This weekend I’m all set to start cooking from award-winning British food writer Diana Henry’s brand new book Salt, Sugar, Smoke published by the Octopus Publishing Group. I have long been an admirer of Diana’s recipes and food writing and I have been really looking forward to this book since meeting her at her home.
This book arrives at exactly the right time for anyone looking for inspiring ways to start preserving bountiful summer fruits. Beyond fruit and beyond the summer, Diana is our guiding hand for preserving seasonal vegetables, meat and fish, too through smoking, pickling, curing, potting and more.
If you are new to preserving, you will find plenty of information on the essentials of jam-making and chutney-making. You’ll also learn how to make your own sauces, vinegars, cordials and liqueurs, confit and terrines.
You won’t need any expensive equipment, but for a little effort with this book you’ll soon have a larder full of enticing flavours ready for any season.
My favourite recipes include Purple fig and pomegranate jam, Georgian plum sauce, Wild mushrooms in olive oil, Polish honey vodka, Quince sharbat, duck confit, beetroot-cured gravalax and Crunch Russian dill pickels.
I’ll be reviewing Diana’s book in full next week. In the meantime, here’s a taster of some of Diana’s recipes from Salt, Sugar, Smoke as featured in Diana’s column in Stella Magazine and a chance to win a copy of your own below, too:
Raspberry and violet jam – Stella Magazine
Duck confit recipe – Stella Magazine
Sweet pear william recipe – Stella Magazine
Giveaway:
Good Luck!
Ren Behan
Ren Behan is a British-born food writer of Polish descent. She is a mum to two young children (6 and 3) and spends lots of time with them in the kitchen. Ren writes about seasonal, family-friendly food on her blog www.renbehan.com and about Polish food on her site www.mypolishkitchen.co.uk. She also contributes recipes and articles to online and print food publications. Ren holds a Diploma in Food Journalism with Distinction and has completed a Food Styling course at Leiths School of Food and Wine. Full Profile on Google+
I would make something from blackberries.
Diana Henry one of my favourite food writers. A lovely book.
we’ve got a blackberry bush in our garden so i would prob try them
Fruit I would like to preserve first would be blackcurrants as i love them in jams , pies chesecake the list goes on and a good book would give me ideas
Peaches I think, if that is possible!
Raspberries, I love homemade raspberry jam and it’s so easy to make!
beetroot I really love it and can eat it any time, any where, anyhow,,,
Blackcurrants my favourite
Gooseberries.
oooh I was just thinking the other day that I am going to try and make jam/chutney/preserves to give as christmas pressies. have started collecting the jars, this looks like the inspiration I need to actually do it this year ( as opposed to just collecting the jars and then forgetting about it until a week before christmas, as has been the routine for the past few years..)
I think I would try a squash recipe. Or maybe gooseberries. always loved them when I was wee.
Pomegranate jam sounds incredible! Definitely want to give that a try,
Raspberries. My son grows them on his patch.
This boo looks great, we catch a lot of mackeral I would love to learn how to smoke it and preserve it. Thanks for this fab giveaway.
It looks its going to be a great blackberry year so I would start there.
strawberries
strawberries
I think I would try blackberries
I HAVE A GLUT OF GOOSEBERRIES….
Blackberries most definately!
I really must plant some raspberries this year – that jam sound marvellous!
Cherries because they are lovely with ice cream.
There is an elderberry hanging over my fence so I have thought about using the flowers and fruit. My dad use to make a wonderful elderflower champagne. At the moment I am making flavoured vodka. I have blackberry, orange, strawberry and blueberry vodka on the go. My brother is really into making sausages.
Blackberries for me to used to love picking them when i was a child and my mom made blackberry jam so yummy
Blackberries!
We have a glut of runner beans this year and I’d love to try some way of preserving them other than just freezing them
We have a glut of runner beans this year and I’d love to try some way of preserving them other than just freezing them
*sigh* word press keeps telling me this is a duplicate comment
Blackberries – our blackberry bush is producing loads at the minute and we’re just freezing them as we’ve already made jam. i can see that my friends are going to be being supplied too!
Wouldn`t mind trying Blackberries, used to always pick loads as a kid, would love to try making Jam.
Simon.
Strawberries – we grow our own – they never seem to last long enough xx
Ive heard of a chutney made from cranberries. Id like to try that as an alternative for Christmas gifts!
Magic, what a find!
beetroot
Morning, depends on season, “plums/blackcurrants”
QUINCE. Years since I had quince jelly
Apples
I love Diana’s books and if I don’t win I’ll be buying, I love her combinations of flavours in her recipes , I have lots of fruit from the garden to preserve and look for new ways to use them
Red onions I love them x
The fig and pomegranite jam sounds incredible!
Berries…Raspberries and Strawberries would be first on the list!
Because we have so many, I’d set about preserving blackberries.
I would preserve jars of strawberries
Blackberries, as there are so many of them out at the moment.
Blackberries for me as they are free and abundant in my garden
Something to use up the spare figs from my fig tree would be good.
Strawberries!
Blackberries – because they are going to soon be in season
Raspberries from my garden
Would have to be the glut of plums I have on my tree that need picking!
Would have to be blackberries, the lanes where I live are full of them x
Brambles, there are loads out at the moment.
I have more plums on my tree than I know what to do with, I made chutney last year but would love other preserving ideas. So my first preserves would be the plums. GG
My neighbour’s are always very generous with their apples – tend to make chutney rather than jam
plums this time round
it would have to be Gooseberries. as we have a bush outside that must be 35 years old, and it still keeps giving
Sounds like a great way to get into preserving!
Plums
mango
Gooseberries
blackberries1
I’d preserve blackcurrants – they’re great in jame, summer pudding and just pureed and drizzleed over ice cream so having a constant supply whatever the season would be very handy!
Gooseberries as we have loads from the garden
Raspberries – mmm.
Blackberrys.
Gooseberries
I’d stick to something fairly simple like jam to begin with
Well I made some delicious apricot and vanilla jam a few weeks ago. Gooseberry jam is my all out favourite, but we haven’t had any gooseberry bushes for a long time now
Blackcurrants
looks a great book
I think I would have to try blackberry and apples
The pomegrante jam sounds amazing
I would try blackberries as I have lots of them
Purple fig and pomegranate jam this sound so good I would love to have a go at it
I’d love to try that fig and pomegranate jam, it sounds wonderful!
mmmm mango or damsons? Maybe mango AND damsons! oh yum! Im drooling just thinking about it LOL xx
anything with raspberries, as we had so many from our canes this year
We adore beetroot so would love to be able to be able to do our own rather than having to buy supermarket jars! xoxo
Must try the Raspberry and Violet jam – sounds lovely!
Strawberries. I love home-made strawberry jam.
Blackberries and apples from my garden
Autumn is here ! Fruit trees FULL, allotments packed with TOO MUCH stuff to use, hedgerows full of free offerings…………normally we all end up with a freezer full of mush that gets thrown away the following year..This book looks like a great insight in how to make better use of the produce that comes my way. My friends often go shooting so the odd rabbit, pheasant etc come my way as well so different preserving methods would be good.
Blackberries from the garden
Since they are all about atm, blackberries
Wow, I had to search online and buy one of these books straight away! I live on a small island with only 100 people so I’m interested in the techniques in the book compared to what we use here. I’m giving the copy I bought to my father-in-law for his bday coming up, but here is hoping I can win one for myself! oh, interested mostly to salt fish & preserve vegetables…yum…
Artichokes…
Blackberries definitely!!
Raspberries
I would love to try some blueberries.
Raspberries, as they are a firm favourite in our house
I would love to try some meat.
I should write about fruit or vegetable, sorry.Than I would like to try buttersquash.
We have a whole stash of gooseberries I need to do something with!
some nice strawberries so I can make some victoria sponge cake with the yummy jam!