Make Tasty Jams from your Excess Fruit
We can all do our little bit to reduce wastage of fruit by turning your excess into tasty jams. It is not hard to do and you will know exactly what is in it without any added chemicals.
There are so many different recipes on the Internet for making a variety of jams and jellies to either spread on a sandwich or make fruit pies or add to that fantastic cream sponge cake.
Depending on your taste buds you can add or remove different types of fruit or spices to suit your taste. In particular, I love ginger so I add that to many recipes when cooking.
Let your creative imagination work overtime by thinking of different ways to use these and avoid that waste.
Preparation Before cooking
All fruit needs to be washed thoroughly. Especially store bought fruit as these often have a wax coating to preserve them longer.
Jars, bottles and lids all need to be sterilized before adding any jam to insure it will keep longer.
You may purchase other things to make this job easier although they are not essential.
Orange and ginger Marmalade
If you have an excess of oranges this year then try out this great tasty marmalade recipe.
Contrary to some beliefs- Jams can be cooked in a saucepan, microwave or even a pressure cooker.
Sterilize clean washed jars by placing in a saucepan with water. You can add water to the jars too and either leave lids resting on top or loose in the bottom of pan.
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Method for Cooking
- Choose nice fresh fruit
- Wash and dry fruit in water to remove wax if store bought fruitWash and sterilize bottling jars and lids
- Cut oranges across in thin slices then again into small pieces. Remove the pips and tough end pieces. (I used the whole orange and lemon although some people peel and remove the white pith as it could make it bitter). You can vary the taste by adding or deleting the ginger.
- Add oranges, lemon and water and or juice to a pan and heat. Simmer for ten minutes.
- Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Increase the heat and continue to stir often until mixture thickens.
- Pour into your sterilized jars and place lid on tight. Wipe off any spillage on side of jars so you do not encourage any ants into your cupboards.
NOTE: If you prefer you can use pectin. I have never used it although some say it is needed to make it thicken. If you have correct measurements it should thicken naturally. Maybe you need to cook it longer if not set.
Shop for Specials
Take note when your supermarket reduces the prices of fruit. That is the best time to buy it if you are not lucky enough to have your own fruit trees in your back yard. Or buy the fruit in bulk if you really cannot use that amount then organise to share a bulk buy with your neighbours. You could even do a deal with them and make the jam for them and they could do something for you in return.
There are so many beautiful different types of fruit. If you are not into jams then why not learn how bottle the fruit and then you can have it with icecream and chocolate sprinkles.
Which ever way you use the fruit it will be a lot better than wasting it by throwing it in the bin.
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Lemon Butter Ingredients
Ingredients
4 eggs
cup sugar
cup Lemon Juice
2 tsp Grated Lemon Rind (I like extra taste used rind of 4 lemons)
120 grams butter or margarine
Method for making Lemon Butter
Sterilize clean jars and lids. This can be done by heating in saucepan of water or in the oven.
Place sugar and eggs into saucepan (mix eggs thoroughly) heat until sugar dissolved
Add lemon juice , lemon rind. Then add butter a little at a time.
Continue stirring thoroughly until it thickens.
Pour into your sterilized jars and seal immediately.
PERSONAL CHOICE: I doubled these ingredients as not worth the effort otherwise in my opinion. You can also vary this recipe by halving the lemon juice with that of another suitable fruit.
While you were making that you could have made a batch of plain scones to spread this lemon butter on.
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