Christmas Pudding and "Leftover Jelly"

Two recipes today, in a double whammy of a first post:
 
Christmas Pudding...

Mmm...Christmas Pudding time! It's such a peaceful, festive feeling to stir a big bowl of fruity pudding mix with the snow six inches deep outside; in fact, I don't think there's anything better than a warm, yellow-lit kitchen and a snowy view from  the window.

I used Nigel Slater's recipe from The Kitchen Diaries, which is a bit different (if you're interested!) because you steam the puddings for three hours or so before storing them until Christmas Day. That combination of fresh and dried fruit, warming Mixed Spice and bland, comforting suet feels like the first sign of Christmas. Certainly the first in my kitchen anyway! It also makes you feel like a proper, full-on, real-life, Downton Abbey-style cook, and for this reason, everyone in the world should try it.

I was pretty proud of myself, then, when I put the puddings in to steam. My pride was very shortlived. I used some plastic pudding basins with fitted lids, which claimed to be oven-safe and boilable. What a surprise - they weren't. In fact, all the bits above water-level in my bain marie melted. First post, first kitchen disaster, and may there be many more! As a result, I turned out some mildly deformed half-cooked Christmas treats and spent a hilarious half hour trying to peel the plastic lids off to get to the salvageable bits.

Well, hilarious in retrospect.

They actually turned out fine in the end, if a bit oval-shaped - and they smelled fantastic. Spicy half-cooked mixed peel. Total seasonal bliss.

I've stuck them in the kitchen cupboard to keep until Christmas Day. Since it's -4 outside, I may as well have put them in the fridge.

...and "Leftover Jelly"

"Leftover Jelly" is actually partly yesterday's recipe, because it stems from some Tartes Tatins which I made as a present for my aunt (and also an apology for having nearly ruined her lunch party. I pulled out of helping her a week beforehand...oops). I used twelve apples to make two tarts, from a recipe of my mum's which will no doubt find itself up here one of these days, and the juice of an orange to keep them from browning while I peeled them. Result: two tarts (yum) and a load of fruit peel.

Why am I excited? Because I've been watching River Cottage Bites, and I've been wanting to try this jelly for weeks. It's made out of the leftover bits of fruit you would usually compost, feed to the chickens or throw away.

I simmered the peel in water for 45 minutes (most of which I spent hovering over the pan inhaling the wonderful smell) then tipped it straight into a jelly bag to strain. Slightly specialist equipment, but we have one at home because half of our garden seems to be an orchard, so in autumn we make a lot, and I do mean a LOT, of apple jelly. You can acually use a tea-towel to strain it though. I just never have...

I hate having to wait overnight for all the juice, but you definitely get a better, clearer jelly if you do (and NEVER squeeze the jelly bag, folks. It's practically a capital offence).

So we come to today, which was essentially a matter of sterilising jars (you literally just boil them for ten minutes) and boiling fruit juice up with sugar until it succumbed to my will and came to setting point, which is when a skin forms on half a teaspoonful. Simples. Three jars of sticky, gooey, oozing "Leftover Jelly", which is a humble name for a very, very beautiful thing. They're the colour of molten amber, and when you hold them up against the light they gleam like little jewels. I feel like a jelly queen.

Plus, they will taste AWESOME on my breakfast toast.