Spruce Shoot Jam – Recipe

New spruce shoots

Spruce trees are a common site in the west of Ireland, not just as part of the alien forestry that covers much of the land, but also you see groups of old trees close to houses, derelict old cottages and lived in houses like ours.

Spruce trees beside our house

That is exactly what we have close to our house, very close. I guess that these spruce trees were originally planted so as to provide shelter from the frequent and strong west winds.Now they have grown tall and cast a shadow over the garden in the evening time. We plant exotic woodland species under them, and hostas thrive there.

The species often seen is Sitka spruce, Picea sitchensis, a fast growing species. It is the most widely planted forestry tree, a non-native species that is controversial. It is favoured by forestry companies due to its rapid growth but it does not do much for enriching the wildlife of the country. Beneath them nothing grows and they have a big impact on acidification of soils.

Spruce trees are a common sight in the west of Ireland

Spruce has been traditionally used as a cough syrup, in fact it is sold in health food shops in that form. Spruce syrup can be made which is quite tasty and sweet and also spruce cordial. I made the cordial which is very nice and refreshing when diluted with sparkling water. The spruce shoot jam is very good too, an almost caramel like flavour with a hint of, spruciness…

 

To make the jam I first cooked the spruce shoots in water, i used about 2 cups of shoots and covered them with water and cooked simmered for about four hours. After it cooled overnight I strained it through a muslin cloth and then kept the spruce liquid in the fridge.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of spruce concentrate (see above)
• 3 Large dessert apples, peeled, cored and chopped finely
• 2 bottles (2 x 360ml) of apple juice concentrate
• Juice of one lemon

Method:

1. Wash the spruce shoots in cold water
2. Add the apples, lemon juice and fruit concentrate to the saucepan
3. Cook with a medium heat until the apple pieces are soft (about 15 minutes)
4. Add the spruce concentrate
5. Turn up the heat and cook until the jam starts to thicken, about 15-20 minutes
6. Spoon or pour into sterilized jam jars and put lids on straight away

This made three jars of jam.

Fresh new growths in May on spruce tree

Primrose Petal Jam– Recipe

Petals in measuring jug

Primroses carpet the ground under an old hawthorn tree in our garden, the clothe the soil with a fragility and light, their gentle perfume is a delight. Primula vulgaris is a native plant, a wild flower that is always welcome in our garden. Each year they bring freshness and beauty to the Spring.

Their flowers appear delicate but they are robust plants. The petals of each flower untie at their bases to form a narrow tube that attached to the green stalk. Given a gentle tug, they detach easily from their bases. You can munch them and they taste nice, an unique flavour. I imagined a jam made from them…

Primrose flowers

Based on recipes for rose petal jelly and adapted to include some apple for abit of body here is a jam I made from primroes petals gathered in our garden last weekend. It is deilcious, a flavour which is a mix of fruity sweetness and a late hint of turkish delight…

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 litre of primrose flowers. When foraging for wild food, do not collect flowers, leaves or fruits from beside busy roads, or areas where they are exposed to possible pollution.
• 2 cups of water
• 1½ cup of fruit sugar Ii used Fruisana, a fructose based sugar which is lower in calories and has a lower GI rating than ordinary sugar).
• 2 Apples, peeled, cored and diced finely
• Juice of one lemon

Primrose flowers in saucepan

Method:

1. Wash the flowers in cold water.
2. Add the flowers petals, water, lemon juice and apple pieces into a saucepan
3. Cook with a medium heat until the apple pieces are soft (about 15 minutes)
4. Slowly add the sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved
5. Turn up the heat and cook until the jam starts to thicken, about 25-20 minutes
6. Spoon or pour into sterilized jam jars and put lids on straight away

This made nearly two jars of jam.

pouring Jam into a jar

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Sea buckthorn berries make good jam!

Top Fruit, Soft Fruit and Strange Fruit

I was getting ready to do a talk to the North Mayo Garden Club today, and as I was going through my presentation I remembered that I had a few pots of delicious apple and sea buckthorn jam left. Sea buckthorn berries are a super health food; one small berry can have a Vitamin C content equal to that of six oranges, packed with atioxidants and a number of omega oils, it is a wonder fruit. It is also a wondeful tasting berry. Eaten straight from the bush it may be a bit sharp for many peoples’ tastes, but blended with juices or as an ingredient in cooking it is delicious, unique and colourful.

Sea Buckthorn berries - Hippophae rhamnoides

The first of our bushes that we planted gave us a good crop this year, or to be more specific the female plant cropped well. We originally planted two varieties, Rudolph, a male to pollinate, and Raisa a female to fruit, both purchased in Finland while on holidays three years ago. Last year we had a few berries but this year we have lots in the freezer and enough to make jam. We have since planted five more female varieties, we are sure Rudolph will be up to the job, and are looking forward to great crops in the coming years.

To make the flavour of this year’s berries go further, I  mixed the berries with apple to make jam. It turned out great, it is one of my favourite jams, sea buckthorns are one of my favourite berries. Below is the recipe that I used for the jam. I am going to take  a jar with me to my talk tonight so that people can have a taste of sea buckthorn, for most it will probably be their first time. Perhaps some gardeners might be inspired to grow these great plants.

Apple and Sea Buckthorn Jam

Jar of home made Apple and Sea buckthorn Jam

900ml of sea buckthorn berries

3 litres of peeled and chopped desert apples

1 Kg of sugar

300 ml of water

1. Cook the berries, water and apples over a low heat for about fifteen minutes or until the apple is soft.

2. Slowly add the sugar, stirring well to ensure the fruit dissolves.

3. Turn heat up and cook the jam for about fifteen or twenty minutes.

4. Spoon the jam into sterilized glass jars and tighten lids immediately. (Wash used jam jars with soapy water, then dry off and place in cold oven an heat to 100 degrees celcius).

North Mayo Garden Club, talk tonight Tuesday 8th of November- Top Fruit, Soft Fruit and Strange Fruit- a talk by Ciaran Burke. Venue Merry Monk, Killala Road, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland. 8 pm.

Talk will also be given to Claregalway  GIY on Wednesday 23rd November at Arches Hotel, Claregalway, Co. Galway at 8 pm.

GOING WILD ABOUT WILD BLUE BERRY JAM IN FINLAND

BLUE BERRY, BILBERRY,FROACHAN, VACCINIUM MYRTILLLUS- FRUIT

I have been in Finland for the last couple of weeks with my wife Hanna, a native of this beautiful tree filled land. Finland is the most forested country in the EU. Approximately 74% of the country is covered in forest. One gets the impression that even the biggest towns and cities are living areas carved from the forests, trees are never far away. The green gold of Finland provides an important source of income, but the forests are more than resources to be harvested and sold.

Driving through the country, large pines and birches tower either side of the road. The roads are like veins and arteries carrying civilization, through a forested body; it is in this arboreal body in which the Finnish soul resides.

In European folklores, the woods are scary places; big bad wolves attack innocent girls on their way to visit their grand mothers. In Finland however the forests are considered a place of beauty, where most people spend their summer holidays, surrounded by the beauty. In summer as you drive along one of the arterial routes of civilization, you are sure to see people walking to the forests with empty buckets in search for berries or coming from the woods with baskets of mushrooms. Gathering food from the forest floor is a national pass time, or in some cases an obsession.

The two most numerous berry types are lingon berry and wild blueberry, bilberry, or froachan as we call it in Ireland. Both are species of Vaccinium, the former, V. vitis-idea and the latter V. myrtillus. Finns may love their forests, but they are intensely proud of their berries too. Ask them and most will tell you that the Finnish blueberries are the best. Families often have their own preferred places for picking; this information is not shared with others.

Last week we were in Hanko, the southern most tip of Finland. Here the forest is chiefly composed of tall pines. We got a report that the blue berries were plentiful, we went for a walk to see. As often happens in this wooded land, a short stroll became a berry picking expedition. The hot and high afternoon sun filtered through the open pines to dapple light patterns on the sandy forest floor. Mosses and lichens made a soft bed for heathers and blueberries to grow in the shade. We picked a litre of berries and returned home.

WILD BLUE BERRIES PILED ON THE MARKET STALL

Early the next morning we visited the market in Hanko. Here in a car park in the town, adjacent to a filling station, wild blue berries were piled high on a table. The berry sellers were Asian women, Burmese refugees. They pick them in the woods and sell the in the market, their produce marked clearly that they are Suomi, Finnish. Farmers sold vegetables, there were stalls for locally caught fish too. The vegetables stalls sold potatoes measured in kappa’s. A kappa is a wooden box, a 5 litre box is a full kappa, a 2 litre is half. These are traditional measurements used for selling potatoes, converted to metric measurements, the boxes complete with official stamps. Most fruits and vegetables are sold by volume and not by weight at the Finnish markets. French beans, green and yellow are measured in litre and half litre measuring cups.

FRANCH BEANS ON THE MARKET STALL

We purchased an additional litre of blue berries and potatoes and vegetables for dinner; then we cycled home to make some jam.

BLUE BERRY JAM INGREDIENTS

In a saucepan I cooked the berries with a small amount of water until the fruit had become soft, a wonderful fruity fragrance filled the kitchen. After about ten minutes of slowly cooking the fruit I gradually added 500g of sugar, made from Finnish grown sugar beet, unlike Ireland they saved their sugar beet industry from EU eradication. When all the sugar was added and dissolved, I turned up the heat and the jam boiled hard. I continued cooking the jam, stirring occasionally until the jam was not running off the wooden spoon.

ADDING SUGAR TO THE JAM

The messiest part of jam making is always when I fill the jars. The jars were heated in the oven so as to sterilize them; they were first washed, then dried and placed in a cold oven. I heat the oven to 100 degrees Celsius and the jars remain in the oven until I am ready to fill them.

POTS OF BLUE BERRY JAM

Later when the filled jars had cooled and the jam was set, we ate Finnish oven pancake over which we spooned this delicious wild blue berry jam. We ate it with home made buns, on bread, and spooned straight from the jar. There is nothing quite like home made jam, wild blue berry jam made with berries from the woodland, delicious!

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Kanaviilokki – Finnish Chicken Curry With Blackcurrant Jam

Next week I will be visiting Finland. Each year my wife and I visit her homeland and her family and friends. I like Finland, in the summer the nights are long, the weather better than Ireland and in the winter the deep snow and cold crisp weather is refreshing. The Finns are nice people, polite and pleasant, direct and honest.

When you visit foreign places, you look for similarities, you also notice differences. The people you meet treat you as an exotic, they too look for similarities between our cultures and also observe the differences. Sometimes both can create amusing situations. A simple act on my part, a common place action in my home land can create amusement and people might make remarks. A straight forward act such as putting jam on your bread in the morning, a good example. Finns eat bread for their breakfast, they also eat jam, but the two do not meet. No, black currant jam does not get spread on their leipä, instead they eat their black currant hillo with meat. A popular home made dish is Kanaviilokki, a chicken curry and it is always served with jam, black currant jam. Imagine sitting down at the local Indian curry house, the waiter has served you your tandori chicken and asks you if there is anything else he can get you, to which you reply, “may I have a side order of black currant jam to go with this please?”. I am tempted to try it. Well until I get that opportunity I decided to give it ago at home. Hanna supplied the recipe, just like Finnish mums have been making it for decades, but with a few slight variations.

You can’t get whole chikens in the shop in Finland, you can only get portions or what they call broiler meat. We used a large breast and two thighs which we had cut up into portions when we bought our organic chiken from Irish Organic meats at Boyle farmers market, Hanna ground up the curry spices fresh, and the chicken stock came from our freezer, made from the carcass of an organic chicken after portioning it up. We use brown basmati rice.

INGREDIENTS FOR KANAVIILOKKI

KANAVIILOKKI

INGREDIENTS:

• 500g of chicken, cut into pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped coarsely
• 500ml chicken stock
• 3 teaspoons of curry powder (depending on which mix you use, add less at first and add more as it cooks if you think it needs it)
• Butter for frying
• cornflower for thikening
• Black Currant Jam for serving
• Brown Basmati Rice

METHOD

1. Melt a large knob of butter in a large sauce pan. I add a little rape seed oil to help stop the butter burning. Use a medium to low heat.
2. Add the onion and saute until it starts to soften.
3. Add curry powder and continue to cook until the onion softens and turns golden. Be careful not to let the onion burn and don’t let it stick to the pan, keep it moving around.
4. Chicken can now be added, turn up the heat a little and stir around until the meat is sealed.
5. Pour in the chicken stock, turn up the heat until the liquid boils and then lower the heat and cover the pot.
6. Let the mixture simmer for 40 minutes, stirring every now and again to prevent it sticking
7. Put a couple of tea spoons of corn flower in a cup and add a little water, stir to make a paste.
8. Add a little of the cornflower at a time and stir until the curry starts to thicken, cook for another few minutes, stirring frequently.
9. Serve the curry with boiled rice and a side dish of black currant jam.
   

   KANAVIILOKKI - CHICKEN CURRY

   

   KANAVIILOKKI

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ELDERFLOWER AND APPLE JAM- A DELICIOUS TASTE OF SUMMER

ELDERFLOWER AND APPLE JAM IN BOWL AND JAR

Despite the less than summery weather over the last while I do feel that summer has indeed arrived. The reason, the ederflowers are in blossom. Sambucus nigra, common elder, is a native shrub/small tree to Ireland and all throughout the countryside its creamy white flat heads are to be seen. Apart from its medicinal uses of which there are many, the flowers and fruits are a great source of food and tastiness.

ELDERFLOWERS WASHED AND IN A BOWL

Elder is a relatively un-used plant in modern day Ireland, which is a shame. In recent years there has been a growing fondnes for elderflower cordial, which is delicious and very easy to make. On Friday evening I made a litre of cordial which will be ready to use in a few days time.  -To see previous blog on how to make elderflower cordial click on the link near the bottom of the page.

I love the clear fresh taste of elder flower and have been of the opinion that there must be more ways to capture its taste apart from making cordial. On Saturday we had elderflower pancakes which were delicious. I will post a blog on how to make them soon. But to enjoy the flavour of elderflowers every morning would be a treat, a great way to exercise the taste buds at the start of each day. So my mind turned to jam, not literally, but thinking of how I could capture the uniqueness of the elderflower flavour in a fruit spread, free of sugar. This resulted is two jams, Strawberry & Elderflower and Elderflower & Apple.

POTS OF STRAWBERRY AND ELDERFLOWER JAM

The first of the two jams I made was Strawberry and Elderflower which is very tasty, a great success. The sweetness of the strawberry seduces your tounge with sweetness then the elder flower tingles it. I made a small batch with strawberries purchased from the farmer’s market in Boyle, Co. Roscommon. But, I wanted more elderflower, and decided to try making a jam with apple. The result is fabulous, perhaps my favourite jam ever! So here are the two recipes. I like to make sugar free jams. Instead of adding sugar I use apple juice concentrate. Although it works out more expensive I do like to eat lots of jam, so it is healthier.

When making jams have clean jars ready. We use old jam jars, washed in hot soapy water then dried thoroughly. Place in a cool oven and heat to 100 degrees Celcius, about twenty minutes at his temperature should sufficiently sterize the jars.

STRAWBERRY AND ELDERFLOWER JAM (SUGAR FREE)

INGREDIENTS:

800g of strawnerries with green parts removed, large fruits were cut into halves.

8 heads of elderflowers.

360 ml of apple fruit juice concentrate

2 apples, peeled and chopped

Juice of one lemon.

STRAWBERRIES TOPPED AND ON KITCHEN SCALES

METHOD:

1. Tie the flowerheads from the elder into some muslin.
2. Cook chopped apple in the apple juice concentrate with the lemon juice and the elderflowers in the muslin bag until the apple pieces are soft.  (about 10-15 minutes) Keep the heat low after it has started to bubble.
3. Add the strawberries and continue cooking at a low heat until the fruit is soft. (about 20 minutes). Stir to make sure fruit does not stick or jam burn
4. Mash up some of the strawberries to make a pulp, leave soft entire fruit.
5. Turn up the heat so that the jam really bubbles. Stir occassionally.
6. When jam has reduced and when you move a wooden spoon across the base of the pot and you hear a good sizzle, then the jam is ready.
7. Spoon the jam into the jars, be careful, the jam is very hot, wear oven gloves. Clean the outside of the jars to remove any jam that you have spilled, use a clean damp cloth.
8. Place lids on immediatley.

WASHED ELDERFLOWERS ON MUSLIN CLOTH

STRAWBERRY JAM COOKING IN SAUCEPAN

We have just used the last of the jam we made last october and they have kept well using this method.

ELDERFLOWER AND APPLE JAM (SUGAR FREE)– Possibly the tastiest jam in the world!!!

ELDERFLOWER AND APLE JAM ON BREAD WITH JARS AND GLASS BOWL

INGREDIENTS:

1      1.1Kg peeled and cored dessert apples (the weight after peeling and coring). Chop into small pieces.

2      11 heads of elderflowers

3      2 x 360ml bottle of apple juice concentrate

4      juice of one lemon

MUSLIN CLOTH WITH ELDERFLOWERS AND LEMON PIPS IN APPLE CONCENTRATE COOKING

METHOD:

1      Place the elderflowers in a muslin cloth and tie to make a bag.

2      Put all the ingredients into a saucepan. Cook on a low heat until the apples are soft (15-20 Minutes). Make sure that the muslin cloth containing the elderflower is in the liquid.

3      Remove from the heat and using a hand blender, blend the apples until they are pulp.

4      Return to the cooker and cook on a higher heat. The jam will be ready in about 10 – 15 minutes.

5      Spoon into sterlized jars and cover jars with lids straight away.

ELDER FLOWER AND APPLE JAM ON BREAD

Elderflower and apple jam is delicious on freash beread or toast. Also great with some yougurt too. Even if the summer weather does not live up to expectations, elderflower will always be a summer treat in June.

MAKE ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL (LINK) (from my other blog on www.ciaranburke.ie)

 

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Bergamots

Lovely Bergamots and limes

“Can I photograph your bergamots?” I innocently enquired. “I have never been asked that before” the lady replied. Her husband enquired if I wanted to photograph his, I declined. It was all quite innocent, I was asking the friendly couple who run Kinnedan Organic Farm stall if I could photograph their strange and bitter sweet fruit.

Kinnedan Organic Farm stall at Boyle Farmers' market

It looks a bit like a lemon, but its not. It has segments like a grapefruit, but its small and yellow. It is a citrus fruit, Citrus bergamia, and its best known use is for flavouring Earl Grey tea.It is often confused with the herb bergamont which is Monarda didyma, an unrelated herbaceous perennial plant. My first taste of bergamot was in Italy, where it is known as chinoto. A soft drink is sold using the name Chinoto, it looks like cola but has a totally different taste, not as sweet, more aromatic. That was many years ago.

Bergamot Fruit cut in half with grated rind

My more recent encounter with bergamot fruit was at Kinnedan Organic farm stall at the Origin farmers market in Bolye, Co. Roscommon. In a basket the plump yellow fruits shared the space with ripe green limes. I mistook them for lemons but once you smell them you are left in in no doubt that this is something different. Citrus-ey and aromatic, the oily tanginess fills your nostrils, you know this is going to be something special.

Most of the world’s bergamot production seems to take place in Reggio-Calabria in the south of Italy, although they are also grown in Ivory Coast. The trees can grow up to 3 metres and have a bossom typical of citrus, white and fragrant. Bergamot fruits are mostly available in winter.

When I got home my mind was racing, my tummy was rumbling and mouth was watering. The possibilities were endless. First thing I tried was chicken marinated in bergamot juice, grated rind with chili and salt. Thinly sliced chicken breast left to marinade for about twenty minutes then fried and served with stir fried vegetables and brown basmati rice (all organic). It was simply delicious.

After having a savory dish I wanted to have something sweet, so I made both lime curd and bergamot curd. Both are equally delicious, super spread on fresh brown spelt bread or try adding some to natural yogurt, delish!

BERGAMOT CURD

(substitute limes for bergamots for lime curd)

Ingredients:

320g Organic Raw Cane Sugar

Juice of 2 Bergamot (or lime) fruit

2 table Spoons of Bergamot (or lime) grated rind

4 eggs

230gm unsalted butter

Method:

1. Wash jam jars, dry well and place in cold oven. Heat to 100 degrees Celcius.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar together for a few minutes until mixture smooth
3. Add the bergamot rind and juice.
4. Transfer to sauce pan and heat the mixture on medium setting, stirring constantly until mixture is thick, about 7 – 10 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in butter, a small amount at a time.
6. Transfer to sterilized jars and cover with lids straight away.

Store the curd in a cool place or refrigerate, use within 3 weeks.

Make sure to clean outside of jars with a clean damp cloth and apply labels with date.

Ingredients for making curd

Adding the butter, a little at a time, stirring constantly

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