PaulinEger

Erika did hers a couple of weeks ago and ended up with 20 odd jars. I'm not sure what they're supposed to taste like but they're ok, just very "pickly"

looks like the next job will be plums..either for wine or vegyes palinka

Rural Hungary

I have a few but need to find some time from somewhere, unlike zuccini's, it's not something I have a surplus of...... Oh and cucumbers, neighbours keep leaving bags of them in the garden - how many cucumbers can one person use? Cucumber juice - yuck!


Quick scrumpy recipe -

Wash, mill and juice apples
For every 3l of juice, add 1 gram of brewers yeast - you can use bakers yeast or rely on the apples natural yeast but this will need to ferment for longer
Put juice in demi johns with airlock fitted - make sure everything is sterilised, you can add a campden tablet if necessary but shouldn't need it if everything is clean
Leave for 5-7 days then rack and leave another 5-7 days. You can then put in fridge or cellar to slow/stop fermentation

Rural Hungary

20 jars, go Erika I added a bit more sugar to my vinegar this year and some water - used apple vinegar so that they are not too vinegary though can't be any worse than the first year when I pickled everything with the strong vinegar.

Next for me is elderberry syrup and them plums

Tapsony-Hungary

Hi Rural
back in Hungary for the summer, is it too late to start the walnut pickling process? hope we'll catch up with you soon

rgl

[QUOTE=Rural Hungary;10807000]Oh and cucumbers, neighbours keep leaving bags of them in the garden - how many cucumbers can one person use? Cucumber juice - yuck!

You probably have several cucumber soup recipes already, but here is one I concocted to provide some extra protein in my vegetarian diet. A pound of potatoes may be substituted for the chick peas but the soup will then require an extra 15-20 minutes of simmering until the potato is cooked. The chickpeas also provide a creamier texture than potatoes. Soy beans, white beans, yellow beans and lentils can also be used in place of chickpeas. The ratio of the ingredient quantities can be varied greatly but not too much lemon juice or it will overwhelm the final flavour instead of just sharpening it. Other green leaved vegetables can be used instead of spinach. The just made soup in the included photo is very pale as I used up some lettuce instead of the usual spinach.

30g butter (or 2 tbs of olive oil)
400g chopped cucumber (include skin and seeds)
100g chopped spinach (include stalks)
100g chopped onions or spring onions (include green parts)
400g tin of cooked chick peas. (after draining and rinsing you should be left with about 250g of chick peas)
5g crushed, grated or chopped garlic (One large clove)
5g grated root ginger
2tbs lemon juice
2 Bay leaves (Large ones as they will have to be recovered before blending)
1 pint (0.56 litre) vegetable stock. If required make with just one vegetable stock cube.
200g Thick yogurt

1 - Put oil or butter in large saucepan and cook onions, garlic and ginger gently for about 10 minutes until softened.
2 - Add cucumber, spinach and onions and stir saucepan contents around for a couple of minutes.
3 - Add chick peas, vegetable stock, lemon juice and bay leaves to saucepan.
4 - Stir and leave to heat slowly until it just reaches simmering point.
5 - Allow to cool a little, remove bay leaves and add yogurt.
6 - Blend in the saucepan using a stick blender or allow to cool more and blend in a goblet blender.

These ingredients will make two large servings. The soup is fine either hot, warm, cold, or chilled and may be frozen.

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I have not tried it but cucumber and elderflower syrup spritzer sounds a good summer evening drink. Unfortunately you will require a half bottle of wine to dispose of each cucumber.

Apart from the spritzer, I could not find anything else for using up large amounts of cucumbers but came across this article about the "uborkaszezon" and the perils of purchasing cucumbers at the local CBA supermarket. The main item and photo in the article made the UK national press, probably adding to the general UK perception of Hungary being a rather strange place. http://www.chew.hu/cucumber_season_special/

Rural Hungary

[QUOTE=rgl;10811646] Hate cucumber soup, makes me sick - like some of the people round here in fact.

Rural Hungary

Sent you a text, not sure if you got it - LOTS going on!!!!
Stick a needle in a walnut and if you feel a hard shell then it's too late to pickle. You might be lucky if it's a young tree as the fruits usually mature later.

Tapsony-Hungary

checked the texts, yes it's there,
thanks for the walnut info, will definetely have a go as a new process for me, take care, love to the off spring, see you soon

Rural Hungary

All the cucumber recipes you will ever need!!!!!!!!

I use some of the squash and squash flowers as a lunch or snack fried in a tempura batter. Quick recipe below:

100g plain flour
100g cornflour
enough ice cold fizzy water to make a light batter

Mix everything together ensuring there are no lumps
you can add an egg yolk if you want a slightly thicker batter and baking powder if you want but I find the fizzy water is sufficient

dip fingers or slices of courgette or squash etc in the batter and deep fry until golden. You can coat them in cornflour first if you have problems getting the tempura to adhere but so long as you pat the slices dry then you should manage without needing to do this.

PaulinEger

Erika's just made goodness knows how many jars of lemon jam and yesterday we picked pretty much the last of the red currants and it looks like I'll have enough for a couple of gallons. I'll use this recipe as it seems easy enough:

INGREDIENTS

4 lb / 1,800 grams redcurrants
1 campden tablet
3 1/2 lb / 1,600 grams sugar
Water up to 1 gallon
Yeast nutrient
Wine yeast

METHOD - WHAT TO DO

Wash the fruit, removing any stems, and press into a bowl with a wooden spoon. Bring four pints of water to the boil and pour over the fruit. Add the campden tablet. Cover and leave to stand for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Strain through a fine sieve into a fermentation bucket. Boil three pints of water and dissolve the sugar in it. Pour the syrup on to the fruit and when cool add the yeast nutrient and wine yeast. Cover and leave for seven days in a warm place, stirring daily. Strain through a fine sieve and put into a demijohn and fit an airlock to seal the jar.

Store in a warm place and allow the fermentation to work. When fermentation has ceased, rack the wine into a clean jar and place in a cooler environment and leave. When the wine is clear and stable siphon into bottles.

Rural Hungary

Oh, the mention of lemon jam - is that similar to marmalade? - has made me think about lemon curd.... Heads to town in morning for lemons and eggs

We don't have any redcurrants but might try the recipe with some elderberries as I have more than enough for my syrup - adds Campden tablets to the list for town.

I made some marigold and echinacea tincture today, had planned to do the elderberries but ragweed pollen levels have been high here today and ended up with a pounding headache.

PaulinEger

I presume so. When she said she was making lemon jam I said "lemon marmalade". I'm not sure what the difference is. She followed the recipe to the letter but it hasn't fully set and is still quite fluid though.

Rural Hungary

Did she do the "ball stage" test? If not, tip back in pot, bring to a rolling boil, it needs to be boiling vigorously then test every 45 seconds for the ball stage, take off the heat the minute it reaches this stage. You need to be careful with the rolling boil as it can easily burn the sugar and leave a burnt sugar taste.

PaulinEger

please explain the ball stage test. If it means dripping hot jam onto my nether regions to see if it burns then I think we'll miss this stage

Rural Hungary

I'm tempted to say it's exactly that but won't be cruel

Get a glass of really cold water.
Drop about a third of a teaspoon of the jam into the water. If it just diffuses in the water, keep boiling.
Now it is really important it doesn't get to "soft ball" stage as this is about 235 degrees and will make the jam more like toffee. You are aiming for around 220 degrees, I have never used a jam thermometer and just go by the "ball stage" though trying to explain this, I realise that it might be one of those things you learn to gauge over time.
Below the required temperature, the jam will diffuse in the water, as the temperature increases, the tightness of the "ball" increases until you get to the toffee stage where the ball is a well formed ball which can be taken out the water and squashed in your hand - hence soft ball. Before this, there is a stage where the jam forms a loose ball and sinks to the bottom and this is the stage you want to get to, it's not completely diffusing and not a complete round ball.
I find this pretty fail-safe when you get the knack of it.
Another method is the wrinkle test, place a bit of jam on a cold saucer, cool it quickly and if ready, the top of the jam should form a skin. I prefer the ball method as I always worry that the temp will go too high whilst waiting for the jam to cool.