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Use Honey Jam

December 4, 2011

I almost forgot to blog this one! Crafty highlight of my summer: jam recipe that calls for honey instead of sugar.

It has been almost difficult to eat the jams in my pantry I made with sugar. This will be what I do all next summer. You can really taste the fruit, and I rarely ever use sugar now so it just makes sense.

I also want to try this with agave instead of honey.

peaches and honey jam.

There is a general recipe on this website, and I also used the instructions found on Pomona Pectin’s insert that is found inside the box package.

 

8 to 10 cups prepared fruit (hulled, rinsed, stems removed) = to 6 cups mashed, ground-up fruit
1 tablespoon calcium water (comes with Pomona Pectin)
1 cup honey
1 tablespoon Pomona Pectin
Boil your jars and lids in a large pot. For this recipe I use five 12-ounce jam jars. Turn off heat and let them stand in hot water until you are ready to use them.
Fill your blender to the brim with your fruit. Pulse and blend until you have 6 cups of ground-up, slightly chunky fruit. Pour into a large pot. Add the calcium water. Stir well. Bring to a boil. In the meantime, mix one cup of honey with the one tablespoon of pectin. I use a fork to do this. Add honey-pectin to boiling fruit and stir vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes. Bring back to a boil for a few more minutes.

Carefully lift your jars out of the pot with a pair of tongs, empty out any water, and set onto a towel on your counter. Pour jam into each jar, leaving about 1/4-inch of space at the top. Wipe any excess from the rim using a moist clean towel. You need to make sure the rim is completely clean so you get a good, solid seal. Lift the lids from the hot water with the tongs and place onto the jars. Screw on lids. Place jars into a boiling water bath for 10 to 15 minutes OR you may invert for 10 minutes and then immediately turn right-side-up. Remove and let cool on counter. After 24 hours all lids should have sealed. They usually seal within the hour. You’ll hear a loud “pop.” Do NOT touch the lid until you are certain it has sealed, as artificially sealing the cans is not a valid seal. If you “pop” the lid manually, that jar will need to go in the fridge and be used within a few weeks.

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Canning Tomatoes

October 6, 2011

This was our first year in a house. Complete with a yard, lots of sunshine, and it only felt natural that we take on some gardening. We grew tomatoes from seed. I think we learned some things, but those plants grew and put out enough tomatoes that I actually got a little sick of them, which is good. Part of trying to eat in season, for me at least, means that when that food is available you need to get as much of it as you can get. Eat it, can it, freeze it. Tomatoes were flying off our plants daily and I was adding them to egg dishes, salads, pastas, sandwiches, pizzas, and other tomato escapades.

One thing our plants did not produce was enough tomatoes for me to can. I was getting at most a pint of cherry tomatoes every other day, and we were eating through those. I didn’t want to stop eating them just for sake of putting some away. And our beautiful heirloom Cherokee Purple tomatoes were slow to grow, slow to ripen. So sadly, the canning of tomatoes was not from our yard as I had envisioned.

But wait! Not all is lost. I picked up five pounds of organic heirloom tomatoes, followed this recipe, and ended up with gorgeously delicious tomato jam. I am in love! Last year I canned some plain ol’ tomato sauce, which was wonderful to pull out of the pantry for use with pasta, but this jam? I ended up with about 1/2 pint that was not enough to can and I am reserving it for weekend treats. My goal is to let the tomato jam trickle out of the pantry and into our fridge over the winter months. I really want to savor it.

Tomato Jam. My new favorite way to can tomatoes.

Try out this recipe for tomato jam, found on foodinjars.com! She has a nice simple post in addition to the recipe. I have another glut of tomatoes in the fridge waiting to be made into more tomato jam, though this time I intend to try roasting them first, with spices and herbs. A more savory approach.

Tomato Jam Recipe
makes 4 1/2 to 5 pints
updated September 2011: When I made this same recipe this year, my yield was only 3 pints. Depending on the year, the tomatoes and how long you cook it down, the yield will vary a great deal.

5 pounds tomatoes, finely chopped
3 1/2 cups sugar
8 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon red chili flakes

Combine all ingredients in a large, non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce temperature to a simmer. Stirring regularly, simmer the jam until it reduces to a sticky, jammy mess. This will take between 1 and 1 1/2 hours, depending on how high you keep your heat.

When the jam has cooked down sufficiently, remove from heat and fill jars, leaving 1/4 inch of head space. Wipe rims, apply lids and twist on rings. Process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes.

When time is up, remove jars from water bath and allow them to cool. When jars are cool enough to handle, test seals. Store jars in a cool, dark place for up to one year.

 

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Big Kahuna Tuna Salad

July 19, 2009

Sometimes I get home from work and don’t feel like cooking – at all. But I don’t want to call for takeout, either.

Summertime brings so many veggies and fruits, I feel guilty if we’re not eating something fresh with every meal. This salad is easy to throw together, you can really use anything that’s sitting around in the fridge.

tuna salad recipe

The Big Kahuna Tuna in action

Big Kahuna Tuna Salad

  1. Toss drained tuna with equal parts mayo, stone ground mustard, and ranch dressing.
  2. Lay bed of mixed greens on plate, spread out evenly (may include spinach, arugula, mustard greens, etc).
  3. Evenly place assorted chopped veggies over greens: string beans, cucumbers, shredded or sliced carrot, tomato, green onion, etc. I like to put veggies more around the outside so they make for nice presentation with tuna in the middle.
  4. Lightly scoop tuna onto plate of veggies; easier to eat if evenly distributed.
  5. Sprinkle grated cheese (sharp cheddar goes well w/tuna) and chopped walnuts or sunflower seeds.
  6. Add light drizzle of dressing, if you prefer.

Bon Appétit!

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Rhubarb-Blueberry Muffins

July 2, 2009

Farmer's Market in West Seattle

Sundays are our day to check out the Farmer’s Market. Seattle has seven “producer-only” markets and West Seattle’s got Sundays down all year ’round. June is great because there is so much more in season at this time of year. It’s a mouthwatering smorgasboard to walk the aisles and pick out our food for the week.

This last visit I grabbed a few long stalks of rhubarb for $2. I love this veggie but am not always sure what to do with it. I’m not a pie baker and I don’t have means to start canning rhubarb preserves (but can you imagine, warm strawberry-rhubarb compote?). Since I only had a handful of strawberries – not enough to put in a crisp or anything else, I opted for a muffin recipe that called for “almost any fruit”. It favored frozen fruit, to help sturdy up the batter before pouring into muffin tins, so I chose to use 1c chopped rhubarb and 3/4c frozen blueberries. With a little bit of lemon zest, the result was fantastic!

Just about ANY fruit will do for these muffins

Any-Fruit-Will-Do-Muffins

(courtesy cooksillustrated.com)

Streusel Topping

1/3 cup brown sugar (or white)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Muffins

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (may need 1/4 additional cup)

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch table salt

1 1/3 cups light brown sugar , packed firm

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest , lime, or orange, (Orange, lemon, or lime zests can be used to flavor the muffins, if you like. Lemon works well with blueberry; orange zest with cranberry or rhubarb; lime zest with banana chunks. together.)

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups fruit (see note above), lightly packed

Instructions

l. For the topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl or workbowl of a food processor; add butter. If mixing by hand, use fingertips, a pastry blender, or 2 forks to blend the fat into dry ingredients until mixture looks like coarse irregular crumbs, with no visible lumps of fat. If mixing in a food processor, pulse about 10 times, then process 5 to 10 seconds, until there are no visible lumps of fat; stir in nuts and set aside.

2. For the muffins, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease the top surface of a 12-cup muffin pan; use liners, if necessary. Whisk 2 1/2 cups flour with next 4 ingredients in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. Whisk together next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; whisk in buttermilk and vanilla. Gently whisk dry ingredients into wet ingredients to partially blend. Continue mixing batter with a rubber spatula, making sure that ingredients at the bottom are incorporated into batter; fold in fruit. (Frozen fruit will help “firm” up batter. If batter seems too wet, add a few more tablespoons of flour — up to 1/4 cup — to stiffen batter.)

4. Using an ice-cream scoop, place a portion of batter into each muffin cup, filling to the brim. Sprinkle a portion of streusel topping over batter in each muffin cup.

5. Bake 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake until muffins are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with fingertips, 10 to 12 minutes. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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