Apart from dressing like Scott of the Antarctic having a bad day at the South Pole last week, the best thing that happened was a wake-up from an old friend and reader reminding me that this is the best and cheapest month for trying to match Granny’s pickles and conserves.
I knew my maternal Gran very well - my pleasure-crazed young parents used to dump me on her for weekends and weeks on end and I loved her dearly. She used to stare out at her orchard and vegetable garden and then make enigmatic remarks like: “The brussels still need a touch of frost so I’ll sauce the fallen apples if you bring me enough.”
I would toddle out and set to work while Gran lit a fag, put her feet up and enjoyed a fresh brew of tea. Here are her pickled onions: the best I’ve ever known. She told me she got the recipe from a Finnish sailor. What a woman!
Spiced and Pickled Onions
To make 2kg:
750g small pickling onions, peeled
600ml water
75g sea salt
600ml white vinegar
175g brown treacle sugar
¼ tsp ground mace
15g fresh ginger, scraped and sliced thinly or ¼ tsp ground ginger
15 black peppercorns
1 Bring the water and salt to boil and pour over the onions. Let them stand for a day or a night. Drain. Combine all the remaining ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, cover and simmer for just 3 minutes.
2 Drop in the onions, cover and simmer for 5 minutes or just until the onions are transparent but still firm and crisp.
3 Sterilise small glass jars. Remove onions from their liquid, draining with a slotted spoon, then two-thirds fill the jars. Through a sieve, pour the liquid over the onions to fill the jars. Cap or cover, then let them cool and chill. Keep five days before using.
Ainsley Harriott’s Red or White Onion Marmalade
Makes about 450ml
Three large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tbs olive oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp dhania/coriander seeds
4 tbs brown treacle sugar
3 tbs red wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Tip the onions into a heavy-based pan and add the garlic, olive oil, mustard and coriander seeds. Stir well to combine and then cook gently over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2 Stir in the vinegar and sugar. Continue to cook for another 10 to 20 minutes, stirring, until the onions are completely translucent and the marmalade well reduced. Stir in 4 tbs water and cook on low heat for another 10 minutes until the marmalade is well thickened and slightly sticky. Season to your taste.
3 If you are not going to use the marmalade immediately, it will keep well for a week in sealed jars in the fridge. If you want to store it longer, wash and sterilise jam jars, dry them thoroughly in a low oven. Fill and cover the marmalade – when still hot – with a circle of waxed paper. Cover the tops of the jars with a wet circle of clear plastic. Tie this last cover tightly around the neck of the jars with string or strong elastic bands.
Pickled White Turnips
It’s turnip time – keep some for Christmas.
To make a kilo
750g small white and red turnips
1 small beetroot, peeled
500ml water
250ml vinegar
6 garlic cloves
2 tsp sea salt
1 Cut off the green tops if they look good – wash, chop and cook them like spinach and have them for dinner.
2 Cut a slice each from the turnips’ tops and bottoms, then slice them – about 5mm thick lengthways to within a centimetre, not quite cutting all the way through. Wash well and place in a glass jar with the beetroot to give colour and a stronger flavour.
3 Boil the remaining ingredients together for 10 minutes to make the pickling solution. Cool it. Then pour over the turnips. Store in a cool place and the turnips will be ready after three days – or conserve in jars for longer.
* Naartje/Tangerine Rind – don’t throw it away!
A Malayan housewife would think we are insane to throw away naartje peel – or wastefully throw the whole fruit at rugby referees.
Give naartje/tangerine peels a good wash in case they have been dipped in preserving wax. Chop the peel roughly in thin strips. Dry and toughen it in a pre-heated 100ºC oven. Pound it or process it and pack into jars. Preserve some and keep in the fridge. This isn’t just an amazing addition to cakes and puddings, it also lifts curries or any stew or casserole.
Lemon Curd
It will keep refrigerated for two to three months.
Makes 500g.
Grated rind and juice of two good lemons
125g castor sugar
125g lump sugar
60g unsalted butter
3 eggs beaten
1 Place the sugars in the top of a rinsed double-boiler (or an improvised small pan in a large one). Add the butter, lemon rind and juice to the smaller pan, then beat in the eggs. When blended, place the small pan in the larger, over 10cm of simmering water.
2 Stir constantly while cooking until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens – about 10 minutes. Do not allow the water to boil. Pot as in the onion marmalade recipe above and seal at once.
Bitter Lemon Pickle
The combination of ingredients is weird but the taste is irresistible with cold meat. You can pot some for the fridge and jam-jar the rest to keep. Makes about 2.5kg
8 (preferably) thin skinned lemons sliced lengthwise, each into 8 seeded slices
2 tbs sea salt
500g sultanas, chopped
1 tbs chopped fresh ginger
1 level tsp chilli powder
6 garlic cloves, crushed
300ml cider vinegar
750g brown treacle sugar
6 juniper berries
1 Sprinkle the lemon slices with the salt and keep in a covered bowl in the fridge for 36 hours, stirring occasionally.
2 Drain and reserve the liquid. Put the lemons through a processor or mincer aiming at a coarse result.
3 Combine everything in a big saucepan. Simmer over a low heat until the mixture is thick – 1 to 1½ hours. Pot in sterilised jars as in the onion marmalade above. - Sunday Tribune