Farmersgirl Kitchen

Saturday, 27 October 2012

Gooseberry Jam

My mother-in-law is very partial to gooseberry jam, so I made a couple of pots, using gooseberries I had in the freezer. We don't eat a lot of jam now but when I do make it, I always refer to Margueritte Patten's little book, "Dear Diary" written for 'Woman's Own' (anyone remember that?) I picked it up in a second hand book shop about 25 years ago and it is rather the worse for wear.

The recipes are laid out month by month. I have made some other recipes from the book but it is the jam and chutney recipes which I return to again and again. They are very simple and work every time.

Gooseberry Jam

Makes 750g - 1kg (just over 2lb) jam

450g (1lb) gooseberries
4tbsp water with ripe fruit or 300ml (1/2 pint) water with under-ripe fruit
450g (1lb) sugar with ripe fruit or 550g (1 1/4lb) sugar with under-ripe fruit

Wash, then top and tail the gooseberries and simmer with the water until tender. Add the sugar, stir until dissolved; then boil rapidly until setting point is reached.

I'm entering this jam for October Tea Time Treats the challenge created by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked. Please note: my jam is for home consumption, which is why I am able to re-use my jam jars and lids.

I'm also adding this recipe to Inheritance Recipes run by Solange at Pebble Soup and Margot at Coffee and Vanilla. The theme is Cool or Summer Recipes and this is definitely a summer recipe.

Labels: Dear Diary., gooseberries, gooseberry jam, jam, Marguerite Patten

Thursday, 22 March 2012

Chocolate and Gooseberry Sponge

I'm feeling a bit embarrassed by my entry for We should Cocoa this month. I've just been to visit A little bit of heaven on a plate and seen the glorious entry that Sue has made and mine looks a bit pedestrian by comparison!

You see the challenge this month is to make something that includes chocolate and green, I found that even more difficult than the savoury and chocolate challenge of last month. However, I came up with a solution of sorts.

I had about 6 tablespoons of cooked gooseberries left over from the Irish Gooseberry Scones so I simply put them in an ovenproof bowl and added the following chocolate sponge:

50g soft butter

50g caster sugar

1 egg

25g self-raising flour

25g cocoa powder

1 level tsp baking powder

50g dark chocolate, chopped roughly

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and beat until combined, put on top of your cooked gooseberries and drop the pieces of chocolate into the batter. Bake in the oven at 180C for about 30-40 minute until the sponge is well risen and the fruit is bubbling.

This is quite a high proportion of baking powder to dry ingredients (it was a mistake) but it made for a very light and airy sponge which wasn't too sweet. It would easily serve 3-4 people, if you have more fruit then double up the ingredients and use about 500g fruit.

and just to show that it is green(ish), here is a side shot of the gooseberries with the uncooked chocolate sponge mix on top. Not my most elegant of recipes, but I didn't see anyone refuse to eat it!

Labels: chocolate, dessert, gooseberries, sponge, We should Cocoa

Thursday, 15 March 2012

Gluten Free Irish Scones

According to Wikipeida: the scone is a small British quick bread, traditionally hailing from both Scotland and the South West England. They are usually made of wheat, barley or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent. But let's face it, the scone or it's close cousin, is everywhere!

I am quite sure that if we were making them in Scotland, then they were making them in Ireland at the same time. But that is not why these particular scones are Irish, it's because the lovely Kelly at Food Matters asked me to try out a few products from artisan food producers in Ireland for St Patricks Day.

I am fortunate that I can eat pretty much everything with no ill effects (other than my expanding waistline!) however, I know quite a few people who are intolerant to wheat and gluten. So I was interested to see how 'Helen's Brilliant Scone Mix' turned out.

The mixes come from Virginia Health Ltd in County Cork, a family company supplying milled seeds such as flaxseed, hemp seeds, sunflowerseeds, pumpkinseeds and protein powders direct from the farm to your table for everyday use. Helen O'Dowd, the founding director, is a busy mum, nutritionist and food scientist. As well as the seeds Helen's Healing Foods features two gluten free bread mixes and the scone mix. I was also given the sandwich loaf mix to make, but unfortunately I read the instructions wrong and made a bit of a disaster! Nothing to do with the mix, totally my error.

The scone mix is very easy to make up you just add an egg, 28g melted butter or vegetable oil and 200ml buttermilk or whole milk or soya milk and mix together with the dry ingredients in the pack. It is a much wetter mixture than the usual scone mix so you spoon the batter onto your baking tray rather than cut out the scones with a cutter.

I put the scones in the oven with some trepidation, but they rose beautifully and were light and tasted good. Not quite the usual scone taste but my MIL approved and pronounced them 'frush' which means they crumble but are not dry!

I was also provided with a jar of Sarah's Zesty Honey with Ginger from Mileeven Fine Foods in Kilkenny and a little bottle of Connemara Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey.

I wasn't quite sure about flavoured honey, but tried it out on one of the scones and it was quite good. I don't really think honey needs any extra flavour but it was a bit of a novelty. Anyway I thought I'd see what it was like in cooking and see if I could make a dessert from the ingredients I'd been provided with.

I had a few gooseberries left in the freezer from last summer, so added a tablespoon of the ginger honey to them and put them in the oven on a low heat for about 40 minutes until the gooseberries had softened and cooked through and the honey melted into them to make a sweet, gingery sauce.

I whipped up some cream and added a tablespoon of the Irish Whiskey (I had a little chef's taste of the Whiskey and approved, not as good as Scottish Malt Whisky of course ;-) and a teaspoon of the honey and folded them through. Then I split open the scone, piled on the cream, a few of the gooseberries and a drizzle of the honey syrup.

It worked brilliantly, and I would certainly use the ginger honey in cooking, it suggests on the jar that it would be good in stir fries and I can imagine that it would be.

This month's Tea Time Treats has Scones as the theme, so I'm entering my Honey Gooseberry Scones as an indulgent tea time treat! It's hosted this month by Karen at Lavender and Lovage the challenge is hosted alternately by What Kate Baked why not join in?

Labels: Connemara, gluten free, gooseberries, Irish foods, Irish Whiskey, Mileeven Fine Foods, Sarah's Zesty Honey, Scone mix, St Patrick, Tea Time Treats

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Farmersgirl Kitchen

Saturday, 27 October 2012

Gooseberry Jam

Gooseberry Jam

Thursday, 22 March 2012

Chocolate and Gooseberry Sponge

Thursday, 15 March 2012

Gluten Free Irish Scones

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