May Food In Jars: Cold (Raw) Pack Processing

The Food In Jars challenge this month was "cold pack processing" (also known as 'raw pack').  Basically it means you don't pre-cook your vegetable/fruit before processing.  You put the raw produce into the jar and put brine/sugar/juice...whatever your liquid is on top of the produce.

Then you process it in a hot water bath.

Most of the recipes I found were for pickles.  And frankly I'm pickled out.  

Then I found a recipe for canned whole tomatoes...

...and that is why I headed out to the Amish produce auction.  There are a lot of greenhouse grown tomatoes available this early.  See that box on the corner of the table?  Those are my "canning tomatoes".  I think it is a half bushel and my scale said it was about 25 pounds.

Aren't they pretty?  And they smelled so good.

After picking out a few to keep for eating, we got busy preparing them.  We cored and slice in X in to bottom of each one.  Then they were blanched for 2 minutes to make the skins slip off.  That left us with the tomatoes on the right.

From there we just put them into the ready-to-go jars, mashing them down a bit to get them nice and juicy.  A bit of clean-up and the jars went into the processor.

My pot holds 4 quart jars.  It was only when I got them into the pot that I checked the processing time...

EIGHTY-FIVE MINUTES!!

Are you kidding me?  I was shocked.  I wonder how many cans I could have bought for the electricity I used.  I had about a quart and a half of tomatoes left...and they went into the freezer for soup.

Supposedly it is fairly normal for crushed tomatoes to separate and you just give it a shake before you use it.  Yeah...

So these tomatoes are my one venture into canning tomatoes.

Back To The Produce Auction For 2017

Today was our first trip for 2017 to the Amish produce auction in Fairview, KY.  With us doing the Whole30 program plus needing to do my Food In Jars challenge,  I wanted to load up on some veggies.

With the season just starting, there were many small lots available.

The tomatoes are coming in gang-busters!  A big ripe juicy tomato was the star of my supper that night!  Ummmmm... REAL tomatoes until September!

The crowd was small.  Don't know if that's because it is early season or if by Fridays the crowds are less.  Have to figure this out...

Looks good, yes?

Small lot of strawberries.  Should have snagged them but I don't have time this weekend to deal with them.

English peas... I did get a lot of 3 boxes of these.  Himself LOVES fresh raw peas and so do I!

Beautiful cauliflower!

Cabbages were tremedous too.  I got 10 heads weighing in at an average of 4.5 pounds for .55c each.  There's going to be some kraut making happening around here... and some stuffed cabbage leaves... and some sauteed cabbage... and...

LOTS of strawberries.  Oh that area smelled so good!

Here's one of the 'small lot' tables.  That peck of pickling cucumbers in the middle came home with me for $6.

If you are in the Nashville/Clarksville, TN area, here's the contact  info.

And a schedule to plan your visit...

...and the sale report from this last Tuesday (23 May).

Maybe I'll see you next week!

April Food In Jars Challenge: Quick Pickles

The Food In Jars challenge for April was to make a "quick" pickle (AKA refrigerator pickle).

Hmmm.  There are no pickling cucumbers to be found around here this time of the year.  So what other veggies could I pickle?  Carrots?  Nope, already have a jar of them in the fridge.  Cauliflower?  Not at $5.79 a head...for a little head!   Asparagus?  It is just coming into season, so not yet.

Then I found the recipe...

Pickled cherry tomatoes!

Easy to get.  Inexpensive.  And you want them firm so they don't mush up on you.

I found the recipe at:

http://www.prettyprudent.com/2012/09/entertaining-food/how-to-pickle-tomatoes-a-yummy-recipe-to-preserve-tomatoes/

We have done a bit of early tasting and they are getting better as they mellow.  The 24 hour test was a bit puckery...

I wasn't done playing though and I found an even easier quick pickle recipe...

Pickled eggs!

We went a bit fancy with the first batch ~ turmeric pickled eggs.  Then more simple for the second batch ~ dilly pickled eggs.

Aren't they pretty?

You have to let them soak for at least 3 days, which we impatiently did.  And we had another winner!  Two actually...

Turmeric Pickled Eggs

For 8 eggs in a quart jar I used this spice mix that I made up:

1 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 t turmeric

1 t peppercorns

1 t salt

pinch red pepper flakes

1 t juniper berries

2 t coriander seeds

2 bay leaf

Dilly of a Pickled Egg

For a pint jar I used these spices (I had extra brine for this one):

1 1/2 cup ACV

1/2 cup water

1 t peppercorns

pinch red pepper flakes

3 t dill seed

1 bay leaf

Success all the way around!  I'll be revisiting quick pickling when produce comes into season.

Drinking a Shrub and Eating Some Wine

My "Food In Jars" challenge for March was jelly and shrubs.  Yes, 'shrub' but not like the evergreens in your front yard.  Whole different thing but first let's see the jelly I made.

I really did not feel like fooling around with fruit.  But someone in the group mentioned making jelly out of wine.  Hmmmm... that got my attention because we have a lot of wines from various wineries we have visited.  Problem is... we don't drink a lot of wine.

I did an Internet search for wine jelly and came up with dozens.  Wanting to keep it simple I picked "White Wine with Herbs" jelly.  Herb of choice ~ thyme from my herb bed.

Cooking up the batch.

And in the jars.  It is very pretty and smelled wonderful.

Tasted great too.

However, I did have a problem with the set.  Basically... it didn't.  Well, maybe a little.  You could call it a very thick syrup or a very thin jelly.  So I'm going to reprocess the batch and see if I can get it to thicken up.  The kinks will definitely be worked out because it is so good.

OK, now the 'shrubs'.

A shrub is a syrup used to flavor drinks of many kinds; sparkling water, clear soda, or alcohol.  It's made with a 1:1:1 ratio of fruit - sugar - vinegar.  Yes, vinegar.  It's origins are in ancient Persia.  It was popular in England (and eventually the United States) from the 1500s to the late 1800s.

It's popularity waned during the 1900s.  But in the last 7 years it has made a comeback as a drink mixer.  (I'll stick with the club soda, thank you.)

There are two methods to make a shrub.  First is the hot method.

You heat your fruit (these are some black berries I picked) with the sugar.

Mash them up to release all the juices.

Cook down a bit and add the vinegar.

I used 2/3 of a cup apple cider vinegar and 1/3 cup honey ginger balsamic vinegar.

It's then strained of the fruit.

I poured the liquid into a canning jar for ease of storage.

Honey Ginger Blackberry Shrub.

It's taste?  Oh. My. Goodness.

The second method of making a shrub is the 'cold method'.

You mash up some fruit with sugar and let is mellow on your counter for a few days.  Then you add your vinegar, strain, and bottle like with the hot method.

The above is my 'pre-shrub'.

They are strawberries I picked and didn't get processed into jam.  This shrub will be ready Thursday and will be Strawberry Balsamic Shrub.

I'll let you know how it tastes...

EDIT:  Thursday has come and we finished the strawberry shrub.

I didn't think it was possible but Balsamic Strawberry is better than the Honey Ginger Blackberry!

I had about 2 tablespoons of a very good balsamic left in a bottle, so I added it to the apple cider vinegar.  MMMMmmmmmm...

And The Rest of the Story: Salt Cured Egg Yolks

When I wrote earlier about my salt preserving projects, I mentioned my salt preserved egg yolks that weren't quite finished.

I wasn't really sure about that recipe!

You start by putting a 1" layer of salt into a small container.  Then you make a yolk sized sunken area in the salt.

Carefully separated the whites from the yolk.  (The whites were added into some other eggs for our omelet supper that evening).

Then you cover the yolk completely with salt.  Next step is to put it in the refrigerator.

I was worried about it tipping so I put the containers in bowls.

I checked them at one week in.

They weren't quite dry enough, so back into the salt and they sat a few more days in the fridge.

Next time they were ready.  

How do you know ready?  One lady described them as feeling like "a stale gummy bear".

Exactly!

And here's what you do with them!

SO tasty grated like cheese over some browned butter spaghetti.  I have more curing in the fridge right now!

Salt Preserving for the Food In Jars Challenge

January was marmalade month in the "Food In Jars Mastery Challenge" and I've told you all about the yummy marms that we made.  

Now February, the challenge was 'salt preservation'.    I really didn't think there would be all that much that interested me.  Wrong!  I tried 4 totally different projects and had fun with each one.

First was salt preserved citrus.  Most common are lemons, which are used a lot in North African cooking (think tagine recipes).

Salt Preserved Lemons

Salt Preserved Oranges

Salt Preserved Lemons and Oranges

(leftovers!)

Then there are seasoning salts...

Cilantro-Lemon Seasoning salt.

Lemon Salt

Third was a weird one...

Salt cured egg yolks.

The photo right above is the yolks after a week of being buried in salt.  Now they are in a muslin bag curing for another 10-ish days in the fridge.  When they get done and we try them, I'll devote a whole blog to them.  So far the people in the challenge are giving rave reviews, so I am very hopeful.

And finally the one that has my German hubby excited...

... small batch sauerkraut! 

This particular batch is cabbage and carrot with black pepper and bay leaf.  This is another one that takes time to finish up, so I'll blog on it later too.

This was such an interesting challenge!  I've found several other recipes I want to try but I have other things I need to get done around here!  But I will be doing more salt preservation in the very near future.