Red Currant & Lavender Jelly for the Easter Lamb

At Nashtown Castle our preserves, jellies and pickles are made seasonally with local seasonal produce where possible. They are home grown and home made. Here is our list of the preserves that are currently available.

Nashtown Castle Red Currant & Lavender Jelly for Easter

• Apple Jelly - made with apples from an old traditional Kilkenny orchard
• Apple & Lavender Jelly - made with our homegrown lavender
• Bitter Orange Marmalade - this is our only preserve that has no locally grown ingredients
• Cucumber Pickle - made with three varieties of cucumber, grown in our garden
• Gooseberry & Apple Jelly - has a subtle gooseberry flavour
• Pickled Red Cabbage - robust old fashioned pickle, made with our own red cabbage
• Pumpkin, Ginger & Orange Marmalade - more like a relish, delicious with cold meat
• Spicy Pumpkin Chutney - perfect with cold beef and a baked potato
• Red Currant and Lavender Jelly - to be eaten with the Easter roast lamb. Fresh mint will be difficult to find as Easter is so early this year, so here is a great alternative

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

More Preserves from Nashtown Castle

Continuing the family tradition of preserving our own home grown heritage vegetables and preserving locally foraged fruit when there is a surplus, allows us to enjoy them all year round. Nashtown Castle Preserves and Pickles are now available in Glasrai & Goodies in Gowran, County Kilkenny and Phelans' Vegetable Shop in Ormond Street, Kilkenny.

Nashtown Castle pickles, jellies and chutneys ready for sale

Nashtown Castle Wild Crab Apple Jelly is created with foraged wild crab apples growing in the local wild hedgerows. 2012 was a bad year for apples, we found one special wild tree that yielded all the crab apples that were required.

Nashtown Castle Sloe & Crab Apple Jelly Not only was 2012 a bad year for apples, it was also a poor year for sloes. However, some careful sleuthing in the nearby woods located enough to make this special jelly. We had to watch and wait until the first frosts came along before we picked them, to allow the sloes to develop a little sweetness. 

Nashtown Castle Pickled Red Cabbage We grow our own red cabbage, it only travels a few yards from where it grows, to the pickling bowl in the kitchen. A stunningly beautiful vegetable, when cut in half, it always seems a shame to slice it up. We love to eat it raw, freshly grated in a coleslaw. We preserve it by pickling it, so we can continue to eat it out of season.

Nashtown Castle Apple & Lavender Jelly One of the greatest pleasures of gardening is picking your own home grown lavender, while the perfume swirls around. The lavender bags are emptied every year, refilled and replaced around the house to deter moths. The remaining lavender is infused to make a herbal tea and it is that juice that is added to this beautiful clear jelly. Having very few apples this year, we raided our neighbour's neglected old orchard, full of old, flavorsome varieties of apples to produce this jelly.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Jellied Pork Stock made from a Kilkenny Pig

Two organic pigs' heads and several feet (crubeens or trotters) landed up on the kitchen table. Great food for recessionary times. The heads from these Kilkenny reared, saddle back pigs were split, one half was placed in the pot to make a parsley and lemon brawn, seasoned with nutmeg. There was enough meat to fill a large loaf tin and it will take a few days to eat it all. So, the remainder of the heads were frozen until required.

Organically reared Kilkenny Crubeens

If you are a bit squeamish about eating crubeens, you can still use them - do not let them go to waste. Use them to make a wonderful jellied stock. Boil them up, simmer for 2-3 hours with an onion, some root vegetables and whatever herbs and spices are available and suitable for flavouring stock.

Slices of Jellied Pork Stock ready for use

Once the meat begins to leave the bones, strain and reduce the stock to the required consistency (it will probably cool to a jelly without even reducing it). Any the liquid left over from the brawn, can be added to the liquid stock.

Pig's Crubeen Jellied Stock

Pour into a mould and cool. The jellied stock is ready for use. It can be sliced and frozen for later use or else use immediately for soups, stews and pies or for more adventurous recipes. At least you now know what is in your stock, unlike the stock made from a shop-bought stock cube. Stew a pork hock in this stock for extra rich flavour.

There would be no free range, happy organic pigs, if we did not eat them. These pigs were killed so that we can eat them, we should respect this and make use of every part of that pig and avoid waste. Eat less meat and better quality meat and your diet will be healthier. 

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Kilkenny Pheasant Liver Pate

Eating local and seasonal is hard to beat. A brace of wild Kilkenny pheasants, locally shot and hung for 6 days, arrived on the kitchen table. These pheasants had a healthy, free life until they met their demise.

A fine brace of Kilkenny Cock Pheasants

They were plucked and gutted. The pheasant feathers made a welcome addition to the compost heap. These pheasants were roasted with some fatty bacon and stuffed with a traditional seasonal herb stuffing, using breadcrumbs made from stale homemade soda bread.

The plump breast of a half plucked Kilkenny Cock Pheasant.

The livers were gently cooked, 3 to 4 times their weight, in country butter. Once they were cooked through, they were placed in the food processor along with a clove of garlic, a teaspoon of fresh thyme and lots of freshly ground pepper. The pan was rinsed out with a large splash of sherry, which was then added to the food processor. It was all whizzed up together and poured into a small bowl and placed into the fridge.  So easy.

Pheasant Livers on Melting Country Butter

The pate, with a little added sloe gin jelly, makes a rich starter to any winter meal. 

Pheasant Liver Pate with Sloe Gin Jelly

Waste not, want not... 

The pheasant bones should always be simmered up with root vegetables, herbs and spices to make a good stock. The base for a hearty seasonal soup.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Sloe Gin and Wild Apple Jelly

Now that the first frost has arrived it is time to pick sloes and wild apples, sweetened by the frost, to make Sloe Gin Jelly. I have some of last year's sloe gin left over and will use it in the jelly recipe. 

Wild Kilkenny apples ready for picking

Ripe sloes

Sloes and wild apples ready for cooking

Sloe and apple juice

The finished article with last year's sloe gin added: Wild Apple, Sloe & Sloe Gin Jelly.
Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com