Balsamic Basil Salt for the March Food in Jars challenge

Beautiful, simple and a tasty addition to food, this salt is a breeze. 

Ingredients
1 large package of basil, leaves only.
2 cups Kosher salt
1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar

Process
1. Preheat oven to its lowest setting. 
2. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until well combined. 

3. Spread salt out on a baking sheet. 

4. Place baking sheet in the oven and heat until dried. 
5. Remove from oven and break up into salt again. 

6. Store in a jar with a lid in a warm dry place.

Pickled Asparagus for the May Raw/Cold Pack Challenge

I used Marissa's Pickled Asparagus recipe almost to a T, except I was unable to get Penzey's pickling mix which leads me to believe that I will have a much sweeter pickle than I intended. Marissa's recipe can be found HERE but I will write it out  my method below. One thing I regret not reading before I stumbled through the kitchen vying for available counter space was the recommendation to save the blanching water. Drained and left to cool, it provides a nutrient rich (and sustainable) water to water the house plants with! Thanks for the tip Marissa - no blanching water will ever go down the sink in this household again!

This was nice to do on a rainy Mother's Day after a wonderful Eggs Benedict breakfast from SP. Anticipating the rain, we got 90% of the garden in yesterday which is a tremendous feat for Maine and our track record. I'm still itching to get out there and plant the 160 onions that are just waiting patiently on the porch. 

Ingredients
2 pounds asparagus, trimmed to fit your pint jars and blanched in boiling water for approximately 10 seconds

3 cups vinegar (half apple cider vinegar, half white vinegar)
3 cups water
2 tablespoons kosher salt
4 tablespoons pickling spice
1 tablespoon red chili flakes
4 garlic cloves, peeled
4 slices of lemon
4 tall (12 oz)  pint jars

Process
1. In a hot water bath, sterilize your jars.
2. Put a  lemon slice in the bottom of each jar and pack the trimmed and blanched asparagus into the jars.

3.  Tuck a garlic clove down into the asparagus spears.

4. Bring the vinegar, water and spices to a boil. Pour into jars on top of asparagus, leaving at least 1/2 inch of head space.

5. Affix lids and rings on the jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes (you can skip this step if you plan on just putting your pickles in the fridge).

6. Wait at least 24 hours before eating, to give the asparagus spears a chance to get sufficiently pickley.

Cocktail Onions for the Cold Pack/Raw Pack May Food in Jars Challenge

I decided to try my hand at preparing pearl onions from scratch. I had been warned, nevertheless, I persisted. In case of failure or a flailing temper tantrum, I made sure I had frozen pearl onions on hand to bail me out and cover for the wee bag of pearl onions I tasked myself to process.

I was pleasantly surprised by, after a 3 minute boil and three minutes in a cold water soak,  how easy it actually was to peel the onions. What was even better was the fact that the "skins" weren't really skins but more so meaty, that I popped all the waste into the freezer for future broth making!

The draw back I discovered was that my back up plan didn't look as appetizing. The pearl onions I processed were crisp, clear, and white while the frozen onions were blemished, green tinged, or had inconsistent color. Here they are all together just before I sprinkled them with salt, covered them with water and soaked them overnight.

If you look closely you can see some are pure white. Any onion with green came out of the frozen package. Any cloudy onion was also from the frozen package. I sprinkled them with generous amounts of salt, covered them in water, and put them in the refrigerator over night.  The following afternoon I drained them, rinsed well, and packed them into hot sterilized jars.

I then prepared the pickle by combining the essentials of two or three different recipes from the Food in Jars website

and two of my favorite canning books Food in Jars and Canning For a New Generation. (albeit one was just being used as a weight).

Ingredients 
~ 3 pound pearl onions
1 cup sugar
3 cups White Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Mustard Seeds
2 to 3 Tablespoons Prepared Horseradish (I love the stuff)
Bay leaves - one for each jar
(I'm lucky enough to have a market that stocks fresh ones right now!)

Process
1. Combine vinegar ingredients in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.

2. Pour liquid over onions in jars.
3. Affix caps and boil in hot water bath for 15 minutes.

Yesterday, once fully cooled, I took them outside for their photo opp in a lovely silver tray. Unfortunately the sun went away and we were left with a grey, dark, damp back ground.

I look forward to trying them in a day or two!

Pickled Red Onions

As part of the April Food in Jars Challenge, I added two quick pickles to the fridge. Having tried and loved the hot water bath pickled red onions, I felt comfortable with the "Put 'Em Up" quick pickle version (haven't tried them yet).

One of my Favorite Pickling books. 

Put 'Em Up is by far one of my favorite canning books. The Curried Cauliflower is to die for! When I decided to use this recipe, I realized that I could easily just switch the vinegars and put together a nice batch of pickled sweet peppers that will be a great addition to Grilled Cheese sandwiches (which they are!).

I am very tempted to make this potato salad on the same page. Yum!

For my red onions, I followed the recipe to a T.

They look so much better now that they have been sitting in the fridge for a while. I still have yet to try  them but have mu sights set on some tuna salad!

As for the pickled peppers, I replaced almost all of the red vinegar with white vinegar. These are really yummy especially on a grilled cheese sandwich. 

 Yummy Pickles!

As a post note - A Farmgirl Dabbles posted a recipe for this in May 2017 so I thought I should add it to this post. Pickled Red Onions

Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette and other ideas

Sorry for the blurry photo but I was rushing to get dinner on the table while the pasta finished cooking. I made Marisa's viniagrette below and put it over this wonderful soft salad made of red leaf lettuce, cut orange tomatoes, avocado, and yummy Love beets.

I am posting some recipes here to save them in advance of tonight's homemade pasta party. Tonight we will be celebrating the completion of the lemons as well as my salt preserved eggs!

I will add some pictures after the party.
From Epicurious:
Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon minced preserved lemon
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 sprig fresh thyme, leaves finely chopped
• 1 pinch salt

 Or this Vinaigrette from Food 52: (from a sweet recipe for watermelon and feta salad- https://food52.com/recipes/37110-watermelon-with-preserved-lemon-vinaigrette)

• Rind of half of a preserved lemon, rinsed and finely diced (about 2 tablespoons in total)
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste
• 5 tablespoons of your favorite extra-virgin olive oil

Or this Preserved Lemon Aioli from Food 52

But I think the direction I will take is from Marisa's post on Food in Jars : http://foodinjars.com/2013/01/preserves-in-action-pureed-preserved-lemons/

To quote Marisa: "
The best thing about blending the lemons is that once you’ve scraped what you can out of the blender pitcher, you’re already halfway to a great salad dressing. Because it’s inevitable that you won’t be able to get every last bit out of the blender. Instead of surrendering and cleaning it out in the sink, add a little water, honey, and freshly ground pepper. Put the pitcher back on the blender base, run the motor on low and drizzle in a little olive oil. As soon as it develops a thick consistency, you’re done.
The finished dressing is creamy and tart, but without the throat-catching acidity that a vinegar-based dressing can have. I made a not-so-seasonal salad of halved grape tomatoes and avocado, covered it with my blender dressing and heaped it on a pile of torn lettuce. It made for a really great weekday lunch."

Blueberry Ginger Shrub

As part of the March Food in Jars Challenge, I made another shrub inspired by my desire to kick my immune system back into high gear. I thought the medicinal ginger and the antioxidant blueberries were quite the touch. I used Marisa's Blueberry Ginger Shrub recipe from Food in Jars and doubled it. If you do attempt this and double it, don't muddle in the quart jars as there just isn't enough room to move around, so use a 4 cup measuring cup before pouring it into the mason jar.

Ingredients (for a single recipe)
One heaping cup of blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
One cup unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar (I use Bragg's)
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled

Process
1. Put blueberries in a mason jar and cover with the sugar.
2. Using a muddler or a pestle, mash the blueberries and sugar together and smash into a sweet pukpy mess. The more mess the merrier.
3. Add the vinegar to the jar and stir it all together, vigorously.
4. Grate the ginger over the mess in the jar.
5. Put a lid over the jar and give it a good shake. Dance around the kitchen with it for little while if it makes you smile. The shrub will love the entertainment.

6. Put your shrub in the fridge and let it hang out with it's friends for a few days. Here's mine with the Blood Orange Shrub and neighbors Salt Preserved Lemons. (darn A-1 trying to get its moment in the spotlight).

7. Day two or three, strain the Shrub.

8. Return to a covered mason jar and place in fridge. Use as a mixer in drink of your choice. Here's one recipe I found: http://www.saveur.com/carolina-blueberry-shrub-cocktail-recipe

Mint Jelly with all natural Pectin for the Food in Jars March Challenge

For the Food in Jars March Challenge, I once again threw my hat into uncharted water and tried this recipe for Mint Jelly. I was nervous about this recipe because it called for using apples to draw out the natural pectin. I intuitively knew this was the natural process but doubted that little ole me could pull it off. Would it work or fail miserably? Would it set? What if I didn't draw off enough liquid? I cursed myself apparently because I only drew off just over half the liquid and almost scrapped the whole project. I felt defeated and ready to throw in the towel, but SP boosted my spirits with some encouragement and then some laughter at my own expense - I looked like a hot mess and he still loved me. Nevertheless, I persisted.

Ingredients

• 4 lbs of tart apples (e.g. Granny Smith), un-peeled, chopped into big pieces, including the cores (including the cores is important as this is where most of the natural pectin is)
•  
• 3 cups of fresh spearmint leaves, chopped, packed

 

This was where I needed to send SP back to town. Not quite enough mint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 3 1/2 cups sugar (7/8 cups for each cup of juice)

Read more: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/mint_jelly/#ixzz4bKKVxMIp

 

Process

1.  Combine apple pieces with water and mint in a large pan. Bring water to a boil then reduce heat and cook 20 minutes, until apples are soft.

2.  Add vinegar, return to boil. Simmer covered, for about 5 more minutes.

3.  Use a potato masher to mash up the apple pieces. Continue to the consistency of thin apple sauce. The mash should be quite runny, so feel free add another 1 cup of water to the pot. This is where I probably went wrong because I should have had it runnier because - see step 5.

4.  Spoon the apple mash into a cheesecloth lined fine mesh sieve and suspend it over a large bowl. Leave to strain for several hours. Do not squeeze.

5. After a few hours about 4 cups of juice should have strained out of the mash. This is where I found I only yielded just over two cups of liquid - 20 ounces to be exact.  Measure the juice, then pour into a large pot. Add 7/8 a cup of sugar  for each cup of juice. Heat on high, stirring until the sugar gets dissolved. Be careful that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan or burn.

6. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium or medium high, keeping it at a strong simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes, using a metal spoon to skim off the surface scum. The surface scum is white and rather sticky so have a damp paper towel ready to wipe it off onto a plate. 

7. Continue to boil until a candy thermometer shows that the temperature has reached at least 220-222°F.  Additional cooking time may be needed depending on levels of elevation, water, sugar, or the  apple pectin in the mix.

8.  Pour into sterilized* canning jars to within 1/4" from the top and seal. Yields approximately 4 8-ounce jars. I managed to eek out less than that because of having less liquid.

 

Here is where the leap of faith happened as I waited and waited to see if they set. As the night drew to a close and I headed to bed my jars had still not set. I woke in the morning completely thrown off my plan to check them by the fact that off all things I didn't prepare for work, I had neglected to set my alarm ahead an hour for daylight savings. Ugh. I had to wait until after work to check. 

Low and behold - it worked! My jars set!

We are looking forward to enjoying this with lamb for Easter dinner and have some little jars to give away for Christmas. Natural mint jelly is such a beautiful golden color!