic jam. For each kilo of rhubarb, I use 50 grams of chopped crystalised ginger. You can also used powdered ginger, and adjust according to taste. If you love ginger, double the amount. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1kg chopped rhubarb stems
  • 50g chopped crystalised ginger or 1 teaspoon of powdered ginger
  • 1kg sugar
  • juice of two small lemons

METHOD:

  • Chop the rhubarb and the ginger into the jam pan, and cover with the sugar. Leave overnight.
  • The next day, bring to the boil and then add the lemon juice. Simmer for around 20 minutes, until thick. 
  • Pour into warmed jars. 

Rhubarb and raspberry

This is a revelation, an excellent use of the reduced raspberries in the co-op, amazing flavour and a good setting jam. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1.2 kg rhubarb
  • 600g raspberries (four x 150g punnets)
  • You could substitute 600g strawberries, for strubarb jam. Raspberries work better, in my opinion. 
  • 1.8kg sugar
  • Juice of two lemons

METHOD:

  • Chop the rhubarb and put it in the jam pan and cover with sugar, leave overnight
  • The next day, add the raspberries (or strawberries), bring to a simmer for 20 minutes until the rhubarb is cooked. 
  • Add lemon juice, bring back to the boil and simmer until the jam is thickening. 
  • Pour into warmed clean jamjars.

 

Frittata with asparagus

There has been quite a lot of reduced asparagus in the co-op lately, and this is a quick meal to use it up. I made it with local free-range eggs. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 pack of reduced asparagus, around 100g
  • 25g butter
  • 4 eggs
  • salt and pepper
  • finely chopped parsley
  • about 10g grated parmesan
  • about 10g crushed dried bread e.g. panko breadcrumbs (optional)

METHOD:

  • Wash and dry the asparagus, and chop into 2cm lengths
  • Prepare the egg mixture; beat together the four eggs, parsley, breadcrumbs, seasoning and cheese. 
  • Melt the butter in a small omlette pan, and fry the asparagus on a high setting for around three minutes
  • Pour the egg mixture over the asparagus, and reduce the heat. Once the frittata is almost set, turn it over and cook the other side. 

You can do this for other vegetables, for example try with little courgettes fried with onions in olive oil. I served this with brown toast. 

Rhubarb and Orange Jam

Every spring I buy Seville oranges to make marmalade, and I take care to buy extra, and I juice them and freeze this as an ingredient in the summer. You can make a delicious Seville orange curd, or use it for a delicate pie filling. This year, I used it to make rhubarb jam. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2kg rhubarb, chopped
  • 2kg jam sugar
  • 100 to 150ml Seville orange juice

METHOD:

  • Put the rhubarb in the jam pan, and pour over the sugar. Leave this to combine until the next day. 
  • Add the orange juice, bring to a boil and simmer for around 20 minutes. 
  • Once the mixture is thick, pour into warmed jam jars. 

Rhubarb conserve

Variation 1 on the great rhubarb jam sessions. This is from an old book called 500 recipes: jams, pickles and chutneys, by Marguerite Patten. Mine is priced 2/6 so it is quite old. 

INGREDIENTS: 

  • 1kg rhubarb, chopped
  • 1kg jam sugar
  • 250g raisins or sultanas
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 orange

METHOD:

  • Put the chopped rhubarb in the jam pan and cover with sugar, and leave to stand until the next day
  • Add the raisins, and bring to a slow boil for 20 minutes
  • Add the juice and grated rind of one lemon and one orange, and boil until the jam is thick.
  • Pour into warmed jars, and leave to set. 

Rhubarb jam

This has been the year of rhubarb. I moved a crown of rhubarb to deep peaty soil a couple of years ago, and it has gone mad. The warm wet weather and seaweed has led to monster stems, and I have been trying out jam recipes. I’ll add a few variations as I test them out. 

The main ingredients for simple rhubarb jam are very simple. First pull your rhubarb. It is better for the plant to pull the stems from the crown, rather than cutting them. Choose stems that are over a foot long, the longer the better. Don’t take any stems that have settled on the surface of the soil for any length of time, they will not be such good quality. Use the leaves as a surface mulch in the veg garden.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Rhubarb stems, washed and sliced to around 1 cm long
  • Equal weight of sugar
  • For each 500g rhubarb, add the juice of a lemon 

METHOD:

  • Put the rhubarb in the jam pan and cover with the sugar. Leave to stand until the next day. 
  • Add the lemon juice, and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for around 20 minutes, until the jam is thick. Keep stirring to prevent anything from sticking to the base of the pan. 
  • Pour into warm sterilised jam jars. 

I warm my washed jamjars in the oven at 80C. Putting them through a dish washer first is good as well. I sterilise the jar lids in boiling water. 

Orache

I have been continuing my adventures with wild food, and finally overcame my anxiety about trying orache. I am not 100% sure which variety I picked in the end; it was not exactly like the pictures in any of my wild food books. For reference I looked at ‘Food for Free’ by Richard Mabey, Prehistoric cooking by Jacqui Wood, and ‘Edible Seashore’ by John Wright. This last book is one of the River Cottage Handbooks. All three books recommend orache as a wild food, similar to spinach but not producing as many leaves per plant. The Orache plant family is related to ‘Fat Hen’, an edible weed that I find on my compost heap, and other plants in the goosefoot family.

This was also the first road test of the Richard Mabey book, and it let me down by not discussing or referring to the huge range of orache plants. The Prehistoric cookery book also hints at the possibilities, but it was the Edible seashore book and google that were the most helpful.

Anyway, off we set with our bucket, across the dunes and down to the shore to see what we could find. We found a lot of orache, several varieties, growing in the dune grasses, on the edge of the machair, and then on the higher parts of the shore. We found a whole area of frosted orache (Atriplex laciniata), good big plants with lots of shoots. The plants were low, lying, growing straight out of the sand. The leaves were frosted and rough, and there were clusters of small buds towards the tips, arising in the joints where the leaves leave the stem. I took one shoot of each plant we saw, and ended up with about three good bunches. This was enough to feed three people; like spinach, it cooks down a lot.

When I got home, I rinsed it off to remove the sand, and then cooked it in garlic butter for about three minutes. It was very good indeed, better than spinach, and a good side dish. Next time I see it growing well, no worries, I would pick it again.

In terms of nutrition, it was extremely fresh and extremely local, so there was minimal wastage of nutrients. It was better cooked, and the books agreed with me on that one. It is hard to get data on the nutritional value of Orache, but it is reputed to be rich in calcium, vitamin c, vitamin b1, and iron.

Home-made shish kebab

We had planned a barbecue, but rain stopped play, and we ended grilling these. Better on the barbecue though. Don’t forget to marinade the ingredients the day before.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 750g good quality local beef
  • 3 green peppers
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 8 Spring onions
  • 8 close cup mushrooms
  • 8 bayleaves
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
  • 1 cup fresh oregano or marjoram, or 1 heaped tsp dried
  • 1 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 tsp salt & freshly ground black pepper
  • skewers

METHOD:

  • Cut the beef into large cubes, about 2 inches, 5cm across. Cut the tomatoes in half, and cut the peppers into large squares.
  • Make a marinade as follows: slice the onion, and combine with the olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and crushed garlic. Put the kebab ingredients into the marinade in a large sealed container, and leave in the fridge for 8 to 24 hours. If you are using wooden skewers, dampen them and put them in the freezer overnight.
  • The next day, set the barbecue volunteer to lighting the charcoal at least 30 minutes before you are due to cook. Let the charcoal burn until they form a hot bed of glowing coals. Meanwhile, thread the ingredients onto the skewers, alternating beef cubes with other ingredients, and dividing them equally.
  • Cook the kebabs on the barbecue for about 5 minutes on each side, total cooking time around 10 minutes. You are not aiming to get the meat any more than ‘medium’. Baste the kebabs as they are cooking with the remaining marinade.

Serve with nan bread or pitta bread, side salad, and greek-style plain yoghurt.

Spaghetti Puttanesca

This is a classic ‘store cupboard’ recipe from Italy, but only if you have all of the ingredients in the store cupboard. It is a delicious fruity, tangy, carb-rich dish, very comforting and tasty. We used the BBC good food recipe for the basic idea, although we had to go out to get the pitted olives and the anchovy fillets. All of the ingredients are available in our local co-op.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • A pinch of salt
  • 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
  • ½ tsp chilli flakes or pepperoncini
  • 400g can chopped tomatoes
  • 5 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
  • 120g pitted black olives
  • 2 tbsp capers, drained
  • 300g dried spaghetti
  • ½ small bunch of parsley, finely chopped

METHOD:

  • Heat the oil over a medium-low heat an add the onion along with a generous pinch of salt and fry for 10 mins, or until soft.
  • Add the garlic and chilli and cook for a further minute.
  • Stir the tomatoes, anchovies, olives and capers into the onion, bring to a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, for 15 mins, then season to taste.
  • Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Cook the spaghetti following pack instructions, then drain and toss with the sauce and parsley.