Ok, just a quickie.
Was considering carving up one of the small chestnut squashes for Halloween, and Beans first at that.
Then, someone (who shall remane nameless on their request) kindly donated a massive pumpkin.
Here's the before shot:
The resultant seeds (of which there's quite literally, lots!):
And, some hours later:
Won't win any awards, but as a first go I'm kinda happy. Knackered, but happy.
I didn't have a particularly good onion crop this year - and those I did have were'nt great. So I decided to use what I have to make some onion marmalade.
Patience is a virtue.
I knew the basic ingredients - onions (obviously), wine vinegar, sugar, but wasn't sure on the rest. Method etc.
So I asked LadyWayne if I could borrow her notebook (mini laptop) when she'd finished as it's nice and small to have in the kitchen rather than my great lump of a thing.
So I waited.
Did a bit more waiting.
After some minutes I decided that I'd make a start and chopped up the onions and garlic, put some butter and a blob of oil in the pan.
Started to sweat down the onions nice and slow, all was going well.
I then opened the bottle of white wine vinegar which had a decent sized splash in the bottom (a few tablespoons worth probably). I then added the brown sugar - probably about 150-200g.
Then I opened the full bottle of white wine vinegar and proceeded to empty this bottle into the pan.
(those that know how to make onion vinegar have already seen the error of my ways, bear with me those that don't)
It was at that point that (having poked my head round the living room door and seen LadyWayne in conversation with someone on the phone whilst faffing with the laptop) I decided I'd wait no more and went to get my laptop to check the recipe.
The recipe I was "following" http://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/recipe.php?catid=9&recipeid=153 called for 5 tablespoons of wine vinegar.
Oh dear.
So, the suggested cooking time of 10 minutes was ever so slightly longer in an attempt to allow the vinegar to evaporate.
The kitchen at this point was a decongestant chamber - in that any attempt to breathe through your nose resulted in a stinging sensation at the back of your nose, and gave you the urge to cough (and that was only LadyWayne who is full of cold and can't smell a thing at the moment).
So, after quite some time simmering, stirring, simmering and so on, the mixture had reduced to quite a gloopy/sticky consistency. However, there was still a quite strong smell of vinegar to the marmalade.
I decided to empty it into my Kilner jar anyway (just the right amount to fill it coincidentally), and we'll see how it tastes in a few days.
Can anyone smell vinegar?
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