With an over abundance of cucumbers from the plot, finding things to make with it, is more difficult than it looks. We also had a bag full of small apples from the communal apple trees down there, so I made a lovely version of jam, that is more like a jelly version, as it was whizzed by my hand-held mixer until all the bits dissolved into the jam.
I suspect much of this will be added to stir fries over the winter, as it’s a perfect mixture of sweet, yet I can still taste the cucumber, which is odd, given that in the cucumber and courgette jam, I couldn’t taste it at all.
Ingredients
Method
- Put the apple and cucumber into a large pot with a thick bottom. This is a fairly large portion for a home preserve session, so a decent preserve making pot is a good idea. My one is a Lakeland special and is one of my favourite kitchen pots.
- Put the heat on and slowly let the fruit and veg break down a little, just enough to soften it. If you need to, add a tablespoon of water at a time, but be sure to bubble it off before you add the sugar.
- Add the sugar and pectin, along with the butter, and bring to a slow boil. This is when I take my hand mixer and whizz the mix, to smooth it out. Be very careful if you do this, as you're dealing with boiling sugar and it's very easy to spray yourself. I have managed to spark myself with boiling sugar and it's very painful indeed. Take extra care if you do.
- Let it rapid boil until your jam reaches the setting point, when the jam wrinkles slightly when you put a drop onto a chilled plate.
- Jar the mixture into sterilised jars, then simply enjoy whenever you need it.
What is a knob of butter please? Maybe in grams or tablespoons?
It’s just a blob of butter really. Probably about the size of two flat – 1 piled high tablespoons or about 25-30g. It doesn’t need to be fully accurate as it’s not essential to the recipe.
Excellent way to use up a glut of cucumber. I used jam sugar which is sugar with added pectin. I found it a bit sweet – should I have used cooking apples? I like how the flavour of cucumber comes through but thought the apple was slightly overpowering so if my cucumber glut continues I’ll try again with a bigger proportion of cucumber to apple and perhaps less sugar or a tarter variety of apple. Looking forward to trying it in cheese sandwiches and I think I may use it when I make my granola.
Cooking apples are usually more tangy/sour, so help reducing the sweetness to more of a tang. I’ve made cucumber only jam, which actually turned out quite nice, but there’s no getting away from the sweetness of jam. A little lemon or lime juice can help reduce the taste.
What stores would I be able to buy sachets of pectin from?
I get my pectin wherever I can. It’s usually a bottle of liquid pectin I use, as that’s all I can find locally.
Apple & Cucumber Jelly Jam http://t.co/ezWRnRF4oA
Apple & Cucumber Jelly Jam http://t.co/K6eBlZEj6S