Chinese Blossoms Activity

These are the results from an activity held in a stay and play activity at Morningside Children's Centre in Hackney, London to celebrate spring and Chinese New Year. We talked about the different parts of trees, flowers and seasons. Then we looked at historical examples of drawings of Chinese Blossoms as well as photographs of Chinese Blossoms. For materials we used paper, stickers, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, glue, markers and tissue. It was a birlliant activity which the children really enjoyed and became enthralled with and made a lovely display.

Vestry House Museum WWI Biplane activity

On Wednesday 8 April I taught how to make WWI biplanes as part of the Waltham Forest Adult Learning Service day of activities held at Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow. We toured the exhibition and noted the personal accounts, art works, photographs and posters of the time with the children and adults and then when we returned to the activity room we created and decorated WWI biplanes. It was a great day with lots of other activities going on within the setting of the exhibition and the Vestry Museum's beautiful gardens.

Beetroot & Black Carrot Cake with Nutty Six-Pepper Jelly Ice Cream

This is the Beetroot and black carrot cake served with homemade vanilla ice cream with mixed nuts roasted in six-pepper jelly with sea salt and demerara sugar and topped with candied black carrots.

It was such an enjoyable cake to make from start to finish and it finished by being one of the best cakes that I have ever made. It was put together in my favourite way to cook; I was inspired by a recipe that I had eaten, a seasonal ingredient obsession, something catching my eye, adding in an old favourite and a bit of a challenge. I was making a pudding to follow an amazing meal prepared by the incredible Frank About Food which is a pretty hard act to follow so I was looking to creating something a bit special. My cousin Sharon's courgette cake acted as my inspiration as it's delicious and I needed something totally chocolate free. I went to Swiss Cottage Green Grocers and spotted some black carrots that I thought I would want in my cake I was pre-building in my head. I'm obsessed with beetroot so I thought that would add some more natural sweetness and help with moisture. It ended up being such a light, flavourful, moist cake which went really well with the ice cream and all the different textures, with the ocassional salt and bitter tones from the sea salt and candied black carrots respectively.

Donuts

These were some of my first attempts ever at making donuts. About half of them were either overdone or undercooked due to my nerves with regulating the temperature of the oil. I filled them with black cherry and black pepper compote, strawberry and balsamic jam and some lemon curd. They were delicious.

Meringues

Any excuse to make meringue. They also conveniently make great little holders for Smy Goodness preserves and more. Clockwise from top left are:

• Lemon curd with candied lemon peel, cream and fresh raspberries
• Fresh mango circles marinated in Seville orange marmalade and cardamom topped with toasted pistachios and cream
• Black cherry & black pepper compote with almonds and cream
• Strawberry & balsamic vinegar compote with almonds, fresh strawberrries and cream
• Passionfruit jam topped with toasted macadamia nuts and cream.

I love eating and making meringues all year round including boozy Christmas-y toppings like winter berries stewed in cherry brandy made in the summer. The meringues can be made as individual servings, as large centre pieces or as bite size portions with different toppings.

Sumptuous Spread

Meats

• Salame
• Prosciutto
• Roast chicken
• Roast duck

  Preserves

 

• Six-pepper jelly
• Black cherry & black pepper compote
• Apple and pepper chutney
• Pumpkin & pomengranite chutney
• Plum gumbo
• Seville orange marmalade

Etc.

• Homemade bread, ciabatta and baguette
• Pickled beetroot
• Pickled cabbage
• Olives
• Cava
• Vegetable Juice

Cheese:

• Gorgonzola
• Red Leicester
• Stilton
• Colby
• Manchego

 

Duck and Chorizo Gumbo

My time in New Orleans has influenced so much of my entertaining philosophy; there should always be good food and music on both the table and in the air. This is one of my favourite dishes to prepare and share for big groups and it is an easy one to prepare the day before and free up time to relax and laugh with your guests and these types of dishes are always better the following day.

It's all in the roux! This cannot be stressed enough that the roux stage requires attention to detail and not taking your eye off the ball for the 20-25 minutes of non-stop stirring that the roux will require.

I love dishes where there isn't necessarily a right or wrong recipe but one that is either a family recipe or one that utilises left overs. This tends to be my gumbo recipe of choice but I do love making a prawn, sausage and chicken gumbo as well. Which flavours of gumbo do you enjoy?

Plum Jam - Jam & Chutney Making course 13/11/14

Here are some photos and the recipe from the second week of the six-week jam and chutney making course at Daubeney Children's Centre in hackney, London. You may recall that we made

pineapple and passion fruit jam in week one

. The feedback was that all the families enjoyed the jam, even children who generally do not eat much jam. I always tell customers and students that jam isn't just for toast, I put a spoonful in porridge for breakfast in the winter and in natural yoghurt in summer or an all-year round snack. I also use jam as a binder when making oatcakes, use it in muffins and in jam tarts.

This week we made plum jam. I always keep it seasonal for Smy Chutney and for the courses so this was the perfect time of the year to make plum jam.

This recipe makes such a beautiful, deep red jam, notice it up the sides of the pan and the wall.

Here is lovely Lola stirring the jam. She makes stunning cakes so we chatted a lot about different recipes that can be added to cakes, tarts and puddings. 

Plum Jam Recipe

Ingredients:

2 k Plums

2 k Sugar

2 Lemon

1. Select fully ripe plums with which to make the jam
2. Wash and rinse the fruit.
3. Carefully remove all stems, pits, skins, and blossoms, if necessary, from the plums.
4. Cut the fruit into pieces and make sure to remove each plum stone and discard.
5. Measure the fruit and place in a large saucepan.
6. Stir in the correct amount of sugar for the recipe and keep stirring as you bring the mixture to a boil.
7. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens.
8. You will need to test that the mixture has reached its setting point, or readiness for jarring, keeping in mind that the mixture will continue to thicken slightly as it cools.  There are two methods for testing: Refrigerator test – Place a plate in your refrigerator while you are making the jam. When you think that the jam is ready, remove the plate and allow a few drops of the mixture to drop onto the plate. After a few minutes, check to see if the mixture has gelled.  Push the droplet with your finger and if it wrinkles it is ready to place in your sterilised jars. Temperature test – Using a thermometer to test that the mixture has reached the optimum temperature for your altitude:  Anywhere from a sea level of 300 metres to 8,000 metres will be alright to reach a temperature of 220°C.
9. Once the mixture is ready, remove it from the heat and skim off any foam that may have formed on the surface.
10. Pour the mixture into sterile jars (see above), leaving .5 cm headspace.
11. Use a clean, damp piece of kitchen towel to wipe the rims of the jars.
12. Top each jar with a lid, screw on the cover tightly and allow to cool.
13. The jam will be best if eaten within one year, refrigerate once open.

Pineapple & Passion Fruit Jam - Jam & Chutney Making course 06/11/14

I recently taught a six week course in jam and chutney making at Daubeney Children's Centre in Hackney, London for local families. The course was open to parents and carers to learn the basics of jam and chutney making, food handling and preparation, health and safety and how the resulting jams

and chutneys could be used. The first recipe that we covered was pineapple and passion fruit jam.

I love combining pineapple with other fruits such as strawberries or mango when making jam and passion fruit also pairs very well with pineapple.

The facilities at Daubeney are wonderful, as are the staff and it was a great six-weeks meeting and sharing with them. I would also like to especially thank Lola who attended with her daughter for their enthusiasm and sharing with me her passion, skills and creativity for cookery and especially cake-making. I am always learning as well! 

We used a play room with a fully equipped kitchen so that we could prepare and involve the children in identifying the fruit, tasting the fruit and helping to prepare the recipes. It was great to introduce fruits that some of the families had not tried before or had not eaten much of because they weren't familiar with how to choose or prepare them. We followed the recipe below and measured, chopped, strained , stirred, cooked and poured our jams into the sterlised jars.

The families also decorated labels for their jam creations inspired by the days activities and ingredients. All the families took a jar of the jam that they made home with them and all the additional jars that we made were sold at a Christmas fair held at Daubeney Children's Centre.

I'll be posting some photos and recipes from the six-week course at Daubeney as well as workshops held at other Children's Centre's. I will also be sharing other arts and crafts workshops that I have been teaching.

Pineapple and Passion Fruit Jam Recipe

Ingredients:

1.5 k pineapple after removing the skin, eyes and core

1.5 k passion fruit which will give you roughly 300ml of strained juice

1.5k sugar

1-2 lemons

Yield:

This recipe yielded 6 x 500ml jars and one 500ml jar that as not fully filled so we used this to smother the still warm jam onto toast to share amongst ourselves and the Centre.

1. Take the pineapple and cut off the top and bottom. Stand the pineapple on the chopping board and remove the outer skin and then remove all the brown “eyes” from the outside. Cut the pineapple in half lengthways and then cut each half lengthways again so that you have quartered it. Then remove the core from each quarter segment and then chop the pineapple into small chunks. A top tip given by one of the mums is to refridgerate segments of pineapple cores and let teething babies gnaw on them to soothe their aching gums.
2. Take the passion fruits and cut each one in half and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh and seeds into a measuring cup. Then pour the flesh and seeds into a sieve over a bowl and use the back of a spoon or plastic spatula to press the juice into the bowl. You can reserve the seeds to add to your jam if desired, since we were sharing our jams with children we decided to not add any seeds. Remaining seeds can be dried and roasted to make a healthy snack or addition to salads.
3. Measure your pineapple and passion fruit juice and take note of the amounts.
4. For each 1 k of fruit take one lemon and cut in half and put the juice into a measuring jug making sure to remove any seeds.
5. Measure out the same amount of sugar as there is fruit.
6. Add the pineapple, passion fruit juice, sugar and lemon juice to your pan.
7. Continue stirring until the sugar disintegrates and keep stirring until thickened.
8. If small children will be eating the jam and you are worried about larger chunks, once the sugar has disintegrated you can remove the pan from the heat and use a hand blender to make the mixture smoother, if so desired.
9. The mixture may start to boil and you can keep stirring and reduce the heat. Once it has settled you can raise the heat again and keep stirring and repeat until the jam is of the desired thickness.
10. You will need to test that the mixture has reached its setting point, or readiness to put in jars, keeping in mind that the mixture will continue to thicken slightly as it cools.  There are two methods for testing: Refrigerator test – Place a plate in your refrigerator while you are making the jam. When you think that the jam is ready, remove the plate and allow a few drops of the mixture to drop onto the plate. After a few minutes, check to see if the mixture has gelled.  Push the droplet with your finger and if it wrinkles it is ready to place in your sterilised jars. Temperature test – Using a thermometer to test that the mixture has reached the optimum temperature for your altitude: Anywhere from a sea level of 300 metres to 8,000 metres will be alright to reach a temperature of 220°C.
11. Once the mixture is ready, remove it from the heat and skim off any foam that may have formed on the surface.
12. Pour the mixture into sterile jars, leaving .5 cm headspace from top of the jar to top of the jam.
13. Use a clean piece of kitchen towel to wipe the rims of the jars.
14. Top each jar with a lid, screw on the cover tightly and allow to cool. Store in a dark, dry, cool place.
15. The jam will be best if eaten within one year, refrigerate once open.

Smy Chutney Christmas 2013

It's hard to believe that we find ourselves in December with Christmas and 2014 just around the corner.  Smy Chutney makes a great gift for family and friends or the perfect product to share when entertaining and there is still time to order your favourite flavours to enjoy before and during Christmas. Postal orders can always be placed on the

on-line shop

or email me if you are based in Central or East London for details on having your order delivered to you.

Be sure to listen to my appearance on the BBC Radio 4 programme 15 by 15 where I discussed jam with Hardeep Singh Kohli on the

SmyChutney.com

homepage where you will also find up-to-date information on limited edition flavours, news and events.

Large gift boxes of 3 x 275g jars are £15 and small gift boxes of 5 x 42g jars are £10. Both make a great gift for family, friends and colleagues.

Flavours include six pepper jelly, banana & date chutney, apple and pepper chutney, plum gumbo, red onion marmalade, lemon curd, strawberry and balsamic vinegar jam, strawberry and pineapple jam and more.

If you are a fan of Smy Chutney you can follow us on:

twitter/smychutney

facebook/smychutney

Email Me

with any questions or comments.

Thank you for your time, have a Very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year...

and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.