Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.

I love Friends. And when I say that I don't just mean my friends... (but don't worry I love you guys too) I mean Friends the show! I know you all do too, just admit it. Even after having watched all the seasons about 100 times all the way through, I can still come home and watch it any day, any time. It's the best. I'm actually watching the episode where Ross moves in with Chandler and Joey right now. I think this has to be my favourite. I can't stop laughing.

Another really good episode coincidentally always makes me hungry. The episode where Joey is a detective called Mac and his sidekick is a robot called C.H.E.E.S.E. Get it? Okay, enough about Friends and more about delicious food!

I make this whenever I'm really hungry, kind of cold, and looking to hold a big bowl of deliciousness in my arms. This is technically Butternut Squash Mac 'n' Cheese, but to be honest, now I only make mac 'n' cheese this way. I think the slight sweetness of the squash really nicely complements the sharp cheddar and the salty parmesan cheeses.

Mac 'n' Cheese

1/2 large butternut squash
1/2 lb short macaroni
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper
pinch nutmeg
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Extra grated cheese and parm
Handful of bread crumbs (optional)




 Peel and seed the squash and cut into large chunks. Steam it until it is soft and completely cooked through. I did it in a big pot with about an inch of water. But you could just microwave it in a bit of water, covered. Once the squash is cooked, drain away all the excess liquid and mash until smooth. Set aside.




Boil the pasta to al dente. Don't overcook it at this stage because it will go back into the oven and continue to cook later.

Look at that macaroni! You can use any shape you like, I just think the ribbed sides and big fat shape of denti rigati work perfectly!

 

 

 

 

If you want to add some extra vegetables (like the broccoli I used) that need to be blanched, add it to the pasta water to finish off cooking with the pasta. This way you can drain everything together :)

Next is time to make the cheese sauce! In a sauce pan melt the butter. Add the flour and, on low heat, cook the roux for 1 minute stirring constantly. Heat up the milk to just above body temperature (you can use the microwave to make things easier). Doing this ensures it mixes easily into the hot roux resulting in a smooth perfect sauce! Gradually add the milk to the roux whisking all the while until all the milk is in the pot and you have a smooth sauce.

Cook over medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the sauce just comes to a boil and begins to thickens up. Turn the pot to low heat. Add all the cheese and stir until completely melted into the milk. Now is the time to season! Very important. Add salt and lots of black pepper. And the secret ingredient, nutmeg! I put nutmeg in every white sauce I make. It has this warming quality that gives the sauce a real savouriness that salt can't do on it's own.

Now is the time to put everything together. Mashed squash, cooked macaroni, cheese sauce. At this point, if you like extra creamy mac 'n' cheese, you can just eat it straight out of the pot. In out house we face a bit of a dilemma. Nick likes it straight from the pot. But I prefer it after it's been in the oven for a bit getting golden brown and chewy crunchy. What I do now, I think, is a good comprimise of both worlds.

Steamy, creamy, cheesy, delicious!

Pour the mixture into a casserole dish. Take some extra grated cheese and mix it with some parmesan cheese and a handful of breadcrumbs. Sprinkle this mixture over the mac 'n' cheese and put the dish under the broiler (grill) until the top is golden brown and crispy. This means you get the crispy golden melty top that I love, and the gooey, straight-from-the-pot mac 'n' cheese that Nick loves. Now this is what I call conflict resolution ;)

A lesson in turning mistakes into "meant-tos"

So when I set out to write this post I was intending on making granola bars. Something I can quickly grab and eat on the train on my way to work, something I could pack into Nick's lunch... blablabla. I did some research and compared heaps of recipes, melding a few together into what I thought would be the grand master granola bar recipe. Being who I am, I wanted to create a recipe with the most flavour and nutrients, the least amount of fat, and the most delicious. I'm a dreamer, I know.

I decided to omit any butter and oil from my recipe, and instead moisten the mixture with a combination of peanut butter and honey (which meant I didn't need to add any other refined sugar either!) It all sounds like a great idea, but in reality it just didn't work. Sure it tasted delicious, but what came out at the end of the process didn't look at all like the granola bars I had envisioned.

Beautiful right? Dense, chewy, beautiful.

Those aren't my granola bars... these are:

Before cooking. Neatly pressed into the pan... so far so good.

But try and cut them, and the whole thing shatters.

And when I say shatters, I mean literally crumbles and falls apart. But not to worry because guess what? When life gives you crumbly granola bars, you call it granola!

Granola

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 1/2 cups mixed nuts and fruit
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups crushed Nutri-Grain cereal
1/2 cup honey
4 tbsp peanut butter






In a big mixing bowl combine all ingredients except the honey and peanut butter.

In a small saucepan on low heat melt the honey down to a really runny consistency. Add the peanut butter and stir through. Cook until evenly blended and runny.

Pour the hot honey and peanut butter over the granola mix and stir until everything is coated. I used my hands to make sure everything was mixed together really well.

Spread the granola onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

YUM. Delicious morsels just waiting to be baked!

Bake at 150 C for 30-45 minutes or until everything smells nutty and delicious, and the granola is lightly golden brown.

The granola will still be a little soft at this stage, but it will crunch up as it cools to room temperature. Store the granola is an air-tight container for up to two weeks and enjoy a delicious home-made cereal every morning for breakfast :) ... and sometimes for dinner.

 I ate my granola after work with some sliced plums and bananas, delicious. But you can add strawberries, blueberries, or anything else you'd like.

YUM! The toasted sesame seeds are my favourite! They remind me of those sesame crispy sweet rectangle things you get at the grocery store for 50 cents. Dig in :D

OR! make this into a dessert... some Greek yogurt, some fruit compote (or just some warmed up jam) and...

Garlic bread and caramelized onions make everything better

It's true isn't it? I know you all agree. Garlic bread is just way better than regular bread. And you know what else? Caramelized onions make pretty much everything better too.

Have a loaf of bread? Sure you could wrap it in foil and heat it in the oven, but wouldn't everyone prefer it if you slathered it in butter and garlic?... and dare I say cheese?! And what if you were to put said garlic bread ON TOP of your favourite beef stew and crunch up the top in the oven? And what if you were to spoon golden caramelized onions between the bread slices?!?! Heaven.

This recipe takes any beef stew and makes it superman good. It's been kinda cold and not very sunny lately and after spending a week being sick, this was exactly what I needed to fill up on. You can use the beef stew recipe I wrote below, or just substitute your own beef stew recipe! The moral of this story is just that you should find a place for garlic bread and caramelized onions in every meal.

Crunchy Garlic Bread Beef Stew

FOR THE STEW:
6 strips bacon
2 lb beef chuck
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup oil
1 cup dry red wine
1 onion
1 carrot
2 celery stalks
1 leek
2 cloves garlic
1 lb mixed mushrooms
12 oz amber beer
8 cups beef stock
2 tbsp worchestershire sauce
2 sprigs thyme
1 tsp allspice
3 bay leaves
2 tbsp tomato paste

Crisp up the bacon in a big pot over medium heat. Take out all the bacon pieces and hold for later but keep all the fat in the pan. Now cut your beef into 1 inch cubes and dredge in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown your beef in batches in the bacon fat on high heat. Put your browned beef with your bacon aside.

Now add the oil, onion, carrot, celery, leek, and garlic. Sweat these on medium heat until translucent. Add the mushrooms and saute until they have shrunk and most of the moisture has evaporated. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and simmer 1 hour, covered.

If the beef is tender, your stew is done. If it doesn't fall apart then cook it for an additional 15 - 30 minutes.

Now time for the REALLY good part...

5 large onions
2 tbsp butter
worchestershire sauce
1 loaf Turkish bread (or anyother bread you want that has a soft crust)
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt and pepper
grated cheese

Slice the onions thinly and put in a covered pot with the butter and some salt and pepper. On low heat cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are a deep brown colour. Add the worchestershire sauce. Done.

Cut the bread on an angle. Pulverize the garlic with the parsley salt and pepper and mix with the olive oil.

Now time to assemble!

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C.

In a big dish, spoon in all your stew. Layer the bread slices over the top, overlapping. Pour/drizzle the garlic oil over all the bread. Between the bread slices spoon in all of the caramelized onions, here and there.

Now, the piece de resistance... grated cheese! Sharp cheddar, Parmesan, Gruyere... whatever you like!

Put this beast in the oven for 15-20 minutes until it is bubbling, the bread is crunchy, and the cheese is melted/browned. Let it rest 5 minutes before digging in!

 

Oh my god. SO GOOD. Feeling creative? How about making a delicious chilli and topping it with homemade cornbread?! OMG THE POSSIBILITIES!!

High Apple Pie, in the sky hopes!

Did you get that song reference in my title? Frank Sinatra? Well at least I know you got it,
Marianna :)

Last Sunday morning came after a weekend beginning with a crazy night out with my family, a hung over Saturday, and then an accidentally early night. So Sunday morning I had a strange amount of energy and, lucky for me, an inordinate amount of apples!

Whenever I go to the grocery store I normally stick pretty closely to my list. But with Nick, it's as if no list exists. He disappears for 5 minutes and shows back up with an armful of things that either looked good, or reminded him of New Zealand, or were his favourite colour... So I've started reaching outside of my comfort zone and list following (exciting right?) and picking up things that I think might be of good use sometime. And thanks to this new habit, I already had all the ingredients I needed to make these pies! I had a lot of energy, but there was no way I was going to change out of my pjs to go to the grocery store. The great thing about food blogging is that you only have to take pictures of the food, no selfies! I can wear anything I want! Who knows what I'm wearing?! I could be naked! (Sorry Dad, just trying to boost my ratings)

So anyways, here's my recipe for apple pie. I made 4 pies using a "texas-size" muffin pan because that's all I have, but if you have a pie pan you can use that. This is a three step recipe. And depending on how much time and energy you have to put into making these you can make this as homemade or semi-homemade as you want :) You can buy the pastry, but I wouldn't suggest buying filling. Because then what would be the point right? But don't be nervous making your own pastry. This recipe is practically fool proof, it hasn't failed me yet!

Homemade Apple Pie

Crust:
1 1/2 cup pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp butter
5 - 6 tbsp ice water
1 egg yolk
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
1 egg + 1 egg white
raw sugar

Filling:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 apples, peeled
5 heaping tbsp brown sugar
1 heaping tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt
                                                                                                                       3 tbsp flour

Making your own pastry isn't difficult, as long as you follow one simple rule. KEEP EVERYTHING COLD ALL THE TIME. When things are cold, they don't blend very nicely. And that's exactly what you want to happen, because the pieces of butter that aren't smoothly blended in will create pockets in the dough once you put it in the oven (from their water content evaporating) and give you all those lovely flaky layers!

So, on with the recipe. I took lots of pictures this time because I feel like it's easier to show this in pictures than with words.

Ice Cold Butter. I chopped the butter into small cubes and put it in the freezer while I assembled all the other ingredients.

 In a mixing bowl, combine your butter with the flour and salt. Use a fork, two knives, or your finger tips. Work quickly so that the butter doesn't melt.

This is what you want your flour, salt, and butter mixture to look like. See the size of the chunks of butter? Mostly pea sized, some a little bit bigger.

Next add in the egg yolk and ice water. I put a glassful into the freezer at the same time as the butter and let it get ice cold. Then just measure out as many tablespoons as you need to make a dough. Add the water in a tablespoon at a time. Sometimes you'll only need 4, this time I needed 6. It all depends on the moisture in the air.

This is what your finished dough should look like. See the spots of yellow? That's the unincorporated chunks of butter!

 Once your dough is made, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to chill out for at least an hour.

Next up the caramel. This is an extra step you don't have to do if you don't want. I just like the way it fills in the holes of the lattice top with golden brown caramel. I mean, you're taking all this time to make your own pastry, you'd might as well make some caramel too.

Put the sweetened condensed milk into a shallow pan (to make things go faster) and cook on medium heat until it is light golden brown.

This is after 5 minutes. It'll bubble pretty hard until...

It thickens and turns brown. This is when you turn off the heat!

 Cook the caramel to this stage, take it off the heat and let it cool until you can handle it with your hands. 

In the mean time...

One apple per pie means these are good for you!

Chop up the apples into a small dice. If you are making one big pie, I would suggest cutting the apple into thin slices, rather than a dice. The dice is nice (hehe) for small pies because that means you can fit more apple into the small shells. But I definitely prefer the texture you get from thinly sliced apples in a whole pie.

Mix the apples with the sugar, spices, salt, and flour.

Now time to take the pastry dough you made earlier out of the fridge. Roll it out to about 1/8-1/4 inch thick (just thick enough to hold everything together). And cut it out into four large circles big enough to act as the bottoms of your pie shell. If you are making one pie, just lay the whole piece over your pie plate and trim around the edges. KEEP THE TRIM!

Next fill your pie shells with the filling. Heap it up! The apple will cook down during cooking.

This is the optional stage. If you made that caramel with the sweetened condensed milk, take it by the heaping tablespoonful and make 4 flat discs. Lay each disc over your filling. This layer does two things. First it gives you a somewhat gooeyer caramely filling when the pies are cooked and still warm, and second it fills in the gaps of your lattice top. Without this caramel you will have an equally delicious pie, but when the apples cook down you will see them through the wholes in the lattice top.

Solution? If you aren't making the caramel then may I suggest making a double recipe of the crust, omitting the puff pastry lattice top, and making a whole top instead.

Now is the time to take your puff pastry sheet. Feel free to make a double batch of homemade pastry dough to make the lattice top, I just made mine with puff pastry because I like the texture and flavour of it as a pie top when doing the lattice pattern.

For it all you have to do is cut 2cm strips and lay them diagonally cross-hatched. I then used the excess trim that I saved from the bottoms to wrap around the lattice giving the pies a neat finish. All that you have to do now is egg wash those babies, sprinkle them with coarse sugar, and bake!

180 degrees celcius and about an hour later...

Voila! See that deep golden brown gooeyness? That's from the caramel discs.

It almost looks as if the filling is bursting out from between the lattice!

These flakes have earned an EXTRA LARGE close-up picture

Just look at that flaky pastry! Can you believe how easy it is to do this from scratch??

I bet you didn't think I could find another angle to photograph these delicious pies from!

Perfect. Simple. Delicious. Apple pies. They make your house smell so nice. And then make your tummy happy too.

Happy Birthday Dad

So today is my dad's birthday in Canada! I already wished him a happy birthday (in Australia time) yesterday and today I'm going to wish him another happy birthday again! Happy Birthday Dad! Two happy birthdays in one year? I'd say that gives me at least one extra brownie point.

And you know what gives me a second extra brownie point? Baking his favourite cookies and mailing them to him! I thought long and hard what to get him for his birthday this year. But seeing as I'm living kinda far away, and seeing as my dad is the HARDEST person to gift shop for (let's just say he's not the most animated gift receiver... not like my mum...) I decided to resort to the one thing that always makes him happy. Food! But not just any food. Sure he likes it when I cook him just about anything. But there's only one thing he always asks me to make every time I come home. Chocolate Chip Cookies. So I made them. And I mailed them. And he got them. And a little birdie told me he was so excited when he got his package that he called my mum downstairs to come and see too! I'm totally patting myself on the back this year because I nailed it.

This is just my normal chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've taken recipes from about 100 sources and finally think I like mine so much it doesn't need changing anymore... Well until I find something new to do to it that is.

I baked the cookies for my dad a little bit longer than I normally do however, and I added a little bit more flour than normal too. The reason for this is because I knew they'd be traveling for at least a week via airmail, and thought making them drier would help them make the journey better. So unless you're planning on sending your cookies around the world too, just follow the recipe I have posted below. Your cookies will turn out ever so slightly crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle, and sooooo goood. I promise.

Oh! And did I mention that he's 50?! Old right?! Love you dad xo

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips




In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars with a spatula until everything is smoothly blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. At this stage you can mix as much as you'd like. There's no risk of "overmixing" until you add the flour.

In a fine mesh sieve, over the butter bowl, add 2 cups of flour and all of the salt, baking powder, and cornstarch. Sift these ingredients into the butter mixture and stir until almost just combined. At this point, add the chocolate (you can use any chocolate you like. chips, chunks, sometimes I use Smarties and make them rainbow cookies) and 1/2 cup more of flour. After just barely mixing it all together it's time for you to judge whether you want to add the additional 1/4 cup of flour. The dough shouldn't be sticky, but you also don't want it too dry because then the cookies won't be melty chewy, they'll be more dense and solid. I almost always add almost all of the rest of the flour. This takes practice and lots of test batch cookies to get to know what feels right... hard work eh?

This is what you want your cookie dough to look like

Now, it's up to you what you want to do next. You have two choices. Either shape your cookies and bake them right away and enjoy, OR you can refrigerate the dough overnight (to allow the real magic to happen) and bake the next day. I think I've only accomplished the latter once. Once I get the idea of chocolate chip cookies in my head I want them immediately, not tomorrow. But if you can stand it, I'd say give the overnight rest a try. It gives the flour time to absorb more of the moisture, resulting in a chewier cookie.

To bake, divide the dough by heaping tablespoonful onto a parchment lined baking sheet. I make mine into discs, kinda like mini hockey pucks. This gives your cookies an almost perfectly round shape which I like. But if you don't want to shape your cookies, just drop them by the tablespoonful straight onto the prepared sheet. They'll be just as delicious, but they won't look as good as mine!

Bake them at 180C/350F for 8-10 minutes. You don't want any colour on the cookies EXCEPT for a teeny bit of golden brown around the edges. Take them out of the oven, cool in the pan for 5 minutes to set up a bit, then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling off. These are good hot out of the oven, a little bit warm off the rack, and even a week old by air mail.

Like my packaging? :) I should have crossed out ARNOTT'S and written CHRISTINE'S

** I'd like to note that I STARTED this post on my dad's birthday May 29th Toronto time, but by the time I posted it, it had already changed to May 30th. It's impossible to keep track of the time difference. I guess that's minus one extra brownie point for me... lol.

Chimichurri Ole!

A few weeks ago I catered a party for a friend of mine and made these delicious pistachio crusted lamb chops with a chimichurri dipping sauce. Chimichurri is a South American condiment, specifically native to Argentina, I think. They use it on grilled meats as both a sauce as well a marinade. But I love it so much I put it on just about everything! I like it better as a sauce, uncooked, than as a marinade because I think the fresh herby flavour gets lost once cooked.

Put it on any roasted (or grilled!) vegetables, fish, poultry, meat... you catch my drift. This sauce is amazing, healthy, and so easy!

The house I was catering for had a beautiful industrial strength blender so I made a really nice smooth chimichurri that coated the lamb chops really nicely as we dipped and nibbled. But I don't have a blender at home (well I DO have a brand new food processor sitting in my parents' basement that I dream about every night, but that's another story) so instead I just really finely chopped everything. It still resulted in a delicious sauce, it was just a little more chunky than smooth.

This sauce makes any dinner more exciting. I just served it on some lamb loin chops with roasted butternut squash and broccoli. A pretty standard dinner, but the addition of the chimichurri was a nice new flavour. I topped my roasted vegetables with feta because I love feta, but if you wanted to use goat's cheese or some queso fresco go right ahead! Any salty cheese will pair nicely with the sweet pumpkin and the herby/sour chimichurri.

Chimichurri

1/2 cup             olive oil
1/4 cup             lemon juice
1/4 cup             red wine vinegar
1 tbsp               minced garlic
1 cup                parsley
1/3 cup             cilantro
1 tbsp               dried oregano
1/2 tsp              chili flakes
salt and pepper to taste







BLENDER METHOD: Put all the ingredients into a blender (or food processor will work as well) and blend until you get a smooth sauce. This method may yield a slightly thicker sauce (because you are emulsifying the oil) so thin out with water as needed. But make sure you check the seasoning at the end!

LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLD METHOD: Chop the parsley and cilantro as small as you have patience for. Mash the garlic using the side of your knife to get a paste. Mix all of your ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk (or fork, or spoon, or your clean fingers...). Season to taste and use!

I know this is a really easy recipe, but I thought I'd share it anyways because I think it's a super easy and delicious way to change up the flavours in your everyday dinner recipes. No sugar-filled ketchup (tomato sauce) needed! No rich buttery fattening cheesy sauce needed! Say hello to heart healthy extra virgin olive oil and parsley :)

Saturday Jam Session

Saturday morning. Woke up with a slight hangover from a few too many drinks in the warm Manly pubs last night, but I won't let that hold me down! It's a beautiful day outside and I want to take advantage of the great natural light to take some pictures!

I've had 6 quince sitting on my counter top gently ripening for almost 2 weeks now. They've perfumed my house with rosy floral smells long enough and I decided that today was going to be the day to put them to good use. I was thinking of making a Turkish poached quince recipe my friend Alex put me on to, but then thought better of it because I was afraid that I would be the only person eating those delicious jewels... something my figure really can't afford. So, next best thing to poached quince? Quince jam! It's something I can share, eat in small quantities, and make into hundreds of other recipes! Well quince marmalade to be correct. Quick fact, did you know that marmalade was in fact originally made of quince, and not oranges? Well now you do!

 So I put on some jeans and went for a quick morning walk to the grocery store to pick up some pectin. But the little chinese grocer on my way there had a surprise waiting. A tower taller than me of beautiful ruby pomegranates practically calling my name! I couldn't resist. I bought one and quickly resumed my walk to IGA. But as I was looking for pectin, another splurge was there waiting for me. I picked up my pectin, and on the shelf next to it, two vanilla beans were eying me up. They looked at me, I looked back at them. $9 and two vanilla beans later, they were mine! I still haven't been able to decide what to do with the second bean! Vanilla sugar? Panna cotta? Ice cream? The choices are overwhelming! But don't worry, you'll be the first to know once I've decided.

This marmalade is a celebration of my two favourite fruits in season right now. Quince and pomegranate. Both are tart, and the quince develops a beautiful rosy hue once cooked that is complemented perfectly by ruby pomegranate. Add some sugar and a few extra ingredients, and you get a unique and delicious marmalade. It's a nice change from your standard berry jam, and great as a gift in this "cold" Australian "winter"  :)

I kind of created this recipe as I went and found that I added a little too much sugar, so in the recipe you'll see I've decreased the sugar by a half cup. But if you taste it and find you'd like it sweeter, by all means add that sugar back in! I love sweet jams anyway.

Quince Marmalade

6                quince
5 cups        water
1 small       lemon, juiced
2                 oranges
4 1/2 cups  white sugar
1                 vanilla bean
1                 pomegranate, juiced
50 g            pectin








The easiest way to deal with a quince is to avoid the core at all cost. It is very tough to cut through and will not soften, no matter how long you cook it. So for this recipe I scrubbed the fuzz off the outside of all the quince under running water and grated them whole directly on my hand (box) grater, four sides around the core. Leave the skin on the quince, because it helps to brighten the pink colour of the finished product.

 Put your shredded quince in a big, heavy bottomed pot, with the water and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Now take your two oranges. Quarter them, remove any inner pithy core they might have, and slice paper thin so you have lots of little triangle pieces. Put them in the pot as well. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Now is time to add the sugar and vanilla bean. Dump all the sugar in at once, and cut the bean in half lengthwise, scrape the seeds out with the back of your knife, and put the lot into the pot. Continue to simmer for about an hour, covered, until the orange rind has softened completely and the jam looks rosy pink.

Mix the juice of your pomegranate (just cut it in half and squeeze with your hands over a strainer) with your pectin until the pectin is dissolved. Add this mixture straight in the pot and turn your flame up all the way. You want your jam on a hard boil for 5 minutes. Stirring often to ensure the pectin is evenly dissolved and distributed.

After 5 minutes of hard boil, turn the heat off completely and let cool for 10 minutes, stirring often. Now all you have to do is put it in jars! ...don't forget to put the vanilla bean in the jars too... This recipe makes about 3 big jars worth, so I just keep one jar in the fridge, give one away, and put one container in the freezer for later. I'm not an experienced jammer (hehe) so the idea of properly sterilizing and canning jam to put on the shelf for 6 months makes me nervous. But if you are comfortable, by all means double the recipe and stock up for the summer time when quince aren't available!

I like to pair the floral quince with vanilla, because the vanilla bean actually comes from the flower of a vanilla orchid. Although I wouldn't describe vanilla as being very floral, I think it's floral roots allow it to complement nicely with other floral flavours. And I added the orange to the marmalade because I thought it would taste nice and guess what?? I love this jam!