Home-made raspberry jam

I've started wanting to make condiments and sauces lately. I don't really know why but I think it has something to do with the fascination of how easy it actually is to make something that you normally would just buy in a jar and the flavours are much fresher and better. Then I also think I feel as if I've accomplished something buy making it myself. And everytime you open the fridge, there's that pretty jar without labels and preservatives. Today I decided to make some jam to go with my English muffins/scones.

I found the recipe on http://www.mommypotamus.com

Ingredients
makes about 240 ml/1 cup
480 ml/150 g fresh raspberries
120 ml honey
2 tbsp lemon juice


Coarsely mash the raspberries with a potato masher. Transfer the raspberries to a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Bring the fruit to a simmer and cook down for a few min. Add the honey, stirring well to combine. Continue to simmer the mixture for about 15-25 min stirring every once in awhile to keep it from burning. In order to know whether it's ready or not, keep a close eye on the mixture, stirring more frequently toward the end of the 15 min. It will then begin to thicken pretty quickly and as you are stirring, draw a spatula through the mixture and you can see that before it is ready, the mixture fills in the space created very quickly. As it becomes ready, it will fill the space in more slowly, leaving an open space for a few seconds as it slowly fills in. Leave on the heat until you get the consistency you want. Keep in mind that the mixture will thicken even more after it cools though. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let it cool.

Marinated chicken with balsamic ruccola and cucumber tossed in lime vinaigrette

They had thin chicken filets on special in our supermarket this week so I decided to make a simple marinade for those and then just have some veggies with it. I wasn't very good with measuring the ingredients to the marinade so I'm afraid you will have to taste your way to it. The marinade shouldn't be too runny so don't put too much olive oil in.

Ingredients
Chicken marinade
paprika powder
turmeric
cayenne pepper
garlic powder
salt and pepper
olive oil

Mix all the spices together in a grinder, add the olive oil bit by bit until it becomes smooth. Put the chicken in a plastic bag and add the marinade. Let it sit in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.

Balsamic veggies with ruccola
½ zucchini, sliced
1 red capsicum, diced
1 onion, sliced
150 g ruccola
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
olive oil

Fry the onion and capsicum in some olive oil. Add the zucchini after a couple of minutes and fry for about 5 minutes. Add the ruccola together with the balsamic vinegar and let it fry together for a couple of minutes.

Lime vinaigrette
3 tbsp lime juice
½ tsp Dijon mustard
180 ml olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the lime juice, mustard, salt and pepper in a blender. Slowly add the olive oil until it's all combined.

Thinly slice some cucumber and put in a bowl. Add some vinaigrette and put in the fridge for a bit. They almost taste like pickled cucumbers.