Christmas Gifts from the Kitchen

December 15, 2005

A friend and I have gone into a pre-Christmas partnership. Whenever one of us makes something special for the festive season, we make double the quantity and share. It certainly saves duplicating effort.

I have a large jar of her dried fruit chutney maturing in the pantry and I’ve just made some roasted spiced pecan nuts. I’ve got a couple of batches of mustard gathering strength for the Christmas ham and our pickled cherries will be ready on the big day.

Pickled cherries go well with ham, with turkey, on an antipasto platter and particularly with duck breast. They are so easy to make and they look attractive, too. The quantity given will fill a couple of 500ml preserving jars. Any leftover vinegar can be used in a salad dressing.

Pickled Cherries

4 to 5 cups cherries
1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 stick cinnamon
4 cloves
6 allspice berries, slightly crushed
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds

Wash the cherries and trim the stalks, leaving about 2cm of stalk in place. Put the cherries in the jars just to measure the quantity required and add about a dozen extra as the cherries will soften and take up less space.

Remove the cherries from the jar and prick each one in several places with a toothpick.

Place the spices, vinegar, water and sugar in a pot and bring to the boil. Simmer for five minutes then strain out the spices.

Meanwhile fill the pickling jars with boiling water.

Return the vinegar mix to the pan and bring to the boil. Tip in the cherries and bring back to the boil.

Drain the water from the pickling jars and quickly spoon in the cherries and pour over the vinegar. Screw down the lids tightly. The seals should pop as the pickled cherries cool down, or you can process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Store for two to three weeks or longer.

Homemade Mustard

50g brown mustard seeds
50g yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon dried green peppercorns
1 tablespoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon ajowan seeds (optional)
8 allspice berries
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon flaky salt
125ml verjuice or white wine vinegar

Place the first six ingredients in a mortar and crush with a pestle, or process briefly in a coffee or spice grinder. Place in a bowl and stir in the sugar, salt and verjuice or vinegar.

Store in a 250ml jar for a couple of weeks. You may need to add some more liquid at this time. You can vary the herbs and spices to suit your individual taste.

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