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From somewhere came the idea of trying a Salted Caramel Ice Cream recipe, and then on Binging with Babish I saw a trick for making Dulce De Leche. You boil a full tin of condensed milk in a pot of water for between 1 and 3 hours, and then when you open it, it is caramelised. I tried this recipe twice. The first time I used the same basic ice cream recipe as in the Rose Petal Ice Cream, but I accidentally used unsweetened condensed milk. I tried adding sugar and further caramelising it once I took it out of the tin, and it worked, but the flavour was not strong enough to hold its own once I mixed it with the cream and put it all in the churn. The result is nice, but a bit bland, more of a fiore di latte than a caramel ice cream. In my second attempt, I made sure to pick up sweetened condensed milk, and the caramelising trick worked great. On opening the tin we found a thick, rich Dulce de Leche with a beautiful colour (although I must say that I feel rather like Amelia Bedelia boiling a tin). I then tried out Michel Roux's basic ice cream recipe (sort of) based on a frozen Crème Anglaise, but unfortunately got this going when I had a number of other bits going on the stove at the same time, and Little Bit started resisting bed time. The result was that the eggs lumped a bit in the mix. I wondered whether to chuck it and whip cream for my ice cream instead, but instead decided to run with it. I mixed in my caramel and stirred more or less continuously until it all thickened up enough to go in the churn. The result has a wonderful flavour. The eggy custard base adds a beautiful depth and richness to the flavour. The small eggy lumps mar the effect a little, and are more perceptible as the ice cream melts, but initially they are barely noticeable unless you look for them. I will include both recipes - using whipped cream, which I recommend if you don't have a churn, and the custard based one - as the flaws were neither of them in the conception or recipe but rather in the execution. The first produces a lighter flavour with a firmer, harder texture when frozen, the other a softer texture and a richer flavour. Both were tasty (but I can only imagine version 1 with properly caramelised ice cream). For V1 (with or without an ice cream maker): Ingredients: 1 c sweetened condensed milk (ish, I just use the whole tin) 2 c cream 1/2 tsp salt 1/3 c caramel bits 1) Place the unopened tin of sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover. Place over heat and bring to a boil. Cover the saucepan and boil for 2 ish hours (less time will result in a lighter caramel, more in a darker caramel. In order for the flavour to hold its own I wouldn't boil for any less than 2 hours). Top up water as necessary. 2) Whip cream. Fold in caramel, salt and caramel bits. 3) EITHER place in Ice cream churn until thick and nearly frozen, then place in container in the freezer OR place directly in a container in the freezer, relying on the lightness of the whipped cream for the ice cream's lightness. For Version 2 (using an ice cream churn): Ingredients: 1 c condensed milk (ish, I just use the whole tin) 6 egg yolks 2 c milk 1 c sugar 1/3 c caramel bits 1/2 tsp salt 1) Place the unopened tin of sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover. Place over heat and bring to a boil. Cover the saucepan and boil for 2 ish hours (less time will result in a lighter caramel, more in a darker caramel. In order for the flavour to hold its own I wouldn't boil for any less than 2 hours). Top up water as necessary. 2) Place milk and 2/3 of the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks with remaining 1/3 of the sugar until it forms a ribbonny consistency. 3) Pour milk over the egg and sugar mixture, whisking continuously. Pour back into the saucepan, turn the heat to low and stir constantly (this is where I failed) until the custard thickens. Stir in the caramel and salt about mid-way through. 4) Remove from the heat and allow to cool thoroughly. Pour into the ice cream churn and allow to go until nearly frozen. When the mixture is very cool but not yet anywhere near set, add the caramel bits (I added mine a little early and they were less discernibly bits in the final ice cream, and more just concentrated caramel pockets of ice cream. Place in a container and freeze. To my great good fortune, when my sister stayed over last night (invited in the very solemn role of Ketchup Guinea Pig), she warned me that she would have to make brownies to bring to work while staying over. For dessert today therefore, we had Version 2 of the Salted Caramel Ice Cream with fresh brownies. There are certainly worse fates one could have to face. The consensus was that this was well worth making again, and was not ruined by my failure to stir the custard constantly yesterday. It would be nice served with some flakes of sea salt or curls of dark chocolate, something with no add sweetness which would contrast nicely with the caramel's sweetness. I am certainly glad I tried a different method for ice cream making, and that I picked up the right condensed milk this time!

Moving forward with my cheese making turned out to be something of a challenge. Despite Switzerland being a cheese-making country (like no other I know! There is a dairy and local cheese shop in every village around here!), it proved surprisingly difficult to order cheese cultures. I asked a neighbour who used to make goat's cheese and got a website. I contacted them and looked through the catalogue but the numbers of the cultures didn't correspond to the ones in my cheese making book. I later discovered that this was a wide-spread problem and have struggled to find most of the cultures from the book, being on the other side of the Atlantic from that in which it was written. I didn't know this at that point though. I asked at my local dairy if they knew where I could order cultures and equipment. They did not, but suggested I ask at the local pharmacy. The pharmacist said she could order rennet for me, but had no idea about cultures. A colleague of hers piped up though to say that she knew of a website. That one, and one more I found on the internet, proved helpful, but yet another couldn't sell to me as I am not a dairy and am making cheese only for myself. For more of the cultures, I may have to order from the US, but for now, I have succeeded in getting my hands on 4 cultures whose numbers correspond to those in the book. There is an additional wrinkle in that the cheese culture compositions can be the same for say, MA 4001, MA 4002, MA 4003, but the proportions of each bacterial strain in each culture is different, producing a different result. I did find some culture numbers close to what I was looking for, but not being experienced enough, I don't know what effect this will have on the cheeses so I haven't tried trading them out yet. And then there is the fact that cultures are measured in DCUs, which is a measure of the bacterial strength for cheese making, but it does not correspond to weight or volume measures. The book does not mention DCUs at all, but only instructs me to use 1/4 tsp of X culture. The cultures came with no information beyond their expiry date, so I had to try to find their product sheets online for that particular DCU (I am not sure exactly how the DCUs translate across. Does 25 DCU for 100l mean that 50DCU is for 200l or is it twice as strong and so only half as much is necessary for 100l, but both packets, in their entirety are for 100l of milk?). Once I found them, I found myself doing fun back of the envelope calculations. About 1 tbsp of culture is for 100l of milk. I have 2l of milk. So 1/50 of 1 tbsp is... Let's see, 1 tsp is a third of a tbsp therefore 1tsp = 33l, 1/2 tsp= 16.5l, 1/4 tsp=8.25l, 1/8tsp=4.125 l, therefore I need about 1/16 tsp. I think. If I got this all right. That's for the ones that I could find the product sheets for. The others are pure guess work. And then the rennet! The directions in the book call for liquid rennet but it never defines the concentration of the liquid rennet. I have tablets for now and have stuck with those. According to the directions on the packet, one tablet is good for about 4l of milk. I have found though, for example in making mozzarella, that I actually needed a little more rennet than that. So in a recipe with a different from of rennet, for a cheese I haven't made before? Who knows. Guess work again. Making the cream cheese, I followed the directions (although due to calculations of DCUs in my head and some rounding up, I used twice as much culture as I needed). I let the inoculated milk and cream sit over night and was going to set it all up to drain in the morning before heading to work, but there was no clear division of curds and whey. It merely looked like the cream had risen to the top and separated. So I left it for the day. I worried at the problem all day while at work. Should I try heating the milk back up and adding more rennet? More culture? Should I strain it? When I got home it looked no different but I decided to go with it anyway and drain it over night and see what happened. And it worked! I poured it into my draining bag, hung as usual from a kitchen cabinet, and it was actually thick and tasted of sharp cream cheese! It drained through the day, and when I got home in the evening, I tried it out. It was beautiful! 1l of milk and 1l of cream made almost 1kg of cream cheese, which I feel is a pretty good return. There was so much, that I used some of my home made cream cheese to make a cheese cake for my birthday. It tasted a little sharper than usual but not bad! Making halloumi, which I include here despite not being cultured as I needed to order the lipase for it, I was excited to be able to make it using half sheep's milk and half cow's milk. Who knew the local grocery store sold sheep's milk?! The halloumi is a bit of a multi step process. As with the cream cheese, I initially doubted whether it was coming together properly. It did, and then I had to drain it and ladle the curds into a mould. I didn't have one, so I sliced the bottom off a bucket (I probably needed to punch holes in the sides too, but I didn't). I put the curds, in their cheese cloth, in the bucket. Very well. The mould needed to go on a rack over a tray. My oven shelf over a baking sheet? Ok. And then I needed to place a 3.5kg/8lb weight on the cheese for 3 hours, then flip the cheese and press it for a further 3 hours. We don't have weights or dumbbells in the house, much less ones I could find on a Saturday evening at short notice. Even less ones that would fit within the mouth of my mould to press the cheese itself. Stones? I have some pretty stones and shells.... Not enough of them and not heavy enough. Hmmm. The I thought of the sand on the balcony for Little One's sand box. So I found myself squatting on a rainy balcony shovelling sand into two yogurt buckets with a small plastic sandbox scoop. Jury-rigged maybe, but it worked. The combined weight of the buckets of sand came to what I needed (the sand buckets are still on my counter, too). Right. Now for the balancing act. Two buckets of sand on top of the cheese curds in the make-shift mould. The stack held for just long enough for me to walk away and sit on the couch. In the end, I had to replace the oven shelf with my steamer as a rack, in the bottom of a tall soup pot, with the three buckets (curds +sand + sand) on top, and cutting boards to either side in the soup pot to balance it all. Anyway, it worked. We made veggie burgers to try them it out and the grilled halloumi worked great. I forgot to take pictures then, but used the last of the halloumi on regular burgers last night which we made to test out my new ketchup recipes. Lots of fun, but also lots of jury rigging and make shift solutions! And now for cultured goat's cheese! Book Pairing: Making both of these I was listening to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. I enjoyed them both very much, but the Odyssey more so. I read the Iliad a while ago when in University, and enjoyed it but not enough to go on to the Odyssey. Instead I read the Aeneid By Virgil and enjoyed that more. I regret now that I didn't push on and read the Odyssey and then the Aeneid afterwards. Oh well. Better late than never. It all made for excellent listening now!

When I posted my home made mayo recipes a while back, a friend asked me for a ketchup recipe. It's been a little while coming, for which I am sorry, but here it is. Or rather, here they are, as I am posting a couple of options below. When first asked about a ketchup recipe, having only made it a couple of times before I took a look around other recipes and let the ideas percolate for a while (and got busy with work and potty training a toddler, among other things)... and then didn't get back to it right away. Yesterday was a very rainy day though, so I decided it was a good time to have something simmering away on the stove all afternoon (well, several somethings. We made yogurt, apple pectin, salted caramel ice cream, goat's cheese and burger buns too.) When checking different methods a while back, there was a debate on whether to use tomato passata and paste or chopped tomatoes (from a tin or fresh), so I decided to do both yesterday and see how they came out and which I liked best. I also used dried vs fresh garlic and onions in the two recipes. I therefore made two basic variants, and then tweaked, separated out portions and tried further variants through the afternoon. In the evening, having been informed by my Guinea pigs that the only way to truly test ketchup was with a burger and some fries, I made burgers with fresh buns and my sister brought down her fryer to make chips. Long story short, we tried four different ketchup variations yesterday, detailed below. We all liked all of them (and all ate a bit too much). So here they are. Ketchup One: Sharp and Bright Ingredients: 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil 800g tin of chopped tomatoes 1 onion, minced 4 small cloves garlic, crushed 1 tbsp dried oregano 2 1/2 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp red wine vinegar Salt and pepper to taste 1) Heat oil in a saucepan. Sweat the onions and garlic until soft, then add the oregano and cook for another minute. 2) Add other ingredients and cook for about 2 hours, stirring regularly, until thickened. Blitz until smooth and taste test, adjusting as necessary. Ketchup Two: Deep and Rich Ingredients: 3 c tomato passata 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp dried onion 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder 2 1/2 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp dried oregano Salt and pepper to taste 1) Heat oil in a saucepan. Briefly fry the dried garlic, onion and oregano then add the passata, vinegar and sugar. 2) Bring to a low simmer and cook for about 2 hours, stirring regularly, until thickened and reduced to desired consistency. Taste test, adjusting accordingly. Ketchup Three: Sharp and Rich Ingredients: 3 c tomato passata 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp dried onion 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder 2 1/2 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp dried oregano Salt and pepper to taste 1) Heat oil in a saucepan. Briefly fry the dried garlic, onion and oregano then add the passata, vinegar and sugar. 2) Bring to a low simmer and cook for about 2 hours, stirring regularly, until thickened and reduced to desired consistency. Taste test, adjusting accordingly. Ketchup Four: Deep with a bite Ingredients: 3 c tomato passata 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp dried onion 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder 2 1/2 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp dried oregano 1 tsp (or more) tandoori powder/paprika Salt and pepper to taste 1) Heat oil in a saucepan. Briefly fry the dried garlic, onion, oregano and tandoori, then add the passata, vinegar and sugar. 2) Bring to a low simmer and cook for about 2 hours, stirring regularly, until thickened and reduced to desired consistency. Taste test, adjusting accordingly. We enjoyed all four Ketchups enormously. Hubby declares he never wants to buy ketchup again. The four different ketchups all had great flavour, and all of them actually tasted like tomatoes. This was very easy to make, but it did require time spent in or near the kitchen to stir regularly. My favourites were probably One and Three. I made all of them using white sugar. Given that I was already comparing the effect of fresher ingredients vs passata and dried garlic and onions, a further variable I thought would muddy the waters, but I would like to try it with brown sugar at some point as well. I also intend on trying other tweaks, like different herbs or spices, different base vegetables, and tweaking the quantity of garlic etc. I'll keep you posted! And in the mean time, don't hesitate if you have questions, suggestions or ideas! NB: This ketchup is entirely natural. Sugar and vinegar are both to a certain extent preservatives, but not really in these quantities, so be aware that this won't keep as long in the fridge as commercial ketchup. I will see how mine does and let you know!

It was my mom's birthday recently, so I made her birthday cannolis instead of a cake. She's always loved cannolis but they aren't something which can be readily found in Switzerland. When I was little, trips to NY in the summer had to include a cannoli from Little Italy for her, but those trips have been less and less frequent, so life has been cannoli-less. When I started making my own ricotta and mascarpone though, it was pointed out to me that I should try making cannolis. And then my sister dug out my parents' old cannoli moulds from 30 years ago and the case was settled. The week leading up to her birthday therefore, I made a few different variants of both shells and filling until I found one I was happy with. I trialled using home made vs store-bought ricotta and used home-made mascarpone. The curds in the home made ricotta were a little bigger and so required more beating , and in the end I used a combination of all three. My first tests of the filling came out too liquidy so I let the mascarpone drain for longer to stiffen up the final filling. Ingredients: For the Shells: 3 c flour 1/4 c sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 c butter, cold and diced 1 egg 3 tbsp vinegar 1/4 c whey/milk 1 egg white, beaten For the Filling: 2 c mascarpone 2 1/2 - 3 c ricotta 1 1/2 c sugar 2-3 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 c pistachios, chopped 1/4 c chocolate chips 1/4-1/2 c dark chocolate, chopped and melted over a water bath 1) Mix together the dry ingredients for the shells and then cut in the butter. Mix together with finger tips until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. 2) Add in liquids one by one, mixing after each addition until a smooth, elastic dough is achieved. Place in the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes. 3) In the mean time, mix together all the ingredients for the filling except the pistachios and chocolate, whipping until smooth. Place in the fridge to chill. 4) Cut out an oval from paper or cardboard measuring about 15x11.5 cm (6x4.5inches). Roll out the dough to about 3 mm thick and then using your oval template, cut out ovals. Wrap the around moulds, brushing the edge with egg white to stick together, forming a tube. Alternatively, I rolled up my silicone baking mat to about 2 cm in diameter and wrapped 3 ovals around the length of it. Aluminium foil might work too, rolled up in this way. 5)Brush the rest of the tube with egg white and bake for 8-10 minutes in at 175°C in a pre-heated oven, or fry until golden brown at about 175°C. Remove from oven or oil and allow to cool for a few minutes before removing the moulds. 6) Dip the ends of some of the cooled tubes in melted chocolate and allow to set. 7) Split about 1/3 (or more) of the filling from the rest and mix in chocolate chips. Pipe either plain or chocolatey filling into the tubes, sprinkling pistachios onto the ends of some. Chill until ready to eat. Not having had them very frequently myself, things were a little complicated as I didn't have a very clear idea of what I was aiming for, but I am assured by those who know about these things that they came out quite well. I certainly enjoyed them, which hasn't always been the case with cannolis in the past. I have other filling combinations I'd like to try, like almonds, or lime/lemon pieces dehydrated just enough. The shells just needed to be a little thinner. I must also point out that I baked the shells rather than frying them as my mom isn't a bit fan of fried food, but I have an air fryer coming soon, so I want to try and put them in there to see how they do. Results to follow! EDIT: The shell cookie also works well with yogurt - in this case vanilla rhubarb yogurt.

After how good the Ginger and Pear Blondies were, the idea of trying a variant using rhubarb immediately came to mind when I had a load of some of the biggest rhubarb I've ever seen (thanks to my dad and this year's freak weather conditions). These were beauteous. The acidity of the rhubarb played off against the sweetness of the blondies and apple like that was its sole purpose on Earth. I'm loving the flavour possibilities of blondies! Ingredients: 1/2 c butter, melted 1 c brown sugar 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/8 tsp baking soda 1 c flour 1 1/2 apples, diced 2 sticks rhubarb, diced 1/4 c milk 1) Place the diced rhubarb in a saucepan and cover with water. Simmer gently, reducing the liquid. Stir regularly! 2) In a large bowl, cream the brown sugar and butter together. Beat in egg and vanilla. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix well. 3) Stir in the apples and rhubarb. Add enough milk or whey to make the batter thick but pourable. 4) Bake in a prepared baking tin at 175°C for 30-35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. I loved these! The flavours played well and they were moist and caramelly and beautiful! You must try these while rhubarb is still in season! Even Little bit liked them and he is not always a cake person. Maybe a little on the cakey side, but that isn't a bad thing. They were moist and caramelised and beautiful.

My second foray into using watermelon rind as an ingredient went well. I really enjoyed trying Watermelon Rind Chutney, so decided to see how it would work as a jam. The rind does have a mild flavour, but a little bit of spicing and it worked out nicely. As with the chutney I did have to partially blitz the jam as the chunks of rind did not disintegrate at all with the cooking. The watermelon rind also appears not to have any pectin so I added some home-made apple pectin to help it firm up. All in all it worked out very nicely and I am very happy with it. Ingredients: Rind of 1 medium watermelon, diced 1 1/2 c sugar 2 c apple pectin 1/2 tsp cloves 1) Place the watermelon rind pieces in a pot and cover with water. Place over medium-low heat and simmer for about an hour until the pieces of watermelon rind are tender. 2) Add other ingredients and stir. Using a hand blender, partially blitz the jam mixture to desired consistency. Taste test and cook down until thick. 3) Boil clean jars and lids for at least 15 minutes. Fill with jam while the jam is still bubbling, wipe the neck of the jar clean and seal. Place upside down to cool, sealing in the process. I am very happy with this jam, tried out on fresh home made English Muffins. The cloves added a much needed depth of flavour to the jam, and the flavour of the watermelon rind itself came through nicely. So happy to have more jam for my cupboard!

Looking into fenugreek a while back, I came across a description of it comparing fenugreek's taste to that of maple and the fact that fenugreek is sometimes used as a maple substitute. That gave me an idea. What about if I used fenugreek in something that often has maple syrup added to it, like pancakes. The idea niggled for a while until I finally tried it. The pancakes worked really well. They were missing a little richness to the maple flavour, but with butter or yogurt they were really tasty! Less sweet obviously, than adding maple syrup to a dish, and the flavour was more delicate, but very tasty. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp fenugreek powder 3 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp melted butter 2 eggs 3/4c milk 1) Combine dry ingredients, then gradually add wet ingredients. Add an additional splash of milk if necessary for the batter to be just thin enough to pour. 2) Melt butter in a skillet then cook the pancakes in two-tablespoon-dollops (or bigger if you want) over medium heat until bubbles appear and pop on the surface and it goes from shiny to matte, then flip. Serve hot with butter, jam, syrup or fruits. Or anything else you fancy. I really enjoyed these. They had a definite maple flavour but without added sugar. I enjoyed mine plain with butter, which gave them an extra richness that brought out the maple flavour. These are definitely coming back out! The only aspect I wasn't delighted with was the texture. They were a little heavier than usual, and I don't know if fenugreek requires a little additional liquid or rising agent, or if there was a mix-up somewhere. To be tried again I guess, and I will see. If you try them, let me know what you think!

I wanted to try out an idea my sister had had recently in using syllabub - an 18th century cream and wine based dessert - instead of frosting. I chose to do a lemon cake as I find the flavours light and well balanced, and to match them up, added lemon zest to the syllabub too. I used a Gewürztraminer, a German white dessert wine, to whip into the cream as its sweeter, lighter flavour seemed appropriate. I used my mom's lemon cake recipe for these and it worked beautifully. Try it out with your favourite lemon cake! Ingredients: 3/4 c cream 2 tbsp sugar 1/2 c sweet white wine 2 tsp lemon zest 2 tsp lemon juice Blueberries to top 1) While your cupcakes (or cake) are in the oven, beat the whipped cream and sugar with a whisk until you have stiff peaks. Add in the white wine and zest and beat well. Taste and adjust sugar, zest or wine. Add lemon juice and mix well. 2) Allow the cupcakes to cool then top with syllabub and blueberries. I like frosting, but sometimes it is too rich and too sweet. I found that this hit the right notes, with some sweet, some zest and a lot of airy lightness. I want to try syllabub as a frosting replacement for other cakes too now, using different flavours. Maybe rum and chocolate next?

My dad brought by some rhubarb from his garden the other day. They are the biggest and longest rhubarb stalks I have ever seen. As well as standard sweet rhubarb dishes, I wanted to use some to make something savoury, and so decided to try a risotto. It was cool and rainy and so a perfect risotto day, too. While assembling it, the rhubarb component was quite tart, but it balanced out with lots of ginger, carrots and some honey, I wanted the risotto itself to be quite creamy so I cooked it mostly with milk. Grabbing something from the fridge though, I noticed a lonely log of goat's cheese on the shelf and thought that would pair quite well, so it went in too. Ingredients: 1-2 red onions, chopped 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 head of garlic, sliced 2 carrots, diced 2 long sticks of rhubarb, diced 3 inches of ginger, diced 2 tsp honey 2-3 tsp sage Salt and pepper to taste 1 tbsp olive oil 1 1/2 - 2 c arborio rice 2-3 c milk 1-2 c water Lots of pepper 1/4 c goat's cheese Toasted walnuts to top 1) In a deep sauté pan, heat the olive oil. Add onions , garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant. Add other ingredients and cook on medium heat until carrot and rhubarb are tender. 2) In a saucepan, heat the olive oil. Add rice and cook until rice becomes translucent but do NOT brown. Add 1 c water and cook, stirring almost constantly, until mostly absorbed. Add about half the milk and cook, stirring still, until almost absorbed. Add the rest of the milk and cook further (20-25 minutes in total, roughly). If when this has been absorbed the rice is still a little under done, add the last of the water. Add pepper and goat's cheese and stir until melted. 3) Serve rice topped with rhubarb mix and toasted walnut halves. This was super tasty! The veg was a little softer than I would have liked because poor planning meant I didn't have all the ingredients at the start and so ended up cooking it for a little longer than intended. Other than that though, I would not change anything. We did discover though that Little Bit doesn't eat goat's cheese. Oh well. He had the veg and some frozen blueberries instead.

I heard that watermelon rind is edible and that it makes nice jam or chutney so I wanted to give it a try. I celebrated our first watermelon of the season by saving the rind until the melon was all gone and then having a go at chutney. Here is the recipe I came up with. The rind has a mild, but pleasant flavour which I combined with some apple and red onion for a chutney. I did have to blend it a little, which I don't generally do with jams or chutneys as the rind didn't break down much even after considerable simmering. It just stayed in the little cubes I had cut, so blitzing it briefly gave the chutney a more even consistency. Ingredients: Rind of 1 small watermelon, diced 3 red onion, diced 1 apple, diced 3/4 c herb vinegar 1 tsp salt 3/4 c sugar 1 red chilli, diced 2 tsp (or more) red chili flakes - I used pul biber 1) Place watermelon rind in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until almost tender. Add other ingredients and cook for a further 30 minutes or so. 2) Blitz briefly until chunky-smooth (chutney consistency) and taste test. Place in hot, sterile jars while chutney is still hot and seal, allowing to cool. I am really pleased with how this came out. I wasn't sure what to expect nor really what direction to go with it, so proceeded by taste testing and adjusting. The apple went in both for taste and to add pectin to help it all come together. We've tried it with crackers and cheese and a couple of sun dried tomatoes and it held up well! With the next watermelon, I think I am going to try watermelon jam....