PuddleduckLane: Sunday

Well hello Sunday! My nagging headache is finally subsiding and to distract myself from scanxiety I thought I'd do another foodie post. I had my brain CT and bone density scans on Friday and I'm hoping that the films will show a beautiful tumour free brain tomorrow. As for my bone density, it's bound to be pitiful, but at least there are no surprises there.

Anyway, onto the lovely foodie post with two preserving recipes to share.

The first is Miche's Apricot Jam that I found on Susan Herrmann Loomis' beautiful french blog

On Rue Tatin.

This is so simple to make and has an incredibly intense flavour.

3 pounds (1-1/2 kg) apricots, pitted and quartered

3 cups (600g) granulated sugar

Place the apricots and the sugar in a non-reactive pan or bowl, stir, cover and let macerate for at least 12 hours.

Transfer the fruit and sugar to a large, heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat so the mixture is boiling merrily and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and ladle the jam into sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headroom. Seal according to the jar manufacturer’s instructions.

Yields about 10 cups (2-½ liters)

The second recipe I snavelled from the Taylor's website and just tweaked the quantities to match the large batch of pears I'd picked from our tree.

Port Poached Pears

Ingredients:

8 pears

1 bottle of port

1 bottle of Shiraz

1 cup of caster sugar

4 cinnamon sticks

2 star anise

8 cloves

1 tspn nutmeg

2 vanilla bean pods or 2 tspns vanilla extract

1 tbspn orange zest

1 tbspn lemon zest

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tspn salt

Combine all ingredients, except the pears, in a saucepan and gently bring to the boil. Simmer the liquid gently for 10 mins while you peel and core the pears, leaving the stalks on for decoration.

Drop in the pears and simmer for 30 mins, turning occasionally to cook evenly. Remove the pears and place them into sterilised preserving jars. Pour over the syrup leaving a 1cm headspace. Seal jars.