Sunday, August 29, 2010

Blackberry jam or how simple things can be amazing


Hi everyone! Yes, I'm back in Barcelona. Back from my dad's town. Back from the best three weeks of the summer. I guess that's good enough of an excuse to have been a little disappeared for a while. That and the really really bad internet connection over there. 

You might be wondering what have I been doing. It's hard to compress everything that's happened in a sentence or even a paragraph. I told you about my dad's town holidays. The bulls, the party, serving drinks, lack of sleep but lots of fun. 
The holidays were over on the 14th and ever since I've been just relaxing and enjoying the really good company of my friends. I'm a lucky girl, I have amazing friends. It doesn't matter if I haven't seen them in two years or two months, everything is always just in place.


We've laughed a lot and lived in a very Spanish lifestyle for a couple weeks. Waking up late, going to the bar for a beer before lunch, for a coffee after lunch and for drinks at night. We've been just hanging out without any pretension. Vacation with them is not about going to fancy places for dinner or staying at expensive hotels. It's about having dinner all together in our 'garito' and falling asleep on the couch.

Needless to say, I've been eating a whole bunch. On the tapas side there's been a lot of 'bravas' (spicy potatoes), 'puntilla' (fried in batter 'chipiron' head), 'rabo' (pig's tail) and so on and so forth. I also got to eat my aunt's paella again. Quite amazing, I'll tell you more about it soon. And the recipe for Spanish omelette will be posted soon too.


This is a simple recipe, just like the simply amazing life I've been living this month. I really love wild blackberries and they grow insanely, if you let them, in every corner of my dad's town. So much so that farmers have to burn the bushes down so they don't cover their trees. Still, there's plenty to pick. My parents and I picked 3 1/2 cups that went to this wonderful jam.

It's not too sweet, but you could make it sweeter if you want. I didn't strain it but if you're not a fan of seeds you might want to do so. It has an intense flavor and I find it a wonderful breakfast. Even though my friend Pablo doesn't quite like blackberries anymore (ate too many of them once as a kid), this recipe is dedicated to him. Just because I'm lucky to be his friend and to have been able to try his tomato omelette which I'll make sure to post soon! By the way, wish him luck on his last nursing school exam!

Blackberry jam

3 1/2 cups blackberries
1 cup sugar
Rind of a lemon, just the yellow part, not the white, whole
Juice of half a lemon

Crush the blackberries with a spoon, fork or a masher so they release the juices. Put them in a pan along with the sugar and the lemon rind. Cook them at low heat for about 30 minutes and keep mashing them. The pectin in the lemon rind will make the jam come together. Alternatively, you can use pectin if you want to. The jam will thicken as it cools down. 

Note: I'd avoid using any wooden spoons or utensils for this recipe. The blackberries will stain the wood and getting them clean isn't easy.

11 comments:

Sam said...

Yum! I love berries and this jam looks so simple and not over-the-top sweet. Can't wait for summer in Australia to try it!

Adriana @ bittersweet baker said...

I'm glad you're back, and you had fun on vacation! I love your first picture - the jam looks delicious!

Maria said...

Contentaaaa que t'ho hagis passat tant be en el "garito" i tot el poble!!
Per si soles les mores tenen una pinta increible, pero nenaaa, en melmelada ja es suprem!
Quins esmorzars, quins esmorzars!

redmenace said...

Welcome back! You were missed! I'm glad to hear, however, that you enjoyed yourself and ate lots of spicy potatoes. They sound delicious! So does this jam! I LOVE blackberry season, but it's too short!

Neus said...

Quina melmelada, més bona...ummm nyam. nyam
Un petonet

Ksenia said...

Jo també he estat una mica desapareguda. Fins a quin dia estarás a Barna? Jo demá em mudo ja definitivament perque el dijous comencen les classes de repàs de mates. Snif, snif T.T

Me n'alegro que t'ho hagis passat bé en el poble :) Es veritat, no són necessaris els hotels de cinc estrelles i els restaurants de luxe per tenir una bones vacances. Quan vaig a Rússia, sempre intento sortir de Moscou per uns dies i me'n vaig a la casa de camp de les afore d'alguns amics o familiars (hem anat a la nostra una vegada en 12 anys perquè no hi ha transport que hi arribi. El bus et deixa a 3 hores de camí >.<). Passegem, sortim amb les bicicletes, recollim gerds, encenem fogueres i ens banyem en manantials a 4ºC. I sempre són els millors dies de totes les vacances :)

Eileen said...

I tried your crumble topping as I'd never put coconut in mine and it was fabulous, thanks for sharing

Eileen said...

I tried your crumble topping as I'd never put coconut in mine and it was fabulous, thanks for sharing

Anonymous said...

Shadow Creation is the process to change the color of an image or video..Shadow Creation It means correcting the lighting, white color balance, red or blue color balance, so that the image looks more clear or natural

WORLD NEWS said...



Clipping path service is one kind of image editing Process where we select a important portion of an image and cut the unimportant part Clipping path We can delete the background or change background color to make it more attractive.

خدمات منزلية said...

شركة كشف تسربات المياه بالاحساء
شركة عزل اسطح بالاحساء
شركة عزل اسطح بالدمام
شركة عزل اسطح بالجبيل
شركة عزل اسطح بالقطيف

Post a Comment