Preserves

I have had the preserving bug lately! I just love making jams especially my favourite Marmalade, so when Vintage Daddy came home with a box of oranges, I was straight into it......

Orange Marmalade

I kg of fruit ( I used oranges, you can use lemons, limes, grapefruit or a mixture of all)

1 kg of sugar

2 litres of water

• Wash and slice fruit thinly; remove all seeds, centre pith and thick ends.
• Place in large saucepan with lid, cover with the water and let stand overnight.
• Boil fruit and water, covered until rind is soft - about 1 hour.
• Add sugar all at once and stir until dissolved.
• Boil until it starts to set when tested ( or you can also tell if you trail your spoon up the side of the pot, you will see how thick it has become)......I find on my stove it takes about another hour for it to set after having added the sugar.
• Bottle in warm sterilised jars and seal, I boil the jars with the water level just under the lid, this should take about 10mins.

Vintage Daddy also came home with two boxes of tomatoes.......My gorgeous Nana made relish all the time and I loved it so much. Most of the shop relish tastes nothing like homemade and as most of you will know I prefer to make almost everything we eat.

Tomato Relish

1 1/2 kg of tomatoes

500g onions

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup salt

1 cup white vinegar

2 tablespoons cornflour

2 teaspoons curry powder

• Chop tomatoes roughly.
• Peel onions and chop finely
• Place in large saucepan, sprinkle with the salt and stand overnight.
• Pour off almost all the liquid, add sugar and vinegar, boil until tender.
• Mix together cornflour and curry powder with a little vinegar and add.
• Cook until mixture has thickened.
• Bottle into warm sterilised jars and seal, boil jars with water level just under the lids, this takes about 10mins and creates a air tight seal.

Notice the little face in the background, our gorgeous and very old 16 year old cat 'Othello', he just had to know what was going on.