Christmas Crafts and Cake Decorating at Comet Children's Centre

Homemade soaps

Christmas Cake made with homemade mincemeat

Sausage rolls

Gingerbread shapes

Thank you to all the families, staff and children at Comet Children's Centre - especially Gareth, Sarah Jane and Clara. We made our own mincemeat, mince pies, mince muffins, Christmas cakes, soaps, gingerbread shapes, carrot cake muffins, chocolate muffins, lots of icings and more.

Gazpacho at Wentworth Children's Centre

Everyone loves a soup during the winter months to get all ones nutrients and to keep warm. Gazpacho is a great way to enjoy soup in the summer and stay hydrated, refreshed and get much of ones five a day. Gazpacho is typically a Spanish dish with a recipe that will vary and depend on whom you ask and how their parents or grandparents made it. The following is a simple Gazpacho recipe that is simple and fun to make with children and suited to their taste buds.

GAZPACHO RECIPE
Ingredients
1 kilo red ripe tomato chopped
1 green pepper deseeded and chopped
1 red pepper deseeded and chopped
1 large cucumber deseeded and chopped
1/2 a small white onion chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
250 ml tomato juice
100ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 chunk or two slices of stale (not moldy) bread
salt and freshly milled black pepper

Method

1. Cover and soak the bread with the tomato juice and leave while preparing the other ingredients.
2. Combine the tomato, green and red pepper, cucumber, garlic and toss in the olive oil.
3. Remove the bread from the tomato juice and squeeze the excess juice from the bread and add the bread to the prepared vegetables.
4. Blend everything together in a food processor or with a hand blender until smooth with no chunks.
5. Now stir in the olive oil, cider vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Chill for at least two hours and serve as is or with garnishes such as finely diced cucumber, herbs, ham, eggs, spring onions, peppers or anything you would like.

Salmon Pasta and Salad at Wentworth Children's Centre

Here are the salmon and brocolli pasta and accompanying beetroot salad that we made today at the Healthy Eating Course held at Wentworth Children's Centre. My workshops focus on healthy recipes that are easy to prepare and cost-effective. The workshops allow for the parents and children to prepare ingredients and cook together and try new things. We cook our meals and then sit down together to enjoy the fruits of everyone's labour.

SALMON PASTA
Ingredients
400g pasta (penne or fusili or tagliatelle)
250g skinless and boneless salmon fillets
250ml yoghurt
150 ml vegetable stock
150g broccoli - chopped very finely
25g butter
25g parmesan (optional)
1 chili finely chopped
1 lemon
bay leaf
Mixed herbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1. First poach the salmon. In a medium saucepan, add the vegetable stock, the juice of half a lemon, bay leaf, salt, pepper and heat to medium high. Add the salmon with the skin side next to the pan. Cover, reduce the heat and cook for 5 minutes or until cooked through. Once cooked remove from pan, cover and allow to cook. Keep the poaching liquid. Break the salmon up in to smaller flakes and remove any bones that may still be in the filets.
2. Prepare the water for the pasta according to the instructions and be sure to add salt to the water. Set a timer and cook the pasta until al dente, strain and reserve.
3. Melt the butter in the pan with the poaching liquid, add the chili to the poached water and stir over medium heat for one minute.
4. Then add the brocolli, cover with a lid and cook on medium heat for three to five minutes.
5. Next add the yoghurt to the mixture and stir well until everything is combined well.
6. Add the parmesan to the mixture and combine.
7. Add the mixture and the flaked salmon to the pasta, add salt and pepper then stir and thoroughly combine.
8. Garnish with fresh parsley (or any fresh herb) and serve.

SALAD
Ingredients
Rocket
Beetroot
Cucumber
Radish
Tomato
1 tbsp Olive oil
fresh cracked pepper and a pinch of salt

Method

1. Finely chop all the ingredients with the exception of the rocket and place in a bowl.
2. Toss together with the olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Gently stir and fold the rocket into the vegetables.

Cold Process Soap Making

I've been teaching a six-week Soap Making Course at Wentworth Children's Centre and for weeks 4 and 5 we have been learning the cold press (CP) technique. We could have easily spent the whole six weeks on the CP technique but since part of the course has been family learning and we involved the children of the families there in the activities where it was appropriate for them to do so.

CP equipment (pic from @Wentworth_CC)

We had been building up to this session and this was our most technical as well as creative which explains our scales, goggles and gloves. For the first of the CP technique weeks we used the following recipe which I calculated using the fabulous SoapCalc.net:

150g distilled water (or filtered water, then boiled and cooled)
60g lye
160g olive oil
160g coconut oil
40g almond oil
40g castor oil
10 g lavender essential oil

Blending the oils and lye mixes

Achieving trace

The saponified soap poured into moulds

The soaps after 1 week

Soaps from week 2 with yellow and green dyes

me with some of our group from the class (pic from @Wentworth_CC)

Turkish Food - Wk 5 - Healthy Eating Fast Food/Takeaway Options

ingredients for the Turkish feast

For week 5 of the Healthy Eating Fast Food Alternatives course we prepared a Turkish feast at Sebright Children's Centre. Each time I run this course the fifth week's menu is chosen by the students. Turkish food is very healthy and very varied but like any food eaten at restaurants it can be full of extra calories and fat. A special thanks is due to Selma who is Turkish and works at Sebright and another very kind Turkish woman who attended the course with her daughters. Together they helped us tweak the recipes and gave us lots of tips. Selma noted that Turkish food often involves a lot of preparation and different stages so we chose these recipes that can be prepared in advance, are cost effective and served with healthy sauces and sides. Selma and Itidal and all the staff at Sebright have been so helpful to myself and the families on the course and they make working at Sebright such a pleasure and I am very thankful for their hard work and support.

For our feast we prepared falafel, lamb kofte, hummous, vegetable cous cous, salad and a homemade mint dressing served with pita bread for 8 adults and 5 children for £15 in two hours.

resting uncooked falafel

cooked falafel

Falafel Recipe

400g can chickpea, rinsed and drained
Half a red onion, finely chopped
garlic clove, chopped
handful of fresh parsley
handful of fresh coriander
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin  
1 tsp ground coriander
1⁄2 tsp chilli powder
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp canola oil or coconut oil
toasted pitta bread
lettuce, tomato and various accompaniments as desired

Falafel Instructions

1. Rinse the chickpeas and soak them in water and lightly rub the chickpeas with your finger and thumb to remove the shell surrounding each chickpea and then discard shells.
2. Blend all the ingredients until they are a smooth consistency. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the mixture to rest for 20-45 minutes, if not longer.
3. Heat up your oil to medium hot but be careful to not burn the oil.
4. Shape the mixture into golf sized ball shapes and gently flatten a bit using wet hands so that the mixture does not stick to your hands. Place the balls ready to fry on a plate.
5. Fry the falafel balls until they go a deep brown in colour, turn carefully and cook the other side. When they are ready remove and place on a sheet of kitchen towel for a few moments to soap up any excess oil.
6. Serve in pita bread or on their own with tomato, lettuce, hummus and other dips and gerkhins, pickled cabbage or other accompaniments.

uncooked kofte

grilled kofte

Lamb Kofte Recipe

Ingredients
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp chopped mint
500g lean lamb mince
1 small red onion finely chopped
1/4 green pepper, cored, deseeded and finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Lamb Kofte Instructions

1. Mix together the garlic and mint in a bowl, add the lamb and stir well. Cover and leave to marinate in a cool place or the fridge for 10 minutes.
2. Shape the mixture into 5 cm long sausage shapes or 3 cm wide round disc shapes and leave to rest covered in a cool place or fridge for 10 minutes.
3. Preheat the grill to a hot setting.
4. Place the shaped lamb kofte in a single layer on a baking tray and place on the top shelf and cook for 10 minutes, after 10 minutes turn each kofte and cook for another 10 minutes being sure to not burn. Alternatively you can grill the kofte as well for 4-5 minutes on each side until cooked through.
5. Serve with mint dressing, cous cous, salad, hummous,e tc.

homemade humous

Hummous Recipe

Ingredients

Two tins (425 grams) chickpeas
Fresh lemon juice, about 1 large lemon
60ml tahini
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for serving
1 garlic clove, pressed or finely minced
2 to 3 tablespoons water
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt, depending on taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Dash of ground paprika for serving if desired
A sprig of fresh coriander for serving if desired

Hummous Instructions

1. Open the tin of chickpeas, drain the liquid and then rinse well with water. Soak the chickpeas in some water and using your fingers and thumb to lightly rub the chickpeas which will release the shells from the chickpea. When all the shells are removed strain the water and keep the chickpeas to the side for the moment.
2. In a separate bowl or blender add tahini, lemon juice and the olive oil to a bowl or blender and mix until thoroughly combined. Make sure to scrape the sides down into the mixture and blend/mix again.
3. Add the garlic, cumin and salt to the mixture and blend for one minute. Make sure to scrape the sides down into the mixture and blend until thoroughly combined.
4. Add the chickpeas in stages to the mixture and blend until combined. Keep blending until the humous is thick and smooth.
5. Taste the humous and add any more ingredients until it is of a desired taste and consistency. If the mixture is still not a smooth enough consistency you can add another tablespoon of olive oil or water and then blend again for 1 minute.
6. Place the humous into a decorative serving bowl or plate and then garnish with a tablespoon of olive oil, sprinkle with paprika and garnish with a sprig of coriander.

Homemade hummous will last for one week in an airtight container in the fridge.

You can add all sorts of things to hummous to jazz it up, for example roasted garlic, roasted red peppers, chillies and more. You can also use any sort of pulses such as butter beans to make a slightly different type of dip.

If you like a very smooth consistency of hummous you can remove the shells before adding it to the mixture.

For an even more inexpensive hummous you can use dried chickpeas which are cheaper. For this you should soak the chickpeas in water overnight and then cook gently for an hour the next day until soft.

tasty side salad

vegetable cous cous

Vegetable Cous Cous Recipe

Ingredients
500g cous cous
500g organic vegetable stock or one free of MSG or additives
100g tomato diced small
half a red pepper diced small
half a green pepper diced small
half a yellow pepper diced small
handful of fresh parsley
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly cracked pepper

Vegetable Cous Cous Instructions

1. Place the couscous in a heatproof bowl, pour 500ml/18fl oz of vegetable stock over the couscous. Leave to stand until the liquid has been absorbed. Season with salt and pepper and fluff the couscous with a fork. Set aside until all the liquid is absorbed, about 15-20 minutes.
2. Add all the remaining ingredient and stir until combined. Any diced vegetables can be added to make a tasty cous cous salad.
3. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with some larger slices of vegetables like peppers or tomatoes and serve.

Basic Mint Dressing
Ingredients
one bunch of mint
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
4 tbsp boiling water
4 tbsp cider vinegar
1 level tbsp sugar or agave syrup

Basic Mint Dressing Instructions

1. Separate the stems from the mint leaves and discard the stems.
2. Gently rub the salt into the mint leaves sprinkle and chop into roughly .5-1 cm pieces.
3. Add the leaves to a heatproof bowl then stir in the sugar or agave syrup.
4. Top the mint with the freshly boiled water while stirring thoroughly and then leave to cool.
5. Once the mixture is cool, stir in the cider vinegar.
6. Add more water or vinegar and adjust seasoning to suit your taste.

The dressing can be added to vegetables, salads, meat and fish.

sitting down to enjoy our meal

Pizza - Week 3 - Healthy Eating Fast/Food/Takeaway Alternatives

pizza ingredients

For week three of our Healthy Eating Fast Food/Takeaway Alternatives we made pizza at Sebright Children's Centre. The pizza session is always a favourite because everyone loves pizza. Each family made their own batch of dough which resulted in dough for two pizzas 20cm in diameter to decorate with different toppings of their choice. Lots of families took their second batch of dough home to share with their families.

making and shaping pizza dough

Dough Ingredients
300g plain flour
250ml water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon baking yeast
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp cornmeal (if desired)
several basil leaves or dried oregano (if desired)

Dough Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 200C.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
3. Slowly stir in the water and olive oil. The dough should form a nice ball with all the ingredients mixed thoroughly and to not be too sticky or dry. If the dough is too sticky sprinkle a tablespoon of flour over the dough and mix in until the dough and add a teaspoon of water to the dough if it is too dry.
4. Cover the dough and leave it to rest for 20 minutes.
5. Uncover the ball of dough and place onto a sheet of, lightly floured surface, lightly rub a rolling pin with flour and starting in the middle of the ball roll the dough, turn and flip the dough until it is in the desired shape be it circle, square of even heart shaped.
6. You want your dough to be roughly 3 cm thick on the bottom for a thin crust or 5 cm thick for a thicker crust. Do not roll it so thin that you can not lift the dough onto your baking sheet. When it is the desired shape transfer it to the baking sheet and you can sprinkle a teaspoon of cornmeal onto your baking tray before you place the dough on the tray for a bit of added texture to the crust.
7. Slightly roll and turn up the edges to form the pizza edges.
8. Add any ingredients that you may enjoy. (see below)
9. Place in the pre-heated oven and cook for twenty minutes checking to make sure that it is cooked to your preference.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

Pizza Ingredients
Base - You can use passata as your tomato base or fresh tomatoes or even a bit of minced garlic and olive oil to create a non tomato based pizza or "white pizza".
Cheese - You can use any cheese of your choice including shredded mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, parmesan, gorgonzola, feta, etc
Toppings - You can put absolutely anything you would like on your pizza which is the great part of making your own. Ham, mushrooms, peppers, salami, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke, pineapple, etc.

perfect pizza

pac-man pizza

square shaped pizza

heart shaped pizza

Curries - Wk 3 - Healthy Eating Fast Food/Takeaway Alternatives

For the third week of our six-week Healthy Eating Fast Food/Takeaway Alternatives course we made a vegetarian curry and a mango chutney. Each week we always have a vegetarian option but this week we opted to go all vegetarian. A combination of an overly large pan, an electric stove and baby tomatoes left this recipe rather dry and we were glad for our mango chutney that we had made but I have tweaked the recipe a bit or if you prefer a dryer curry you can omit the vegetable stock. I recommend getting the mango chutney made first and put to the side or do all the prep of the ingredients for both the vegetable curry and mango chutney and make then side by side. The vegetable curry can easily have meat, seafood or tofu added to it

ingredients for vegetarian curry

Indian remains one of the most popular takeaway meals in the UK and in London we are spoilt with amazing Indian takeaway and restaurant options at all price points. Whilst working on Brick Lane I could not muster up the self control to not walk the twenty paces from where I worked to Ambala where I would eat three samosas a day as a late afternoon snack. I never even considered how many calories or grams of fat were in each samosa and when I researched this I was really surprised to see that I had been adding almost 500 extra calories and 25 grams of fat each day. I'm still unable to be near an Ambala and not get samosas but now I have it as a treat and limit myself to one meat and one veg samosa instead of my minimum three. Here are some more average amount of calories and grams of fat (respectively) in Indian takeaways:

Chicken Biryani - 1000 cal, 43 grams of fat
Chicken Korma - 860 cal, 50 grams of fat
Lamb Rogan Josh - 650 cal, 37 grams of fat
Vegetable Jalfrezi - 460 cal, 30 grams of fat
Garlic naan the whole naan - 760 cal, 25 grams of fat
Onion bhaji - 2 bahjis - 450 cal, 25 grams of fat
Poppadoms - 2 poppadom - 70 cal, 5 grams of fat
Meat or veg samosa - 1 samosa - 145 cal, 8 grams of fat

Indian Takeaway tips:
Many dishes are loaded with oil, ghee and fat and with pilau rice, starters and side dishes, Indian takeouts can quickly end up meeting and going beyond your daily recommended allowances and not is a healthy way at all.

Avoid the creamier based reamy curries like masala and korma which are higher in calories and fat. Tomato based curries like jalfrezi, rogan or madras are a better choice, or opt for dry dishes like biryanis. Some ways to make substitutions and save on calories include choosing plain boiled rather than pilau, chappati rather than naan, choosing veggie curries and opting out or reducing the number of fried starters such as samosas and bhajis.

1. Vegetable Curry Recipe

INGREDIENTS
500 g vegetables i.e.-cauliflower, green beans, carrots, aubergine
200 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm squares
6 tomatoes, chopped finely or a tin of tomatoes
2 onions - thinly sliced into crescents
300 ml vegetable stock
4 tbsp coconut oil, canola oil or alternative oil
2 cloves garlic - finely chopped or minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger root, peeled - finely chopped or minced
1 tsp cumin seeds - if you do not have cumin seeds you can use ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp paprika
2 pinches of sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper - or more if desired personal taste
Fresh coriander - washed handful, roughly chopped
Fresh lemon juice from half a lemon - strained to remove seeds

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prepare the vegetable stock by either warming homemade vegetable stock or use a high quality powdered stock that is free from additives or MSG.
2. Toast the cumin seeds in a pan under medium heat while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes making sure that the seeds do not burn. Grind the toasted cumin seeds and add all the readily ground spices into a small bowl ready to add later on in the recipe.
3. Warm the oil in a large pan at medium heat and add the onions and cook slowly until transparent. Do not let them brown or dry out, add a spoonful of the vegetable stock should the onions start to dry out or brown.
4. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for one minute, stirring all the while. Reduce the heat or add a spoonful of the stock should the garlic and ginger and start to brown, do let them burn.
5. With the pan at medium heat, stir the ground spices into the onions, garlic and ginger and keep stirring until they are thoroughly mixed in, about three minutes.
6. Now add the tomatoes and stock and keep stirring until everything is mixed together well, about 5 minutes.
7. Add the vegetables and stir to mix throughout, cover and cook on low to mediumheat for 30 minutes or until vegetables potatoes are thoroughly cooked to desired texture. Stir in fresh lemon juice and fresh coriander, stir and serve with brown rice.

Quick Mango Chutney Recipe

INGREDIENTS
1 mango chopped into small irregular pieces
1/4 onion finely chopped or minced
1/2 - 1 chili - depending on personal taste - de-seeded and finely chopped
150 ml cider vinegar
100g sugar
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
pinch of salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine the sugar and cider vinegar in a pan over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the mango pieces to the mixture and stir.
3. Add the spices and salt and increase heat stirring all the while.
4. Once the mixture has been boiling for 3-5 minutes, reduce the heat to low, stir occasionally to avoid burning and allow the chutney to thicken which should take 15 -30 minutes.
5. Once the chutney is at the desired thickness remove it from the stove and place in a glass container.
6. This is a quick chutney recipe that is meant to be served while fresh alongside a curry and eaten right away or kept for a few days wrapped up and kept in a fridge.

Melt and Pour Soap Making

melt and pour butter soaps w/exfoliants

melt and pour butter soaps w/exfoliants

making our layered melt and pour loafs

the different layers of our melt and pour loaf soap

our resulting bars of layered soaps

cutting the layered soap loaf

These are some of the soaps created by my students on a six-week soap making course I have been running at Wentworth Children's Centre in Hackney, London. We have spent two weeks on melt and pour techniques and worked with the children on decoration, colour mixing, scents and packaging. We are also a week of face and body scrubs, a week of bath fizzies/bath bombs and two weeks of cold press technique. The courses have been fun and well attended since everyone is interested in making their own products in order to know exactly what is in the products that we use every day. The students have been excited to learn all the techniques so they can practice them with their family and friends or perhaps even take up soap making as a hobby or making them as gifts or to sell.

Mexican Food - Wk 1 - Healthy Eating Alternatives to Fast Food/Takeaways

Last year I started teaching a lot of healthy eating courses across London which have proved very popular as we can't avoid the internal or external pressure of eating and providing healthy meals for ourselves and our families and friends. This particular course is six-weeks long and focuses on working with families to provide them with healthy alternatives to fast food and takeaway options. This course takes place at the Sebright Children's Centre in Hackney, London that offers all sorts of amazing courses, creche, advice and support for families and young children.

In the UK we spend over £30 billion on convenience food each year with the average person consuming over 84 fast food meals and 64 ready meals throughout the year. We have all probably eaten a take away or fast food meal due to reasons of convenience, cost, time constraints, peer pressure, environment or cravings. As with everything, takeaways and fast food meals eaten in moderation or as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle are not detrimental to our health but over-reliance on these types of food can be due to their high fat, sugar and salt content. This course intends to educate and promote healthy eating by providing healthy food and healthy recipes that are tasty, nutritionally rewarding, easy to prepare and financially comparable or cheaper than their fast food alternative.

Week one covered Mexican food and as far as fast food and takeaways go Mexican food can be one of the healthier options if care is taken to avoid over-sized portions and care is taken with additional toppings such as sour cream guacamole. I lived in America for a long time and Mexican food has long been popular there and as with anything you can find options within a wide range of price points and levels of quality ingredients.

As we were having so much fun, this is the only evidence that I have from this first week of a six-week long course I am teaching on Healthy Eating Alternatives to Fast Food/Takeaways.  We made beef tacos and vegetarian black bean tacos with hard corn shells and soft flour shells with a homemade salsa and homemade guacamole. We omitted the sour cream and served with a bit of shredded cheese and lettuce.

For today's session we used Jamie Oliver's recipe for beef tacos as a basis and just substituted black beans for the ground beef for our vegetarian tacos. We made ground beef tacos, black bean tacos, our own guacamole, our own salsa and served these with some shredded lettuce, tomato and cheese.

This week was an excellent first session and we had some parent and children preparing and trying avocado for the first time and everyone agreed that Mexican is a great option to prepare at home. We also noted that it is so easy to create your own guacamole and salsa and so much better than the ready-made options that are on offer in the shops. I also shared with the group that you don't need to buy specialist salsas or "Mexican" ingredients available in the shops. For example there was a tin of "Mexican black beans" that was basically black beans in water with a jazzy logo for £1.45 and I was able to get a box of organic black beans in water for £0.75. Personally my own type of fast food would be a burrito or tacos as they are filling and you can customise them according to your own tastes but they are indeed that much better prepared at home and with a bit of practice and experimentation which is the whole point of the course.

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• A pinch of paprika
• 1½ tsp cumin
• 500g minced beef or a 400g tin of black beans*
• 250ml beef stock
• 12 corn or flour taco shells
Grated cheese, lettuce and tomato to serve

*For the vegetarian black bean taco option, use all the ingredients above except beef and substitute beans for ground beef and vegetarian stock for the beef stock.

Salsa
• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• Juice of ½ lime
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp coriander, roughly chopped

Guacamole
• 2 avocados
• Juice of ½ lime
• 2 tbsp chopped tomatoes

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
2. Soften the onion and peppers in the olive oil in a large pan over a low heat. Add the garlic, paprika and cumin and cook for 1–2 minutes.
3. Add the beef and stir until it has browned. Pour in the stock, cover, and cook for 45 minutes.
4. Meanwhile for the salsa, get the kids to mix the tomatoes with the lime juice, spring onion and coriander, then season carefully to taste.
5. For the guacamole, have the kids mash the avocados with a fork. They can then squeeze in the lime juice, add the tomatoes, season, and gently mix it all up.
6. Spread the taco shells out on a baking tray and place in the oven for 3–4 minutes until crisp. Get the kids to fill the shells with the meat, salsa and guacamole or lay everything out and let everyone help themselves.

Plum Jam - Jam & Chutney Making course 13/11/14

Here are some photos and the recipe from the second week of the six-week jam and chutney making course at Daubeney Children's Centre in hackney, London. You may recall that we made

pineapple and passion fruit jam in week one

. The feedback was that all the families enjoyed the jam, even children who generally do not eat much jam. I always tell customers and students that jam isn't just for toast, I put a spoonful in porridge for breakfast in the winter and in natural yoghurt in summer or an all-year round snack. I also use jam as a binder when making oatcakes, use it in muffins and in jam tarts.

This week we made plum jam. I always keep it seasonal for Smy Chutney and for the courses so this was the perfect time of the year to make plum jam.

This recipe makes such a beautiful, deep red jam, notice it up the sides of the pan and the wall.

Here is lovely Lola stirring the jam. She makes stunning cakes so we chatted a lot about different recipes that can be added to cakes, tarts and puddings. 

Plum Jam Recipe

Ingredients:

2 k Plums

2 k Sugar

2 Lemon

1. Select fully ripe plums with which to make the jam
2. Wash and rinse the fruit.
3. Carefully remove all stems, pits, skins, and blossoms, if necessary, from the plums.
4. Cut the fruit into pieces and make sure to remove each plum stone and discard.
5. Measure the fruit and place in a large saucepan.
6. Stir in the correct amount of sugar for the recipe and keep stirring as you bring the mixture to a boil.
7. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens.
8. You will need to test that the mixture has reached its setting point, or readiness for jarring, keeping in mind that the mixture will continue to thicken slightly as it cools.  There are two methods for testing: Refrigerator test – Place a plate in your refrigerator while you are making the jam. When you think that the jam is ready, remove the plate and allow a few drops of the mixture to drop onto the plate. After a few minutes, check to see if the mixture has gelled.  Push the droplet with your finger and if it wrinkles it is ready to place in your sterilised jars. Temperature test – Using a thermometer to test that the mixture has reached the optimum temperature for your altitude:  Anywhere from a sea level of 300 metres to 8,000 metres will be alright to reach a temperature of 220°C.
9. Once the mixture is ready, remove it from the heat and skim off any foam that may have formed on the surface.
10. Pour the mixture into sterile jars (see above), leaving .5 cm headspace.
11. Use a clean, damp piece of kitchen towel to wipe the rims of the jars.
12. Top each jar with a lid, screw on the cover tightly and allow to cool.
13. The jam will be best if eaten within one year, refrigerate once open.