cooking – my favourite recipes – Zwetschkenröster & Marillenmarmelade :)

I think I suffered from a jam & compote madness this week

I turned about 10 kg “Zwetschken” (plums) and 5 kg French “Marillen” (apricots) into “Zwetschkenröster” (stewed plums) and “Marillenmarmelade” (apricot jam).

The plums were available for 0,99 Euros per kg and I got the 5 kg French apricots for about 6 Euro – prices where I really couldn’t resist not to buy them – unfortunately I got no Austrian apricots from the “Wachau” region – apricots from the Austrian “Wachau” region are the best ones – a friend told me that the complete harvest was ruined because most of the apricot blossoms where destroyed by very bad and stormy weather with hail during Spring… *sigh* …but I think French apricots aren’t bad for this reason and next year I will use Austrian ones…

I am sure I made enough “Zwetschkenröster” and “Marillenmarmelade” until the next plum and apricot season and now I have plenty preserving jars filled with compote and jam – great selfmade presents for christmas, birthdays,… …and my boyfriend loves my “Zwetschkenröster”

Marillenmarmelade / apricot jam

reife, entkernte Marillen / pitted apricots
per 1 kg Marillen 700 g Feinkristallzucker / per 1kg apricots about 700 g sugar
Abschmecken mit Zitronensaft / season to taste with lemon juice
etwas echte Vanille / some Vanilla

Cut the apricots in small cubes and put them into a big pot, mix it with the sugar and heat it up slowly, stir from time to time until it boils.

Add some Vanilla and season to taste with lemon juice.

Boil it slowly for about a half hour or longer until it has the right consistency.

I add some Rum before I fill the “Marillenmarmelade” into the preserving jars.

Zwetschkenröster / stewed plums

reife, entkernte Zwetschken / pitted plums
per 1 kg Zwetschken / per 1kg plums:
200 g Kristallzucker  about 200 g sugar
1 Zimtrinde / 1 piece of cinnamon
5 Gewürznelken / 5 cloves
1 halbierte Zitrone / 1 lemon cut in half

Cut the plums in half, remove the pit and put the plums into a big pot, add the sugar, the cinnamon, the cloves and the lemon cut in half and also a little bit of water and heat it up slowly – boil the plums at a low temperature and stir from time to time until the plum paring peels away from the fruit flesh and the paring startes to curl. Because it is a compote it can remain rather fluid

…and I added some nutmeg and some mace to the second bunch of “Zwetschkenröster”

…btw. “Zwetschkenröster” works very well with Austrian “Kaiserschmarrn”

Here my first preserving jars with “Zwetschkenröster”:

…and another 5 kg plums turned into “Zwetschkenröster” with some nutmeg and mace to spice it up a little

More sea salt with lemon zests :)

Ohhhhh nooooo…

…I ran out of my favourite “sea salt with lemon zests”
some days ago…

…but what’s easier than to make new one?

…and I did…

…now I have enough “sea salt with lemon zests”
for the next weeks

Addition:

You can use this salt for salads, cooking, your breakfast egg, cooked potatoes with butter,…
I use rather fine sea salt – the salt dries the lemon zests, therefore you don’t need to store it in the fridge – I have a small decorative jar with this salt at the dinning table and store the rest of it in the kitchen and use it while cooking
If you buy the lemons, take care to buy lemons of which you can use the peel and clean the lemons before use with some hot water and maybe also some alcohol on a kitchen paper…