This is the most foolproof recipe for jam or jelly that I’ve ever made. If you’ve got citrus fruit, sugar and some jars you are more than half way home. It’s a good recipe for a newbie or a nervous jam maker because the ‘setting’ is very reliable.

Why a marmalade recipe from someone who lives in England? Citrus is technically never in season here. But there is a long association between these cool and damp islands and the traditional citrus based preserves that are marmalade.

Legend has it that a ship load of Seville oranges ran aground in Dundee in Scotland. The scavengers scooped up the oranges and then cooked them with sugar until it ‘jellied’ to protect their loot. That story has been debunked but the first ever factory to produce marmalade was in Dundee, opened in 1797.

The corona virus lockdown has propelled me into making marmalade on two fronts; we have excess citrus fruit and a shortage of jam.

We get our fruit and vegetables from a delivery service – Abel & Cole. Adore them but they’ve made adaptations to their service during the lockdown so you get your fruit and veg box and can’t edit out or in specific items. Also the Davinator has been the one to brave the queue system at Waitrose (posh supermarket for Americans). He is prone to going ‘off list’ and coming home with things that ‘looked yummy’. Et voila, there is excess of oranges.

One of my best friends lives in Devon and makes the best jam, marmalade and preserves and is generous with gifting them to friends. We don’t actually go down to see them when we’re about to run out of jam and marmalade – but it might SEEM that way. We had been scheduled to visit at Easter and our stocks had run low. Then corona. And the Davinator was down to one jar of courgette marmalade, one jar of chutney and we opened the last jar of strawberry jam.

We had a need for marmalade, we had oranges and sugar and I had the empty jars I had been saving to return to my jam making friend. And that’s all you need for ingredients. A couple of pieces of equipment help a great deal: a food processor for chopping, a deep kettle for the boiling marmalade and jam funnel.

You won’t make elegant jewel toned marmalade with artistic shreds of peel with my recipe. But it will work (i.e. jell) and it will look and taste great. And it’s a great time saver. The prep takes about 10 minutes, including getting out your food processor and it takes about 30 minutes to cook. While it’s cooking you can prep your jars, sterilise your lids and wash up the food processor.

Ready to marmelise?

Recipe

Makes 1.75 litres of jam, say 5 normal jam jars. You could do one or two very large jars as well. It keeps.

Ingredients

900 grams (2 pounds) of citrus fruit: oranges, lemons, grapefruit, clementines, satsumas. All of one kind or mix and match. You can use one or two limes but don’t go full lime – too bitter. That’s about six medium sized oranges.

1 kilogram (2 pounds, 2 ounces) of sugar (caster – UK, granulated – US)

Crystallised ginger, a generous handful if desired.

Method

1. Wash the fruit, quarter it, remove seeds or pips with the tip of a knife. Cut off any blemishes in the rind and I also cut off the stem end. Throw it all in the food processor or blender with the ginger if you’re including ginger. If using the blender, do 2 or 3 batches. Process until its quite small chunks.
2. Put in a deep sturdy cooking pot with the sugar. Over low heat, melt the sugar while stirring. Bring to a boil, back it down to a simmer with big bubbles popping on the surface. Keep stirring from time to time and scrape down the sides of the pot into the jam. It needs to be bubbling away for 25 to 30 minutes.
3. Prep your jars. I sterilise all preserve jars, including jam jars although some argue that the boiling preserves kill all bacteria. I’m indifferent to germs most of the time but I sterilise the jars and the lids. Here’s a link to the easiest method – bake them in the oven. The video also has a reasonable alternative to the jam funnel – transfer your marmalade to a sterilised jug to pour it into the jars. Also works well. Use a glass or metal jug and be aware that it should be sterilised too. The handle may get hot.
4. Your marmalade should be coating and jelling on the back of a metal spoon now. Go ahead and fill your jars. If you’re a nervous jam maker – have plenty of clean tea towels (dish towels), oven mitts and sterilised tongs to put the lids on. Get ready and fill your jars.
5. This recipe works because of the amount of the pectin in the rind of the fruit so it is quite reliable. But here’s a top tip from my jam making friend – if it does not jell, empty the jars back into a saucepan and boil it for another 10 minutes. If your jam sets too ‘tight’ you might need to heat it to use it but it’s absolutely lovely gently warmed and poured over pancakes or waffles.

I hope you enjoy your marmalade. Thank you for reading, commenting, subscribing, sharing and for cooking the recipes.

Ratatouille is a classic vegetable stew from the south of France. Don’t show this blog to any French people you know because we’re going to colour outside the lines with ingredients and preparation methods. Recipe is great for the vegetarians and vegans. We are trying for zero food waste and fewer trips to the market for ingredients so this recipe is all about flexibility.

Side note: Ratatouille, the movie, is one of those Pixar cartoons that’s secretly aimed at adults but also amuses children. We’ve got access to Disney+ while our son is home from university and we are shamelessly exploiting it. In the movie, they make an incredibly posh nouvelle cuisine version of ratatouille. We’re not cooking that today. There are posh versions – carefully colour coordinated and layered. That’s cooking as performance art and nobody has the time for that.

The beating heart of ratatouille is aubergine (eggplant you Americans) and tomatoes. Those are the only two mandatory ingredients for me (ducking now while purists hurl things at me). Most ratatouille also includes bell peppers, courgettes (zucchini again for you Americans), onions and garlic.

I consulted the hive mind of Twitter for other things you can and cannot put in ratatouille. No support for root vegetables (I suggested parsnips and carrots) and that includes potatoes, sweet potatoes and radishes. In fact several Tweeters more or less accused me of cooking heresy. Also beans (as in pulses) are verboten. I would tend to avoid cabbage as it has a strong taste and it needs bacon to make it edible. Cucumbers have so much liquid I would also avoid them.

Things you can put in ratatouille – pretty much any other vegetable in just about any form. Frozen mixed veg, corn from cans, summer squash, pumpkin, leeks, shallots. Kale, spinach and other sturdy greens are also acceptable. Go for it.

I consulted my vegetable drawer and my store cupboards and my latest ratatouille had one aubergine, two tins of tomatoes, one red bell pepper, 2/3 of an orange bell pepper, one truly ancient courgette, some leeks and assorted onions (one Spanish, two white ones). I found some dried basil in the store cupboard that expired in 2007. 2007. Used that too.

I’ve included the ingredients in the recipe in the order that I put them in the pot. I use a large deep enamelled cast iron soup pot, don’t use aluminium – it doesn’t like the acid from tomatoes. You can find hundreds of ratatouille recipes on line – this one works for me.

Recipe

Ingredients

• olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped fine (I don’t cook with garlic but its widely used)
• 2 medium onions, peeled, halved and sliced thinly (I use a hand held mandolin and slice them directly into the pot)
• 2 bell peppers, cored seeded and chopped into cubes of about 1.5 cm (half an inch or so) pieces
• 1 medium aubergine (eggplant) chopped into cubes, same size
• 1 medium courgette (zucchin) chopped into cubes, same size
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes with juice or 6 fresh tomatoes, cored and seeded
• bunch of fresh basil or 2 tablespoons of dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Coat the bottom of the stock pot with a generous layer of olive oil and heat until it smells sweet (medium heat). Add the garlic, give it a couple of minutes.
2. Add the sliced onions, stir to coat with oil and cook until they begin to soften, about five minutes
3. Repeat with the bell peppers, then the aubergine, then the courgette.
4. Add the tomatoes and stir to coat. Bring to a slow simmer and cook for about 20 minutes once simmering.
5. Watch to see that it doesn’t get too dry and start to stick to the bottom of the pan. Cautiously add water if it looks dry.
6. About 5 minutes before it’s finished add the basil (chopped if fresh) and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve up with your favourite carbohydrate base. I’ve seen the Davinator eat ratatouille on bread, pasta and mashed potatoes (not all at the same time). It’s been eaten as a breakfast dish with a couple of fried eggs as well.

It will last several days in the refrigerator.

Thank you for reading, commenting, cooking the recipes and for sharing on social media.

We are only four people in social isolation in our household: the Davinator plus younger son and his roommate from university. The Davinator is the middle of a big building project (redoing some of our hard landscaping) and is eating accordingly. University students are Olympic standard eaters. A fair amount of catering to do and I was looking for things that can be precooked and served in different ways. Meatballs are the answer.

Meatballs are easy for non-expert and ingredients are flexible. Kids seem to love them and there are many ways to serve them. The more expert a cook you are, the more confidence you’re likely to have with substitutions and changes. I go over each ingredient below to help you figure it out.

Meatballs are minced (ground) meat, usually mixed with bread crumbs, egg and seasonings. My recipe calls for Parmesan cheese but this is a lovely addition and not vital to the recipe. Remember google is your friend so just ask ‘substitutes for……’ and see what comes back.

Meat

Use any type of minced or ground meat. My favourite is 50/50 beef and pork. Lamb, chicken, turkey and even sausage meat bought in bulk or squeezed out of the casings. I’m guessing you could make duck meatballs if there’s such a thing as ground duck. Be aware of how much fat you’ve got in the meat, ultra lean meat like chicken or turkey won’t hold together as well and doesn’t have the same mouth feel on eating.

Vegetarians, I bet you could make meatballs with Quorn mince. It then ceases to be a meatball but let’s not worry about the ontology of naming things today.

Bread crumbs: I have a big supply of panko breadcrumbs, because I hate to run out so I buy in bulk from Amazon Subscribe & Save. So many possibles substitutes here. You can make some from bread. Here’s a video but essentially you oven dry them and then whizz them up in food processor. The video uses fresh whole wheat bread but bread type and freshness don’t really matter. Use wheat bread though.

The quantity might not substitute straight across, so keep mixing in until you have a good consistency.

Other substitutes, grind in a food processor or put in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin:

• plain water crackers or saltines, basically any kind of savoury biscuit,
• unsweetened cereal like corn flakes or weetabix,
• rolled oats or porridge oats
• pretzels, crisps, corn chips (be careful with weird flavours like prawn).

Even more creative:

• cooked rice or quinoa
• flaxseed
• potato flour
• cornstarch

Egg

The egg in this recipe is a binding ingredient – it helps the meatball hold together. Hopefully, you’ve got eggs but if not you can substitute yogurt (unsweetened and unflavoured) or try about half the same quantity of milk. Getting a little bit more unlikely: ground flax or chia – one tablespoon with 3 tablespoons of water = one egg. Tofu, if you have any, or melt some butter or vegetable shortening.

Seasonings: salt and pepper are enough and it may be all you want if you’re going to make a flavourful sauce or soup for your meatballs. But if chilli flakes, Italian seasoning, whatever takes your fancy from your spice cupboard.

Serving suggestions:

• make a simple clear soup with celery and carrots, add the meatballs at the end
• heat up a can or jar of prepared sauce and serve with pasta,
• make marinara sauce, (see this simple recipe) and serve with pasta
• serve warm with some barbecue sauce (put them on toothpicks – kids will eat anything on a toothpick),
• crush them into a sandwich with lots of ketchup or HP.

Once cooked, meatballs will keep in the fridge for 3 days or until a teenage boy finds them.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 450 grams of ground meat, can be mixed
• 1/4 cup (25 grams) of panko bread crumbs (very fine dry bread crumbs – you’re using a substitute be prepared to adjust to get a good firm consistency when you’re rolling the meat balls)
• 1/4 cup (25 grams) grated parmesan cheese (optional)
• 1/4 cup (40 grams) finely chopped onion (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 egg or substitute binding agent

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200C (180 fan). Line a baking sheet or a shallow pan with foil. Drizzle with the olive oil and spread the oil to cover the pan.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Easiest to use your hands to smush it all together and combine well. Add any additional herbs as you go. You’ll be able to tell if the meatballs are going to bind together. If it’s too wet, add some more bread crumbs. If it’s too dry, try adding milk a tablespoon at a time.
3. Scoop out a generous tablespoon and roll it into a ball. Place on the baking tray. They will brown better if not touch each other. This is a job that children love to ‘help’ with. And the meatballs are going in a hot oven, so its fine.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Cut one in half and make sure they’re not pink in the middle. Consume your test meatball to hide the evident.

Enjoy. And happy cooking.