Summer berry madness

I love the time of year when summer berries come in season. I could happily gorge myself on strawberries and blueberries for breakfast, lunch, and tea when they're juicy, sweet and super-fresh. And here we are at last....proper summer time, with sunshine for days and days (hope I'm not jinxing it!) and berries everywhere.

So what's a girl to do when she's got over excited and bought too many rasberries in the market? Make jam of course!

I'm no jam-making virgin, but rasberry jam is one I've never made. I just prefer strawberry so I tend to make that. However, Dan's a rasberry man, and he's been resorting to stealing rasberry jam from his parents everytime he goes to visit. It was time to make him a stash of his own.



Its very simple to make, just as most jams are. The only tricky bit is gauging the right point to take it off the heat. I highly recommend a jam thermometer for this. It makes it a lot easier, and you will probably find that you use it more than you initially expect to. (Mine has been useful for making fudge and cheese too.)

Rasberry Jam
Use equal weight of rasberries and granulated sugar
Make sure you use a large saucepan as once the jam is boiling it will rise up alot.

Warm the rasberries through slightly until the juices start to bleed out.
Add the sugar and stir through. Turn the heat up and clamp your thermometer on the side of the pan.
Bring the jam to the boil, stirring occasionally to ensure bits don't stick to the bottom and burn.
Keep it on a fairly high heat until the jam setting point temperature is reached (it should be marked on the thermometer).
Remove pan from heat and pour into sterilised jars.
Allow to cool without the lids on for about an hour, then loosely screw on the lids and leave the jam to cool and set completely before tightening the tops.



But that still left some yellow rasberries and blueberries (I told you I got over-enthusiastic with my berry purchases!).

I bought a copy of Red Magazine to read on the train the other day. (Should I admit to that? Its hardly the most cutting-edge reading material!) Anyway, quite apart from whiling away my journey to and from London quite satisfactorarily, it also had a section on berry recipes. Whilst most were cream and sugar filled, of which I am not a fan (I like to keep my berries fruity), there was a suggestion for Wine Jelly with berries. I haven't done the taste test yet, but they were easy to make and seem to have set quickly.
I reduced the recipe sugar amount slightly and upped the fruit quantity.



Berry Jellies (for 2)
160ml white or rose wine
5g fine leaf gelatine
60ml water
50g sugar
150g mixed berries

Divide the berries between 2 glasses or teacups.
Put the gelatine to soak in a bowl of cold water & leave for 5 mins.
Meanwhile gently heat the wine water and sugar together, stirring to help the sugar dissolve. The liquid should get not hotter than hand warm.
Take the softened gelatin out of its water. Squeeze any excess water out of it and add to the wine mixture. Stir until the gelatine has dissolved.
Pour the wine mixture over the berries and put in the frisge to set overnight.



Serve with more berries on the side, or cream of you are a berries+cream person.

Hope you're enjoying summer!