SEASONAL FRUIT SUGGESTIONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 500, 21 January 1949, Page 26

SEASONAL FRUIT SUGGESTIONS

may wish that the lovely summer fruits did not all Tipen together, but spread themselves out a little more. However, we must get busy and preserve all we can for winter puddings, as well as making jams and jellies. Mixed fruits, too, make lovely pies and tarts-black and red currants, plums and raspberries go well together in the "deepdish pie," served with a custard sauce. Plum Delight Stew gently a pound of plums in slightly sweetened water. See that they stay whole. If very large you may cut them in halves; but they should not be allowed to stew to a pulp. Lift them out carefully into a glass bowl, Add enough hot water to the juice in the saucepan to. make up a pint, and in it dissolve a packet of orange jelly crystals. Make up, also, nearly a pint of custard; and when cool, beat it into the jelly just as it is beginning to set. Pour this all over the plums in the glass dish, and leave to set. Strawberry Jam Six pounds of strawberries; 4141b. sugar. Wash and drain the berries, sprinkle with the sugar, and leave overnight. Then simmer till berries are plump (from 30 to 40 minutes). Test before bottling. Cherry and Red Currant Jam Boil red currants with a little water until soft and mushy, then strain through muslin. To every 4lb. of cherries, allow 1 pint of this red currant juice. Simmer until the cherries are soft, then add pound for pound of sugar. Boil up, after the sugar has been dissolved, and keep boiling till it will set when tested. Let it cool a little, then bottle. Black Currant Jam Allow 1lb. of fruit and 1 pint of water. Boil until soft, and push through a@ coarse sieve. Measure, and add cup for. cup of sugar. Stir till dissolved, then boil till it will set. Add the juice of 1 or 2 lemons. Plum Sauce Six pounds of plums; 3 pints vinegar; 3lb. brown sugar; 1 handful of bruised ginger; 6 teaspoons salt; 1 teaspoon cayenne; loz. cloves. Butter the bottom of the pan. Put everything in, and boil for 2 hours, keeping it well stirred. Strain through a colander, bring it back to the boil, and bottle. Seal carefully. Jellied Berry Snow Cook gently till soft but not squashy, 1lb. of gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries or currants in about 114 cups of water. Add sugar to taste. Pour the whole into a basin containing a packet of jelly crystals-any suitable flavouring -lemon for gooseberries, raspberry for raspberries and so on. Stir well until the crystals are nicely dissolved. When cool, but not set, add 2 well-beaten whites of eggs and beat all together with wheel-beater until foamy. Pour into

mould, or glass dish, and leave to set. Use the two yolks to make a custard with about a pint of milk, adding a small dessertspoon of custard powder. Serve cold,