Mums Plum Sauce

Hi Family... does this look familiar!

 

 

AND THIS!

Wednesdays Wednesdays Wednesdays....SIGH!

How I miss Wednesdays from pre ten years ago, they were the highlight of my family life.

Mum and Dad (Grannie and Poppydad to our kids) made Wednesday the day they stayed home all day so family could come around. One of the favourite lunch time meals was savs in bread with mums plum sauce, and always ice cream in a cone with sprinkles!

We played cards and board games, cricket and basketball etc. with the kids. Grannie and Poppydad were very keen card player, not competitive at all hu hum :-)

It was interesting watching the kids learn some good life lessons on Wednesdays.

Since then we have lost both Mum and Dad. First dad,... Devastating (Such a gentleman, patient and kind) Nothing can prepare you for the loss of a parent. Then Mum four years later, after a long battle. (The best caring, stable, selfless role model a daughter could wish for) After losing one parent you think you know what you are going to go through the second time.... but you don't. Parents are the anchor in your life, and when they're both gone..... floundering is the word that comes to mind for me. I still to this day think, I wish I could ring mum for a chat or to ask her advice. Or sit on Wednesdays and listen to dads wise words and dry sense of humour, and watch both of them playing and talking with our kids. But I can't. There's a message here for everyone who still has their parents..... I don't really need to say any more on that.

 So below I've added mums famous plum sauce recipe (well its famous in our family!) I try to make a batch each year to give to my brothers and sisters for their families.

 xoxo to my family :-)

 

 

MUMS PLUM SAUCE RECIPE

 

 INGREDIENTS

 

7.5 kg dark plums, roughly chopped

2 Litres Water

1 bottle Wyld's EzySauce

4 kg sugar

4 tbs salt

1 tbs ground ginger

 

METHOD

 

Place plums stones and water into a very large saucepan. Bring to the boil stirring occasionally until the plums are soft and pulpy.Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool down. Remove the stones and run the plum mixture through your blender or use a hand held blender. Then add EzySauce, sugar and salt. Combine ginger in enough water to form a smooth paste, then stir into the plum mixture. Boil gently uncovered for 1-2 hours or until it becomes a thick pouring consistency. If at this stage it doesn't seem thick enough for your liking you can add about 4 tbs of cornflour mixed in enough water to make a pouring consistency. Then boil for a further 10 minutes or so. Pour into hot sterilised bottles and seal.

Cooking time may vary greatly :-)

 

 

 

 

 

Plum Jam YUMMM!

I Love my family and neighbourhood, people are so generous!

 

My brother in law knows I like to make plum sauce, so when he heard our neighbour had these plums that needed a loving kitchen to be cooked in, he thought of me! :-)
There is about 10kg so to begin with I've made some plum jam... next is the plum sauce!

 PLUM JAM

INGREDIENTS

4kg dark plums
8 cups water
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3kg sugar
1-2 packets of Jam Setta (from supermarket if needed)

METHOD

1. Combine plums and water in a large preserving pan and bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered,for one hour.
2.Add the lemon juice and sugar to the pan and stir, without boiling, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to the boil. Boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes to an hour or until the jam jells when tested.
3. Pour the jam into sterilised jars and seal.

Makes about 20 x 250g jars.

 

Tea for two!

 

 

 





Tomato Sauce

This one is for my lovely niece Jessica, who has an over abundance of tomatoes this season. She asked me if I had a good recipe and it  just so happens I do! 

For this recipe you will need to drink lots of chardonnay as the empty bottles make very good sauce bottles  :-)  
 

 

 

 You will need a large pan, one that holds at least 12 litres, but l suggest one even bigger than that if you have one. 10-15 EMPTY sterilised chardonnay bottles :-) .... or something similar if you decide not to drink the chardonnay. A long wooden spoon, a pouring jug, a funnel and some newspaper to spread on your work bench when bottling the sauce... it gets a bit messy.
 

 

I always use this jug for pouring whenever I make my preserves. It was my mothers and it's the one she always used. It must be at least sixty years old so of course the measurements on the jug are in pints. It never ceases to amaze me how one persons trash is another persons treasure!

 

INGREDIENTS

 10 kg ripe tomatoes cut into quarters 

1.5 kg onions, finely chopped

200 g garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1.5 kg sugar

1/2 cup salt

1.5 kg apple puree

1 bottle of Wilds Ezy sauce

 

METHOD 

 

Place tomatoes, onions and garlic into a large pan. Combine ginger with sufficient water to form a smooth paste and stir into the tomato mixture.

Boil gently, uncovered for 2 hours. The recipe I use said to strain through a course sieve at this point. I like a slightly more course consistency so I put mine through the food processor instead.

Add sugar, salt, apple puree and Wilds Ezy sauce, mix well. Simmer uncovered for approximately 2 hours or until it becomes a thick pouring consistency.Carefully fill into hot sterilised bottles and seal.

 

 Makes about 8-10 litres.

I find every batch I make varies in quantity so make sure you have a few extra bottles sterilised ready just in case. Also the amount of time it takes to thicken varies. Sometimes I add up to 4 tablespoons of cornflour mixed in enough water to make a pouring consistency at the end if it doesn't seem thick enough. Keeping in mind the sauce does thicken up slightly as it cools.

There's a lot of guess work really!

 

To sterilise the bottles I run them through the dish washer then once they're dry and just before the sauce is ready, I put them in a 200 C /400 F oven. With the screw top lids I put them in a bowl and pour boiling water into the bowl. Then let them dry naturally. If you're not using them straight away, loosely screw them back on the bottles till you're ready to use them. If you do this don't forget to warm the bottles again when you're ready to bottle your sauce. After the bottled sauce cool down enough to handle I make sure the lids are screwed on tight and wash them in hot soapy water, then set aside to dry.

 

Good luck xo

 

The Vegie Patch and Pickled Beetroot

This is my Lovely New Vegie Patch

I've always worried about the chemicals that are used these days on the fruit and veg we buy, so last year I got serious about becoming more self sufficient and growing my own. Hence, "The Vegie Patch"  was made. I love it... it's so rewarding to grow and eat your own produce, makes me feel healthy just thinking about it and I'm sure I'm a couple of kilos lighter haha! So I was on a roll and now wanted a few chooks, once again we set to work and turned part of our back yard into a chook yard and create the Taj Mahal of chook houses...seriously, I could easily live in it. (more about the chooks later)

My first priority for planting in the new garden was a big crop of basil. Each year in March, our friends from Melbourne come for a huge sauce making weekend and on the Saturday I'm usually running around town to all the vegie stalls collecting as much basil as I can find to add to the sauce.(more on the sauce weekend later :-)) Since then I've had some lovely crops of rocket, spring onions, silver beet, chilli, snow peas, beans and beetroot. We're now anxiously waiting on the tomatoes and zucchinis which are just about ready....yay!

 

 



Isn't this the cutest little zucchini you've ever seen?
 

 

I've just picked my second crop of beetroot and decided to pickle it using the recipe from one of the blogs I follow called down---to---earth.

 

FROM THIS!

 

 

 

By the way this is my WHOLE crop here!

 

TO THIS!

 

 

 

Very happy with the result, thank you down---to---earth. xo

 

 

That's all for today so bye for now xo

 

 

 

 

Very Hot Chilli Jam

 

 

Great idea for a Christmas hamper

 

Goes well with bickie's and cheese and on meat sandwiches.

 

 

This is an easy to make chilli jam, and if you like it hot this is a great recipe. If not just reduce the amount of chilli you add, it's that simple. I used a mixture of different varieties of red and green chillies from my garden and my neighbour's block. As they became ripe I froze them fresh and whole, then when I had enough to make my jam I simply thawed them, cut off the top stems and finely chopped them in my food processor. I used three x 680g jars of my homemade instant pasta sauce (Ingredients: tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil and salt ). You could use instant pasta sauce from a wholesaler or sometimes you can pick up specials at the supermarket.

 

 

INGREDIENTS

 

3 x 680g Instant pasta sauce

12 cups white wine vinegar

12 cups sugar

12 cups chopped chilli

1 x 50g packet Fowler's Vacola Jam Setta with Pectin
(I picked up the Jam Setta at my local supermarket)

 

12-14 jars that hold 400g each.

 

Add instant pasta sauce, vinegar and chillies to a large thick bottomed pan and bring to the boil. When the mixture is boiling add the sugar. When the sugar is dissolved, turn down the heat and simmer until it has reduced by about half. Add the Jam Setta, mix well and boil for about another five minutes. If the mixture still looks too runny you can add more Jam Setta, keeping in mind that it will still thicken up more as it cools. Pour into sterilised jars and screw lid on firmly to ensure a proper seal. Store the jars in the pantry and refrigerate after opening.

 



 

My homemade instant pasta sauce