Cooking the Internet #2 | Grape Jelly

One of obvious perks about having a father-in-law that's a hobby wine-maker is the free wine... Another is the grapes. Grape season is in full force over here and we've been innundated with this year's crop. Faced with more grapes than we could ever possibly eat ourselves, it only seemed fitting that I use them for my first foray into jam-making.

This recipe is also one of those classic what-on-earth-did-we-do-before-the-internet moments. The process of looking at the grapes, thinking about jam, googling a recipe and starting the juice extraction process was about 5 mins... I can hardly even remember what I would have done before – gone to the library? Or more likely the grapes would have gone mouldy before we could eat them all and they would have ended up in the bin. So hooray for the internet!

It's a two-day process and the finally jam is a bit on the sweet side, but slathered on whole wheat bread with cold butter it's delicious. Jam-making was so much easier than I expected that I'll definitely be making it again (and I don't know why I was so nervous about making my own jam...) Paired with homemade almond butter it would also make a cute housewarming gift.

• 1kg red grapes, preferable with seeds (stripped from the stalks) I used mixture of white and red since that's what I had on hand
• 450g 2:1 jam sugar
• juice of 2 lemons

1. Tip the grapes into a large saucepan set over a low heat, then cover and leave to gently cook for 5 mins until the juices start to run. Take a potato masher and mash up the grapes. Leave to cook for about 10 mins more, mashing every now and again until the grapes are falling apart. Place a clean tea towel in a sieve set over a bowl, then pour the grape mixture into this. Let the mixture drip through overnight. 
2. Measure out the juice (you should have about 600ml) and pour it into a pan along with the sugar and lemon juice. Set the pan over a high heat and bring to the boil. Let the mixture bubble for around 7 minutes. Put a small plate in the freezer for 5 mins, then pour a little of the juice onto the cold saucer. After 1 min, run your finger through; if the jam wrinkles slightly, it’s ready. Pour the hot jam into a sterilised jar. Will keep unopened for up to 3 months.

 Adapted slightly from the recipe found here.
 

Cooking the Internet #1 | Tomato Tartin

Although I love my cookbooks, more often than not I end up searching the web for new recipes. This is an attempt to document the process and excellent motivation for me to try new dishes.

The first in this series comes from Design*Sponge via a new-to-me duo called Whip + Click. I stumbled across this recipe at just the right time, with the nearly 2 kilos of tomatoes from my mother-in-law’s garden calling out to be used for something other than a tomato sauce. While this tart definitely made a nice dent in the supply, I’m looking forward to having beefsteak tomato and chedder sandwiches (my favourite!) for lunch for the next few days. The tart has the added bonus of helping me to slowly conquer my fear of pastry crust. This one turned out gorgeously, and paired with near-melting tomatoes that benefit from nearly an hour in the oven the only downside is that our tomato season is drawing to a close… Get the recipe here