Lemon Marmalade

Our jam cupboard was looking like Old Mother Hubbard's, so I have had a jam-making session. And we are rather low on marmalade, and my daughter has run out, so, following up on a conversation with her, I decided to try making lemon marmalade. You can't make proper marmalade at this time of year, of course, as the Seville oranges aren't available, and 3-fruit (sweet orange, lemon and grapefruit) can be fearfully over-sweet and tasteless. The only alternative is to buy a tin of Ma Made and make it up from that, which is one step up from buying it, but.....

So I made lemon marmalade, like this:

3-4 lemons. Weigh them, and take an equal amount of sugar, and an approximately equal amount of water. My lemons weighed 570 g, so I took that amount of sugar, and 600 ml water.

Put the whole lemons and water into a pressure cooker, bring up to high pressure and cook for 20 minutes. Allow pressure to reduce at room temperature. Fish out the lemons with a slotted spoon and let them cool. When cool enough to handle, chop them up such that the peel is in marmalade-sized chunks (I found slicing them lengthwise then crosswards worked best. Remove any pips.

Return the chopped lemons into the water, and add the sugar. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to a vigorous boil and cook, stirring continuously, for 5-10 minutes until it gels. Let sit for 10 minutes, then pour into hot, sterile jars, and cover.

Mushrooms and Stilton on toast

We ended up eating lunch at Pizza Express today with family and friends, so didn't want a big dinner. But we wanted a little something, so I made Portabello mushrooms on toast with Stilton:

All you do is peel a large mushroom per person and spray it with oil; microwave for about 1 minute (for 2 mushrooms), then put Stilton (or other cheese, but I like Stilton) on top of the gills and put under the grill until it melts. Serve on buttered toast!

Easy, quick and delicious!

I am neglectful!

I haven't updated this in a million years, but I haven't been cooking all that much that is different, to be honest! For instance, these will be our main meals next week:


Friday (tonight):
Roast butternut squash, couscous, feta cheese and cherry tomato sauce

Saturday:
Sausages, mash, baked beans, leeks (Husband's Saturday-night must-have!)

Sunday:
Bought pie, new potatoes, sprouts, peas.

Monday:
Fish pie, cabbage or sprouts.

Tuesday:
Veggie chilli with rice & grated cheese

Wednesday:
Either left-over fish pie or Chinese take-away

Thursday:
As Tuesday

Friday:
Probably oven fish and chips with battered calamari rings, a green vegetable and mayonnaise!

Looks remarkably unenterprising, but there are only so many meals in the week!