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With the Global Financial Meltdown beginning to bite around the world, Santa’s Little Helper provides some recipes and advice for those of us on a tight budget who have access to the fruits of the forest, read on below.

Now that it’s the autumn harvest, it’s time to think about preserving some of the fruits and vegetables which are now ripe. Not only can you reduce your carbon footprint by using seasonal local products, but you can also mitigate the effects on your grocery and Christmas gift budget. The best bit about the harvest is that many wild fruits are available for free. All you have to do is preserve them in a nice jar and give out to friends and family for a seasonal gift with a personal touch.

In this post, I’m going to explain what to do with the following fruits (click one to jump straight there, or just read right on through!):

• Blackberries
• Bilberries
• Apples
• Pears
• Sloes
• Rhubarb

Blackberries

Blackberry bushes are now full of fruit and ripe for picking. They freeze easily so you can save the home economics for a quiet afternoon or a day with the kids. Soak the fruit before you start cooking.

Blackberry Jam

Ingredients

6 lb. blackberries
1/4 pint water
Rind and juice of 2 lemons
6 lb. sugar

Method

1. Put the cleaned fruit, the water and lemon rind and juice in the pan.

2. Simmer until the fruit is soft.

3. Stir in the sugar and boil rapidly until setting point is reached.

4. Remove from the heat, skim, pot, cover, and label.

Makes about 10 lb

Tips: warm the jars slightly before pouring in the mixture – this will prevent them from cracking.

Blackberry and Apple Pie

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry:

6 oz (175 g) plain flour
pinch salt
1½ oz (40 g) lard
1½ oz (40 g) butter

For the filling:

4 medium cooking apples, about 1 lb (450 g)
8 oz (225 g) brambles or fresh or frozen blackberries, defrosted if frozen, and washed
3 oz (75 g) sugar

To glaze:

milk and caster sugar
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 7, 425°F (220°C).
You will also need a 1½ pint (850 ml) rimmed pie dish.

Start by making the pastry: sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, holding the sieve up as high as possible to give the flour an airing. Then cut the fat into small cubes and add to the flour. Now, using your fingertips, lightly and gently rub the pieces of fat into the flour – lifting your hands up high as you do this (again to incorporate air) and being as quick as possible.

When the mixture looks uniformly crumbly, start to sprinkle roughly 2 tablespoons of cold water all over. Use a round-bladed knife to start the mixing, cutting and bringing the mixture together. Carefully add more water if needed, a little at a time, then finally bring the mixture together with your hands to form a smooth ball of dough that will leave the bowl clean (if there are any bits that won’t adhere to it, you need a spot more water). Now rest the pastry, wrapped in foil or polythene, in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes while you peel, core and slice the apples straight into the pie dish. Then sprinkle in the brambles or blackberries and the sugar.

Now roll out the pastry to about 1 in (2.5 cm) larger than the pie dish, then cut out a 1 in (2.5 cm) strip to fit the edge of the dish. Dampen the edge with water, then fit on the strip of pastry, pressing it firmly, and dampen that too. Then press the rest of the pastry over that to form a lid and, using a sharp knife, trim any excess pastry off. Use the blunt side of the knife and your thumb to press the two edges firmly together and knock the edges all round to give a layered effect. Then flute the edges by using your thumb to make an impression and the broad blade of the knife to draw in the edges of the pastry. Make a steam hole in the centre and, if you have time, make some decorative leaves with the pastry trimmings.

Now brush the pastry with milk and sprinkle on a light dusting of caster sugar. Place the pie on a baking sheet on a high shelf and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to gas mark 5, 375°F (190°C), and continue baking for a further 30 minutes. Then, using a skewer, take out a piece of apple from the centre to test if it’s cooked: if it still feels very firm, give it another 5 minutes. Serve hot with chilled pouring cream to mingle with the juices.

This recipe is taken from Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course and Complete Illustrated Cookery Course.

Bilberries

Bilberry bushes are more difficult to spot. They are prevalent in moorland areas. A favourite spot of Santas Little Helper is Caley Crags, Leeds Road, Otley Chevin. Bilberries take along time to pick because they are small and grow singly rather than in clusters.

Bilberry Pie

There are various recipes around for this – the picture shows an open plate pie, whereas the recipe is for a closed pie.

Ingredients

1½ lb bilberries 8oz puff pastry
4 cooking apples 1 bundle herbs
8oz sugar 2 tablespoons thick cream
1 egg, beaten

Instructions

Bake the apples and scrape out the pulp. Mix it with the bilberries and sugar. Line a pie plate with pastry, fill with fruit and sugar, and cover with pastry. Do not seal. Brush the top with beaten egg white, sprinkle with sugar and bake in a hot oven until golden brown. Gently lift the lid and pour in very thick cream.

Apples

It’s easy to tell whether an apple is ripe – just turn it and if it comes away easily, it is ready.

Apple Crumble

Ingredients

300g/10½oz plain flour, sieved pinch of salt
175g/6oz unrefined brown sugar
200g/7oz unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature
Knob of butter for greasing

Filling:

450g/1lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/½in piece
50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar
1 tbsp plain flour
1 pinch of ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Place the flour and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Place the fruit in a large bowl and sprinkle over the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir well being careful not to break up the fruit.
3. Butter a 24cm/9in ovenproof dish. Spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom, then sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.
4. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling.
5. Serve with thick cream or custard.

Pears

Check whether your pears are soft before picking them.

Upside-down Pear Cake

Ingredients

3 pears, peeled, halved and cored
175g butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
175g self-raising flour, sifted
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp icing sugar

20cm shallow pudding dish or cake tin, greased and lined with baking parchment

1. Arrange the pear halves evenly over the bottom of the prepared pudding dish or tin and set aside.
2. Using an electric beater or a wooden spoon, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, adding them one at a time and mixing well after each addition.
4. Add the flour to the bowl, gently fold it into the mixture, then stir in the milk.
5. Spoon the cake mixture evenly over the pears and smooth the surface.
6. Cook in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for 45 minutes, until the surface is firm when gently touched and the cake comes slightly away from the sides of the dish.
7. Remove from the oven, let it cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a serving plate. Peel away the baking parchment, dust the top of the cake evenly with icing sugar and serve immediately.

From Fran Warde “Eat Drink & Live”

Pear Preserve

Ingredients

1 pound pears, peeled, cored, cut in halves or whole
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 lemon, sliced thin

Method

• Boil the water and sugar until it coats a spoon.
• Add the pears and lemon and boil slowly and gently until the pears are tender and transparent.
• Place pears in sterilized jars, pour over them the boiling syrup, and seal.

Sloe Berries

Part of the damson family, sloes are best picked after a hard frost. They are too bitter to eat by themselves and best used in cooking or preserving. Santas Little Helper is aware of a great deal of sloe berry bushes on the road between West Witton and Middleham which goes over Penhill.

Sloe Gin

Sloe gin is a really nice gin liqueur. Santas Little Helper gave it out as Christmas presents two years ago and it proved to be a really popular gift. Make it as soon as possible in order for it to be ready in time for Christmas. If you must, pop the sloes in the freezer to burst them instead of waiting for the first hard frost. Bursting them saves you on the first step of having to prick each individual berry. If you really can’t wait, buy sloe gin ready-made here.

Ingredients

450g/1lb sloes
225g/8oz caster sugar
1 litre/1¾ pint gin

Method

1. Prick the tough skin of the sloes all over with a clean needle and put in a large sterilised jar.
2. Pour in the sugar and the gin, seal tightly and shake well.
3. Store in a cool, dark cupboard and shake every other day for a week. Then shake once a week for two months.
4. The sloe gin will now be a beautiful dark red and ready to drink, although it will still improve with keeping.
5. Pour through a muslin cloth to eliminate sediment or carefully decant.

Variation:

Make blackberry brandy in the same way, substituting blackberries for the sloes and brandy for the gin. Blackberries do not need pricking.

Rhubarb

Many people in the Pontefract area will have nostalgic memories of the tunnels used to “force” rhubarb production by lighting fires and growing it in hot polytunnels in the dark. Those young people who were employed to work in the tunnels would be unlikely to forget the experience!

Rhubarb is very hardy and can survive the frost. That is why it is such a quintessential English ingredient – great for serving hot on those freezing Winter evenings.

Rhubarb Scnapps (Nigella Lawson recipe)

Ingredients

Approx. 2 lbs of rhubarb, (1 1/4 lbs. trimmed)
1 1/3 cups of sugar
1 Litre of Vodka, plus a bit more if needed
2 one Litre jars
1 one Litre bottle

Method

Chop the rhubarb and divide it between the two jars. Add 3/4 cup sugar to each jar, put the lids on and shake them vigorously. Unclip the lids and pour 2 1/4 cups of vodka – use a cheap vodka – into each jar to fill. If this doesn’t fill them, pour in a bit more.

Close the lids, put the rhubarb vodka somewhere cool and dark for at least 6 weeks and up to 6 months. If you remember, shake the jar each day or so for the first month (this makes it even more pink!).

This recipe is available in her book, How to Be A Domestic Goddess, available online from the retailers listed:
Blackwell Books from £17.99
Foyles for books from £15.29
Pickabook from £12.05

Be careful to buy the right one – there’s another “How to Be A Domestic Goddess” by Maeve Bradbury, but that one won’t tell you how to make peach Schnapps!

Roasted Rhubarb with Pannacotta (Jamie Oliver recipe)

Jamie Oliver - housewives' favourite

Ingredients

• 70ml/2½fl oz milk
• 2 vanilla pods, scored and seeds removed
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 375ml/13fl oz double cream
• 1½ leaves of gelatine, soaked in water
• 70g/2½oz icing sugar
• 200g/7oz rhubarb
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 x 2.5cm/1inch cinnamon stick
• 115ml/4fl oz champagne, prosecco or other sparkling wine

Method

Put the milk, vanilla pods, vanilla seeds, lemon zest and half the cream into a small pan and slowly simmer for 10 minutes or until reduced by a third. Remove from the heat and stir in the soaked gelatine leaves until dissolved. Allow to cool a little, then place in the fridge, stirring occasionally until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove the vanilla pods.

Whip together the icing sugar with the remaining cream. Mix the two cream mixture together. Divide into four serving moulds (I use little moulds, espresso cups or small glasses). Cover and chill for at least an hour.

Meanwhile chop the rhubarb into 4cm/1½inch pieces, sprinkle with the caster sugar and grill until lightly browned. Gently heat together the ginger, cinnamon and champagne or prosecco, then pour over the roasted rhubarb, cover, and leave for about 30 minutes for the flavours to do their bit.

To serve, sometimes I’ll dip the mould or cup into some simmering water to loosen the pannacotta a little, then turn it out on to a plate next to some rhubarb with its juice (remove the cinnamon). Or you can just put the rhubarb on top of your cups or glasses of pannacotta and serve from there. Both ways are cool. Also gorgeous served with fresh figs and honey or caramelized blood oranges.

PS: Nice with a little basil.

• from Happy Days with the Naked Chef

You can buy “Happy Days with the Naked Chef” from the following retailers:
Blackwell Books £14.99
Foyles for books £11.39
Pickabook £10.04