Author Archive | Rasa Pelham

Recently I shared some preserving and pickling recipes. I hope you enjoyed trying them out! Here is the list of the veg, fruit and berries that I canned this year:

• pickled beets
• pickled cucumbers
• apple sauce
• plum chutney
• blackberry liqueur 
• elderberry jam
• elderberry and rhubarb jam
• elderberry and apple jam

The biggest lesson I have learned is to always sterilise the jars and never wait until the preserves are cooled before canning. So always wash your jars with the soapy water and heat them for 10min in preheated 180C oven just before using them.

Here you can access free printable labels.

Happy autumn canning!

Rasa :)

I grew way too many beetroots this year! Although I am quite happy with this as I love beetroots very much, especially their colour ;) So I asked my grandma for a pickled beets recipe as I knew I would not be able to use all of them before winter. I like this recipe as it doesn’t need any vinegar that sometimes gives a harsh taste (in Lithuania we don’t use much vinegar for cooking). It is simply preserved by using apple juice. Although I must say that the apple juice we use in Lithuania is quite sour. So make sure you get sugarless, not from concentrate apple juice. Sainsbury’s organic apple juice is a good one (not promoting, just recommending ;).

PICKLED BEETS

• 10 medium sized beetroots
• 500ml sugar free apple juice
• salt to taste

1. Cook the beetroots, whole with the skins on for about 30-40min(If you using a ready cooked ones from the shop then skip this step).

2. Once the beetroots are cooked then rub the skin off and chop them into desired sizes.

3. Place chopped beets into the clean pot and pour apple juice just to cover it. Add salt to taste.

4. Prepare the jars for preserving. Wash them with the soapy water and heat them for 10min in preheated 180C oven.

5. Heat the beetroots with apple juice until it reaches the boiling point.

6. Spoon the beets into the jars while still hot and pour the liquid on top.

7 Seal the jars with the lids and let it cool.

Enjoy!

Rasa ;)

I am loving the Autumn! Mainly because the gardens (and the parks) are full of berries, fruit and veg! My dad keeps sending me these pics of the produce he is collecting from his big garden (he is the proud owner of many apple trees)….

While in return I send him this (even more proud owner of the rhubarb)… To be fear,  my garden is a much smaller garden than my dads!

The other day I went out for a run with my neighbour Anna. While we were running we were picking some elderberries that were just waiting for us by the river (how cool is that!). On the way home me and Anna we were already plotting what we were going to do with our find (how exciting!). Anna could not wait, so she made her jam on the same afternoon. That was some tasty sugarless elderberry jam with some honey and drizzle of lemon!

Meanwhile (two days later) I have made some big jamming experiment by combining apples and my lovely rhubarb which I though was even more amazing! Had to make the basic elderberry jam first as these small little berries need sieving (all those tiny seeds etc). But you must try this out while it is still not too late!

ELDERBERRY JAM

• 500g elderberries
• 500g jam sugar

1. Wash the elderberries under cold running water and gently pull off the berries from the stems (you can freeze the berries prior to make this job easer).

2. Cook the berries in the dry saucepan until the juice until the juice start running. Use the wooden spoon to bruise the berries slightly.

3. Add one third of sugar into the saucepan and continue cooking everything until the berries becomes thoroughly soft and pulpy.

4. Sieve the mixture trough the fine mesh (no seeds must go through).

5. Put the pulp, juice and remaining sugar back into the cleaned saucepan. Let this simmer for half an hour, stirring and skimming frequently.

6. Remove the pan from the heat and skim off any impurities from the surface using a slotted spoon. Leave to cool for 5 minutes. Pour the Elderberry Jam into heated sterilised jars and seal. Leave the jars to cool completely, then label and store in a cool, dark place.

ELDERBERRY & RHUBARB JAM

• 350g rhubarb (trimmed and cut into 1cm pieces)
• 300ml water
• 1tbsp rose water (my secret ingredient ;)
• 150g elderberry jam
• 350g jam sugar

1. Put rhubarb, water and rose water into the saucepan and bring it to boil.

2. Cook the rhubarb for 10min and then add elderberry jam and sugar.

3. Boil the jam for another 15 min.

4. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Pour the jam into heated sterilised jars and seal. Leave the jars to cool completely, then label and store in a cool, dark place.

ELDERBERRY & APPLE JAM

• 350g apples (peeled, cored and chopped)
• 80ml water
• 1tbsp cinnamon
• 150g elderberry jam
• 350g brown sugar

1. Put apples and water into the saucepan and bring it to boil.

2. Cook the apples for 10min and then add elderberry jam, sugar and cinnamon.

3. Boil the jam for another 15 min.

4. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Pour the jam into heated sterilised jars and seal. Leave the jars to cool completely, then label and store in a cool, dark place.

Happy jamming!

Rasa :)

Vicki had an access to an apple tree this year. Yay! And what could be better if not to use these genuinely organic apples for making preserves? I thought I will make an apple sauce since I heard that you can use it to substitute sugar!  However I was quite disappointed for a moment as I found out from many apple sauce recipes that in fact you need to add sugar and butter (wow!) in order to make it :-(…. bummer! It doesn’t make sense to me why would you use the apple sauce as a sugar substitute when it contains sugar anyways. Luckily after doing a further research I have released that I can still make a sugarless apple sauce, however I would need to take extra care in preserving it. So this is how I made it.

SUGARLESS APPLE SAUCE

Ingredients:

• Apples (sweet types like Gala, Golden Delicious, Braeburn or Fuji)
• Cinnamon sticks (optional)

1.Clean the apples by pealing them, removing cores and any blemishes.

2. Put the apples and cinnamon stick if using into the pot and cover it slightly with water. Cook it for about an hour.

3. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180C. Wash the jars in warm soapy water, then rinse and dry them and place upside down in the oven for 10 min.

4. When the apples are cooked, drain them slightly (don’t throw away the juice) and puree it with the food processor.

5. While the apple sauce is still hot pour it into the hot jars (very important, otherwise you can end up with the apple cider).

This one needs a lot of practice! I must admit I messed up the first time round, the jar lids got popped open. It must be because I let the cooked apples cool before pureeing them. Let’s hope this time it won’t happen again!

On the other note, my mum is visiting me tomorrow.  That means I can ask her more advice on preserving ;)

All good!

Rasa :-D