Apricot Liqueur

This terrific aromatic dessert liqueur is a real gem. It is so easy to make and quite stunning; rich, sweet and full of fruity, almondy flavours. My friend Maggie thinks it tastes like her favourite Baume de Venise, but packs a little more punch.


apricots infusing the gin and wine

Season June-July

• ½ kilo Fresh Apricots, halved stones reserved
• 1 tsp Allspice
• 400-450g Sugar
• 900ml Dry White wine
• 475 ml Gin

Place apricots in a large preserving pan with allspice, sugar and wine. Bring to boil, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the gin. Crack the apricot stones, skin the kernels and add those. Pour into a crock or large jar cover tightly and set aside for 5-6 days to infuse, giving it a shake every day. Strain the liqueur, I use a coffee filter paper, to get a clear liquid. Pour into sterilised bottles and seal. Allow at least 1 month for the liqueur to mature before serving. Best served chilled.

Cook's Tip Keep the apricot pulp to use in boozy puddings or to make a fruit puree or ice cream. It can be frozen for later use and because of the alcohol content will keep well for months in the fridge.

Recipe Source  I came across it in an old preserving book and tried making it a few years ago with great success. This is the recipe unchanged from  Home Preserving, 101 ways of preserving fruit, vegetables & herbs 1972.

Pickled Walnuts

Green walnuts freshly picked you can see the white nut forming but no hard shell has started to develop.

Walnuts, when harvested young and green, are used to make this wonderful classic old English pickle. I eat everything and love pickles but strangely I had never tried pickled walnuts until Christmas just past. Blown away by the taste I resolved to make sure I harvested some of our walnuts, before they matured this year, to pickle. So this is a first for me. I don't usually post up recipes unless they are tried and tested or old favourites but I am too excited about pickling walnuts not to share this recipe. I've put up two large jars and have to wait now until they cure before I can eat them but I am sure they are going to turn out pretty good because I did have a sneaky nibble at one that didn't quite fit in the last jar.Yum.
Ingredients

• Green walnuts
• Medium Brine*
• Vinegar (white balsamic, cider or other good vinegar)

Method
Prick the walnuts all over (I used a large darning needle) and put them into a mixing bowl. Cover with brine and leave to steep for 3 days. Make up a fresh batch of brine, drain the walnuts, re-cover with brine and leave for one week. Drain the nuts and spread out on a tray to air dry for 2 days or until they are dry and turn black. Pack into sterilised jars cover with vinegar and seal. Store for 6 weeks before eating. Stored in a cool dark place these pickles should last several years.


Green walnuts drained after the first brining


green walnuts that have been soaked in the second brine and sun dried, they are now ready to pack into jars.

Cook's Tip
Use a good quality vinegar for the pickling as you don't need that much of it and it will affect the quality of the finished product. I used white balsamic as it is quite sweet and will balance the salt in the walnuts.

Brine *
To make a medium brine boil a kettle of water and to each litre of water add 1/2 cup (120g) of sea salt, stir well to dissolve, cool then strain ready to use. For a stronger brine use 175g  per litre of water.

When to pick Green walnuts
I've been stalking our walnut trees for the last month or so testing the green nuts and it seems that, at least for this year, the optimum point to pick them for pickling was just before the summer equinox.

Other Uses Walnuts stain clothes, hands and porous crockery so be careful to use stain proof equipment. But you can also put the staining power of walnuts to good use and rather than discarding the first brine liquid, which has a wonderful greeny brown colour, use it to dye fabric or as a painting wash.

Recipe Source I consulted lots of books on pickling before trying to make these pickles and they pretty much all say the same thing to simply steep in brine, dry, pack and add cold vinegar. See Home Preserving, 101 ways of preserving fruit, vegetables & herbs 1972. Food From Your Garden All you need to know to grow, cook and Preserve your own fruit and Vegetables Readers Digest 1977, The Perfect Pickle Book David Mabey & David Collison 2007. Some of these recipes suggest putting spices in the vinegar but walnuts have such a strong aroma I thought I should just keep it simple and try with just a good quality white vinegar for my first go at making these pickles.

Red Currant Jelly

A real classic and deliciously tart jelly, wonderful on bread for breakfast or more traditionally as an accompaniment to roast lamb. I've waited years to harvest enough red currants to make red currant jelly, I love it, but it takes quite a lot of red currants to make a small amount.  I started with cuttings from a red currant bush (Jonkheer van Tets) in 2006 and I've  been waiting until the cuttings grew big enough to produce enough fruit. I now have 6 healthy bushes and they have all produced a decent harvest this year.  

• red currants
• sugar
• water

Wash the fruit and put it into a large pan with enough water to half cover the fruit and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered, mashing every now and then for 30 minutes or until the fruit becomes pulp. Pour the pulp into a jelly bag and hang the bag over a bowl to catch the juice. Leave it hanging until the juice stops dripping, a minimum of 4 hours or overnight to extract all the juice. Don't squeeze the bag or it can make the jelly cloudy.  Measure the strained juice and return it to a clean jam pan with 200g of sugar for every 300ml of juice. Stir well to dissolve the sugar and bring to the boil. Boil rapidly until setting point is reached. Skim off any scum that forms and let the jelly settle for a minute or two before pouring into warm sterilised jars, seal immediately and label.

Cook's Top
To save time and effort the fruit can be boiled with all the stalks attached before it is strained but I do think you get a better tasting jelly if the fruit is cleaned from the stalks first. Use the times of a fork to run through each bunch and the fruit will fall off the stalks into the pan.
Recipe Source  Home Preserving, 101 ways of preserving fruit, vegetables & herbs 1972. Most recipes including this one suggest more sugar but I prefer a tarter jelly, particularly if it is to be served with savory dishes so I use a lower ratio of sugar.

Broad Bean Riata

Shelled broad beans fried with coconut and spices in a yogurt sauce makes a wonderful fresh, cooling dish to serve as a side with other dishes. 

• vegetable oil
• large colander full of broad beans
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 6-8 dried curry leaves
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 3 dried hot red chillis
• 1-2 tbsp grated coconut
• pinch of turmeric
• pinch of salt
• fresh coriander leaf

Shell the broad beans. Drizzle a little vegetable oil in the bottom of a wok or wide frying pan over a high heat and throw in the spices as soon as they begin to pop throw in the coconut keep an eye on it and stir until the coconut smells nutty and starts to turn golden. Add the beans, turmeric, salt and a little sprinkle of water to cool the pan. Stir and fry until the beans turn a bright green and are tender add a little water to stop it catching if necessary. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the yogurt and a little chopped coriander leaf. Serve warm, at room temperature or cold.
Cook's Tip you can use desiccated coconut for this dish but it does taste better with freshly grated coconut.
Recipe Source This dish was inspired by Barbatti Nariyal Sabji in The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi, a green bean dish with dhal, coconut and yogurt.

Sweet Apricot Chutney

This is a lovely sweet, sour and spicy chutney to go with savory Indian dishes, barbecues or even with cheese. Delicious. It is something like a sweet mango chutney and is light and juicy.

Makes 1.25 litres Prep 15 minutes Cook 30-40 minutes

• I kilo (2.2lb) apricots (stoned and chopped it is about 4 packed cups)
• 600ml (3 scant cups) white vinegar
• 800g (4 scant cups) sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 5cm piece ginger grated
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 8 green cardamom pods
• 12 black peppercorns
• 1 tsp aniseed, ground
• 1 tsp onion seed
• 6-10 dried chillis or 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp ground fenugreek (optional)

Method
Stone and cut the apricots into pieces and put into a non-corrosive pan with the vinegar, sugar, salt. garlic, ginger. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook slowly for about 20 minutes add the remaining ingredients the aniseed, onion seed and chillis and cook for a further 10-15 minutes or until the chutney starts to thicken slightly and the colour starts to darken a little . Pour into warm sterilised jars and seal immediately. Best to leave this chutney for a least a week before eating to give the vinegar a chance to mellow.
Storage should store for 2 years of more in a cool dark place. Once opened keep in the fridge.

Note on Chilli Heat
The amount of chilli you use is really to suit you own taste,this is a predominantly sweet chutney so I have use only a little chilli heat but you could crank it up a lot. I used a dried red chilli called exploding ember which I grew last summer they are small not that hot.