Category: Jams, Preserves & Liqueurs

Marketing #2 – Piata Matache Bucuresti

Piata Matache Bucuresti in late July means water melons, sour cherries, red currants, apricots, raspberries and blackberries…. and lots of fresh herbs…mmmmm and made the recipes below

I scooped up some sour cherries and was so overcome by the perfume of the purple basil I had to buy some. The sour cherries became a batch of sour cherry and orange jam and the basil made a truly pungent purple basil and sunflower pesto. The stones and leaves of the sour cherries I up-cycled into Cherry stone wine cooler – a delish refreshing sup for the dog days of a Bucharest summer.

Purple basil and sunflower seed pesto

Purple is the new green/ green is the new purple… something like that…

Ingredients

Pesto recipes are always “to taste” – use a little bit of what you have and work around how pungent the herbs are and what you have in the kitchen. Here is what I did with this really strong, sunny number:

  • 2 large bunches of purple basil, leaves carefully wiped with a damp cloth
  • 200g sunflower seeds (I often use sunflower seeds in pesto as a perfectly good healthy alternative to pine nuts and considerably cheaper)
  • 100g parmesan
  • 200ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 fat cloves of garlic
  • The zest of half a lemon pared

How To

Blend the ingredients all together in a blender into a thick paste. I like to still retain some texture – a little bit like “crunchy” peanut butter.

The uses for pesto are almost too numerous to list but start with the obvious: pasta and gnocchi and then think crusts on chicken and fish and then spread on crackers and fresh bread….

Pants to Brexit Marmalade

the world of marmalade turns darker

A lovely recipe to practice a bit of stockpiling. Use any citrus fruit still imported (1.5kgs) and boil until soft. Strain the juices (1.7l) through a pair of old pants (yes really) as if your knickers weren’t in a twist already. Get used to make doing and mending. Chop into small strands, slowly, rhythmically but alas not to Radio 4. A bit of Rachmaninoff maybe? Definitely not Holst.

Oh and there is no Plan B for this recipe btw. Plan B is Plan A.

Add 1.5kgs sugar and a bit of treacle. Boil (as in watching frogs) vigorously until setting point. Add whisky or a beverage from our EU friends. I used Romanian “tuica”.