PRESERVING MAD!

I've always wanted to replace those horrible mass produced ketchups and chutneys that we buy from time to time and decided recently to have a go.

My ever wonderful fiancé brings home some really odd things from time to time when I send him to the shops for some bananas and the like. This time he came home with some Seckel Pears which we both presumed would taste pretty much like any other kind of pear. If you can imagine biting into a potato which vaguely has a pear taste then you're quite close to the taste we got when we tried on of the pears. We weren't impressed but we had 4 more that seemed a huge waste if we just threw them away and as I had been perusing some chutney recipes the week before I wondered if they would be OK to use in some kind of pear chutney.

I eventually found a Spiced Pear Chutney and gave it a bash however I cooked it in my bread machine which can also make jam and it was a bit of a mistake. While it cooked OK, it didn't reduce the liquids enough so I had to put it in a pan on the stove to reduce the liquid further. I think I reduced it a little too far as when we opened it it wasn't as 'saucy' as I would have imagined but it was absolutely amazing with a little bit of organic cheese.

I was hooked!

PUMPKIN EXPERIMENTS : PART II

So we found a recipe for 'Tuscan Pumpkin Soup' online and thought at first that would be a nice recipe to use the pumpkin in. After further consideration it appeared to be no more than chicken stock cubes, a few beans and some pumpkin and didn't appear to be appetizing in any way nor even remotely Tuscan so we opted to make up our own soup with what we had to hand.

This is what we ended up with:

1 large red onion, roughly chopped

1 huge carrot, scrubbed but not peeled, chopped

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped

1 pumpkin, roasted and then skinned

some leftover cubed uncooked potato

2 good chicken stock cubes

4 cans soaked and boiled soya beans

4ltrs water

sprigs of thyme and rosemary

Salt and pepper

Basically we threw everything in a huge pot (and this makes lots, we have plenty of leftovers in the freezer), bring to the boil and then simmer for 2 hours. Blend and serve with a quinelle of 1% crème fraîche and a sprig of parsley (if you're playing at being a TV chef like we were!)

Verdict: It was nice, very thick and warming but I don't think we'll be rushing out to buy another pumpkin again anytime soon, we'll stick to butternut squash!