Concorde Grape Jelly

To Y

Jam making is not difficult, but it is hard to perfect. I had made apple jams, lemon and lime marmalade and blueberry jam previously, they turned out alright but I couldn't say they were very good. I didn't bother too much to perfect my technique as I don't eat jam often. But not this one. Y is a great fan of grape jelly. He particularly likes to spread plastic white bread with peanut butter and grape jelly. The problem is, grape jelly isn't available in the UK supermarkets, so we had to resort to ordering from an online British grocer which sells American foodstuff at £4 a jar! Then one day, I bought a kilo of super sweet South African black grapes in Costco, it suddenly dawned on me that I could use grapes to make jelly! But it was not exactly the quickest jam to make... It took a few hours for the boiled grape mixture to drip through a muslin bag to form grape juice (luckily this process didn't involve manual labour nor did it involve me looking at the mixture, otherwise I would have given up at this point). But the end product was so worth it, as it tasted exactly like Welch grape jelly! Now the jam jar has been scraped down to the bottom and it is time to make another batch! Being the clever, somewhat lazy, homemaker, I make the jelly with shop bought 100% grape juice this time! 20 minutes it's done! Voila!

Ingredients:

1. 325ml pure grape juice
2. 240g jam sugar
3. juice of half a lemon

Method:

• First, wash the jar and lid with warm soapy water. Dry it in a warm oven for about 20 minutes to sterilise the jar.
• Heat the grape juice, jam sugar and lemon juice in a pot. Stir to dissolve the jam sugar completely.
• If you have a food/jam therometer, when the temperature reaches 105c, the mixture has reached the setting point. If you don't have a food thermometer, put some saucers into the freezer for at least 10 minutes. When the mixture comes to a roaring boil, let it boil for a further 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take out one saucer from the freezer and pour about a teaspoon of mixture onto the cold saucer. Run a finger through the jam. If the surface of the jelly wrinkles, it has reached the setting point. If not, continue to test at 3-minute intervals.
• Once the setting point is reached, turn off the heat and let the jam cool down for 15 minutes. Then, pour it into the hot sterilised jar, cover it straight away with a waxed disc. Store in the fridge when it has cooled down completely.

Chao Zhou Style Oyster Omelette

Having dined out and, more often than not, get disappointed with the quality of food in Chinese restuarants, it comes as no surprise that I had started to replicate restaurant food at home. Traditionally, Chao Zhou Style Oyster Omelette uses small oysters, yam flour and duck eggs. I could easily get hold of duck eggs in Costco, but I couldn't find yam flour, so I make do with topioca starch, which I think has a similar texture. I could find frozen small oysters in Chinese supermarkets for £9 a pack but the fishmonger counter is selling big fat juicy live oysters at a mere 60p per piece... It's a no brainer and I happily bought 10 fresh oysters for this omelette.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1. 10 oysters
2. 2 tablespoons oyster juice
3. 2 duck eggs
4. 1 1/2 tablespoon tapioca starch
5. 2 tablespoons chopped spring onion
6. 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
7. 1 teaspoon fish sauce, plus more to serve as dipping sauce
8. 2 tablespoons chopped coriander, a handful more to garnish
9. 2 tablespoons oil

Method:

• Open the oysters with an oyster knife. Take out the oyster meat carefully and retain the juice in a bowl. Use a spoon to carefully measure out 2 tablespoons of the oyster juice, making sure any grit is left behind. Cut each oyster in half.
• In another bowl, use the oyster juice to dissolve the tapioca starch.
• Beat the duck eggs lightly, and add to the oyster juice starch mixture. Season with fish sauce and white pepper. Add spring onion, chopped coriander and oyster pieces and mix lightly.
• On a high heat, heat up 2 tablespoons of oil in a round frying pan. When the oil is hot, add the omelette mixture. If necessary, use a wooden spoon to scatter the oyster pieces evenly. Let it cook until the edges are brown, then carefully flip the omelette to cook the other side. (If you are afraid of flipping the omelette, slid the omelette to a plate first. Then use one hand to turn over the pan (which is now empty) to cover the plate, then quickly flip the plate using another hand, so that the uncooked side will face downwards in the pan).
• Remove the omelette from the pan carefully, then garnish the omelette with chopped coriander leaves. Serve with fish sauce for dipping.

Banoffee Pie

I am not a big fan of banana nor am I a super fan of caramel. But the two goes so well together that Banoffee Pie, in my humble opinion, has got to be one of the greatest British desserts... I was first introduced this dessert by my Irish floormate who made this for the floor dinner back in 2006 (while we were living in a London private hall) and it was so good that I asked for the recipe afterwards...

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

1. 150g digestive biscuits
2. 75g butter, melted
3. 1/2 can of condensed milk
4. 2 bananas
5. 150ml doublecream
6. 1 tablespoon caster sugar
7. grated chocolate, to dust

Method:

• Use a piece of foil to wrap around a 6' round shallow dish.
• Put the whole can of condensed milk (keep it unopened) into a deep pot. The pot should be filled with water and cover the whole can by at least 2 cm. Boil the can for at least 2 hours on low heat, making sure the can is submerged in water at all times. Take the can out to cool completely.
• Melt the butter. Use a rolling pin to bash the digestive biscuits in a plastic bag until the biscuits become fine crumbs. Mix the melted butter with the biscuit crumbs and carefully place them onto the dish. Use the palm of your hand or a spoon to even out the biscuit crumbs on the base and sides of the dish. Refridgerate for half an hour to set.
• Open the can of condensed milk; it should now become caramel. Spread about half a can of the caramel onto the biscuit base.
• Whip the double cream with sugar until peaks form.
• Cut the bananas into 1.5cm slices and place them evenly on the caramel. Cover with whipped cream. Dust with chocolate shavings. Great to serve immediately; or have it frozen and then slightly thawed, believe me, it's even better!!!