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Cranberry sauce is a must for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, to my mind anyway, and also very tasty alongside all sorts of other meals, so I was delighted to find whole packs of cranberries available in the store. For our Big Feast, we, therefore, used these to make cranberry sauce. It is only in recent years that these are available here, so it is still quite a delightful novelty to be able to do this at all. Ever so simple, it is worth making your own! Ingredients: 3 c cranberries 1/2 - 1 c sugar 1 tbsp orange zest Juice of 1 orange 1 tbsp ginger, grated 1) (Optional: cut cranberries in half). Place in a saucepan, add enough water to cover, and add other ingredients. Simmer, stirring regularly and with increasing frequency as it thickens, until the sauce has reached desired consistency to desired consistency. Taste test and adjust sugar or orange according to your taste. Serve with extra grated zest. This was very tasty with the original Ham Feast, but then also with multiple other meals, such as a chestnut risotto, or a bacon roly-poly. Having it on hand was truly delightful, but unfortunately, it ran out in under a week... I may need to make more.

Next on this winter's odyssey of marmalade batches is a lime one (and yes, I say "a lime marmalade" as I plan on making another one), and for this one, I decided to add gin and almond extract. Not sure exactly why I decided on this, but I am glad I did. I am afraid that with night shifts and a teething toddler (how many molars does one kid need?!) who is now in a big boy bed (woohoo for sleep disruptions again!) I opted for the easy, lazy method again. Ingredients: 1,5 kg limes (about 20 limes), halved 1,5 l water 3 c sugar 2 tsp almond extract 1 c gin 1) Squeeze the limes and place them and the water in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil and cook for about an hour until the limes have softened and the contents of the pot has begun to reduce. 2) Blitz and add the other ingredients. Continue cooking until the marmalade thickens to desired consistency. Taste test to check for sweetness and gin content. 3) Boil jars for 15 minutes to sterilise them, then spoon the hot marmalade into the jars. Wipe the rim clean, seal and place upside down on a tea towel to cool. This came out really well. No tonic in the jam, but it still tastes like a G+T (sort of) so I am sticking with the name. Unfortunately, the almond flavour doesn't come across much, but the lime does, and it proved a very popular spread when I brought a jar up to my parents' house for the weekend. Let me know what you think if you try it!

As with the Honey and Cinnamon Scones, these were for an Afternoon Tea collaboration I was invited to take part in on Instagram for International Tea day on the 21st of May. Devilled eggs are simple and tasty, but a lot of people seem daunted by the idea of making them, so I thought it worth including a recipe here. I used my dad's Scotch bonnet hot sauce to devil the eggs, but beyond a bit of a kick, left them pretty mild so Little Bit could have some too. Along with fruit, he is an egg fiend. Ingredients: 6 eggs 1 - 1 1/2 tbsp mayo 2 tsp mustard 1 -2 tsp hot sauce (or more to suit your taste) Salt and pepper to taste Tandoori powder for sprinkling 1) Boil the eggs for 9-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and run under cold water then let them sit in it until cool. 2) Peel the eggs carefully, halve them and pop out the yolks. In a bowl, mash all the yolks together with the other ingredients except tandoori powder. Taste test. 3) Spoon or pipe the yolks back into their wells in the whites. Sprinkle them with tandoori powder. I hadn't had devilled eggs in ages, and was delighted to have some again! I really should entertain more often (pandemics allowing) in order to make these more! Or maybe just have tea time at home with my boys and make these for us...

Continuing on from that initial request for a ketchup recipe, here is another one. This time I decided to do a spiced (but not spicy) carrot ketchup, in part because I had a bunch of carrots on the brink of going off. It turned out really tasty, but slightly less classically ketchuppy than the Tomato Ketchups or the Beet Ketchup. Ingredients: 6 c carrots, chopped 3/4c tbsp apple cider vinegar 5 tbsp brown sugar 1/2 tsp ras el hanout 1 tsp tandoori powder 1 pink onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 4 cm ginger, minced 1 tsp nigella seeds Salt and pepper 1) Place all ingredients except nigella seeds in a saucepan and simmer until carrots are tender. Blitz until smooth. Taste test, add nigella seeds and reduce until the ketchup reaches desired consistency. 2) Meanwhile, sterilise glass jars by boiling them for 15 minutes. Fill while the ketchup is still hot, seal and leave to cool. We've been having this on all sorts of things recently and it's proved very versatile. Little Bit stays true to his trend of eating condiments as though they were their own foods, but in this case, I'm fine with that.

I started out by trying to make candied lemon rind in the same way that I've been making candied orange peel. I used a little more sugar to simmer the lemon rind though to counteract its' being slightly more bitter than orange peel. When I went to cool and then drain the peels (setting aside the syrup for some other use), I discovered that they should be kept together, rind in syrup rather than just drying the rinds. The combination was really tasty! It was not too sweet nor too bitter, had a strong lemon flavour and the peels had a nice tooth to them without being in the least bit tough. Trying a spoonful, I decided to set it all aside as it was and make panna cotta to have with it. We did that this weekend, and the combination was too good not to share. Ingredients: For the Lemon rind in syrup: Rind of 2 lemons, all flesh removed and sliced into strips 1/2 c sugar (approx) Water (approx 2-3 c) For the panna cotta: 500ml cream 1/4 c sugar (approx. - adjust to suit your own tastes though) 40g gelatine (I used the granulated kind, but check the packet instructions for the one you use) 1 tsp vanilla 1) Place the lemon rind and sugar in a saucepan with enough water to cover them to twice their depth. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes, until the rinds are tender and the liquid is reduced to syrup. Cool and set aside. You can make this ahead of time and store it in the fridge in a sealed jar. 2) Place cream and vanilla in a saucepan and heat gently until it reaches a simmer. Stir in the gelatine and sugar (if using gelatine sheets, don't forget to soak these first). Taste test for sweetness and vanilla. 3) Pour into small pots or ramequins and chill for at least a couple of hours or overnight. To serve, spoon the lemon peels and syrup over the panna cotta. I absolutely loved this dessert. The tart peels played off the creaminess really well, and none of it was overly sweet. My only problem was with the gelatine. It caused the panna cotta to be slightly grainy, and it is not the first time I've had this issue with the granulated kind. It didn't happen with the Lemongrass Panna Cotta but did a previous time. I don't know why it does this, whether it is simmer time or something else. On the whole, I prefer the sheets and have since picked some up for next time. Book Pairing: I was listening to China Miéville's Embassytown when I made these. Miéville's novels are delightfully strange. This one centred around language and its effects on thought patterns and ways of knowing the world around us. One race of beings represented can only speak Truth and can only conceive of what they have words for. Through the plot, the differences in language and the way it is used were interestingly explored. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, although the reader was a little irritating. Certain concepts are described using an existing German word which was surprising. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Don't use arborio rice though as we aren't looking for the glutinous texture of risotto but rather for As stated we don't want glutinous rice, and stirring will do that.

Back in the autumn, my dad shared a video with me by Pro Home Cooks on making your own vinegar at home. I was intrigued, and after checking out a few more websites and how-tos, I decided to try it out. I then checked out instructions from a couple of other places and launched into it. I used only dried fruits as these apparently have a lower incidence of white mould forming on top. I made six different kinds of vinegar, using cranberries, raisins, apples, lemon slices, rosehips and one combo vinegar of apple and rosehips. I filled the bottles about a third to half-full bottles with the fruit and then filling the rest with water. I covered them with cloth, so as to allow the bottles to breathe but keep debris out and stirred them (almost) every day. And that was it. At the 3 week mark I filtered out the fruit, and at the 60-day mark, I capped the bottles. Once or twice I had issues with a little mould on the top, which I skimmed off. Other times, it was hard to tell what was mould or what was the mother of vinegar forming. I only hope I didn't skim the mother at any point! Interestingly, it was the lemon vinegar with which I had the greatest mould challenge, even right up until the end. Each of my six vinegars now has a distinctive colour, smell and flavour. I am leaving them to mature a little before really launching into using them, but will do so soon! SO far they've been used a little on salad but not for much else yet. I want to try the same method with other things too. Supposedly vinegar can be made from carrot peels for example. We'll see how it goes!

I made pickles for the first time in the autumn. Bread and butter (sweet) cucumber pickles and spiced beetroot pickles. I made each a couple of times and was delighted to discover how easy it was to pickle. Based on those experiences, I decided to try my hand at an idea of my own, namely spiced pickled carrots. I had a hunch, so I read up a bit more on the pickling process and went for it. I made these in the winter sometime, but then they needed to sit for 3 weeks to mature, and then other things came up, so here they are now. Ingredients: 1 - 1,5 kg carrots 3 1/2 c apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp mustard seeds 1 c sugar 1 tsp salt 8 cloves garlic, sliced 2 1/2 - 3 " ginger, sliced 2 black cardamom pods, crushed 1 tsp turmeric 1) Place the vinegar and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add other ingredients and cook until the carrots are tender. 2) Meanwhile, sterilise your jars. Bring a big pot of water to the boil, and keeping it at a rolling boil, submerge the jars and their lids for at least 15 minutes. 3) Spoon the carrots into the jars, pour the vinegar over the top, wipe the rims of the jars and seal. Place the jars upside down until cool, then store in a cool dark place for about 3 weeks before opening them. When these were ready to go, I pulled them out at my parents' place first. They have been on the side of a quite a few meals since then and have proved a hit. I am pleased with how the spicing came out, and in general the idea worked as well as I could have hoped! Now for more pickling ideas...

I love Borani and have ever since discovering it a few years ago in my Taste of Persia cookbook by Naomi Duguid. The idea of a savoury, creamy yogurt dish with vegetable toppings was naturally a hit for me, and I've been playing around with it ever since. I am not sure a Persian would recognise it much, but that's not the point. I am making tasty food, not necessarily culturally authentic food. Since trying Ottolenghi's Sweet Potatoes in a Tomato and Tamarind Sauce last week from his Flavour cookbook, it occurred to me that the spiced and roasted sweet potatoes could potentially go very nicely on a borani, so we tried it, with some additions and modifications, and it worked beautifully! I added some spinach, but hoped that adding it to the sweet potatoes under a cover in the oven it would wilt. It didn't. Instead it dehydrated, and added a bit of texture to the dish and was delightful. The joy of mistakes in the kitchen! Ingredients: 1 kg yogurt 1 tsp thyme 4 sweet potatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces 1 tbsp maple syrup 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp cardamom 1 1/2 tsp cumin Juice of 1 lime 3 tsp pul biber 2 handfuls of spinach 1 spring onion, chopped Salt and pepper to taste 1) Drain the yogurt at least an hour through a cheese cloth (or clean dish towel) over a bowl (and keep the whey! It's great as an ingredient in other things! I drained mine into the bowl I used for step 2 and have flavoured whey now) You can drain it up to overnight depending on how thick you want it and how liquidy it is to start with. 2) Place the sweet potatoes in a large mixing bowl and add the maple syrup, olive oil, cardamom, cumin, salt and pepper, lime juice, and pul biber. Mix well then spread out on a baking sheet (grease proof paper or a silicon sheet can be helpful here!) and bake at 240°C for 25 minutes, covered with foil. The uncover and bake for a further 10 minutes until the bottoms of the potatoes start to caramelise. 3) Place the spinach in with the sweet potatoes and mix well. Cover with the foil again and bake a further 5 minutes or so until the spinach is cooked (dehydrated and crispy if it comes out like mine). Allow the sweet potatoes and spinach to cool a little. 4) Place the yogurt in the same mixing bowl that you used in step 2 and add thyme, sumac and some salt and pepper. (I used a salt flavoured with Alpine herbs and flowers). Mix well. 5) To serve spoon yogurt into bowls and top with the sweet potato and spinach mix. Sprinkle spring onions over the top. Enjoy! I loved this! I found the interplay of flavours witty and stimulating. Or maybe that was the conversation at dinner... But the acidity of the yogurt played against the sweetness of the potatoes and the deeper flavours of the spices, and off against the sharper note of the lime and the freshness of the spring onion. Another Borani variant for the books! Little Bit is a bit of a yogurt aficionado and lost no time in stuffing it by the handful into his mouth. He can use a spoon, quite well even, but was in too much of a hurry. Not the most sophisticated or well-mannered dinner companion, but certainly flattering to the cook.

preserving them is in a curd - a custard-like jam that keeps in the fridge for about 4 weeks and in the freezer Feel free to substitute though. The curd should keep in the fridge for about 4 weeks or in the freezer for about a year.