Wild Pear Part 5: Wild Pear and Bramble Leather

I got a message inviting me to relieve the bramble bushes of their fruit on a friend's land, so I dutifully obliged. As I still had a few pears left I decided to make some fruit leather. This isn't really a well-known treat in Scotland but my uncle used to send us dried fruit leathers from South Africa so they always remind me of my childhood. I guess they are similar to Fruit Roll ups or Humzingers, but without the preservatives.

I cooked the brambles and pears separately because I don't have a blender with filter to remove skin, seeds and other bits and pieces which would be detrimental to making a smooth leather. If you do have a blender with this facility then you don't even need to peel the pears - just chop them up and cook everything together then blend it all through the filter and continue with the recipe at the drying stage.

Wild Pear Part 5: Wild Pear and Bramble Leather

Ingredients:

• 1kg brambles, rinsed
• 1 litre of water
• 1kg pears, peeled and chopped
• Sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 star anise

Method:

• Cook brambles and star anise in 500ml of water until very soft
• Cook pears and cinnamon in 500ml of water until very soft
• Blend pears in food processor/blender
• Sieve brambles to remove star anise and seeds
• Add sugar to taste but remember that the leather will sweeten as it dries so don't over-sweeten it!
• Boil mixture until it becomes a thick sauce
• Line dehydrator trays with baking paper and pour mixture on top - if you don't have a dehydrator then line a baking tray, pour the mixture into this and bake at your oven's lowest setting for 8+ hours - checking frequently
• Dry until no longer sticky but still pliable (about 8 hours at 80C)
• Roll leather up and cut into bite-sized pieces

Wild Pear and Bramble Leather

And that's me finally add the end of my 5kg of pears and this ingredient's blog. Until next time xx

Wild Pear Part 4: Wild Pear Brownies

After a facebook recommendation for a chocolate-based recipe, here is what I made (the original recipe used large pears):

Wild Pear Part 4: Wild Pear Brownies

Ingredients:

• 500g wild pears, peeled, cored and chopped into pieces
• 175g unsalted butter, cubed
• 300g soft light brown sugar
• Heaped tablespoon of dark cocoa (I used Bournville)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla paste (yes, I love this stuff!)
• 100g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 175g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
• 3 eggs, beaten

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Gently heat sugar, butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water 
• Stir until mixture melts and blends together
• Add remaining ingredients and mix
• Pour into a greased and lined baking tray (I used mini loaf tins)
• Bake for 30 mins (do not open the oven door or the brownies will sink!)

Wild Pear Brownies

They didn't last long!!

Wild Pear Part 3: Wild Pears, Poached

While I was cooking Part 1 I noticed that the pears were softening quite quickly so I thought I would try a poached pear recipe to retain some of the texture of the pears. I'm not a fan of red wine (the staple poaching liquid) and am currently on a restricted budget, so I thought I would try poaching the pears in cranberry juice instead.

Wild Pear Part 3: Wild Pears, Poached

Ingredients:

• 11 wild pears (10 for dessert and 1 for testing bite)
• 1 carton of cranberry juice
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 100g sugar

To serve:

• 50g creme fraiche
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste

Method:

• Peel pears without removing stalks
• Put cranberry juice, lime juice, cinnamon and 1 tsp vanilla paste into pan
• Gently place pears into poaching liquid
• Gently bring to the boil until pears soften but retain shape (about 20-30 mins)

Pears poaching

• Remove pears and set them aside
• Add sugar to liquid and boil to reduce to syrupy consistency
• Mix together vanilla paste and creme fraiche
• Serve pears with syrup and creme fraiche

Poached pears with Vanilla Creme Fraiche

Wild Pear Part 2: Wild Pear Jelly Fruits

I used "Pam the Jam"'s alternative to Pear Cheese to make what she calls fruit pastilles. I was expecting a sort of hard sweet, like cough candies, but these turned out like fruit jellies. I was not disappointed by this outcome - I love fruit jellies - but when I make them again I'll use a deeper baking tray and cut out shapes. I think they would make nice seasonal gifts.

Wild Pear Jelly Fruits

Ingredients:

• Pear Cheese Mixture (see Part 1)
• Caster Sugar

Method:

• Line a shallow baking tray with greaseproof paper
• Pour mixture into tray and smooth out
• Cover with greaseproof paper and leave to set for 3 days

• Cut into small shapes
• Coat shapes in caster sugar

Coating shapes in caster sugar

Finished sweets

Next: Part 3: Wild Pears, Poached

Wild Pear Part 1: Pear Cheese

Despite an awful fruit season (no plums, no apples and no damsons) I was very happy that my annual Wild Pear forage was successful. I foraged 5kg of pears, so I've decided to post each recipe separately. Wild pears are small, hard versions of the Conference pears we are more familiar with, so are best cooked/pureed to release the flavour without releasing your teeth.

5kg Wild Pears

Part 1: Wild Pear Cheese
Part 2: Wild Pear Jelly Fruits
Part 3: Wild Pears, Poached
Part 4: Wild Pear Brownies
Part 5: Wild Pear and Bramble Leather

Wild Pear Part 1: Pear Cheese

Adapted from "Pam the Jam" (of "St. Hugh fame")'s recipe

Ingredients:

• 1kg wild pears
• 825g cooking apples
• Sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 500ml water

Method:

• Peel, core and slice fruit
• Add fruit, water and cinnamon to a pan and boil then simmer for 15 mins
• Blend mixture to a puree in a blender
• Measure puree and add 3/4 sugar to the amount of puree you have (eg 750g sugar per 1000ml puree)
• Bring back to boil and simmer for approx. 1 hour, stirring frequently

Puree turns from yellow . . .

. . . to orange!

• Pour mixture into greased moulds - I used mini loaf tins
• Cover with baking paper and allow to set for 2-3 days to set
• Turn out, slice and serve with your favourite cheese

Wild Pear Cheese

Next: Part 2: Wild Pear Jelly Fruits

Hedgehog Pâté (v)

Just a quick blog today. I recently went for a wee forage in the woods and came back with an interesting ingredient - Hedgehogs! Oh, stop pulling that face - I mean Hedgehog mushrooms (hedgehog mushrooms have spiny teeth rather than gills).

Hedgehog Mushrooms

Hedgehog Mushroom Pâté

Ingredients:

• 500g Hedgehog mushrooms
• 4 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for coating mushrooms)
• 4 tbsp creme fraiche
• 50g chopped walnuts
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 onion
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 75g Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 tbsp rice wine
• Seasoning 

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190C
• Chop mushrooms and coat in oil and thyme

• Roast mushrooms in oven for 15 mins
• Roast walnuts in oven for 10 mins

• Fry onions and garlic in oil for 10 mins

• Blend walnuts, onions and mushrooms and all remaining ingredients in food processor

• Season to taste
• Allow to set in fridge
• Serve

Rosehip and Watermint Jelly

Rosehip and Watermint Jelly

So, I'm not feeling well at the moment and the idea for this blog comes from the seasonal choice of ingredients combined with a dire need to boost my flawed Scottish immune system! (Rosehips contain 20-60 times as much vitamin C as an orange!) I took a walk around Townhill Loch in Dunfermline, Fife, and found some Rosa Rugosa Rosehips and some Watermint. I have made herbal tea (tisane, really) with mint and rosehips before, but I like to eat and drink cold foodstuffs when I have a sore throat, so I wanted to make something that tasted of rosehip/mint tea but was cold - and I don't like iced tea. The decision: rosehip and mint jelly.

There are as many different types of rosehips as there are types of roses, but I always think that Rosa Rugosa look good enough to eat raw. I also like to make rosehip jelly (as in runny jam) out of Scotch Burnet rosehips because they give the jelly a beautiful purple hue.

Rosa Rugosa hips

Watermint

Rosehip and Watermint Jelly

Ingredients:

• 400g Rosehips, washed and de-stemmed
• 450g sugar
• 10 sheets of gelatine (1 per 100ml of rosehip syrup)
• 1.1 litres of boiling water
• 5 mint leaves (I added some flowers for good measure and colour!)

Method:

• Chop up rosehips (or do as I did and chuck them in a food processor).

Processed rosehips

• Bring rosehips and 700ml boiling water back to the boil.
• Take off heat and leave to infuse for 15mins.

Rosehips infusing

• Strain through muslin/tea towel and put the juice back in the pan.

Straining juice through a tea towel

• Add 400ml boiling water and the mint leaves/flowers and bring back to the boil.
• Take off heat and leave to infuse for 15mins.

Mint infusing

• Strain through muslin/tea towel and put the juice back in the pan.
• Add sugar and bring back to the boil then turn off heat.
• Cut each gelatine sheet into 6 pieces and place in bain marie/heatproof bowl over boiling water.
• Add enough rosehip syrup to cover the gelatine.
• Gently heat and stir until gelatine dissolves.

Gelatine dissolving

• Mix together gelatine mixture and remaining rosehip syrup.
• Strain to remove any gelatine lumps.
• Pour into moulds.
• Place in fridge to set.

Rosehip and watermint jelly