well preserved

The mother ship has come up for a day so we decided to make strawberry jam and scones to snack on whilst watching England vs Algeria. Nothing says Come On England like a red and white treat served with a sturdy cup of tea; it's virtually in our DNA.

The jam recipe was courtesy of Elspeth, the scone recipe from my step-grandmother's 1970's Be-Ro cookbook. I'm thrilled that Mother also came packing my paternal grandmother's recipe books, stacked with generations of brilliant baking, including hand written instructions for her infamous Cornish pasties. I'll try a few out as soon as I can decipher her spidery handwriting.

Back to the jam. We hulled 1.5kg of lovely strawberries, shop bought sadly as my home grown ones aren't ready yet. I heated them up with the juice of a lemon, mashed them and continued heating for a further five minutes. I stirred in 2kg of preserving sugar, which I'd pre-heated in the oven, until it all dissolved then brought it to a rolling boil and timed for four minutes. I popped a dollop on a cold plate, left it for a minute and then pushed it about to see if it wrinkled up. Happy joy, it did first time so we decanted it into sterilized kilner jars.

Meanwhile, we made a quick batch of scones; 200g of SR flour with 2oz butter rubbed in (excuse the mixed measuring but the Be-Ro book is decidedly pre-metric). I stirred in 1oz of sugar and a quarter of a pint of milk with an egg whisked in. Then to the floured chopping board to knead the dough and roll it out. I'd advise rolling it out to 2cm thickness for nice, high scones. Into the oven at 22oc for ten minutes. Serve with clotted cream, butter and fresh strawberry jam. She shoots, she scores! Back of the net...