I make a start on the blackcurrant jam before breakfast. This is what a 'rolling boil that won't be stirred down' looks like.
As I've doubled the recipe it takes twice as long to reach setting point. You are supposed to discard the froth that comes to the surface but I skim it off I and stir it into a tub of soya custard for Robin's dessert.
As I've still got loads of blackcurrants I make my favourite summer dessert of all time - Blackcurrant Parfait - thank you Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall for the recipe. When the custard is semi- freddo you rough it up a bit and pour in little rivulets of the puree,
swirl it through the creamy egg custard and freeze again. Just need an occasion to eat it now.
As I'm on a roll in the kitchen I make another of my favourite dishes from all this summer bounty - Green Beans Tomatoes and Garlic using our own red onions from the allotment which are sweet but small - not enough watering.
We eat its warm, simple comfort for supper with grilled halloumi cheese, broccoli in a tahini lemon sauce and oven baked crostinni.
I was going to roast these market aubergines as well but decided to wait till I'd picked the glut of courgettes at my sister's farm to make a ratatouille. As they are away in Berlin for a few day's I'm on vegetable garden duty - actually a pleasure to be in the wild exuberant growth of her garden, in amongst the long straight rows of climbing beans and peas, yellow gold calendula and bright orange nasturtiums lapping at their feet.
Robin picks a huge bunch of their sweet peas, makes us a cup of tea, sits at the picnic table and watches me as I cut long stems of mint, flowering oregano and sage to take home - along with the heavy bag of courgettes and a lighter one of mange tout peas.
I also cut some of the beautiful, long stemmed red roses in full perfumed bloom, climbing high up their back wall, to carry to my parents grave.
This month in memory of my mother.....
who loved roses,
as much as I do.
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