I spent most of Thursday on and off in the kitchen and then just an hour on Friday to cook and pot up the jam. Time well spent if you look at the results.
I ended up with two and a half pounds of Compost Heap Jelly*. There are no labels on the jars in this photo as they are still piping hot, but I will label them as soon as they are cold.
*If you want to see how to make this look at yesterday's post which includes a YouTube video from Pam the Jam.
They are definitely going to be a sweet treat as it took a kilo of sugar for the liquid I had to make the jelly. It's a good job I only have a thin covering on my toast. 😄
I had decided to turn the roll of puff pastry that I had instead of my fats and oils this on weeks rations into as many things as I could. In the end I managed to get four meals from it.
Two quiche bases part cooked and now in the fridge ready to turn into quick lunches over the weekend, one breakfast jam turnover that I had yesterday, very sweet but also very delicious. What a wartime treat that would have been.
And a Sausage Plait that I had for my tea when it was hot straight out of the oven. Served with just some salad from the garden and a drizzle of mayo, it was tasty and very filling.
This is what it looked like inside it's pastry overcoat.
I thawed two Linda McCartney sausages out and made up a couple of tablespoons of dried stuffing mix, then stirred the two together before forming into this patty shape. I was aiming to have something that looked like the old Linda McCartney Sausage Plaits that were sadly discontinued many years ago and that a lot of people miss. Then I decided a little smear of the garlic Jam that I still have left over from last Christmas would be good on top.
I cut slits either side of the patty and criss-crossed them over until everything was covered. I brushed it with milk and cooked it for about 30 minutes alongside everything else to make full use of the oven space. I pulled the quiche bases out first, then the turnover and finally the sausage plait.
Inside the turnover was just a big dollop of this months jam, not quite as big as it looks in this photo!!
I'm think that I'm doing really well as I haven't touched the other half of my bi-monthly jam ration so it's all going to plan ... up to now, and of course I have my new jars of jam which will be available to me at any time as they have been made from scraps and my ration of sugar. Either for me to eat or to give as gifts.
So I think that was a good day in the kitchen, three things made off this weeks menu and a bonus breakfast to replace my porridge yesterday. And using this pastry made me realise that homemade shortcrust pastry is definitely better, which is a good thing because during the war years there was definitely no shop bought, ready rolled pastry available. In future making my own will be so much cheaper, mere pennies instead of the current Aldi price for a roll which is £1.19, so much kinder to my budget.
Sue xx
But what is written on the handle of the pastry brush? I am intrigued...
ReplyDeleteLooks like “garlic” to me - very sensible as you wouldn’t want to brush the top of sweet scones with a garlic flavour ( well I wouldn’t want to anyway! 😂)
DeleteCountry Cook
Yes Angela it says 'garlic'. I used it way back for something that was VERY garlicky and decided that would be my brush for savoury dishes for now on. I have another brush, a flatter one that I use for sweet things.
DeleteCC. I don't know if it does smell of garlic now as I have no sense of smell after having Covid, but I wouldn't want to take the risk of garlicky cherry scones for sure. :-)
DeleteIt all looks so delicious, as you say, a day well spent. I will definitely be making the sausage plait recipe, sounds and looks wonderful. I never tried the Linda McCartney version but have her Lincolnshire sausages in the freezer so guess what's for dinner ( no prizes! ).
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of people that were very upset when the Rosemary and Red Onion Sausage Plaits disappeared from the shops. I hope you enjoy your dinner. :-)
DeleteI will have to have a go at the compost jelly .our jar of home made jam that we started 4 weeks ago is still half full, so if it is home made does it not count as the points one for 2 months ? Do you think you will stick with the rationing at Christmas x
ReplyDeleteIt's surprising how little jam you need once you start to take notice of what you can get away with spreading on your bread or toast isn't it. No doubt it would be different if we were feeding children bread and jam for a meal, but for us grown-ups it does seem to last ages.
DeleteI really don't think so, during the war years if you were making your own jam out of your own rationed sugar and foraged fruits etc it was just there for you to use whenever. When the Women's Institute had the mass jam making sessions they were given extra sugar rations and then that jam was sold through shops and then you did need to spend your points to get some. But some countryside WI's had smaller jam making fund raising initiatives when things like blackberries and apples were in season, and then that was sold on stalls and off the ration.
I would like to stay as close as possible. Luckily I already have something left from last Christmas in the freezer, I think it's a 'No Turkey' Crown, so that can be the basis of Christmas Dinner. I will also save some rations up in the weeks running up to Christmas for a bit of baking.
That jelly looks amazing, a great colour, when I made plain apple jelly it was rather an unfortunate shade of yellow............ rookie error, I should have added in some red fruits.......
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Well in the YouTube video Pam's jelly was yellow too, so if it's good enough for the expert I wouldn't be worrying. It does only take a couple of dark berries to completely change the colour though. So next time you have some Blueberries or Blackberries for a dessert pop a couple of them into the freezer for your next jelly making session. :-)
DeleteThink I’ll try making the sausage plait- ever thought about mashing up eggie sausages! Catriona
ReplyDeleteLots of delicious jelly and some tasty looking pastries! Your ready rolled pastry prices seem very reasonable to me. The local Aldi closest to me didn't even have any ready rolled dough, but, the grocery store I tend to buy from these days has refrigerated Jus-Rol puff pastry dough, 13.2 oz. for $4.29, which, according to the online currency converter, works out to 3.46 British pounds sterling. The frozen puff pastry, 17.3 oz. sells for $8.99 which converts to 7.26 British pounds. Today's conversion rate is $1 = 0.807 British pounds.
ReplyDelete