A quick one on blackberries....

Today I have SO MUCH TO DO because we’re about to go off for a week and the house is a mess, I have work stuff to finish, last minute laundry to do, food to use up, the fridge to clear out, and my kitchen essentials to put together which of course involves choosing which pressure cooker to take. And yes, I take a pressure cooker on holiday with me (and knives, and a decent frying pan and a microplane plus some essential herbs, spices etc, and I should really do a post on this), because we are driving so I have room and we are self catering and cannot afford (or even want) to eat out for every meal. And there is nothing like coming back from a day when you have been Making The Most of It in dismal holiday weather and being able to make soup in 5 minutes. But I digress. Despite the general busyness, first thing this morning found me blackberrying AGAIN, because they are just so good at the moment and I didn’t want to come back in a week’s time and find that after a week of heat they had all shrivelled up or fermented.

It is another bumper year for blackberries. I’ve been picking them for a few weeks now, but they have reached their peak - I am picking them almost daily on my morning walk. The really fat, juicy ones which are unlikely to make it home without bursting I eat as I go, the slightly firmer ones I take home. Some of these live in the fridge for snacking/adding to yogurt/the children’s morning muesli or granola. The rest are open frozen.

Every year I talk about open freezing, usually on Instagram and every year I realise that a lot of people don’t understand what this is. Basically, you arrange anything you want to freeze on a tray, freeze it (flash freezing is preferable), then when it is solid you can decant to a freezer container. The purpose is to stop whatever it is you are freezing from clumping together. I do this with all kinds of fruit, cooked beans, meatballs, dumplings - anything that is liable to stick which is usually because it is giving out water or starch or both.

I use blackberries a lot in sweet and savoury dishes. I love the combination of juniper, gin and blackberry, especially with venison, beef or duck - and when I cooked squirrel last week I used a little blackberry jam to round out the chilli flavour and it worked really well. One of the best puddings ever in the autumn/winter months is a blackberry and apple steamed suet pudding (recipe in The Pressure Cooker Cookbook), but a pie is as good, and you can use blackberries in bread puddings, cakes and macerate for cheesecake, tarts, stirred into cream for pavlova. I like them cooked, purely because the aroma of cooking blackberries is one of my absolute favourite smells - top 5 easily.

Flavour wise, they work well with juniper as I’ve already said, but also bay leaf, lime leaf, lemon verbena, rose water, orange blossom water. My favourite clafoutis is blackberries with orange and orange blossom water, and if I have blackberries with yogurt and nuts in the morning I often crush them very lightly with a very few drops of rose water added. You must always be very sparing with rose water, because you can easily go from pleasantly floral and flavour enhancing to bath water with just one or two drops too many.

Today, just a single, simple recipe for you - an easy blackberry jam, which you can adulterate after you have reached setting point with all kinds of flavours. The pressure cooking helps for the initial cook before you add the sugar. I always prefer to pressure cook fruit this way as it is so fast and consequently the colour/flavour/nutrition retained is all better. I used to make a lot of fruit jellies and still do sometimes - but I prefer jam for three major reasons - one, it is always faster and less faff as no straining to do, two, there is less waste (although you can find uses for jelly biproduct) and three, jam is generally better for you because of the fibre.

Blackberry Jam

I’m not giving quantities here as everyone has a different idea about how much jam they want to make. And it is so quick to make, especially if you have sterilised your jars in your last dishwasher load, that you can make a couple of jars at a time if you want to.

Weigh your blackberries and set aside an equal amount of jam (pectin added) sugar. You can make a reduced sugar jam if you like (try reducing by a third) - I find that if I use a mixture of just ripe and riper blackberries, an equal amount of sugar is just about right to counter the tartness. If you prefer to use the saucer test for setting point, put some saucers in your freezer. Put three quarters of the blackberries into your pressure cooker with a splash of water and the juice of 1 lemon (half if making a very small amount). Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Immediately remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure for 2 minutes, then release the rest of the pressure. You will find a pressure cooker flooded with a claret coloured liquid. Add the remaining blackberries along with the sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring regularly - after around 5 minutes you can start testing for setting point.

These are the ways you can test:

1.     Temperature. If you have a thermometer, bring up to 104-105.5C . I tend to go to the lower side of this, for a slightly softer set.

2.     Saucer test.  Spoon a little of the jam onto a chilled saucer. If it wrinkles when you push it a finger through it, rather than running off, it is done.

3.     Wooden spoon test. Take a spoonful of the jam. Turn the spoon over a couple of times before holding it horizontally over the pan. If the jam sinks down below the spoon to a point without dropping off it is done.

4.     By eye and feel! I often feel as though I know jam is done by stirring – if you can draw a line through the jam you can often see from the the way it clings jelly-like to the base that it is done.

Remove from the heat and leave to cool a little - at this point you can give it a good stir to make sure any froth has dispersed. Then decant into sterilised jars. You can add flavour at this point if you want to individualise the jams. If I am using leaves of any sort, I wash and pour over freshly boiled water briefly before adding. And make sure that they are lightly bruised. So you can add, while the jam is still hot:

A few drops of rosewater

A little gin or creme de mure

Crushed juniper berries

Bruised leaves - bay, lime, lemon verbena, lemon thyme, rose scented geranium…anything that takes your fancy.

Some other blackberry ideas (I will revisit too later in the summer):

For savoury blackberry, beetroot and smoked fish recipe, you can check out this post from last year.

And you can find a blackberry and juniper flavoured venison casserole (you can use beef instead, or sausages) from earlier this year here.

Modern Pressure Cooking has a blackberry and lime cordial which really showcases how good pressure cookers are at extracting flavour.

And Everyday Pressure Cooking has a one pot sausage and mash dish, with blackberries/blackberry jam stirred through the gravy, and an apple and blackberry compote which is perfect for keeping in the fridge for breakfasts or using in pies or puddings, or stirring through cream for fools.

Please share this post with anyone who is likely to be blackberrying! And please, as always, if you have enjoyed, please like/comment on the post. Thank you so much!