Christas time cranberry sauce with a flavour of oranges and gingerbread spices

Christmas preparations are almost finished. One of the last things I did this year is the cranberry sauce, which I will serve with pate and cold meat ( just before the moment I took the pork loin stuffed with cloves, garlic and apricot glaze from the oven – it smells insanely !)
To make the sauce ( or maybe “jam”) it takes just a few minutes, and it tastes sensational – sweet with a hint of bitterness.

Ingredients
1 ½ cups frozen cranberries
orange juice of 1 big orange
1 cup brown sugar (or less if you prefer savoury sauce)
1 big apple
5 g cloves
1 cinnamon stick
orange zest of 1 orange
pinch salt
lemon juice – to add taste
optional a little bit of water if the sauce is too thick


Method
Peel the apple, cut in small cubes. Together with cranberries, orange juice, sugar and spices put the apple cubes in the sauce pan. Cook over low heat for about 10 min., until most of the fruit will fall apart ( you can help fruit with potato masher). Add some lemon juice to add some sourness. Hot sauce you can put in jars and bottled. Served cold taste the best!

Pickled chillies

Inspired by the Jamie Oliver’s recipe for pickled chillies I made a quite big jar of them as a present for my Dad – biggest fan of such a preserves. Maybe it’s a matter of culture, taste or other differences but we couldn’t eat those peppers. The recipe required changes as in the original one were simply peppers with vinegar. After these changes the peppers became nice appetizer. Spicy but still eatable!

Ingredients
22 oz (600 g) chilli peppers
15 black peppercorns
5 bay leaves
2 tbsp coriander seeds
4 tbsp salt
2 cups white wine vinegar
2 cups water
few full tablespoons sugar so the marinate will have interesting sour taste


Method
Slice each pepper from stem to end on one side and remove the seeds. Pour the boiling water over them and let them steep for 5 minutes to remove any remaining seeds. Drain. Take a jar add the spices. In a saucepan warm the water, vinegar and sugar. Pour the vinegar mixture the jar of chillies. Allow it to cool, then put a lid. Eat after 2 weeks!

Marinated garlic

Now my garlic is over 1 month old.... It’s perfect! Because of the olive oil it become delicate and it’s a great addition to many dishes, hmmm…not cooked ones J It’s perfect when cold and row as than its aroma is not too strong… and the oil with a garlic flavour….

Ingredients
8 large whole garlic
1 l olive oil
bunch thyme
lemon zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp colour pepper


Method
Divide the garlic into cloves, when it’s young you can leave the shells. To ‘baked’ in an oven jars put spices and garlic cloves, pour in olive oil. Seal the jars. Place the kitchen towel inside a big pot, put the jars on the kitchen towel and pour in water up to ¾ jar height. Pasteurize, but don’t bring to boil, for about 20 min.

Attention: you can’t add salt to the marinate as it will change the garlic colour into violet!

Marinated olives

The bowl full of olives is a great addition to any appetizer, evening with a glass of wine…. Those from the jar are quite good… and as the better is an enemy of good a slight taste twist were what they needed! Thanks to lemon juice the olives are more aromatic, in a Moroccan style, perfect for a Summer!

Ingredients (make a 10 fl oz/ 300 ml jar)
green stoned olives ( I used 2 packages each 200 ml)
lemon zest of 1 blanched olive
½ teaspoon dry chilli
fresh herbs: oregano, sage, rosemary- you can use your favourite: parsley, coriander, basil…
for a marinate: olive, vinegar (proportion 3:1)


Method
Drain the olives. Transfer them to the jar, add all ingredients: finely chopped herbs, lemon zest, chilli. Pour in olive and vinegar. Keep in a sealed jar in a fridge even for 3 weeks. Before eating wait 3 days so the flavours will mingle.

Ketchup

The end of summer is the best time of the year to make tomato preserves. It is a time you can buy ripe, red beautiful tomatoes. After seeing Jamie Oliver making the ketchup I wanted to try this recipe and make my own ketchup. I was waiting 6 months and finally I made it – the addition to everything!?

The natural ketchup is more orange than red. If you want to have more red home-made ketchup you can add beet roots concentrate- red colour guaranteed!

Ingredients
1 big red onion
½ celery root
1 piece ginger
2 garlic cloves
½ fresh or dry chilli pepper
1 bunch basil
1 tbsp coriander
2 cloves
1 teaspoon pepper
18 oz (500 g) ripe tomatoes
brown sugar*
vinegar
salt
* in the original recipe it’s said to add 200 ml vinegar and 60 g sugar, I added 5 tbsp vinegar and 5 tbsp sugar, it’s a matter of your preferences)

Method
Sauté chopped onion, garlic, celery, basil stalks and spices; simmer covered for about 10 min. Add tomatoes and 12 fl oz /350 ml water. Cook on a low heat until the sauce gets thick and ½ of it evaporate. Add basil leaves, puree everything in a food processor. Liquidise twice through the sieve. Season with salt, sugar and vinegar. Again heat the mixture on a low heat until half evaporate, so the sauce will look like the real ketchup! Pour into prepared jars. Keep sealed.

Peach jam with lime, gloves and cinnamon

Sweet preserves are mostly useful as a comfort food in a cold, grey winter mornings. Is there anything better than a sunny jam with a warm bun? Such a set even in a snowy and windy day puts you on your feet and gives you energy for the whole day.

So let’s start putting the Summer flavour in jars, to stay with us longer!

This jam has beautiful colour (I do hope you can see it in a photos..), smooth consistence and slightly spiced aroma, Delicious!

Ingredients ( make 2 jars, each 330 ml)
35 oz (500 g) peaches
35 oz (500g) kg sugar
6 gloves
1 cinnamon stick
4 tbsp lime juice


Method
Peel and stoned peaches, cut in eighths, mix with lime juice, place in a baking dish and bake for 30 min in a preheated oven to 280 F/140 oC. After 30 min. put the fruit into the pan, combine with sugar, add gloves and cinnamon. Cook on a low heat, stirring from time to time until the jam gets thick (about 2 hours). At the end add thinly sliced nectarine. Pour the jam into the hot jars, add 2 gloves and ½ cinnamon stick in each jar, seal tightly.