On the first day of term, my deputy head hauled in pounds of damsons and apples from her trees and I meant to pinch all the damsons and take them home for making jam at the weekend, but forgot. I asked her for some more on Monday, and she offered me plums instead - but they did not arrive until the following Monday. She was apologetic because there were quite a few that looked a bit past it, and I envisaged having to bin them all, knowing I'd have no jam time until the weekend.
I briefly considered foregoing circuits on Monday and making jam instead. This was extremely tempting. My leg muscles were positively begging me to focus on preserving; but I'm possibly six weeks away from the ski instructor course (assuming it's not cancelled again) and the leg muscles must be trained.
Then I found this recipe. It seemed too good to be true! Very busy girl friendly. I made it even more busy girl friendly by not cutting up or pitting them; since they were small, and the comments on the recipe said the pits float to the top, I thought I'd probably get away with it.
It didn't take 16 hours. After 16 hours it looked like stewed plums, so I went back and read the comments, wedged the lid of the slow cooker open, turned it up to high, and left it another 10ish. I also fished out all of the pits and cursed myself for not doing this when I put the plums in; and I added some more sugar, because the stewed plums were on the tart side.
After 10ish more hours, it looked like jam, tasted like jam, and I needed the slow cooker to make ratatouille with the courgette of enormity, so I stirred through some almonds (I meant to also add almond essence but couldn't find it at the right moment) and stuck it in a jar.

I may have already eaten some of it....
It worked! Loving my slow cooker just a little bit more this week.
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