Making damson jam: 'jamson'

Under the heading of preserves, I've made pickled veg, chutney and clementine curd, but never jam.

On a walk a couple of days ago, while out walking with a friend, I spotted an amazing array of plum (or maybe damson) trees bordering the footpath. We'd already enjoyed apples and blackberries along the way. 'I'm coming back with a bowl,' I said. And I did. 

I was thinking of making damson gin (I like to make drinks from foraged finds) but my partner surprised me by suggesting jam, adding that he'd made it before. He couldn't remember when, or what type, but he'd definitely done it.

So I dug out my ancient Delia Smith Complete Cookery Course and found a recipe, conveniently for around the weight of damsons we had, about 2kg.

We heated the sugar in the oven, as directed, then into the pan (not a special preserving pan, just a big saucepan) with the sugar and fruit and it was soon boiling away.

The bit I was waiting for was the wrinkle test, when you drop a blob of your soon-to-be-jam on a cold plate and push it with your finger to see if it wrinkles. We did this about five times – 'another five minutes' – before it was set.

What went wrong
I forgot to remove the stones, so need to put warning labels on some of the jars. Before I filled the biggest jar, I put the remaining jam through a sieve, picked out the stones, then scraped the mush into the jar.

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How to make preserved lemons

Preserved lemons are a staple in north African and southeast Asian cooking. You can buy them (Belazu Preserved Lemons, £2.13, from Waitrose, for example) but I've been making my own for a couple of years. It's simple and quick – apart from the weeks of waiting for them to be ready.

Preserved lemons recipe
A delicious way to add a citrus tang to tagines, vegetables, roast potatoes, couscous and pulses, these gorgeous full-of-flavour jarfuls make great gifts, too.

• 6 unwaxed lemons

• 150g salt

• 3 bay leaves

• 2tbsp black peppercorns

• 3 cinnamon sticks

• 500ml Kilner-type jar, sterilised

Top and tail three of the lemons. Cut into quarters lengthways without cutting right through the base.

Pour half the salt into a sterilised jar, and add the bay leaves, peppercorns and cinnamon sticks.

Spoon the remaining salt into the centre of each lemon, holding it over the jar to catch salt fallout. Place them into the jar – this might be a bit of a squeeze.

Add the juice of the remaining three lemons to the jar, and top up with water, if necessary, to cover the top of the uppermost lemon piece.

You can tuck in more bay leaves and cinnamon sticks if you like, which look pretty pressed against the sides of the jar.

Leave in a dark place, tipping the jar around occasionally to mix everything together, for about six weeks.

To use, remove a quarter, half or whole lemon, rinse, remove any pips and chop finely before adding to couscous, pasta, roasted vegetables... basically, wherever you might use lemon zest and juice, try preserved lemon instead for a saltier, tangier lemon flavouring. 

Halloween on a smaller scale

I like to mark the seasons. Since I was a child I've celebrated Halloween by making a pumpkin lantern. But that's it, I don't festoon the house with cobwebs, and spend hours crafting hardboiled eggs into eyeballs.

This year, I've written features on easy ideas for Halloween decorations and how to carve a Halloween pumpkin lantern (with alternatives that don't require the use of a sharp knife). Among the alternatives to pumpkins are turnips (traditional but hard work to cut), and tangerines (not hollowed out, just decorated).

Because I can be trusted with a sharp knife, I have a large and small pumpkin, which I'll be carving with faces in the usual way.

But this year I've got a new idea: the tiniest-ever Halloween lantern.

It's made from a physalis, or Cape gooseberry (beloved of so many Come Dine with Me contestants as a dessert decoration), decorated with a black felt-tip face.

It would be great for places where you can't leave a candle burning, like the office. You could also decorate several physalis on a stem to put it in a vase.

How to make sloe gin

Sloes are members of the plum family and grow from October through to November - they are delicious infused in gin, creating a sweet, fruity drink with a bitter edge. Make it now and drink it or give it as a gift at Christmas.

• 200g sloes
• 400ml gin
• 100g granulated sugar

Prick the sloes’ skins. You can do this by piercing each one individually, or just pop them in the freezer for a couple of days.

Push the pierced sloes (frozen or not) into a screw-top bottle (wide-necked is easier, but the bottle you’ve taken the gin from may be handier). Pour in the sugar and add the gin.
Seal tightly, shake to combine and store in a cool, dark place.

Give the bottle a shake every day until all the sugar has dissolved. It’s ready to drink in about three weeks, but the sloe flavour becomes more pronounced the longer you leave it.

Baking: apricot and walnut scones recipe

I fancied baking some scones, because they're so quick and easy, but I wanted a change from sultanas, so I had a rummage around in my cupboards, and this was the result...

Ingredients
• 225g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
• 40g caster sugar
• 75g butter, cut into small pieces
• 30g finely chopped dried apricots
• 30g finely chopped walnuts
• 1 egg
• 3-4tbsp milk
You will need...
• Rolling pin
• 5cm round pastry cutter or a glass

Preheat the oven to 220°C /F/gas mark 7. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar. Add the butter and rub in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the apricot and walnut pieces with the beaten egg and the milk. Mix with a knife, then bring the mixture together with your hands. The dough should be soft but not sticky so add a little more milk or flour as necessary.

Shape the dough into a ball and place a on a lightly floured work surface. Roll out the dough until approx. 3cm thick. Use the cutter to cut rounds from the dough, starting from the edge and place on a non-stick baking sheet.

When you have cut the first batch, bring the dough into a ball and roll out again. Cut remaining scones out.

Dust the scones with flour and bake for 12-15 mins. Place on a rack to cool and serve halved and buttered – delicious served warm and particularly good with apricot jam!

This recipe first appeared on Allaboutyou.com, where I used to work. It was a great website, with lots of top-quality content,including a few recipes from me. Unfortunately, it was closed in January 2015.

Gorgeous gooseberries

Who knew that gooseberries ever turned ruby-red and wine-dark? And sweet?! Not me, until the gooseberry bush had a bumper crop this year. I say bumper crop; last year there were about five berries... Perhaps being dug up and replanted was the TLC it needed, and I'm sure the weather helped. (This bowlful is just one picking.) And this lot made a gorgeous gooseberry fool with crème fraîche and a dash of elderflower cordial.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, or a freezer-clearing cocktail

Excavating the long-forgotten contents of the freezer is rarely a glamourous task... There are always loads of individual peas tucked into inaccessible corners. But this time it was different. I found some poached rhubarb from God knows when, cooked with vanilla, my taste buds told me, and decided to make a cocktail. One measure of gin, a few drops of lavender bitters and the liquidised rhubarb. Yum yum yum!

Baking and taking cake

On Friday I'm finally making it to an outdoor film screening. As well as an unfeasibly large pile of warm clothes, I'm baking and taking a blackberry crumble cake to enjoy with my oldest friend and her daughters. Like many of my baking sessions, this will involve going a bit freestyle. Although I haven't been making cakes for very long, I'm confident enough in my cooking to alter recipes to suit me.
The recipe I used is based on one from Hedgewizard's diary blog. I think I've made it before with apples as described, but now it's customised. Now I just have to avoid eating it before Friday...

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe...

Cherries are my favourite fruit, but you can have too much of a good thing. My mum rented me a cherry tree... yes, really. A farm in Sussex rents its cherry trees and you get to visit when they're in blossom, and then again when they're in fruit, and you pick all the cherries on your tree. And ours was a small tree, but we had three boxes of the size above... We ate cherry crumble and fresh cherries immediately; I made cherry gin (yum); gave away bagfuls to neighbours; took boxes to work, but they sere still piled up in the kitchen, attracting a light haze of fruit flies. There was nothing for it but to freeze them. I got cherry stoner's thumb pitting them. To freeze, place on a baking tray, not touching, and put in the freezer. Once frozen solid, move into freezer bags. Hard work, yes, but there are now bagfuls nestled in the freezer, which I look forward to enjoying in the winter as a little taste of summer. If you want to rent a cherry tree, here's the farm mine was on (£42.50 a season): www.rentacherrytree.co.uk.
Want to make cherry gin? 
Stone some cherries, squeeze into a clean bottle, add a few spoonfuls of sugar, top up with gin, screw on the top, shake the bottle until the sugar dissolves. Keep in a dark place and shake every few days. Start taking sneaky nips after a couple of weeks, but it gets better the longer you keep it, if you can...