Jams & Preserves

I have written a lot about how much I love redcurrants, those ruby coloured strands of beautiful summer berries. While I usually use them in baking, as they are so good within a Redcurrant Crumble Cake, they also make a brightly coloured and tangy Redcurrant Jelly, made with only two ingredients. That’s right, this recipe has NO added pectin. Redcurrants are naturally high in pectin so you can make this recipe with just fruit and sugar! This jelly is perfect for serving with a cheese board, alongside some crumbly cheddar, and is great for stirring into gravies and sauces to…

Ever since I was a little boy I have been fascinated by jam making. It started with watching my grandmother, Nana Fay, making her legendary plum jam, one of the highlights of summer. Since then, I’ve cooked up just about every combination of jam flavours you can imagine and even had a market stall in Cyprus making hundreds of jars a week. Jam making can be hot, sticky work, but it is incredibly rewarding. Something I often get asked about is how to reduce the amount of sugar in jam. It’s a tricky question because it is the delicate relationship…

Lemon curd has to be one of my favourite things in the world. The very best curd is the perfect balance between sweet, sour, creamy and buttery. Whether you eat it spread on toast, fold it through softly whipped cream for filling a sponge cake, or as the base to a quick lemon tart or meringue pie, it is vital to use the freshest lemons and eggs you can find – with so few ingredients you want to make sure that they are all top quality. My love affair with lemon curd really began among the famous lemon groves of…

We’ve arrived back in Munich to gorgeous early summer weather. It’s warm, sunny, the whole city seems to have decamped to the riverside and the smell of barbecue hangs in the air. Truly, this is when Munich comes alive. This is also the time of year when the parks are full of the billowy white blossoms of elderflower – Holunderblüten, or Holler as it is locally known. I’m somewhat of an elderflower addict, and the first warm, sunny day after the blossoms have arrived will see me with basket and scissors raiding the local parks for blossoms. Every year I…