At the farmers' market at Borough Hall, these are what I found, so I pounced.Perfect jewels.
Three kilograms, including some very good raspberries. I found jam jars at Tony's Hardware on Smith Street. He has everything.
When I realized how much fruit I'd bought, and that each red currant would have to be stripped from its stalk, I got nervous, and made a cup of tea.
Two hours later they were done (I watched two episodes of the BBC's Duchess of Duke Street). I had a glass of the pink bubbly to celebrate.
The boiling, foaming stage. I changed gears and watched Benicio del Toro's face being funny in the Way of the Gun. Fast forwarded during the worst bloody bits: enough jam spattered all over the apartment as it was. I switched to Australian shiraz and shepherd's pie made from the leftover anchovy and rosemary lamb (the story I never told...will fix tomorrow).
The scooping stage.
The I'm nearly done stage. Bloody hell.
And the best of all. The breakfast in bed on a Sunday stage.
Raymond Blanc's recipe here
I swear we must be related. 3 pints of red currents yesterday, plucked with the help of my sweetheart, turned into a crisp, with a little left over for a rum smoothie. Any of your people ever get to the island of St.Helena in the 18th or early 19th century?
ReplyDeleteIf they did they didn't tell us about it, :-)
ReplyDeleteSounds delicious, the crisp, I mean.
Making jam is the sweetest thing, literally, I can imagine you doing. You make it look easy and so delicious...
ReplyDeleteResep? Aseblief? One day?
ReplyDeleteCentvingt - and you haven't seen me make Tarte Tatin yet, my Frenchie, :-)
ReplyDeleteJane - yes...it's actually the same as apricot jam, recipe somewhere in the blog (type it into the search bar top left of blog). 1 lb or kilo fruit to 3/4's lb or kilo sugar. Couple of lemons' juice for pectin 3/4's of the way through. . Ready when two drops meet in the middle of a spoon held sideways...
Quite a performance, but worth it. I have redcurrants waiting to be picked from my two bushes, but keep putting off the moment for the very same reason, stripping the berries from the stalks. Not a job I enjoy at all. x
ReplyDeleteFantastic post. I can't believe that you live in a city apartment. You do enough cooking, canning, gardening and gourmet living that I swear you must *really* be on fifteen acres in upstate New York....
ReplyDelete