Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

 

So this was the rest of my productive day yesterday. I also count being productive as posting one blog post. >_> Maybe others are more productive. I have about 700g of rhubarb left over from a salad I made for the last supper. It was going on the soft side so it was decided it'd be a jam.

What you'll need:

• 700g rhubarb, washed, chopped into 2cm pieces
• 700g jam sugar
• 80 stem/crystalized ginger, chopped
• juice of 1 lime

Wash and chop the rhubarb. Place in a large bowl with lime juice and chopped ginger. Cover in jam sugar. You need jam sugar for this recipe because rhubarb has little to no pectin. Coat all the rhubarb with the sugar, cover. Leave for 2 hours, during that time pop back every now and then and give it a shake.

Once the 2 hours is up scoop all rhubarb mix and put it into a heavy based pot and stir till the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar has dissolved bring the mixture up to a boil. At this point the rhubarb will start to break down. The mixture will darken. If you have a sugar thermometer keep and eye out for when the mixture hits 'jam'. If not there's an easy test:

Place a saucer in the freezer at the beginning of the cooking down process, when the jam has been boiling for a while take half a teaspoon of the mixture out and place on the saucer. Give it 30 seconds and you'll see if it jams. If not keep heating.....actually put 2 saucers in the freezer.

Once it has gotten to the point of jam pour the mixture carefully into sterilised jars. Label. Let it cool. Then eat the next morning with the granola you also made while being productive!

Zhoug (a kind of green harissa)

Today has been a very busy day. Making condiments left right and centre. Zhoug is excellent with fish and rice. It doesn't last very long in the fridge but you'll have it for 2 weeks or so. It's just that the fresh coriander doesn't like sitting about very much.

What you'll need:

• 250g long green chillies
• ½ teaspoon green cardamom seeds, green husks removed, finely ground
• ⅓ teaspoon coriander seeds, ground
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds, ground
• 4 tablespoon of roughly chopped fresh coriander
• 1½ cloves of garlic
• a small squeese of lemon
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt & pepper

Chop the stems off chillis, cut them in half then with a teaspoon scrap membrane and seeds from the inside and roughly chop. Put everything except lemon and oil in a blender and pulse till everything is smooth. Transfer everything to a mixing bowl and add lemon and oil. Mix well and place in a sterilised jar. You should end up with just above 250g of Zhoug.

Harissa

So I love harissa. It's wonderful. You should always have it in the kitchen/fridge. This keeps really well in a sealed jar. Pop abit of olive oil on top to keep the air off it.

What you'll need:

• 250g long, fresh red chillies
• sea salt
• 3 heaped teaspoons of caraway seeds, ground
• 3 heaped teaspoons of cumin seeds, ground
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 roasted & peeled red bell pepper
• 1 heaped tablespoon of tomato purée
• 1 and bit tablespoon of red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Chop the stems off chillis, cut them in half then with a teaspoon scrap membrane and seeds from the inside and roughly chop. Blend them with a pinch of salt, half of each of the spice seeds and the garlic cloves until smooth. Keep blending till they're smooth (no little bits) Add the bell pepper and the rest of the spice seeds, the purée and vinegar, and blend again until very smooth. Transfer it to a mixing bowl. Add the olive oil. Don't add the oil when in the blender. Blending the oil in will make the harissa turn a creamy colour. Sprinkle paprika on top of the oil and stir in. Taste and season if you need to balance the vinegar.

I sterilised two 220g jars and it pretty much fills these. In the batch I made today I used some amazing smoked olive oil I pick up in Fallon & Byrne a while ago. Everything for this recipe came from F&B which is rather handy.