Marmalade Sunday

Last Sunday was Marmalade Sunday. Due to the short Seville orange season, this day tends to fall near 'Black Monday', statistically the most depressing day of the year. Marmalade Sunday offers a ray of tangy orange sunshine on your toast, come Black Monday morning. Making it more of a murky brown Monday.
This Marmalade Sunday should, by all Rayburn intents and purposes, have started on the Saturday. The Rayburn enables you to do the long slow cooking of the oranges overnight on the oven's idling setting. Making it more economical and less labour intensive. I however, only had the urge for making marmalade the following day, and couldn't wait another 12 hours.

I used the recipe from the Waitrose 'Winter Harvest 2013' booklet. A booklet I seem to have devoured since new year. (The Chocolate Orange Brownies are themselves a cure for winter SAD, but probably break every new year's resolution you've set.) 
This recipe has you squeeze the juice of 1kg oranges and 1 lemon into 2 litres of cold water, and put all the messy bits, i.e. the pith and pips of the oranges, in a muslin bag. This hangs in the liquid for the 2 hours while it simmers. 

The remaining skins are sliced separately and added directly to the liquid at the same time.

The muslin bag is removed after the simmering stage, and 2kg of preserving sugar is added. Turn the heat up as high as possible and boil for around half an hour. (This needs to be done 30 mins before the end of the simmering stage with a Rayburn.) The recipe says 15 mins, but no way. I kept a saucer in the fridge at this stage, and got it out to test the liquid for set-ness. Drop a small amount of liquid onto the chilled saucer and wait a few seconds. Push the liquid, and if it wrinkles, it's set. Start testing after 15 mins to get your eye in, and you get to taste the unset bits before time. 
This recipe enabled me, for the first time, to turn the Rayburn up to its highest setting. The gas mark equivalent of 10. The amplifier equivalent of 11. I wasn't sure if the whole thing would take off. But, it gave the most even rolling boil I've ever seen. And always keen to find a reason to extol the virtues of the Rayburn, this was definitely a time for smug pleasure.

This time I did sterilise the jam jars. I washed them in hot soapy water and left them in the bottom oven of the Rayburn for the full marmalade preparation and making time. Probably 3 hours. They didn't need to be there that long, but they did all give a satisfying 'pop' when the lids contracted as they cooled after filling.

This quantity made 12 jars, but I did use quite a few smallish jars (better if you want to give some and keep some!) My next plan is a marmalade cake. I think this may be the new rhubarb!

Spicy Apple Chutney

We have three apple trees in the garden. This year, the tall pole shaped tree produced zero apples, the one spread against the wall produced one apple, and the third, a classic crooked old tree, produced lots. They're all mutant shapes with lumps and pock marks, so perfect for chutney. I made this batch with windfalls, having to fight our Pug Treacle for them, she loves an apple of any variety.

I used Nigella's recipe for the apple chutney, which you can find in her Domestic Goddess book. I always do double quantity. If you're going to stink the house out with the smell of boiling vinegar, you might as well make as much as possible in the process.

The smell was contained more than normal due to the use of the Rayburn. After the initial boiling, I cooked the chutney in the oven at gas mark 4, and then finished it on the hot plate to reduce it further.

I sterilised the jars by washing them in hot soapy water, rinsing and then drying them in the bottom oven while the chutney cooked, and I am pleased to say they all gave that satisfying pop as the vacuum sealed. I felt smug.

You can see that double quantity isn't that many jars.  I used smallish jars to make gift sized quantities. Still only used about 2% of my empty jam jar collection, much to husband's annoyance. 

Rhubarb Rhubarb

So rhubarb has been the only successful vegetable in the garden this year thus far, and that's because it took it upon itself to come up again this spring, and keep coming up after I picked it. Any vegetables waiting for me to cultivate them have had a long wait. 
Anyway, I've had quite a few successful batches of rhubarb and ginger ice cream over the summer, even impressed a friend. The final crop of rhubarb sat in the ground for far too long, and I only picked it last week. The snails had had their fill and it took a machete like blow to cut through it, but after a night in the Rayburn simmering oven, an afternoon in the roasting oven and a good whizz in the blender, the most delicious compote was born.

Rhubarb and Ginger Ice Cream
500g Rhubarb stems, washed and cubed
250g Sugar
Heaped tsp ground ginger
150-200ml double cream

Simmer the rhubarb, sugar and ginger together until soft and pulpy, stirring occasionally.
Leave to cool.
Mix in the double cream and set your ice cream maker a-whirring. Empty into the ice cream maker and churn until nearly frozen. Transfer to your designated tupperware and either freeze for a further hour, or eat in semi freddo state. Enjoy!

Old Rhubarb Compote
Wash, chop and weigh your end of season rhubarb stems, then transfer to a heavy based casserole type dish with a lid. Add half your rhubarb weight in lovely brown sugar (ideally Barbados, otherwise Demerara).
Stir briefly, put the lid on and transfer to your Rayburn simmering oven overnight.
Transfer to the roasting oven the next day, but don't raise the oven temperature from the 'idling' setting. Sometime that afternoon/evening take the rhubarb out of the oven and whizz it with a hand held blender. Watch it transform from insipid lumpy murk to a rich fruity compote before your eyes. If it's still a bit fibrous you could sieve it at this stage.
You can eat this on its own with a spoon, with plain yogurt, vanilla ice cream or as a jam substitute. I'm going to use some as an alternative Victoria sponge filling with some whipped cream.