Saturday 14 July 2007

Apricot Day

Today 14th July Bastille Day in France but in this house it is henceforth proclaimed Apricot Day.

Yesterday I took delivery of my 10kg of apricots from the grocery van.

Today we have been working subtle and cunning transformations upon them. Have we turned base fruit into gold? Yes sort of, for now we have (dadadadadadadaaaah)

Apricot Jam - the finest (and first) jam I have ever made
Apricot Chutney - the finest (and first) chutney I have ever made
Apricot Wine - the finest (and first) wine TS has ever made

OK strictly speaking the chutney won't be ready for a couple of months and the wine till next year, but apricots have been processed. If the wine and chutney are rubbish then they will never be mentioned again and you will be none the wiser.

The day started with panic looking at too many books and too many web sites. In the end we settled on How to Store Your Garden Produce by Piers Warren, got an idea of proportions ,then winged it. So the jam is simply 40% apricots 60% sugar. The chutney is apricots, onions, cider vinegar, red wine vinegar(didn't have enough cider vinegar), raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove and ginger plus two spectacularly large but completely mild chilli peppers out of the garden. By the time it got to the wine I'd lost track but I'm sure TS almost definately won't of.

So if we don't die of food poisoning there'll be no stopping us now.

Only 5kg of apricots to go

6 comments:

Debra in France said...

A jar of delicious looking had materialised on our garden bench! I think twas you. Thank you. xxx

Debra in France said...

I meant to say delicious looking JAM - sorry, crap typing.

Breezy said...

I fear it may be a bit sugary I couldn't taste very well yesterday due to vinegar steam up my nose from the chutney

Debra in France said...

I am sure it will taste as good as it looks. Hot buttered toast and jam for breakfast, me thinks.

Unknown said...

Any chance you could review that book? And I'd be happy to review your jam!

soleil said...

all of your apricot treats sound delicious!