Spurt

The folate seems to be helping.

I'm still getting brief tinnitus-free periods.  The "circulation stopping" at night seems to be getting more frequent, although the accompanying pain is more muted.

I had a very productive day yesterday.   I made a quince, raisin and ginger suet pudding (Catherine Phipps,  Modern Pressure Cooking) in the pressure cooker.   I don't think I've eaten sweet suet puddings before, although I do vaguely remember making my husband a Spotted Dick about 30 years ago.  (He had been mentioning it for ages  but, when I made it, he complained about the raisins.  Turned out he was thinking of Jam Roly Poly). 

I wasn't expecting great things, it's not exactly a good looking pudding.... but it was surprisingly pleasant.  I'm interested in trying other pressure cooker sweet suet puddings now,  and I'm wondering if I can use some of the Medlar Jelly in one.

I also did the prep for Christmas Puddings, which involved making a loaf of white bread and then putting slices in the dehydrator to make breadcrumbs.   (In fact, it involved making 2 loaves as the first one was a disaster,  goodness knows how I managed to have a fail of something so simple!).

And I made Meatballs using my Mrs Balbir Singh's Cocktail Kebabs spices.  I was going to make two styles of meatballs, but I was running out of energy by the time I started, and ended up just making a large quantity of the same.

I used my Falafel press thing, so they weren't really meatballs,  more meatdiscs. I fried them all in a bit pf ghee,  froze most of them,  and put some in some of DH's home made passata to have with rice for dinner.

I appreciate that doesn't sound like a lot, especially compared to "old me",  but it was a surprising amount. 

Today I potted the puddings and have been steaming them (8 hours). There's still 3 or so hours to go.  I spent the first few hours cleaning and clearing the kitchen and doing other Domestics.

I've also made a small amount of Quince Jelly.   I used the Ball Jam and Jelly maker this time, as the last lot I made on the hob set too well and was more sugar than flavour.   I only had a tiny amount of juice left,  too little really even for the Jam Maker.    I adjusted the quantity of sugar and, for good measure, I added pectin. 

I ended up with half a jar of jam, and a load of stuff stuck to the bottom of the maker.  I think I was at fault, rather than the machine.   I'll see what it tastes like when it's cold.

 My back is now starting to complain, quite loudly.

On the plus side, it's only started to ocmplain in the last hour or so,  and I'm taking that as a win.

 

Still Medlaring

I had another go at Medlar Jelly. This time I included a load of unripe Medlars, fresh from the tree, when I made the juice.

It set perfectly.

I forgot to remove the foam (or scum as it's described in jammy books), which is a bit unfortunate.   Still, I'l be the only one eating it, and I know it's foam not mould.

 

 I also made a second medlar tart. lime juice instead of lemon this time.  It was absolutely delicious.

Sadly the remainder of the medlar puree met its demise in a vacuum sealing incident.  Such a waste!

The tart success has made me keen to harvest the medlars this year.  DH said he read somewhere that Medlars are biennial,  so  I'll probably freeze them and use them next year if we don't get any medlars.

I'm now onto dealing with the Quince harvest. even as I type,  I'm extracting the juice from a few to make quince jelly.  The smell is divine.

 

 

Medlarsome

We've currently got a lot of medlars on the tree, so it's likely we'll be freezing loads of them this year (squirrels permitting).

In preparation, I excavated the outside chest freezer to find retrieve the kilos and kilos that we had frozen in 2023. (Last year was a terrible year and there were none).

I put them in the fridge to defrost, and then dutifully made a load of juice (pressure cooker) ready for jellying.  My last attempt failed,. so I'm trying to get motivated to have a go today.

 I still had kilos left, so my next foray was to try making a Medlar Tart . I followed the instructions in Jane Stewart's Medlars book to make the filling,  and I used frozen ready rolled pastry for the case.   We don't have a working oven at the moment, so I had to adapt it on the hoof for cooking in an air fryer,  and it came out surprisingly well.

 I couldn't taste the medlars at all, but I enjoyed the tart immensely.   It was very Christmassy flavoured,  I guess it was a kind of Yuletide version of pumpkin pie.  Even DH had a second bit, which was rather amazing.

 We've eaten nearly all of it over the last couple of days, and I've only just thought to take a photo of the remains. 

I'm trying to get up enthusiasm for making the jelly now. Wish me luck