I treated myself to this magazine recently. It has some lovely recipes in it and I made the Cranberry and Ginger Chutney from this magazine and as soon as time allowed, I set to and opened the page at Home-made Mincemeat with Cherries in Kirsch and Marzipan and assembled the ingredients.
I have finally been dragged screaming into the 21st C. My old beam scales are what I use for pounds and ounces weighing (which is what I work in, given the chance). I also have a set of scales which does both persuasions, but it had been getting a little unbalanced recently and I couldn't trust it for small amounts. So I went to Fleabay and forked our under £5 (incl. postage) for this wee beast, which will weigh tiny amounts in grams accurately, and will convert to lbs and oz too. Why did I wait so long?!
I hope you can read this recipe, and that I am not infringing copyright regulations by showing it!, but since it is a published publication I assume not.
Chop finely 200g of prunes. This is a breakfast bowl, apparently, which I bought from Matalan recently. It is totally the WRONG shape to be stacked anywhere but on top of plates in my cupboard, BUT it is excellent for holding a small portion of a main meal and for assembling ingredients (sweet or savoury) in.
Add 200g large juicy raisins.
And 200g of dark moist Muscavado sugar.
The recipe called for dried apple, but that seemed unnecessary so I used two of my winter store apples from our own trees, chopped small.
Add the drained cherries. Also the zest of a lemon and the zest and juice of a good orange. Before using them I make up my own cleanser to remove pesticides from the peel - take 1 tblspn vinegar (I used my home made cider vinegar for this) and 1 tblspn lemon juice (old lemons perfect for this), and a cup of water. Place fruit to be cleaned in this for a few minutes, scrub skins and wash and dry.
The spices are added next and it is cooked as per recipe. Allow it to cool, then add the reserved 6 tblspns Kirsch infused cherry juice and stir in the chopped marzipan. Bottle into sterilized jars. Seriously good stuff this and a lovely gift.
