Raspberry Vinegar & Sautéed Grapes ~ Two of my Five a Day!
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As I mentioned the other day I now have a deadline by which I must have finished the manuscript for my forthcoming book, Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers. I now have the onerous task of testing every recipe and suggestion in the book which is a lot of eating!
Today, for instance, I played with grapes and in addition to seeing how well they freeze and planning more complicated ideas I tried
Sautéed Grapes
I sautéed some grapes which I left on the bunch so they’d look pretty in my photo for this very blog post. I’m thinking all the time, me!
I drizzled the grapes with olive oil, seasoned, as one does, with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and cooked them in a hot frying pan till they just started to show dark spots, shrivel and smell gorgeous. They were sweet, hot and bursty in the mouth; perfect with the cold and creamy blue cheese and good bread. These are definitely a keeper.
Having eaten that I felt the onus was on me to continue my experimentation with a small dessert. A week or two ago I made a batch of raspberry vinegar and I had heard somewhere that it makes a good sauce for ice cream so tried it.
A bit of a surprise at first but whoever said it was good was right. Mind you I only tested a spoonful as you can see so might have to try some more later just to make sure.
Raspberry Vinegar
You need to do a bit of forward planning for this.
1 kg or raspberries (or other berries)
1 ltr white wine vinegar
200g sugar
~ In a plastic, stainless steel or glass bowl (it MUST be non-reactive) crush together the berries and white wine vinegar. (Or, I’ve just thought, perhaps cider vinegar would be best with blackberries!)
~ Cover the bowl and leave to steep for 3 days.
~ Set a nylon sieve over a bowl and pour the fruit and juices through. Allow to sit without disturbing to allow all the vinegar to drip through.
~ Put the juices in a non-reactive pan and add the sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
~ Skim, turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
~ Cool completely then pour into sterile jam jar(s) and store in the fridge for 6 months or more!
This vinegar is delicious and I can think of lots more things to do with it – vinaigrette for instance (lots of homemade vinaigrette ideas here) or maybe add a sprinkling to fruit salads. Anyway it brings a touch of summer to this grim, so far, July!
Rumpot aka Rumtopf
You could halve the vinegar recipe above but if you only have a few leftover raspberries a better idea would be to add them to your Rumpot which no doubt you started a few weeks ago. If you didn’t it’s not too late – see here for how to make rumpot, a lovely drink made from summer fruits macerated in rum.
News from the Future
My book was published in March, 2013. Originally titled The Leftovers Handbook a second edition is now available and is called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers. In it I give all the information, ideas and recipes I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers.
Suzy Bowler
Having been a somewhat itinerant chef for over 30 years I was amazed, on my return to the UK, at the blatant food waste that now seems to be rife in the country; amazed and irritated. So much so that I decided to start a blog about spontaneous cooking from leftovers to show people that there are great alternatives to throwing food away.
