Simple Bites » Preserving

Creamy Orange Cardamom Curd Recipe

Marisa — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:20:27 +0000

Written by Marisa of Food in Jars.

I was born in Southern California and spent my first nine years living in a little town called Eagle Rock. We had guava trees in the front yard and towering palm trees in the grassy strip between the sidewalk and the curb.

Nearby, my grandmother grew Meyer lemons and had a four foot high hedge of rosemary. Of course, in those days, I had no appreciation for absurd bounty that grew all around me. I longed for winter and days of heavy, deep snow.

These days, I’m quite contentedly tucked into a life in Philadelphia. We get more than enough snow to satisfy my longings, but in true grass-in-always-greener fashion, I miss the warm winters of Los Angeles and all that gorgeous citrus.

While I can’t beam all that sun my way, I can still get the citrus. I buy box upon box of those easy to peel clementines. I order Meyer lemons direct from Florida. And I make jars of Orange Cardamom Curd as an occasional treat.

If you’ve never had homemade citrus curd, it is paradise in a jar. Creamy, sweet and just a bit tangy, it’s a dream stirred into Greek yogurt or heaped atop a freshly baked scone.

If you need a quick dinner party, serve it with store bought shortbread cookies. I promise, your guests will swoon.

The yield should be right around a pint. It keeps up to 14 days in the refrigerator, but can also be frozen in smaller containers, should you not want to eat it all in just two weeks.

Orange Cardamom Curd

Recipe Type: Preserve

Author: Marisa

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Yield: 16

Make sure to read the instructions clearly before starting to cook your curd. Once you begin, it comes together quickly, so you’ll want to have all your tools and ingredients ready.

Ingredients

2 large navel oranges, zested and juiced.
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
4 egg yolks
2 eggs
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Instructions

Set up a double boiler (I use a saucepan and a stainless steel mixing bowl), add 2 inches of water to the bottom pan and bring to a simmer.
In a small bowl, stir together the orange zest, sugar and cardamom.
Remove the top half of the double boiler and let it cool briefly. Once it has returned to room temperature, add the egg yolks and whole eggs and whisk them together. When they are well beaten, add the sugar mixture and orange juice. Stir to combine.
Place the top of the double boiler on the steaming bottom pan and add the butter.
Switch to a rubber or silicone spatula and stir continually as the orange curd begins to cook.
Using an immersion thermometer, monitor the temperature of the curd while you stir. As it approaches 190 – 200°F, it should start to thicken. One sign of doneness is that it will coat the back of your spoon without running or dripping.
If it is slow to thicken but is approaching 210°F, remove the top portion of the double boiler and let it cool for a moment before returning to the heat for an additional minute or two of cooking. It typically takes 6 to 9 minutes for a curd to cook through.
When the curd has thickened to the consistency of sour cream, it is done. Remove the top half of the double boiler and stir off the heat. During this time, it will continue to thicken a bit.
Strain the curd through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. The straining removes both the zest (which will have imparted a great deal of flavor to the curd during cooking time) and any bits of scrambled egg.
Pour the strained curd into jars for storage. When it has cooled to room temperature, store in refrigerator.
If you plan to freeze your curd, make sure to leave plenty of headspace, so that when it expands, it doesn’t cause breakage.

How do you use citrus to combat the January blahs?

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Creamy Orange Cardamom Curd Recipe is a post from Simple Bites

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Small Batch Pear Cranberry Compote

Marisa — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:41:32 +0000

Written by Marisa of Food in Jars.

By the time November rolls around, the abundance of summer is well behind us. No more mountains of peaches and plums at the farmers’ markets, just pumpkins, potatoes and hearty greens. It’s enough to make a preserver hang up her canning pot until spring.

However, I’ve found that if I spend just a little bit of time searching out ingredients, there’s still a world of delicious things just waiting to be cooked up and put into jars.

All photos by Marisa

Chief among those this time of year are pears and cranberries.

Not only do they both come in a world of varieties, but they make such excellent sauces, jams and butters. I like to cook with thin-skinned pears like Bartlett, Bosc or Anjou pears, because they don’t need to be peeled before cooking.

This is the first year that I’ve combined the two, and I must confess, I’m smitten with the result. This preserve is halfway between a sauce and a butter, making it good both for stirring into yogurt or dolloping atop a short stack of pancakes (or, if I’m being entirely honest, eating straight out of the jar).

My latest batch made two full pints and I’ve stashed them both in my younger sister’s pantry. She’s currently expecting her first baby, and I’m imagining her eating this compote one-handed, stirred into some cottage cheese.

I do so love the idea of stocking her kitchen with useful food for those late nights and early mornings.

TIP: And if you’ve never tried them, make sure to search out some of those red and white striped cranberries this season. They are sweeter than their crimson cousins.

Pear Cranberry Compote

5.0 from 2 reviews

Recipe Type: Preserves

Author: Marisa

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 50 mins

Yield: 2 pints

If you’re planning your Thanksgiving menu already, this pear cranberry compote would complement the turkey quite nicely. Just skip the canning process and store jars in the refrigerator for up to ten days.

Ingredients

3 pounds thin-skinned pears
1 pint cranberries (approximately 8 ounces)
1/4 cup orange juice
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

Chop pears into small pieces. Place in a heavy-bottomed, non-reactive pot. Add cranberries and orange juice.
Put a lid on the pot and place it over low heat. Cook until the pears are very, very soft and the cranberries have popped, about 1 hour.
When the pears are soft, use a potato masher to break the fruit. Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir to combine.
Raise temperature to medium-high heat and simmer, stirring constantly for 5-7 minutes, to help evaporate the liquid in the compote. When it has darkened in color and no longer looks watery, it is done.
Funnel compote into prepared pint jars and process in a boiling water for 20 minutes. Be sure to read our post on Canning Basics if you have any questions.
When time is up, place jars on a folded kitchen towel to cool. Once jars are cool, check seals and store in a cool, dark place.

How do you like to use fresh cranberries?

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How to Keep Your Freezer Cold

Danny — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:45:47 +0000

Written by Danny Bourque.

Rotten food stinks. Bad.

You know how you feel when someone gets you a surprise present? Pretty good, I bet. Now imagine if you got a present, and when you went to use it a few days later, it was broken, spoiled, just turned into garbage. Just awful, I’m sure.

A few years ago, I knew that when Aimee got me half a cow for Father’s Day, she had to break the news a little bit early so we could prepare appropriately. That meant finally getting a chest freezer to put it in. We had been talking about preserving and storing food, buying in bulk and the like, but actually purchasing the freezer was a first step to making that a reality. A somewhat expensive step. It would have been really crappy if the freezer broke, or did not adequately freeze the food that we were to put it in.

Hence, I did all the research, read the manual (both French and English versions, of course), and then instructed the store’s moving guys on how to properly move it down the stairs, keep it level, etc. They guys looked at me like I was some kind of nutcase. They probably move 20-30 freezers EACH DAY, and here was this engineer telling them the “right” way to move it. Well, *sulk* just because they’ve been doing it all their life, doesn’t mean that they necessarily are doing it the right or best way.

And so, since those movers wanted nothing to do with my advice, I bottled it all up. Now that I have a larger, (slightly) more interested audience, I propose to share the wisdom I gleaned from both versions of the user’s manual, the sales guy, about 20 websites, and the guy up the street who came to watch. This, of course, to ensure that your FREEZER DOESN’T DIE and spoil all your hard work and frugal, bulk savings.

Photo by Robert S. Donovan

The boring part (for some – not for me!)

I don’t want to get sidetracked or start a rant here, however all but 3 countries in the WORLD use the metric system. The US is one of them. As much as I would rail against these anachronistic units of measure, some of the terminology can help you concretely understand these tips and tricks to keep your freezer in peak condition.

In the US, a unit of refrigerating capacity is called a Ton. This is because in the “olden days”, a certain capacity of refrigeration could make 1 ton of ice in a day. Now the compressor on your freezer (and fridge, for that matter), is of fixed size and capacity. Let’s say it was 1 Ton (12,000 BTU/h).

In this ideal example, if you put one ton of water into your freezer, what would you expect in 24 hours? 1 ton of ice. Now what would you expect if you put 2 Tons of water? No ice. 1.1 tons? Same thing. Your freezer would not have enough capacity to turn all that water into ice. You may have a crust around the edge, but if you went to pick it up, it would likely break and slosh cold water all over you.

The takeaway

Don’t add too much “fresh” poundage over a 24 h period.

These days, we do more than “make ice” in our freezer – we freeze food and keep other stuff really, really cold. So what would you NOT want to do if you buy a brand new freezer? Fill it with a bunch of warm stuff right away that needs freezing because your freezer is NOT going to have the capacity to do all that work. Hence, it can generate a fixed amount of “cold” work in a 24 hour period. So don’t pack your freezer with a ton of warm food and expect the freezer to magically turn it into ice by morning.

Of course, if your food is already pre-frozen, like how our cow arrived, there is no trouble, because the freezer has no “work” to do to get it to cold. If you plopped in 134 lbs of warm beef, however, it would be a completely different story. And you would probably have to throw out your beef and any other food you had in there. And that story would be a sad one.

Operate 24 h before adding food

This is in order to let your freezer stabilize. You know those old thermostats (maybe you still have one) that overshoots like crazy and freezes you out (or cooks you out) and then shuts off for a while and allows the temperature to swing wildly in the other direction? The temperature sensor in your freezer is not quite that bad, but there are still some swings at the beginning which you want to avoid. Also, testing it for 24h ensures you didn’t get a DOA, i.e. a dud.

Keep your freezer level

Contrary to what the sales guy may have told you, your freezer does not have a portal to the South Pole which little elves and penguins use to drop off ice on occasion. The reality is that there is a motor with a compressor running in there. Motors and other moving metal parts like to have oil lubricating them, otherwise they heat up and fail prematurely. Keeping your freezer level ensures that oil will properly drain back to the oil pan and keep that compressor humming for years to come.

This is also related to the tip of leaving it unplugged for the same amount of time that you moved it (i.e. we unplugged it 3 hours ago, moved it on its side, and then installed it in our new home – wait 3 hours before plugging back in.) Think of tipping a jar of cold molasses upside down for a while. Once you tip it right-side up, how long would you have to wait until the molasses were all back on the bottom of the jar?

Do not put your freezer in an enclosed space.

Speaking of little motors inside your freezer, your compressor “makes cold” inside your freezer via a refrigeration process, and then rejects the heat to the surrounding room. If your freezer is in an enclosed space, like a closet, it won’t take long before the closet temperature starts to creep upwards. Then you have 2 problems which can exacerbate each other: it is harder and harder for your freezer to reject heat to an already hot room, and 2 – you’re essentially storing your freezer outdoors in Austin, Tx in the summer. The heat from the room is going to creep back into your freezer, making it work harder to stay cold inside.

Use a cord specifically for appliances

Power cord for surge protection to eliminate frying your compressor during a storm. I’m sure you’ve seen these cords if you own a window AC unit. They’re flat and thick, not round like your typical extension cord. These cords are designed for the full rated power draw of your appliance and will not cause your compressor to “brown out” or be a fire hazard. These are beefy cords and are worth the money to protect your investment.

Clean and De-ice it once a year

This last tip has a dual purpose. Firstly, de-icing your freezer will make it run more efficiently. Your freezer coils are embedded within the walls of the unit, and a thin (or thick) layer of ice between them and your food actually acts as an insulator and prevents your freezer from effectively cooling your newly inserted food. Also, by cleaning it out once a year, you’ll probably find something you forgot in there, and will either cook it promptly, prior to freezer burn, or throw it out, making room for more stuff.

Have you heard of any of these tips before? Do you have others that you could share?

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How to Keep Your Freezer Cold is a post from Simple Bites

Honey-Sweetened Apricot Lavender Butter

Marisa — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:20:07 +0000

Written by Marisa of Food in Jars.

As a canner, I feel obligated not to play favorites when it comes to fruit. How can you possibly prefer strawberries to cherries, or like peaches more than cantaloupe? Every variety of fruit has its individual charms and each deserves its moment in the seasonal spotlight.

However, there is one I’m always most excited to see each year.

Apricots.

All photos by Marisa McClellan

I love their color, their flavor and the fact that they make the most amazing jam. Even a mediocre apricot sings when cooked down with sugar and a squeeze of lemon.

Recently, I found myself in the possession of a dozen rapidly ripening apricots. After working my way through 25 pounds of apricots in July, I had thought that my apricots days were done for the year.

When this installment arrived, I was flummoxed. Though I adore them, I wasn’t sure what else there was there to do with apricots that I hadn’t already done.

There was no time to waste, however. Those apricots were becoming increasingly ripe with every passing moment and being utterly unable to bear the thought of waste, I planted myself in the kitchen to search for inspiration.

A newly purchased jug of honey was on the counter and the blue glass jar of lavender buds was within easy reach. A plan was hatched: a honey-sweetened apricot butter with lavender.

Though I didn’t cook this preserve for hours like many of the butters I’ve made in the past, I call this a butter instead of a jam for two reasons:

One is that consistency of the final product has a thick, nearly-matte finish, which is unlike the sticky, shiny consistency of a true, sugar-sweetened jam.
Two, because of my choice to use honey over sugar, the flavor of the apricots and lavender stand out much more prominently than the sweet notes. Jam is typically sweet first, flavorful second.

This recipe makes just one and a half pints. I canned mine up in three squat half pint jars and I suggest you do the same. Preserves made with honey are lovely when it comes to flavor, but not so good when it comes to staying power.

Even in the refrigerator, a honey-sweetened preserve will only be able to resist the ravages of mold for two to three weeks. If you’re particularly slow at working your way through jams, keeping the open portions small helps minimize waste.

Recipe: Apricot Lavender Butter

3 cups chopped apricots (about 1 1/2 pounds whole fruit)
3/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons food grade lavender buds

Combine chopped apricots and honey in a bowl. Stir well to combine. Tie the lavender buds up in a length of cheesecloth so that none can escape and tuck it into the apricots and honey. Cover and let sit at room temperature for one hour, so that the lavender flavor can begin to infuse into the fruit.

When the time is up, taste the uncooked mixture. If you like the current level of lavender infusion, remove the packet and discard. If you want a bit more lavender flavor leave the packet in for the first 10-15 minutes of cooking.

Prior to cooking, prepare a small boiling water bath and three half pint jars. Place lids in a small pot of water and bring to the barest simmer.

Pour the fruit, honey and lavender packet into a wide, non-reactive pot. Place over high heat and cook at a boil, stirring regularly, for 15-20 minutes.

As it cooks, check the consistency regularly by sweeping your spoon through the butter and then holding it sideways over the pot. Watch how it drops off the spoon. If it looks runny, it isn’t done yet. If it looks thick and nearly spreadable, remove the pot from the heat. It is done.

Ladle butter into prepared jars. Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.

When the time is up, remove jars from canner and place on a tea towel to cool. When jars are cool to the touch, remove rings and check seals. Sealed jars can be stored in the pantry for up to one year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.

Do you have a favorite fruit butter that emulates summer for you?

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Honey-Sweetened Apricot Lavender Butter is a post from Simple Bites

Preserving Summer: A Round-Up of Inspiration

Aimee — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:44:54 +0000

In case you wanted to approach Labor Day weekend in a very literal sense, I’m sharing a round-up of preserving tutorials for seasonal fruits and vegetables today. I’ve set aside some time tomorrow to pack my freezer with certain vegetables and berries that I know will be disappearing from the market soon.

For a practical application of this post, may I suggest you first scan the list below, then take note of what you and your family will use the most. After that, think about what you are able to source – Is blueberry season over? Are your favorite saucing apples ripe yet? – before deciding on a weekend project.

Here is more practical advice on how to make time and get organized to can and preserve the harvest. Have fun!

How to Freeze Sweet Corn

Are those bright green ears of corn as plentiful where you are as they are here? I eyed a 10lb sac today at the market, remembering how easy it was to freeze last summer. And oh, how we enjoyed stirring those bags of sweet kernels into soup, risotto, and chili all winter long; definitely worth the effort.

Get the tutorial: Freezing Sweet Corn

How to Can Peaches

I think having a few jars of these silky smooth peaches around helped us get through a particularly looong cold spell last February. We would spoon them out of the jar, top them with whipped cream and eat them silently, allowing their tartness to awaken our hibernating taste buds, if only for a moment.

Get the tutorial: Home Canned Peaches

Home Canned Tomatoes

A veritable pantry staple, you should have a couple dozen quarts of canned tomatoes ‘put up’ as you head into winter. Fortunately Marisa tells us how to do just that in easy-to-understand terms.

Get the tutorial: Whole Canned Tomatoes

Freezing Broccoli 101

Simple steamed broccoli served with a pat of butter is the boys’ preferred way to enjoy broccoli and the frozen florets reconstitute quite nicely. I also like having a few bags on hand over the winter for tossing into stirfries and the like.

Get the tutorial: How to Freeze Broccoli

Garlic-Dill Pickles

I still have not made my own pickles, but if you’re eager to try your hand at it this fall, I highly recommend Lynn’s step-by-step tutorial for Garlic Dill Pickles. She quips that the beauty of canning your own pickles is that you can make them to suit your own personal tastes and needs. Pints or quarts, dill or sweet, garlic or jalapeno, you choose. So now’s your chance to get started!

Get the tutorial: Making Pickles 101

How to Make Your Own Blueberry Syrup

Blueberry season is short and the berries won’t wait around; this syrup is my new favorite way to preserve the sweet dark berries.

Get the tutorial: Homemade Blueberry Syrup

Classic Applesauce

We’re making plans to go apple picking with friends soon. We always pack a picnic, warm sweaters for the kids, and make an outing of it. Then, I make applesauce.

Get the tutorial: Classic Homemade Applesauce

Preserving Herbs

Despite a late start, my herb garden is flourishing. I need to harvest soon and preserve the fragrant plants for winter. Pesto, drying, and freezing – all are good options for storing herbs, but how do you know which technique is right for which herb?

Get the tutorial: How to Preserve Summer’s Herbs

Tomato Sauce for Freezing

This lovely, full bodied tomato sauce is easy to make and freezes beautifully for one of those nights when you are just too tired to cook. Hmm, in particular I’m thinking about early March when our family will have welcomed a new little member.

Get the tutorial: Tomato Herb Sauce for Freezing

What is next on your list to preserve?

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Preserving Summer: A Round-Up of Inspiration is a post from Simple Bites

Summer Canning Series (Recipe: Apricots in Honey Syrup)

Aimee — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:02:14 +0000

Apricots in honey syrup were not on my list of ‘must-have’ canned items for this season, yet I couldn’t seem to shake the idea. The soft stone fruit and equally golden honey just seemed like they would marry perfectly in a jar.

I took advantage of Danny being home on holidays and cooked up a batch one afternoon last week. Am I glad I did. We’ve already cracked open a jar, spooned up the delicate preserves into bowls and enjoyed them with whipped cream. Listening to my cravings was a good idea!

Apricots have to be one of the simplest fruits to preserve. While my love for canned cherries will never waver, there is the drawback of all that pitting. Apricots merely need a wash, a flick of the knife to remove the pit and can be packed straight into the jars.

I use a canning method called ‘cold pack’, which means the fruit goes into the jars raw, and in then cooked during the processing stage when the jars are boiled in hot water. It’s easy and straightforward.

Canning equipment for this recipe

Visit our Canning Basics post for a full description of all canning equipment.

5 pint jars, preferably widemouth; sterilized
5 lids and rings
water bath canner or large pot
jar lifter
wide mouth funnel
ladle
medium pot for honey syrup
small pot for lids
paring knife
clean dish towels
cutting board

Recipe: Canned Apricots in Honey Syrup

If you are a beginner canner, please read our introduction to canning before proceeding with the recipe. Thanks!

3 lbs apricots, firm, but not hard
1 cup honey
2 1/2 cups water

Fill canning pot half-way full with water and bring to a boil. Place flat lids in a small pot, cover with hot water and bring to a simmer.

Combine honey and water in a medium pot and bring to a simmer.

Wash apricots and dry on a towel. Using a paring knife, cut apricots in half and remove pit.

Pack jars with apricots, cut side down. TIP: packing apricots cavity side down makes it easier to fit more into the jar.

Ladle hot honey syrup into the jars until apricots are covered. Leave 1/2 inch of headspace at the top of the jars.

Top jars with hot lids and screw rings. When all the jars have been filled and topped with lids, lower them into the hot water bath.

Cover pot, bring water to a boil and process for ten minutes. Turn off the heat, remove lid, and carefully remove preserved apricots.

Are you preserving stone fruits this summer?

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Summer Canning Series (Recipe: Apricots in Honey Syrup) is a post from Simple Bites

Summer Canning Series: Cherry Pie Filling Recipe

Megan — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:10:57 +0000

Written by Megan of Stetted.

Now that we’ve covered a few of the basics of canning, I wanted to move on to one of my favorite things to can in the summertime: pie filling.

I adore pie, but my family doesn’t need pie weekly. All too frequently my pie cravings hit in the dead of winter, when it’s hard to get good, fresh ingredients for pie. Those cans of filling from the grocery store just don’t cut it for me, so I’ve taken to making my own pie fillings from fresh peaches and apples when they come in season.

This year I decided to expand my pie filling stash to include cherries, thanks to a stock-up sale our local store had recently. Pie filling is quite easy to put up and requires only a few ingredients.

As in jam, the fruit is cooked slightly before packing into jars. Blanching the fruit helps soften it and allows you to pack more into the jar. The trick is to get as much fruit as possible into the jar – too much liquid and not enough fruit will result in a soggy pie when you pop the seal months down the road. Cherries pack into jars fairly easily, but you can use a wooden spoon handle to press the fruit down and remove any trapped air bubbles.

Like many other canning recipes, this calls for lemon juice. Bottled lemon juice is recommended rather than fresh juice; pH levels are very important in canning and bottled juice has more consistent pH.

Photo by Megan

Recipe: Spiced Cherry Pie Filling

Makes 1 quart, enough for a standard 9-inch pie

4 cups cherries
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons Clear Jel or cornstarch*
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Fill your water-bath canner with water and set to boiling. Make sure your jars are sanitized and heated.

Wash and pit the cherries. In a large nonreactive pot filled with boiling water, blanch the cherries for a minute, then drain. Pour the hot cherries into a bowl and cover.
In the same pot, mix together sugar and Clear Jel. Slowly add the water, whisking to help Clear Jel dissolve evenly. Don’t worry too much if it clumps up – it should dissolve as it heats up. Add the spices and heat over medium-high, until sugar and Clear Jel are dissolved and mixture is starting to bubble. Add the lemon juice and boil for about a minute.

Remove from heat and gently stir in cherries and any accumulated juices. Pour filling into prepared jar(s), wipe rim and set lid on top. Screw ring on finger-tight, and using a jar grabber carefully lower the jar into the water bath.

Process for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove and let rest on the counter until completely cooled. Any jars that have not sealed should be refrigerated and used promptly.

* Note that the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends Clear Jel for pie fillings. Clear Jel is a modified cornstarch that reduces spoilage in canned products and is available online. Many people are comfortable with going outside the USDA guidelines, which is why I included the alternative of regular cornstarch.

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What are you canning in anticipation of spontaneous cravings this winter?

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Summer Canning Series: Cherry Pie Filling Recipe is a post from Simple Bites

Canning 101: Pickled Green Beans

Shaina — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 04:05:00 +0000

Written by Shaina of Food for My Family.

This summer has been one of rushing around, struggling to fit things in and generally moving faster than I’d like. Suddenly and without warning, it was time to start plucking food off my garden vines and begin packing them into jars.

My plan yet to be formed, there was one thing I knew I would be crossing off the bucket list: pickled green beans.

Last year late in the winter, my brother-in-law showed up at a snow-covered gathering with a jar of such green beans. They were set out on a buffet-style table and offered up to the group. I found myself returning to the jar no less than three times.

The snap of the green bean and the smell of summer all perfectly preserved and eaten in the dead of winter when we were bundling up from head to toe had captivated me.

All photos by Shaina

I knew then that I would be pickling green beans all summer long in an effort to bring that snap and crunch to mealtime atop salads and alongside appetizers, and sure enough, I scooped them up the minute they appeared at the market.

Today, Shauna Ahern, the Gluten-Free Girl herself, is hosting a Pickling Party. After 1500 of us made pie together last month, Shauna organized a pickling party for the month of August, just in time for canning season.

I can’t wait to see what everyone else is pickling and putting up this summer!

Recipe: Pickled Green Beans

2 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
2 1/2 cups water (soft and not hard water)
1/4 cup pickling salt
2 1/2 – 3 pounds fresh green beans, washed and ends trimmed
3 cloves garlic
1 bunch fresh dill
4-6 Thai chilies

In a medium-sized saucepan, bring vinegar, water and salt to a boil. Stir and boil until salt is dissolved. Keep warm over medium-low heat.

Sterilize 3 quart-sized canning jars, lids and rings by boiling in a large pot of boiling water. Leave the lids and rings in the water, but remove the jars and pack tightly with green beans, a sprig of dill and a Thai chili or two. Move quickly so the jars stay warm.

Ladle the vinegar mix over the green beans until it comes within a 1/4″ of the lip. Wipe down the rims, cover with a lid and lightly screw on the rings.

Process the jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes (15 minutes for above 6,000 feet altitude). Remove the jars to a clean, dry towel. Be sure none are touching. Allow to cool.

The jars will pop and seal as they cool. Any unsealed jars can be refrigerated and used promptly.

Makes 3 quart-sized jars.

More Pickled Produce

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Do you pickle? What are your favorite things to pickle, and what would you like to try?

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Canning 101: Pickled Green Beans is a post from Simple Bites

For the Love of Small Batch Canning (Recipe: Spiced Plum Jam)

Marisa — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 04:05:15 +0000

Written by Marisa of Food in Jars.

Plum jam tastes like childhood to me. When I was very young, my family lived in a house with three Santa Rosa plum trees scattered around the yard and every other year, we spent three weeks wading through a sea of plums.

We’d eat them until we couldn’t bear to look at another and then my mom would make enough jam to last until the trees ripened again.

All photos by Marisa

These days, I don’t live surrounded by plum trees but that doesn’t stop me from making a yearly batch of plum jam. I cook it up just the way my mom did, with cinnamon and nutmeg. The result is a sweet and tart spread that tastes just slightly of Christmas.

This summer, I’ve become enamored of making smaller batches of jam. When you reduce the volume of jam you make, you also get to cut down on both the preparation and cooking time.

It also means that you can make a wider variety of flavors because you haven’t filled your pantry with a dozen jars of the same thing.

Recipe: Small Batch Spiced Plum Jam

1 quart red plums (about four pounds)
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Prepare three half pint jars and a small canning pot. Put lids in a small pan of water and bring to a bare simmer.

Wash, pit and chop the plums. The yield from the quart should be approximately four cups chopped fruit.

Combine chopped fruit and sugar in a large, non-reactive pan. Stir until the fruit begins to release its juice. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil.

Boil the jam over high heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring regularly to ensure that it does not burn. Add cinnamon and nutmeg and stir to combine. When jam begins to thicken, use the cold plate test to check for set.

When the jam appears to have reached set, remove the pot from the heat. Ladle into prepared jars.

Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Remove jars from canner and allow to cool 24 hours on the counter.
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What is your favorite stone fruit jam?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Tattler - reusable, BPA-free canning lids.
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For the Love of Small Batch Canning (Recipe: Spiced Plum Jam) is a post from Simple Bites

An Intro to Our Late-Summer Canning Series (vlog)

Aimee — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:43:28 +0000

Okay, so it is fair to say that a certain recent announcement has slowed my canning efforts. I was all set for the season, I had my act together – or so I thought.

Now the exhaustion of a first trimester pregnancy has caught up with me and seems to fill my day with tiredness before it has even started. Getting through a routinely busy week is enough of a challenge without adding a canning project.

Life tends to turn our plans upside down, but we’re so happy about this baby, I can’t bemoan lost canning projects for a second. Instead, my original list of ‘must haves‘ has shrunk considerably and I’m hoping to have more energy in the fall to play catch-up on a few more items.

That said, I’ve called upon some of my favorite domestic goddesses to help me put together this canning series – because there was no way it was all coming out of my own kitchen! Luckily, Shaina, Megan and Marisa all agreed to contribute, despite their busy summers. Thanks girls!

Recently at Big Summer Potluck, I had the opportunity to chat with all three girls about canning. Good sports that they are, they agreed to let me film them for a fun little vlog.

I hope you enjoy it!

Coming up this week, we’ll have a post a day featuring a new canning recipe. You won’t want to miss it!

Your turn: What is your favorite part of the canning process?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Tattler - reusable, BPA-free canning lids.
Relish! - Time.Food.Life.
Plan It Don't Panic - A complete meal planning resource.
Real Food on a Real Budget - Good frugal food.

An Intro to Our Late-Summer Canning Series (vlog) is a post from Simple Bites