Jam, Booze and errrr Booze-Jam???

It's been a soggy summer but there have been a few sunny lunchtimes in the last week, so I've been going for a walk at lunchtime and collecting up some blackberries. The recent rains and then the sun meant I found some real fatties...and 1 o'clock found me back at my desk with the telltale stains around my mouth and on my hands. I've very little freezer space so I decided to turn them into something that would keep. I googled some jam recipes and found a spiced apple and blackberry  and a blackberry chilli jam that I rather liked the look of...but I couldn't decide which to make. In the end I amalgamated the recipes and threw in blackberries, some crabapples I found when walking one evening, one of last years lovely red chillies that I had dried (no chillies this year....slugs polished off a dozen fine chilli plants...I have 1 scotch bonnet that I rescued and brought in to pop on the kitchen windowsill...it has survived being knocked about by the kittens so far and produced it's first flower this week) some mixed spice , some nutmeg and some sugar and boiled the lot up. (no - don't be silly - of course I didn't weigh / measure ) The result was 4&1/2 jars of really christmassy blackberry jam...delish...will do that one again.

 

Then I thought some wine would be a good idea and some blackberry I had made a few years ago turned out well so I thought I'd have another bash...so I found the plastic bucket that the birdy fat balls from Wilkinson came in and gave it a good scrub and a dunk in some Milton to be on the safe side.(It's all dead high tech in my kitchen!!) In went the blackberries, sugar, some lemons that were looking a bit dried out, a handful of sultanas, a cup of very strong black earl grey tea, and some boiling water and I smooshed it all with the potato masher. Searched high and low for my brewers yeast...not a sign anywhere...gave in and used the stuff I use for baking bread.

Here it is all ready to be tucked up with it's lid on to do it's stuff for a few days.

 

I gave it a stir around every day for a few days and then decided that it was ready to move on to the demijohn. Oooopppss...demijohn still has Elderberry wine in it and I have only 2 empty wine bottles....creative thinking cap on...drive to Hungerford...accost poor woman dropping off wine bottles at the bottle bank  and pursuade her to recycle bottles in my direction:-)

Bottles scrubbed and sterilised, Elderberry wine transferred to the bottles, demijohn scrubbed and sterilised ( this is 3 lines on paper, but I swear this seemed to be my ENTIRE Sunday afternoon)

Elderberry wine - much beloved by students - the 2009 was lethal...I would only drink it diluted, I think some students in Bournemouth may have had some headaches....

 

 

Bramble wine in the demijohn safely burbling! It seemed a shame to chuck the fruit that remained left over after I had put the wine in the demijohn ....so I threw it in a pan with some sugar and a chilli (naturally) , boiled it up, strained it (it was AWFULLY seedy by this point) and now bequeath to the world.........BRAMBLE CHILLI BOOZE-JAM!!

I think I've found my "signature-dish"...eat ya heart out Heston....you may have snail porridge but I bring you Booze-Jam.....thinking it might make a nice accompaniment (is that even a word?) to Quorn Roast.

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