RECIPES FOR THE WEEK.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20280, 14 April 1934, Page 20 (Supplement)

RECIPES FOR THE WEEK.

How Do You Use Your Blackberries? SOME SUGGESTIONS. You may have scratched your hands and arms, ruined a pair of stockings, blackened your teeth and disorganised your interior economy by undue consumption of none-too-ripe fruit, but if you have a large can of luscious blackberries to show for your trip to the blackberry patches, what do you care? You could have bought the same quantity in the market or local shops for a few shillings, but where then would be the thrill? And now what to do with your berries. The following recipes will help you to convert them into pies and puddings, jams and jellies, sauces and syrups. Blackberry Tart. Line a deep plate with a good short pastry and partly cook it in the oven. Stew the blackberries with sugar till tender and thicken with a little arrowroot mixed with water. Fill the tart with the mixture and with some thin strips of pastry make a lattice over the fruit. Put an outer rim of pastry round the edge of the plate, and bake in a moderately hot oven. Blackberry Souffle. Make a. very thick custard with the yolks of 4 eggs. 1 cup of milk, and sugar to taste. Set on ice. Add a few drops of essence of rose to a piqt of cream. Beat it up and add to it the whipped whites of four eggs which have been sweetened and flavoured with a little vanilla. Beat together very lightly and add the custard a little at a time. Have ready a quart of ripe blackberries which have been sprinkled with brandy, add them to the cream and, if possible, put away in ice for two hours. Fruit Mousse. This may be made from blackberries, strawberries, raspberries or loganberries. Fresh fruit is best, but tinned or bottled fruit may be used with excellent results. Take lib fruit, £ cup water, £oz powdered gelatine, loz castor sugar, £ pint cream. If using fresh fruit beat it with a fork, add the sugar, allow it to stand for an hour, then run through a sieve. If using preserved fruit it will just need passing through the sieve. Dissolve the gelatine in the water, add it to the fruit mixture, and set on ice till it begins to thicken. Whip the cream, and fold it in lightly. Put it in a mould and leave in the ice box, or a cold place, till set. Turn out and decorate with fresh fruit. Blackberry Wine. For each quart of fully ripe fruit, allow 1 quart of boiling water. Mash the fruit and place it in a pan, pour over it the boiling water, and let stand till next day. stirring now and again. Then press well, strain and measure the juice, and to each quart of liquid allow ilb of sugar.' Place the sugar in a cask; pour over it the juice, stir till dissolved, then allow the cask to stand uncorked till fermentation is over. Stir in the beaten whites of 4 eggs or ioz of gum arabic dissolved in a little water. Leave the cask open till next day, when it should be corked. It will be ready to bottle in about two months. Jam, With Sour Apples or Plums. Take 51b blackberries, 21b plums or apples, 1 pint water, 51b sugar. Stew the plums in the water for a few minutes, add the blackberries, and cook together for fifteen minutes. Heat the sugar by putting it in a baking tin in the oven for a few minutes. Half a teaspoon of tartaric or citric acid added ten minutes before it is cooked is an improvement. It will take about threequarters of an hour before it will begin to jell when tested. Blackberry Jelly. Take 41b blackberries and half pint water. Put them in a pan and boil till the fruit is tender, then strain through a jelly bag or fine wire sieve. Press the fruit gently and do not rub it or the jelly will not be clear. Measure the juice, rinse out the pan, put back the juice and add 21b sugar for each pint of juice. Let it boil steadily for three-quarters of an hour, or until it will set when tested on a plate. Pour into small jars, and when cold cover them. Blackberry Syrup. Take 1 pint blackberry juice, lib castor sugar, loz cider vinegar, 4 whole cloves, 1-8 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1-8 teaspoon ground mace. Select perfectly ripe berries, crush, mash and put on the ice in a covered jar for twentyfour hours. At the end of that time press through a bag and to each pint of juice add lib of sugar and the other ingredients; bring to the boil, and boil for five minutes. Strain into hot bottles and seal. When cold store in a cool place. Preserved Blackberries. Allow equal weight of sugar anc fruit, place jn jars in layers, and stand overnight. The juice should not overflow, but if lacking fill up. Let the fruit be three inches from the top. Put the rings and tops on and put jars in water bath. Allow to come to the boil and cook for five minutes, remove, and scaj tightly.