I do like making a pickle, preserves, chutney – but it has to be said, we are not great eaters of any of these.

There are a few exceptions – homemade pickled red cabbage is a must with a cottage pie – meat or vegetarian.

Now, I am sure I have mentioned this before, and I know people (maybe you, dear reader) may sneer at that suggestion but bear with me again and give it a try – not the bought stuff though because it is too vinegary.

And I do like a Kilner jar of confit tomatoes in the fridge – lush and sweet and great with all sorts when you need a taste of summer in the winter.

If you make it to the end of this, there will be recipes.

Having said that, I still have a freezer drawer with cooked down crabapples waiting to go through the faff of turning them into crabapple jelly – its a two day operation and involves hanging muslin bags on broom handles, enough said.

But I have just found a book in the shop which makes me think of more pickle, preserves activity – making things we should but probably won’t eat, and will give to (hopefully) more appreciative friends, family and neighbours.

Today, I have made preserved lemons not least because we both have some covid-like lurgy and so are in a mini-lockdown – afternoon television beckons but a few things have to be done first, hence the lemons.

( And a roast chicken with tarragon sauce because I feel like making it but probably not so much eating it….. we shall see.)

So recipes;

Preserved lemons from this:

We have a great rosemary bush.

And you will notice tomato plants growing along side and they are earmarked for some confit assuming they are prolific – and given they are grafted plants they should be.(Gardening advice here, always buy a grafted tomato plant to ensure lots of fruit.)

So, you need a Japanese rice vinegar. ( I have to say that Waitrose in Petersfield only had Chinese rice vinegar so that is what I used, hey ho.)

I used less sugar – about 250g – just saying.

Cut up lemons, add your rosemary and you are done – about two weeks later admittedly.

Pickled red cabbage:

So, you shred ( don’t worry you don’t have to do it too finely and I rather prefer to cut with a knife not shredding in a food processor) a red cabbage. Not the hard stem – just the leaves.

Put it in a bowl and sprinkle salt over it and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Also, put a litre of distilled vinegar in a pan, add 200g ( or less if you prefer) of sugar, a teaspoon each of cloves, peppercorns, coriander seeds or juniper seeds ( I do like a lot of flavour but you can be more minimalist if you like) and a couple of cinnamon sticks. Warm up until sugar has dissolved – a bit of stirring here.

Cool and put in the fridge.

Next day, take the cabbage out of the fridge and rinse the salt off. Leave to dry, or pat dry with kitchen paper – though beware, you don’t want bits of kitchen paper in your pickle.

Put in sterilised jars – see here how to do it 

https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/how-to-cook/how-to-sterilise-jars

And pour over the liquid.

And this will keep happily for a year or two if you don’t eat that much cottage pie.

Meanwhile, confit means basically slow cooking in a lot of olive oil.

So, take some tomatoes – small ones I would recommend. Don’t both with cutting up or pricking the skins, or taking them off their stalks.

Put them heaped if necessary as they will cook down, into a roasting tin with whatever herbs or spices you fancy – garlic, oregano, thyme, chilli flakes, rosemary – a good grinding of salt and pepper, and enough olive oil to come at least half way up small tomatoes.

Put in the oven at a low temperature – say 100 in a fan oven for a couple of hours, or if you are a lucky Sussex housewife, in the bottom Aga oven – but do check if you are using  fan oven which can dry things out more quickly.

You want them well-cooked.

Cool, then squash into jars and use leftover olive oil to top them up.

They will keep in the fridge for a year or two and ignore the rules which say you can only keep for a week after they are opened.

They will make a good ‘sauce’ for spaghetti, or a quick supper, serve well if warmed under fish, in fact anything you like with tomatoes will work with these.

Off now to feed my tomato plants and then a relapse on the sofa.