peach, rosemary & white wine preserve

I think I've got the canning bug. Although of course I just had to wait until all the good fruits were out of season before I decided I wanted to try to preserve them.

Still, managed to get my hands on some peaches.

Here's my dirty little secret though. I didn't reach for those nice, fresh, just ripened peaches with that beautiful yellow coloured flesh.... I wanted my peaches close to death. All soft & squishy. Starting to turn colour. Completely unappetising to eat with that horrendous overly-rippened-now-starting-to-rot mushy thing going on.

Want to know why? These are usually the sweetest & make the best jams. Doesn't do wonders for my pictures though... but holy toledo Batman, that flavour is GOOOOD!

What I've got here isn't your typical preserve either. I mean, it's not something I'd put on pancakes in the morning. It's more for toasted english muffins, or paired with brie & prosciutto. It's for the more savoury of pairings with the earthy undertones of the rosemary & the slight hint of spice from the pepper corns. Personally, I'd like a little less sugar in the recipe, but then we start getting into the realms of adding more pectin & it's just not something I want to deal with.

I think maybe I'm going to start going crazy with the preserving process & start getting ready for homemade christmas presents.

Ingredients: - 1Kg peaches - 400g sugar - 60ml lemon juice - 125ml dry white wine - 1 tbs black pepper corns - 2 sprigs of rosemary

Directions: 1. peal & pit the peaches, then dice them into sizes that you would like. 2. place the peaches in a large bowl & add the rest of the ingredients. Give them a good mix & leave them to sit for four hours. 3. transfer the contents of the bowl into a heavy bottomed pot & place over medium low heat. Bring the contents to a gentle simmer & cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Raise the temperature to medium, medium-high heat & cook the mixture until it reaches 104C. Make sure to stir the mix to ensure it doesn't burn on the bottom whilst cooking. 4. sterilise your jars (you should need about three). Once your preserve is ready, transfer it into the still hot jars & seal them. Store in a cool, dark place until ready to consume. Once opened, store in the fridge.

Tips: *** soaking the peaches in sugar for several hours before they're cooked will help them to keep their shape rather than turning into mush. *** simmering the mix in the beginning allows all the sugar to dissolve before you start to turn it into a preserve. If all the sugar doesn't dissolve before you turn the temperature up, you'll end up with a grainy preserve. *** never transfer hot preserve into cold jars, or cold preserve into hot jars... it will cause them to crack.

Here is a quick list of my basic gadgets:

Tools/ Equipment/ Machinery/ Ingredients:

Machinery:

Electric Scale - Etekcity - http://amzn.to/2xkKpQk

Candy Thermometer - Etekcity - http://amzn.to/2xklw7k

Tools:

Silicone Spatula - Zyliss - http://amzn.to/2y3Srkw

Chef's Knife 8" - Miyabi - http://amzn.to/2fUtyRK

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