Jam, sauce & dinner

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Plump raspberries from this season

Since there is a market upcoming (although by the sound of the pouring rain as I type, it may be a no-goer) I thought it best to drag some of the umpteen squillion bags of raspberries out of the freezer and make some more jam. Everyone seems to love it. (Except my weird husband who avoids it because he is a sook about seeds in his teeth! 🙂 ) (more for me!!)

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Sticky goodness

It was important to test it –

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Fresh bread and jam

Tick.

Moving right along to make up that sweet chilli sauce

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Sweet Chilli Sauce

Recipe for those who are interested:

You’ll need a long lead time if you want to grow your own chillies and garlic, otherwise its pretty straightforward.

Ingredients:

300 grams chillies (deseeded)

100 grams garlic

70 grams fresh ginger

1.2 litres of cider vinegar

2 kg sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Method:

Put your chillies, garlic and ginger in the Gee Whizzer with a bit of the cider vinegar to puree

Add to large pot with remaining ingredients and boil (keep an eye on it – horrible to clean up if it boils over)

Recipe calls for 25 minutes of simmering but I need a LOT longer (ie an hour or two) to reduce to the desired thickness

Do yourself a favour and DO NOT INHALE while cooking or even washing the pot. Seriously. Your eyes will water for a week.

Pour into sterilised bottles and enjoy.

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Drizzle on cream cheese and biscuits (crackers) or very nice with spring rolls

Since I had made meatloaf yesterday I didn’t have much to do to get dinner ready, except trot down the yard to my personal supermarket to pull up some carrots –

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Impressed with my carrots that I have mostly ignored all season!

Pick the first of the pumpkins It was so small but the plant has died back so why not try it? Glad we did – tasty!!

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Cute teeny pumpkin
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Looks ok

And a visit to the herb garden for some basil, parsley and oregano. Honestly – have you seen how expensive ‘fresh’ herbs are to buy in the supermarket? Even if you don’t have a garden, grab a few pots and grow your favourite herbs. You won’t look back!

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Herb Garden

I also had a taste for some stuffed tomatoes, so while the vegies were baking I prepared a few. Its another great way to make use of your excess tomatoes.

First whizz up some breadcrumbs and add some fresh herbs (or dry) and a bit of garlic salt

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Breadcrumbs & fresh herbs

Get your tomatoes, cut in half and scoop out the centre.

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Scoop middles

Smush up or whizz up the centres and add them to the breadcrumb mixture then spoon the lot back into the tomato shells.

Top with a bit of basil and a smidge of butter. They will take about 5 minutes under the grill so you can do them last thing before serving up dinner.

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Ready for the grill

I have no photo of dinner because I was hungry and ate it – plus it wasn’t that photogenic anyway – but it was fresh and tasted not too bad at all!

Cheers

 

 

Author: Lisa

A happy traveller through life! Right now living in NW Tasmania with a gorgeous Nurse-Husband, a fool of a Siamese Cat and several chickens. We love our fairly simple lifestyle of growing a lot of what we eat and enjoying the stunning surrounds of our little patch.

4 thoughts on “Jam, sauce & dinner”

    1. I actually don’t know, but I am pretty sure it doesn’t matter – I have about 4 different types growing and just use whatever is ripe enough. I am going to try to grow more of the fatter longer ones (I’ll look up the names one day) simply because they are easier to cut and de-seed. 🙂

  1. What kind of chiles do you grow for this? I like to make “cowboy candy” with all of the jalapeños we grow, but I know my hubby would love your chili sauce.

    1. Honestly I don’t know. By accident I had about 4 different types. I really don’t think it matters. What I have realised is that it has more of a ‘nudge’ heat wise than when I bought supermarket chillies one time. Home grown all the way regardless of type. If you know your chillies (which I don’t) you may be able to make it milder or hotter depending on the chillies you grow.
      I am now off to google “Cowboy Candy” because I have no idea what that is and it sounds intriguing! 🙂

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