Today saw us making SYRUP and LOLLIES.

A SYRUP is a sweet, concentrated liquid made by boiling water and sugar together and it’s used in drinks and can be poured over cakes and other desserts. With the addition of fruit it takes on the taste and aroma of summer.

LOLLIES can be as easy to make as freezing orange juice. However, to go get a truly great lolly, you need to make sure its not to crystalline, just sweet enough, and packed full of flavour. Lollies can be made with any liquid, juice, milk, yoghurt, even flavoured teas and coffee.

FACT
Blackcurrant leaves are used to make flavoured teas.

The SYRUP

My SYRUP was a Strawberry and Sage flavoured pouring syrup. It could be used to make drinks or poured onto cakes to flavour them. I added sage to give it a more ‘adult’ flavour. We’ve all been to BBQ’s or parties where the only non-alcoholic drink is coke or lemonade, so I wanted to make something that people could use instead. This syrup makes a great soft drink mixed with sparkling water, but try a shot in a glass of English sparkling wine, it will blow you away.
Essentially its a regular strawberry syrup, made by boiling water, sugar and fruit for a minute or two, then let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. You’ll know when the flavour has come out of the strawberries, they go soft looking and loose their colour. Then, about 5 minutes before the end I added a few sage leaves which I’d screwed up to release the oils and flavour inside them. In my syrup, I also added a few ‘blackcurrant sage leaves’, this is a type of sage that has a blackcurrant taste to it. Be warned, blackcurrant sage can go bitter if you cook it for too long or use too much. I’d suggest if you want the blackcurrant flavour, without the purple colour of actual blackcurrants, you use a few blackcurrant leaves from the bush. They are perfectly safe to use in cooking, just pick them out at the end.

When the syrup is at the consistency that you want, take it off the heat. Let it cool for a few minutes before letting it run through a muslin cloth or jam bag. This will catch all the bits of fruit and seeds, giving you a perfectly clear bright red syrup.

My LOLLY for the show

I decided I wanted to make a typically British LOLLY. To me, nothing else screams out summer more than strawberries! Freshly picked, with the sun on your back, they have an almost tranquil aroma. I’m sure you’ve all picked a bowl of strawberries, and they never made it into the house. Well, thats the flavour and feeling I wanted to recreate in my lolly. I also love raspberries, in fact I would probably say they rival strawberries for me. They have a more refined flavour and texture, a more complex flavour than strawberries. Redcurrant’s on the other hand, aren’t that popular. Don’t get me wrong, they make a great sauce or jelly, but you wouldn’t sit and eat them like you do the other berries. This said, redcurrants give a bit of sharpness, a ‘zing’ to the lolly that cut’s through the sweetness of the strawberries to give the lolly a more rounded flavour.

I used full fat greek yoghurt for the main body of the lolly, mixing in a bit of full fat milk to loosen the mixture.
Making the lolly is just a case of blitzing the fruit, yoghurt and milk into a thick liquid. It should dribble off a spoon reluctantly, not pour off. I also added a bit of honey for sweetness. Then, just sieve the mix to get the seeds out (unless you want to keep them in), pour into moulds and freeze. It’s as easy as that!

Episode three saw us making CRISPS and DIPS

DIPS
A DIP is a thick sauce in which pieces of food are dipped before eating. It’s as simply as that! You can make it from almost anything, veg, fruit, yoghurt, fish eggs, anything.

CRISPS
A crisp is a food that is firm, dry and brittle. So it can be fried, baked or grilled. But, what we are talking about today is a fried vegetable crisp. These are made by slicing the vegetables of your choice and frying them in hot oil. This drives most of the water from the vegetable, making it crisp!

CRISPS – The crisps are easy to make in theory, just slice the veg, put them in hot oil and drain. Sounds easy right? Well it can be a bit more tricky than you think.

Firstly, most veg will make crisps, but with varying degrees of success. I’m only going to talk about potato crisps, as they are the ones that I made. You need to slice your potatoes to the same thickness, this means they will cook evenly, rather than some burning. Next, you need to soak them to get the starch out, otherwise they don’t crisp up properly. I soaked mine in malt vinegar, not only does it get more starch out than water, but it gives them a vinegar flavour. Try soaking them overnight and you’ll be in for a treat. Always make sure you dry the potato slices well. You don’t want to be dropping wet slices in to hot oil, otherwise you may be visiting A&E. Once your crips are to the colour you want, take them out and drain them on kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil. Once you’ve done this, you can season them how you like. I used applewood smoked sea salt, DIVINE!

The DIPS I made for the show –

• EASY PEASY FETA CHEESEY – This was a mixture of 2 different peas. One good for cooking, the other better eaten raw. I cooked them until tender, then let them cool in cold water to keep the vibrant green colour. They then got blitzed with garlic, yoghurt, feta, a tiny pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. This was a lovely dip, creamy and fresh, yet the feta gives it a rich thick texture. Its ideal to dip chopped veg in, or spread it on toast with a slosh of olive oil. Now thats a perfect snack!
• BETA RUSTICANA – The name is latin, BETA means beetroot. RUSTICANA is the second part of the word for horse radish. It’s a golden beetroot and horseradish dip. I love beetroot, but I never grow the purple stuff, it makes you look like an axe murderer when you peel it! I prefer the golden and albino beetroot, they have a sweeter taste and none of the staining associated with the purple varieties.

The dip is made by cooking the beetroot until it’s tender. Then you cool it. Next, you blitz it with yoghurt, tahini and horseradish. Season, and Bob’s your uncle!

TIP
Always let your veg go cold before making the dip, otherwise you can affect the flavour of the dip by part cooking the other ingredients. Plus, if you use a hand wand and the dip splashes, you can burn your face!

TIP
Check the oil is hot enough bye dropping a piece of bread in, if it sinks, it needs to be hotter. The bread should dance on top of the oil, then you know its up to temperature!

HINT
Be inspired by Italy, use garlic salt and chopped rosemary to season your crisps.

This week it was SWEET and SAVOURY JAMS

SWEET JAMS are fruit and sugar cooked together. You also need pectin, either in the fruit naturally, or you add it in the form of a liquid or jam sugar.

SAVOURY JAM is pretty much the same as sweet jam, except it has an ingredient that makes the jam more savoury. It can be it salt, vinegar, lemon juice, amchoor or fish sauce. In fact, I buy a very nice bacon jam, I personally think its more of a chutney, however it says JAM on the label, so who am I to argue with them?

SAVOURY JAM

My SAVOURY JAM was called JFK TO BOMBAY. This was because it had spices in from around the world. Essentially, its a spiced tomato jam. Making this jam is a very similar method to the sweet jam. Take the skin and seeds from the tomatoes ( ‘I don’t like too much skin in my mouth’ – THANE) Then, cook them with a bit of water and a chopped chilli until they are soft and squishy. Add all the spices, long peppers and amchoor. Then add the jam sugar, boil and jar up!

SWEET JAM

The SWEET JAM I made for the show was BOOZEY GOOSEY JAM, its a gooseberry and elderflower liqueur jam. It’s very simple to make this jam. Its just equal amounts sugar and gooseberries, a splash of water, and a good slosh of elderflower liqueur.

Don’t cook the elderflowers for too long (as i did on the show) as it drives too much water off, giving you a stiff set. Add the liqueur around 1 minute before the end of cooking. Make sure the pan is off the heat, as the jam will bubble up when the liqueur goes in. This also burns off all the alcohol, so you get left with the fresh flavour of the elderflowers, but not the harshness of it.

TIP
Don’t use a big preserving pan if you are only making a pot or two of jam. You run the risk of evaporating the liquid off to quickly, and burning the jam!

HINT
My savoury jam is fantastic with cheese!

This week it was PICKLES and CHUTNEY.

PICKLES are vegetables or fruit preserved in vinegar or brine. However, its the picklers mission to make sure the contents of the jar are crisp, tasty and appealing to the eye.

CHUTNEYS are a spicy condiment, made of fruits or vegetables with vinegar, spices, and sugar. You can make just about any fruit or veg into a pickle, perfect for any glut you may have on the allotment.

HINT
Make sure your vinegar is cold before pouring over your vegetables, otherwise they may go soft.

CHUTNEY

GLUTTONY CHUTNEY was the name of my chutney. This is because I wanted to try and use all the veg I had a glut of. Anyone who grows their own fruit and veg will know that you always have a glut of something. Be it strawberries, or courgettes. Thats why we’re forever preserving. It allows us to make use of all the crops that would go to waste, should we eat them fresh.

I included courgettes, onions, okra, chilli, beetroot, dates and black treacle in my chutney. Its just a case of chopping all the veg to the same size, adding vinegar, sugar and spices. Then letting it all slowly bubble away and work its magic. Chutney can be time consuming, but you’ll be glad you made some when you’re eating it with a nice slice of ham on a dark winters night.

The PICKLE I made for the show was –

PICKLED FROM THE PATCH, the main ingredients to this are shallots, cucamelons and chilies. I brined my shallots the night before. This is when you mix water and salt together, put your shallots into it and let the water inside the shallots get pulled out by the brine. This makes the shallots stay crunchier. I then spiced and sweetened my vinegar. You can leave the whole spices in the vinegar if you want, they will add a depth to the pickle as it matures. I wanted a clear vinegar for my pickle, so I opted to remove all the spices before I potted them up. Next, arrange the pickles into an attractive pattern and fill the jar with the pickling solution. Make sure you cover the vegetables completely with the pickling solution or they may go off.

CANAPES, CONFECTIONARY AND COCKTAILS

CANAPÉS are small tasters of food, usually savoury, which are served with drinks at parties. They should be eaten in a couple of bites at the most.

CONFECTIONARY, these are sweets or chocolates, usually served in a jar or box.

COCKTAILS are usually spirits mixed with fruit juices or other mixers. Sometimes this is to disguise the taste of the alcohol, other times they are just 100% alcohol!

CANAPES

I decided to make a WHITE GAZPACHO for my canape. Gazpacho is a cold spanish soup, usually made with tomatoes, peppers, cucumber and olive oil. I decided to use cauliflower instead, with cucumber, shallots, chilli, and garlic, all off my allotment.

One issue I did have with making the soup was the colour of my cauliflower…..it was PURPLE. Apparently, according to the seed packet, the purple cauliflower goes white when cooked. So I thought I would be fine, I could still make my WHITE gazpacho. However, never believe everything that’s written on the back of a pocket of seeds. The cooked cauliflower actually goes blue, not just blue, but BRIGHT BRIDGET JONES SOUP BLUE!! Thankfully, as Thane glared at what was about to serve her, I’d had a suspicion that something like this might occur. So, I’d cooked one of my white cauliflower varieties as well. Unfortunately Thane wasn’t taken with my gazpacho, its a shame really, as I love it! Anyway, disaster averted with my blue soup (almost), it’s on to my confectionary.

CONFECTIONARY

My CONFECTIONARY was called CAPE ROSES. They are rose shaped gummies, with a piece of cape gooseberry in the middle.
To make the, you simply make a fruit syrup. I use strawberries, cape gooseberries, water and sugar. Then, once its a bit thicker than a syrup, you add leaves of gelatine. This means the mixture will set, however you need quite a few to make it set hard enough to be a gummy. I then poured the mix, while still hot a liquid, into the rose moulds. Pop them in the fridge until set, then peel them out of the silicone mould.
Finally, I gave them a dusting of edible glitter to really make them sparkle. Thats it, tasty, chewy, CAPE ROSES.