Can Jam April - Herbs: And the winner is...

Well it was Apple Jelly with Lemon and Sage... but I didn't make it. I don't know why really - perhaps because I had such a hard time deciding it meant that I wasn't into this month. Perhaps because I waited late and it got mixed up with the boy's birthday (Happy 17th!) Ah well, life goes on and I'm looking forward to next month's challenge. 

Can Jam April - Herbs - still no (real) decision

There were only three real contenders I found after reviewing my books. 1) Pickled Asparagus (p. 75 - Putting Up, Stephen Palmer Dowdney) to which I would need to add herbs - not a big challenge there. 2) Apple Jelly with Lemon and Sage (p. 22 - Preserves, Lindy Wildsmith). The only jelly I've ever made is hot pepper jelly and it's pretty forgiving -hope this is too. 3) Rosemary and Red Wine Jelly (p. 56 - Well Preserved, Mary Ann Dragan) seems interesting, but also a little strange.
And then I remembered that I had copied out a bunch of recipes from library books last year. Can o'worms. So then added 4) Herb Jelly with Variations, 5) Herb Wine Jelly, and 6) Herbed Asparagus (Ellie Topp, Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving) to the list of contenders.

So I stopped thinking about it and ordered a jelly bag, extra bags, kitchen twine in a cute stainless holder, and some very pretty Leifheit jars.

Can Jam April - Herbs - more deliberation

herb |(h)ərb|noun1 any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume


So does that eliminate some of the things I've been thinking about. I'm thinking fennel is a vegetable, but perhaps it's both depending on what you use it for. Lemon grass - that would qualify. 
In my research, rosemary and quince (does it sound like a posh law firm?) showing up quite often together, but we don't get many (any?) quinces around here. 
I did not realize I had so many British canning/preserving books -- they don't seem to often bother with a water bath and have this odd (IMO) notion of turning the jars upside down after sealing them - to what purpose, I do not know, but ...
Pickled asparagus could be right - esp right now, but would need to introduce and herb and frankly, beyond tarragon, which I could take or leave, I'm not sure what to add that wouldn't over power the asparagus. Blue Book / Preserving - blanks - as was, The Glass Pantry (see Library Thing site for details), so ... more research, but first - time away. nice. 

Can Jam April - Herbs

So the challenge for this month, well, April anyway, is herbs - well, hell - that's wide open. What is currently growing in the garden for me - rosemary, oregano, and parsley. I had no idea parsley would survive the winter (the coldest for the longest that I remember), but it came through with flying colors and looks great right now but may be about to bolt. I've not grown it before - so I'm not quite sure how it works. Oh, and fennel  - forgot that. And the cilantro will probably return as it usually does. I'm betting The Glass Pantry has a few ideas.
Need to check the farmer's markets to see what else is out there right now - hopefully not necessitating anything flown in from across the planet.

Can Jam - March - It's a Two-fer (Pickled Onions / Shallot Confiture)

Pickled Whole Onions (sigh)

I fell in love with pickled onions when I lived in England. A Ploughman's lunch to me is ideal food, but I'm the type that prefers bread and cheese over almost anything and the cheese is England - well, I'm spoiled - thank goodness for Sweet Home Farm nearby or I would despair that I would ever have truly artistic cheese again.  Anyway, so Ploughman's being ideal food and goes well with real beer - what more can a girl want? Come on. 

Pickled Whole Onions

1 pound boiling onions

3 cups H2O

1T salt

1 t mace berries

1 t allspice berries

1 t cloves, whole

2 cinnamon stick, about 4" long

6 black peppercorns

3 cups cider vinegar

Remove skins from each onion, trimming off the root cluster at the bottom; the root helps keep the onion intact. In a glass bowl, mix together 2 cups of H2O and salt to make a brine. Add the peeled onions and let stand 24 hours at room temperature.

The next day, cut out an 8" square of cheesecloth and place spices in the center and close and tie off the spice bag. In a non-reactive saucepan bring vinegar and cup of water to a boil over high heat. Add spice bag, reduce heat to medium low and simmer 20 minutes. Discard spice bag and add onions. Raise heat, and bring to boil, the remove from heat.

Pack the onions into hot, sterilized jars and ladle in hot vinegar mixture, filling with a half inch of the rims. Using a damp cloth, wipe the rims clean. Attach lides and process 40 minutes [40 frigging minutes??? WTH?) Cool jars, check for seal, will keep for up to one year. The Glass Pantry

Georgeanne Breman p. 126

Beauty of the Book: Categorized by season, this is probably one of themost beautiful preserving books I've seen. Lots of white space, which to my geeky self is important. Very diverse group of preserved items: green almond conserve, vin de cerise, candied rose petals, pickled baby corn, pears pickled in merlot, anch chili sauce. I could go on and on.

 Comments from the Counter: Onions were 2 pounds 4 oz until peeled and trimmed to a more reasonable 1 pound and 12 oz. Type of salt not specified so I used table salt. Used boiling water to help peel onions - much easier! Wasn't sure if I should trim the top of the onions, but looked at photo in book and decided to go ahead and do so.  No mace berries, what is that anyway?  Will find out.  

Since I had almost 2 pounds of onions, so I added 1 cup of cider vinegar and 1/2 cup of water to the pickling liquid. Created these in the step method and it worked well. 

Yield: 3 pints. Added about a T of cider vinegar to top off each can.

Can't wait to try these!

Shallot Confiture

2.5 lbs shallots
1/4 c salt
6 c white vinegar or white wine vinegar
4 c granulated sugar

For Spices:
4 cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks
3 strips of lemon rind
1 T caraway seeds
1 T cloves
1/2 tsp bird's eye chilies

Peel the shallots by blanching in boiling water for a few minutes.  Make sure that the root end remains intact; otherwise the shallots will disintegrate during cooking.

Place the peeled shallots in a large glass bowl. Cover with cold water and add the salt. Mix well until the salt is dissolved then weight down and leave for 24 hours.

Put the vinegar, sugar, and spice bag in noncorrosive saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil steadily for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Skim well.

Drain the shallots, rinse well, then drain again. Carefully add them to the boiling syrup. Return to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer very gently for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the
heat and let cool, then cover and let stand overnight.

The next day, bring the mixture slowly to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer very gently for 15 minutes. Cool and let stand overnight as before.

The next day, bring the mixture slowly to a boil, then simmer very gently for 2-2 1/2 hours, or until the shallots are translucent and golden brown.

Carefully lift the shallots out of the syrup with a slotted spoon and pack them loosely into the hot, sterilized jars. Return the syrup to a boil and boil rapidly for about 5 minutes. Pour into the jars, then seal. The shallots are ready to eat immediately, but improve with age. Process in water bath for 20 minutes. 2 year Shelf Life

Preserving Oded Schwartz page 161

Comments from the Counter:
Takes 4 days - yikes. But pretty minimal work involved.
These won't last long because I snuck it one and it's so good - totally worth doing. If they get better over time, it just might be too much.

Used the step method described here.
Recipe changes: Made a half recipe and now see that was a huge mistake
Used white vinegar - didn't have enough white wine vinegar at the time.
Used three Minneloa orange strips instead of lemon rind and serrated peeler makes this super easy.
No cloves, used 10 Allspice berries
Used about a tsp of freshly sliced finger hot pepper.
Yield: One pint - so should have doubled this ... but will make again. 

Book Notes:
Extremely interesting and unique. Lovely photos (no, really beautiful
to look at which is, in and of itself, an inspiration) and lots on
techniques. Some things I know I will never do (Smoking Fish), but
are still interesting to read about. I have made several recipes from
this book over the years and really enjoy it.

Canning is Planning

And not like planning for the future - tomatoes in February, anyone? No, I've noticed that if you read ahead and plan a bit you can make canning something you do on a regular basis. I've been trying to can by what I call the step method - where can I break the recipe so I do one part today and finish or do another part tomorrow and then have several recipes in the right place to process several things in my big water canner on one day. I was able to do that with the Tigress' Can Jam (allium) this month and have everything ready to can both pickled onions and shallot confiture at the same time. Pretty nifty and it saves energy by having all of this done in one afternoon - esp since it takes FOR-Frigging-EVER for the water to heat


So here's how it works:
For pickled onions. Yesterday I peeled the onions and made the pickling liquid. Put the onions in the fridge and the same with the liquid. Since the shallot confiture took four days, I planned for 5 days. Day one - four - followed the recipe, but at the end of day four refrigerated shallots in liquid until today. So today, I began with the recipe for the pickled onions - picked up where the liquid is simmering and added onions and brought to a boil 
as instructed and removed from the heat. By that damn time the damn water was finally boiling, the pickled onions were ready to go in the jars and in they went. The onions needed to be in the water bath an astonishing (at least to me) 40 minutes. So that gave time to heat
the shallots in syrup, get them in sterile jars and into the canner for the last twenty minutes of the onion processing and they were both finished at the same time. More canning in simple steps saving time and energy.


*By FOR-Frigging-EVER, I mean about an hour!

Rosemary Carrots Update - Can Jam Review

Well, we tried them. Nope - not so much. They taste, well, like rosemary carrots, but there's no real spark to them and because they were processed - which it totally necessary I completely understand, they are a little soft.

It probably didn't help that we tried them at the same time we tried the Firecrackers. But I even had a problem there - not hot enough. I'm hoping that in another week they will have a little more going on.


I was concerned, to be sure, about carrots. But you never know until you try...

March Can Jam - Alliums? interesting... hmm.

Alliums ... 


allium |ˈalēəm|noun ( pl. -ums)a bulbous plant of a genus that includes the onion and its relatives (e.g., garlic, leek, and chives). • Genus Allium, family Liliaceae (or Alliaceae).ORIGIN early 19th cent.: Latin, literally ‘garlic.’
well, not much for that - though I have made pickled garlic before. I do like all alliums - some more than others, so perhaps I'll try to use one I've never used before, but that's likely to be difficult - what haven't I used? Research is in order. I realize nothing is growing out there right now, but ... well not really, I have a few onions growing in the back garden - just like those pictured here. I may not use them because  - well, I've had them before. 
It's time to break out the books and see what I can come up with. Fingers crossed.


Pic: scallions from my garden last summer. Grown from the root end of scallions purchased from the store - cool. Now that's some recycling. 

Pickled Rosemary Carrots

Hot Damn  - it's the can jam... carrots edition

Pickled Rosemary Carrots

3 c (720ml) H20

3 c (720ml) vinegar

1/4 c (60ml) sugar

1/4 c (60ml) pickling salt

2 T (30ml) mixed peppercorn

6 hot chili peppers (red)

6 cloves of garlic, peeled

4 lbs (1.8 kg) carrots, peeled, cut into sticks, 4" long x 1/2" wide (10c x 1.2c)

six 3" sprigs fresh rosemary

Yield: 6 pints

Prepare preserving jars (Note: wash, wash, wash w/soap, dry, process 15 minutes in hot water and keep warm until ready to use). Combine H20, vinegar, sugar, salt, and peppercorns in a pot. Bring to boil, reduce to medium and simmer 5 minutes. Working 1 jar at a time, place 1 clove garlic, 1 chili pepper in each hot, sterilized jar. Pack carrot sticks tightly in jar standing upright. Slide sprig of rosemary into jar. Pour boiling solution into jars leaving 1/4" head space. Release air bubbles. Seal, repeat with the rest of the jars. Process 15 minutes.

Well Preserved

Mary Anne Dragan

p. 129

From the kitchen counter:
I made only half a recipe. That seemed like plenty since although I like the pickling liquid, I'm not sure how well I'll like it with carrots - I'm kinda on and off with carrots. Also, peeling and slicing 4 pounds of carrots - a bit o' overkill for me. 

Had to go outside with a flashlight (TY MotH) to cut the rosemary, but it's still in great shape - some little bit of damage from the 13 days of freezing, but just a few brown tips (cut off). No comments about 13 days of freezing - it's the gulf frigging coast - we shouldn't have 13 days of freezing even in January. Bugger.

Cans with pink lids - really too summer-y, but I'll rationalize it by the card-company created "holiday."

It's easier to put the rosemary in with the carrots and pepper - they are all vertical in my book so... 

Used two cloves of garlic for each jar - me likey garlic. 

How frigging long does it take to boil water - honestly - I should have timed it for my own morbid curiosity. 

I do like my new H2O canner - ordered online - saved $ --nice.

An idea just crossed my mind, by the time we finish the can jam, my pantry will be well stocked. Nifty.

Processing 15 minutes to sterilize = lots of standing around and waiting. 

Then more waiting - jeez.

Need mixed peppercorns. Time to spend some $.

No notes for how long to wait to try these, so I'm giving it a week to see what's up. Will report back. 


So what will next month bring.... we'll see. 

Carrots

Looking back at my recipe journal, it seems that on 28 August 2009, while in the midst of pickling more cukes than truly necessary and okra, and tomatoes, etc.  I considered pickling carrots... so maybe I did think about it a bit. Memory loss of most things pre new kitchen... as if.
Flavor Bible recommended some ideas for things that play well with carrots (I keep trying to add an extra t to carrotts  - a little more balanced it kinda works for me). Okay, flavors are: chili, coriander, cumin, dill, GINGER, LEMON, thyme.


Here's what I came up with: white wine vinegar, hot pepper (serrano), blk pepper, salt, garlic, mustard seed, lemon zest.
Perhaps we'll try a little bit of my ideas and the recipe I picked and see what we come up with...


What I really wish is I had some heirloom carrots -- burgundy, black, red... THAT would be cool.


photo: Americanfest.com

Carrots - What the frig....

You've got to be kidding me... carrots! .Groan - I know that I have no recipe for preserving carrots and probably don't have anything with carrots in them - at least not in my files. It's time to get out the books - thankfully, I have several. I'm betting Oded Schwartz's Preserving will have something for me to work with. What a great book - and beautiful to look at too. I'm a big fan of chutney, so I'll likely lean in that direction. We'll see how it goes ... going to be interesting. Or maybe not so much ...

Tangerine & Lime Marmalade

As part of the Tigress' Can Jam, I made Tangerine & Lime Marmalade. I've never made marmalade before, but I thought making lemon curd would be a total cop out since I make it regularly - it's best to try new things and see what you think. There were several other options, but the tangerines were so pretty (and on sale) that I thought I would go with them and then find a recipe to work. Citrus is perfect this time of year - even my little potted Meyer Lemon tree produced two beautiful lemons this year - which will be made into lemon curd this week. I had thought too of getting clementines as well, but we'll see - their season is short so if I'm going to, I had better make up my mind. 

The recipe was from A Passion for Preserves by Frederica Langeland and is the first recipe from the book that I have made. It's really simple which is a plus for a new recipe. Now, of course, I did mess w/it a bit, but that's normal for me. And I did it in the step method, which I'm realizing is easy as long as you think ahead a bit. 


Tangerine & Lime Marmalade
9 Tangerines
3 Limes
5 cups H2O
6 cups Sugar*

Wash all fruit, juice them and slice rind as thin as you can (I thought about using a mandoline, but went with a super sharp knife instead). Put the juice/rind/water in saucepan.

NOTE: There are a ridiculous amount of seeds in tangerines so pay close attention to not have those end up in your marmalade.
Bring mixture to a boil and reduce to simmer until the rinds are soft  - this took me about 1 hour 15 minutes. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved and continue to boil until set - this took, for me any way, longer than the 20-30 minutes in the recipe, but it wasn't a big deal. 

Ladle into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, put lids in place and tighten down. Invert the jars for a few minutes, then place upright and let cool completely. Check seals, label, and store in cool dry place.  For me - this recipe made 6 half pints of marmalade - tasted the little bit of left overs - so. very. good. 
Step Method: Complete to the point just before you add sugar. Cool and refrigerate. In the next day or two (at the most!) put mixture back into a sauce pot and heat and add sugar and continue recipe. 


*I only used five cups of sugar. Have you ever looked at six cups of sugar? Good lord that's a lot of sugar  - that is perhaps while it took a little longer for my marmalade to set, but again it's not that big of a deal.