If you have ever been disheartened by a batch of jam that just won't set, or intimidated by the thought of bottling fruit – this is the book for you. In the latest of her Ladies, a Plate series of best-selling cookbooks, Alexa Johnston removes all fear and trepidation from the processes of making jams, jellies, pickles, chutneys and sauces – and even fruit cordials and liqueurs – and bottling fruit. With over 100 traditional and contemporary preserves Ladies, a Plate: Jams & Preserves celebrates the pleasures and rewards of a time-honoured branch of cookery. It is a must for every cook and every kitchen.
SAMPLE RECIPE
Rhubarb & Strawberry Jam
A real favourite of mine, this jam comes from an Aunt Daisy cookbook.
- Hull and halve 1½ lb/675 g strawberries, chop 2 lb/900 g rhubarb and layer them in a bowl with 2½ lb/1.1 kg sugar. Cover and leave overnight.
- The next day put the mixture into a preserving pan, heat gently, stirring, until the sugar dissolves, then boil fast until the jam sets when tested.
- Turn off the heat, remove the hot jars from the oven and put them on a board.
- Ladle into sterilised jars and seal. Makes about 6 cups/1.5 litres.
A RHUBARB STORY
The word ‘rhubarb’ has acquired many colloquial meanings and usages, some
more savoury than others, but one unlikely use of the word was as a code. It was
radioed to media to inform them that Sir Edmund Hillary and his new Zealand
team, driving converted Ferguson tractors, had reached the South Pole overland
on 3 January 1958. They were the first to do so since Captain Robert Scott and
his companions arrived at the Pole on 17 January 1912.
I don’t imagine that any of those involved had eaten rhubarb for
some time.
Author Biography
Alexa Johnston is a writer and independent art curator. In 2002 she was curator of the exhibition Sir Edmund Hillary: Everest and Beyond for Auckland Museum. Her definitive biography Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life was a finalist in the Montana Book Awards. An enthusiastic and accomplished baker from a young age, Alexa has published three cookbooks celebrating New Zealand's culinary history. Ladies, a Plate (2008) won a Montana Book Award, the Publishers' Association of New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book and was Recipe Book of the Year in the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers Culinary Quill Awards. This was followed by A Second Helping (2009) and What's For Pudding? (2011) and in 2012 a hardback collectors' edition of her baking recipes, Ladies, a Plate: The Collection (2012). Alexa Johnston makes and tests all the recipes for her cook books – and takes all the photographs – in her home kitchen in Auckland.