Simple Cooking

Season: June to August. The rich, intense flavor of black currants is well preserved by canning, and I find it very useful to have a few jars on the larder shelf. Preserved currants are delicious served with hot steaming custard, vanilla ice cream, or good plain yogurt. When friends drop by, I often open a jar for an instant dessert.

Season: late July to September. This recipe, applying the oven method, can be used for preserving the many members of the Vaccinium family, which include the cultivated blueberry as well as the wild huckleberry. The delicate, lemony nutmeg note of fresh bay complements their gentle flavor beautifully. Serve these fragrant berries for a breakfast treat with thick vanilla yogurt.

Season: January to February. The arrival of the early, forced rhubarb in January deserves a salutation of the greatest magnitude, and I can never wait to savor its fresh, earthy energy. The blushing stalks, with their tart but delicate flavor, are strictly seasonal, so be sure you don’t miss the chance to preserve a jar or two to enjoy later in the year.

Season: June to October. This is also known as officer’s jam, but it’s really not a jam at all. The German name, Rumtopf, seems far more appropriate for what is actually a cocktail of rum-soaked fruit. The idea is that the mixture of fruit, alcohol, and sugar is added to gradually, as different fruits ripen throughout the growing season. This preserve is usually prepared with Christmas in mind, when the potent fruity alcohol is drunk and the highly spirited fruit can be served on its own or with ice cream and desserts. You will need a large glazed stoneware or earthenware pot with a closely fitting lid and a small plate, saucer, or other flat object that will fit inside the pot and keep the fruit submerged.

Season: September to October. This is undoubtedly the best-known of the English hedgerow liqueurs. The sloe, or blackthorn, is a small, black, mouth-puckering plum that is native to Britain plum will do. If your plums are quite sweet, reduce the amount of sugar, or try some of my other favorite variations on this theme (below). There is no reason why you cannot use vodka instead of gin.

Season: Spring and summer. The healing, warming properties of sage have long been recognized, and one traditional way to imbibe them is by means of a liqueur, such as this one. The velvety, gray-green leaves are steeped in eau-de-vie and the resulting elixir should, I’m told, be drunk each day to ensure good health and a long life. I take just a capful (not a cupful) myself each morning and find it very restorative. Of course, this is not the only way to use this soothing herb liqueur–a glassful can be enjoyed as a comforting digestif, or a capful can be diluted with tonic water for an aromatic pick-me-up. Gather the sage on a warm, dry day. As an evergreen, this herb can be picked throughout the year, but it’s at its best during the spring and summer months.

Season: June to July. A shrub is an old-fashioned kind of drink–essentially a delightfully fruity alcoholic cordial. Based on sweetened rum or brandy, it is traditionally flavored with acidic fruit such as Seville oranges, lemons, or red currants. Keep back some of the juice after straining red currants to make jelly (see recipe, p. 54), and you will find this lovely tipple very simple to make. Serve as an aperitif, either on its own or mixed half and half with a dry martini and finished with a splash of fresh orange juice, which is my favorite way.

Season: November to March. A cool glass of homemade lemonade knocks the commercially produced alternative into oblivion. Once tasted, this will become a favorite thirst quencher. Serve this lemon syrup diluted with cold water as a cool summertime refresher, or mix with tonic water and a splash of Angostura bitters for a nonalcoholic cocktail. You can also use oranges as well as lemons.

Season: Late April to early May. The name for this unusual alcoholic cordial is actually the French word for fruit pit. Traditionally, it was made from bitter almonds or peach pits mixed with gin and left to steep in a warm place for several days before being cooked up with sugar, and then filtered through blotting paper. This recipe is from Richard Mabey’s excellent Food for Free. It uses the young, silken leaves of the European beech tree (Fagus sylvatica), to make an exquisite hedgerow version of the liqueur; the leaves first appear toward the end of April.

Season: November to March. Preserved lemons have a strong association with Middle Eastern and North African cuisines, and their unique zesty, salty yet mellow flavor permeates many of the traditional meat and couscous dishes of those regions. Strips of preserved lemon can also be added to salads, soups, and dressings, or mixed with olives and other appetizers. They are exceptionally easy to prepare, and I like to make them around the turn of the year when the new season’s lemons from Spain and Italy are in the shops.

Season: October to January. Spices, onions, and a traditional malty ale give this robust, pub-style chutney plenty of character, while the natural sugars in the root vegetables help sweeten it. It is delicious served with farmhouse Cheddar, crusty bread, and a pint or two.

Season: Late August to September. Dark-skinned with a bluish bloom, small oval damson plums are very tart and well flavored, which makes them wonderful for preserving. This is a straightforward recipe that keeps the fruit whole and tender. I love warming cinnamon and allspice in the mix, but you can use any spices you fancy, or even a good tablespoonful of ready-made pickling spice (see p. 89). These sweet spiced damsons are a lovely addition to any buffet table and splendid with cold poultry.

Season: July to September. This is a wonderful way to use up an abundance of cucumbers, be they long and uniform green, or the short, knobbly-skinned type. It’s also very quick and easy to make if you use a food processor. This is not a true preserve, as the cucumbers are not brined and the pickle is very light, but it will keep well in the fridge for a couple of weeks in a sealed container. I love this sweet condiment with all manner of salads and in sandwiches, but it’s especially delectable with hot-smoked trout or salmon.

Season: Late July to September. After the vibrant trumpets of nasturtium flowers fade, you’ll find underneath the foliage the knobbly green seed pods of the plant. They have a hot, peppery flavor and, when pickled, develop a taste very similar to that of true capers (the pickled flower buds of the Mediterranean Capparis plant). Collect the seed pods on a warm, dry day when all the flowers have wilted away. Gather only the green ones (sometimes they are red-blushed) and avoid any that are yellowing, as these will be dull and dry. The pods can also be used fresh to spice up salads or as an ingredient in piccalilli (see p. 106). These feisty little pickled nasturtium seed pods are great in fish dishes and in herby, garlicky sauces. Try them in tartar sauce or add them to salads, especially with tomatoes. In fact, use them just as you would capers.

Season: May to July. Made with the reddish green stalks of main-crop or field rhubarb, this relish is quick and easy, involving much less cooking than a chutney would require. It is light, very fruity, and not too sweet. Delicious with curries, oily fish, chicken, and cheese and in sandwiches, it’s a versatile addition to the larder. Rhubarb, by the way, is very easy to prepare, but do take care to always remove the leaves, as they are poisonous.

Season: Late summer to autumn. The beauty of this recipe is that it is so very simple. Moreover, you can turn up the heat or cool it down to suit your mood by the variety of the chile pepper you use. In the late summer and autumn, look for hot fruity habaneros, rich mild poblanos, tiny hot Thai chiles, or flaming jalapeños to use in this sizzling jelly relish. I like to use red bell peppers, as they are symbolic of the heat, but, of course, there’s no reason why you can’t use yellow, orange, or green, or a mixture of all four. Use this punchy jelly with cream cheese, smoked mackerel, rice dishes, and crispy stir-fried vegetables.

Season: Anytime. This is a wonderful, frugal recipe that complements some of the other fruity preserves in the book because it uses the apple scraps and citrus skins that would normally be destined for the compost heap or bin. These skins are full of flavor and rich in pectin, so it’s a shame not to use them. For the cost of a bag of sugar (and a bit of your time), you can transform them into a really fruity, marmalade-flavored jelly. It functions nicely as an emergency breakfast preserve when your last jar of marmalade has been eaten and the seasonal Sevilles haven’t yet arrived in the shops.

Season: September to November. Autumn is the season for apples. For centuries, the apple crop has been important, and the apple tree cherished and celebrated for its fruit. Wassailing is an English West Country tradition when, on Twelfth Night of old (January 17), country folk toast and drink to the health of the largest and most prolific apple tree in the orchard for a healthy, fruitful crop the coming season. The sharp and bittersweet qualities of cider give this old-fashioned apple butter a special flavor. It’s a sensational fruity spread to daub over hot buttered toast or crumpets.

Season: September. You’ve got to be quick to beat the squirrels to the hazelnuts each autumn. Once you have found some, it’s important to store them carefully. Even with their shells on, they have a tendency to dry out and shrivel up, but preserving them in hone will keep them fresh and fragrant for ages. Use wild hazels that you have gathered yourself, or filberts, which are simply a cultivated form of hazelnut. Spoon your honeyed hazels over plain yogurt, chocolate ice cream, porridge, or muesli.

Season: Late August to January. When I made preserves for a living, I tried all kinds of curds, from orange to passion fruit, but none of them was ever quite as popular as the good old-fashioned lemon variety. I didn’t think I could improve on it until recently, when I came across an old recipe for an apple-y lemon curd. I tried it out, and I now prefer it even to a classic straight lemon curd – it’s like eating apples and custard: softly sweet, tangy, and quite, quite delicious.