Homemade strawberry jam

 

For a jar of 400 - 500g jam, use:

• 350g fresh strawberries
• 350g sugar
• 350ml water
• 35g fresh ginger

Method:

Peel, chop and blend the ginger in 50ml of water. Sieve thru a tissue paper to remove all the remains of the roots and collate just the pure essence.

Do not throw away that waste as it could be dried and used for tea or even as seasoning.

Now remove the green bit of the individual strawberries, cut them in half and rinse.

 

From this...

In a deep sauce pan, place the strawberries, sugar, water and ginger essence. Stew at medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Don’t forget to stir from time to time until the mix starts to become slightly sticky on the spatula.
 

To this... this was my test

I like my jam with bits in it. If is not the case for you, try to mash to strawberries as you stir them.

To make sure that your jam is ready, just make some drops on a clean plate and if the jam drops (like water drops) stand, that means your jam is ready and that a lot of the water has evaporated.

 
If the drops are runny during the test, leave the pot on heat and keep stirring until you get the right consistency.



To yummmmm! no unknown ingredients.

Once you have mastered the strawberry jam, you can make any type of jam. Don’t be afraid, just go for it. I have spiced mine with a bit of ginger as I love ginger. If you like spiced desserts, try and make your jams with you preferred spice. How about chillies? That could work?!

Just have fun and do let me know what you think.

Bon appetite!

My Minty Circus

So, this woman walks behind me in the Turkish shop… the green bunch she is holding has such a strong smell. I turn around and ask, what is that? Mint. she says… wow, never had one with such a strong smell.

So I bought a bunch for myself. As I walk out of the shop, I am wondering what I should cook that involves mint… it is a hot day in London, I’ve got no soft drinks in the house… ideas start shooting… there is ginger in the house, maybe I should add orange or lemon? I walk pass Lidl and have little tour… too many oranges in the pack. Only need one. I opt for grapefruits and lime which are sold loose… Let’s see what we can do with these… If it goes wrong, I won’t do it again.

The result tastes really really good and is very refreshing. By leaving the juice in the fridge for 24 hour with a slice of lime the taste is much stronger with a hint of bitterness… wow! Will definitely do it again.

I have called this My Minty Circus.

Ingredients:

• 2 limes
• 1 big grapefruit
• 100g sugar
• 2L cold water
• Fresh mint - 15 large leaves

Using a spatula, beat the limes and grapefruit before cutting and pressing out the juice to death.

Once the juicing is done, rinse the mint leaves and roll them in your hands to bruise before adding in the juice... Now add water, sugar and mix with the spatula until the sugar has dissolved.

Now using a medium sieve, strain the drink and press the residues as if you were trying to pass them through the tiny holes. This will allow you to recuperate as much flavour as possible from the citrus pulps and mint leaves.

Once this is done, either use a tea strainer or tissue to pass the juice trough so what you will obtain with be a really clean and pink drink.

Et voila!