Marisa McClellan's Blog, page 128

Links: Peach Ketchup and Baked Ricotta Cheese

Sometime last week, I misplaced my blogging groove. Too many freelance deadlines combined with a need to tackle the mess that was our apartment before a canner’s potluck took me away from this space. But I’ll be around more this week, which at least one new recipe, some Canning 101 goodness, and a subversive tutorial. Here a few links to tide you over until them.

Thumbprint cookies. Always a good way to use up overset jam.
Got any peaches left? Make this peach ketchup!
Cold processed fruit syrups. This technique sounds perfectly brilliant.
Have you made fermented pickles yet? This post will have you dashing out for cucumbers.
Oh, this raisin focaccia. I’d like a hunk right now.
Vanilla almond sunflower seed butter. Make it at home. Eat it on toast.
Baked ricotta cheese. Best eaten with a dollop of tomato jam and a hunk crusty bread.
I am of the school of thought that believes that one can never have too many banana bread recipes. This cocoa one is going on the list immediately.
Finally, an old link, but a good one nonetheless. Make up this honey lemon ginger concentrate to keep in the fridge for soothing the scratchy throats that so often come with autumn and the change of season.

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Links: Pickles, Salsas, Dill Heads, and a Winner

Potluck with Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin Author Allison Carroll Duffy

Hey friends! Allison Carroll Duffy, author of the Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin is coming to Philadelphia and I’m throwing a little potluck to welcome her to town and give her a chance to meet some local preservers. We’ll be gathering at my place this Sunday, September 15 at 6 pm. If you’re in the area and you’d like to come, please enter your information in the form below. Once you’re signed up, I’ll send all the details along.

Hope to see some of you this Sunday!

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Links: Boozy Infusions, Blackberry Kvass, and a Winner

It’s been a really long time since I’ve had a normal week. The kind where I’m home for seven days straight, don’t have any huge extra projects on the horizon, and actually get to cook my way through my CSA share. Happily, this week is shaping up to be wonderfully normal and I couldn’t be more pleased. Now, links!

If you’re awash in plums, do as Jenn does and make a boozy infusion.
Spiced pickled figs. Sounds fairly transcendent, if you ask me.
If you’re starting to move outside the box as far as jars and lids go, you much check this post from Fillmore Container, detailing how to choose a lid.
Peanut butter granola bars. Good for school lunch boxes (and if your schools don’t allow nuts, swap in sunflower seed butter).
Kevin West has been on a blogging roll lately. First, this peach-passionfruit jam and then this quince jelly.
Flavor your homemade ice cream with jam!
A useful reminder on how to best freeze your garden green beans.
I know it’s not hip of me, but I can’t quite get into beet kvass. This blackberry version, on the other hand, sounds right up my alley.
Still working on rounding out your summer tomato canning? Consider adding Kaela’s latest salsa to the docket.
Shrinky-dink jar labels. Ridiculously cute.
The muscadine and scuppernog grapes are in! Here’s one way to preserve them.
Easy-peasy homemade grape juice concentrate.
Finally, a recipe from the always-great Hank Shaw. Smoked, roasted, and preserved jalapeños.

The winner of the Roma by Weston Electric Tomato Strainer is commenter #248/Kara B. She said, “My favorite canning helper is my Presto 23 qt. pressure canner. I even just started using it for water bath processing. I’ve been doing my tomato batches with a strainer and a rubber spatula. I need this little gadget so much!!!” Well Kara, looks like you’re in luck!

I’m going to take this week off from giveaways (it’s been quite the summer of great canning gear, hasn’t it!), but I’ll be back with something terrific for you guys next Monday.

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Upcoming Classes: Philly! Phoenixville! Greensgrow!

Hello canners! Summer is coming to a close, but I’ve still got plenty of canning classes on the schedule. Check ‘em out!

September 14 – Tomato Jam at Indy Hall! In this class, we’ll make a batch of tomato jam and talk about all the ins and outs of canning tomatoes. Both boiling water bath and pressure canning will be discussed. Class is 11 am – 1 pm and costs $50. Leave a comment or email me to sign up.

September 18 – Tomato canning demonstration class at Henry Got Crops in Philadelphia’s Roxborough neighborhood. The class is from 6:30 – 8:30 pm and costs $10 for CSA members, $15 for non-members. Registration details to come!

September 19 – Hands on tomato canning basics at Cooking Spotlight in Phoenixville, PA. Class runs 6:30 – 9 pm and costs $60. All participants will go home with a jar of tomatoes. Click here to sign up.

September 21 – Tomato Jam at Greensgrow. Class is from 12 noon to 2pm and costs $35. Click here to sign up.

October 12 – Spiced Apple Pie Filling at Indy Hall! This class will give students an opportunity to help peel, chop and process 10 pounds of apples down into a batch of fragrant, spicy apple pie filling. Class is 11 am – 1 pm and costs $50. Leave a comment or email me to sign up.

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A Food in Jars Workshop at the Rowe Center

As you might have noticed, I teach a lot of canning classes and workshops. Most of the time, these events are just two or three hours long. It’s enough to hit the high points, work through a recipe, and get people comfortable with the basics of boiling water bath canning. But it’s not always enough, particularly for those of you who want to go a little deeper with your canning knowledge.

So this fall, I’m trying something new. I’ve teamed up with the Rowe Center (a camp and conference center based in Western Mass) to offer a weekend long canning workshop. The workshop will be a three-day, hands on canning extravaganza that will focus in on the many different ways to preserve autumn fruit.

We’ll make applesauce, apple butter, roasted quince chutney, pickled Asian pears, pear vanilla jam, apple mint jelly and apple rosemary jam and in doing so, make nearly every style of sweet and puckery preserve I know. Participants will go home with a jar of everything we make, along with a far deeper understanding of preserving.

This workshop will start on the evening of Friday, November 1 and will run through to the afternoon of Sunday, November 3. The workshop fee is based on and there are a number of different housing options and price-points.

I do hope some of you will join me for this week. I think it’s going to be fun!

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My Berlin Kitchen in Paperback + Oven Roasted Apricot Butter

Right around this time last year, My Berlin Kitchen, Luisa Weiss’s beautiful memoir, was published. I got a copy when it first came out and read the whole thing in less than a day. As soon as I had a few moments, I used her recipe for spiced plum butter and made some of the most luscious, silky plum preserves.

It was such a nice style of preserve-making that I used it again a few weeks back on apricots instead of plums (without really meaning to, I’ve canned my way through nearly 50 pounds of apricots this year). I quartered them, combined them with a little honey and a few spices, and roasted them until they slumped and were slightly caramelized around the edges. Once they were entirely soft, I used an immersion blender to puree them and then canned up the resulting apricot goodness in half pint jars.

I hesitated to write about this apricot and honey butter because their season is mostly over for the year. However, I thought it couldn’t hurt to plant a seed now, for next year when the apricots return again. I also thought it was good timing to share this adaptation of Luisa’s technique because her glorious book came out in paperback last week. If you’ve not read it, I highly recommend it (I also recommend her plum butter. And the season’s not yet over for Italian plum prunes!).

And here are the specifics for my apricot approach. I used four pounds of pitted and quarters plums and 1 pound of honey. For one batch, I used 1 cinnamon stick and 2 cloves like Luisa suggests for her plums (it was delicious). For the second batch, I tied a heaping tablespoon of dried lavender buds up in a length of cheesecloth and let them sit with the fruit and honey overnight. The next day, I fished it out and roasted the fruit just as the plum recipe describes. This one may be my very favorite preserve of the year.

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My Berlin Kitchen Giveaway + Spiced Plum Butter
Honey-Sweetened Peach Vanilla Jam
Small Batch Honey-Sweetened White Peach Jam

Canning Demos at the Central Farm Markets this Saturday and Sunday!

Hi everyone! Just a reminder that I’m doing a pair of free canning demos at the Central Farm Markets in Maryland’s DC suburbs this weekend. On Saturday, I’ll be at the Pike Central Market from 10 am to 12 noon, making plum jam and demonstrating my small batch canning technique (I’ll also have books to sell and sign). On Sunday, I’ll be at the Bethesda Central Market from 10 am to 12 noon, doing the very same thing. Hope some of you can come.

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Honey-Sweetened Peach Vanilla Jam

A couple weeks back, I was on something of a peach tear (thanks to the folks at Sweet Preservation). I wrote about my Lazy Peach Preserves and my Honey-Sweetened Peach Chutney. I promised that I’d have one final peach jam for you and then I went and fell off the recipe map. However, I’m here to make good. Without further delay, my recipe for Honey-Sweetened Peach Vanilla Jam.

This is one of those preserves that has just a few ingredients and so depends on you getting the best-tasting players as you possibly can. Search out those super sweet end-of-season peaches. Find a light honey that won’t demand center stage. And please, please, use a real vanilla bean. I know they’re pricy at grocery stores and gourmet markets, but if you buy them online, they are quite affordable. Go in with a friend or two. The flavor just can’t compare.

Print

Honey-Sweetened Peach Vanilla Jam

Yield: 4 half pint jars

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds peaches
1 1/2 cups honey
1 vanilla bean
zest of 1 lemon (optional)

Instructions

Prepare a boiling water bath canner and four half pint jars. Place lids in a small saucepan and bring to a bare simmer.
Peel peaches and dice. Combine them with the honey in a medium bowl. Split open a vanilla bean and scrape out all the vanilla seeds with the blade of a paring knife. Add both the seeds and the split bean to the peaches and honey. Stir to combine.
Let the peaches and honey sit for at least 10 to 15 minutes, so that the honey can help make the peaches juicy.
When you're ready to cook, scrape the peaches, honey, and vanilla into a 4 quart Dutch oven. Place over high heat and cook, stirring regularly, until the peaches have broken down and it looks quite thick and jammy.
Taste the jam and determine whether you think it could use the flavor balancing of the lemon zest (it will mellow it out if you feel it's too sweet). If you prefer it without the lemon zest, feel free to skip it.
Remove the pan from the heat. Fish out the vanilla bean and set aside. Funnel jam into prepared jars. Wipe rims, apply lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes (don't start your timer until the pot returns to a boil).
When the time is up, remove jars from the canner and place them on a folded kitchen towel to cool.
When the jars are cool enough to handle (let them rest at last an hour or two), remove rings and test seals. Unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly. Sealed jars are shelf stable for up to a year. Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by ZipList Recipe Plugin2.2http://foodinjars.com/2013/09/honey-sweetened-peach-vanilla-jam/


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Giveaway: Roma by Weston Electric Tomato Strainer and Sauce Maker

For years now, the bulk of my tomato canning has been in the form of the whole peeled tomato. It’s quick to prep, is hugely versatile, and always felt like the best use of my time. I’d make a few jars of basic puree each season, but I never found as easy a groove with sauce. However, a new appliance has come into my life that has made me rethink my preserved tomato allegiances.

This year, I’ve been a puree making machine thanks to the Roma by Weston Electric Tomato Strainer. It operates much like the hand crank tomato presses (one of which I’ve had for years, but never managed to fit it comfortably into my work flow), only instead of using your own brute force, the 200 watt motor gets things moving.

It’s always important to be careful when using electric appliances that press and grind.

You cut your tomatoes into manageable bits and then pile them into the hopper. Using a tamper, you press them into the machine’s shaft, where they meet the auger, which pushes them through a screen (it comes with three different sizes, so you can also use it for fruit sauces).

The tomato pulp then comes pouring down the chute and the skin and seeds are ejected out the end of the screen. It’s incredibly effective and makes it possible to do things like break 20 pounds of tomatoes down into pulp in just 15 minutes. Once the tomatoes have been milled, you can cook them down into sauce or take them further into paste or conserva.

One thing I particularly like about making sauce with a strainer is that the tomatoes go in raw and then you cook down the resulting puree. So often, sauce recipes have you simmer your tomatoes to soften, then press them through a food mill and then return them to the pot.

It’s a good technique (and one that I advocate in my cookbook), except that if you take too long in milling your tomatoes and they cool down considerably, you risk ending up with sauce that separates (more on separation, fruit float, and liquid loss here). It’s not the end of the world if it separates (just give it a good shake to reintegrate), but it sure does look prettier when your finished product is uniformly integrated.

The only issue I have with this tomato strainer is that motor portion is a little too light. It means that as you’re pressing the tomatoes into the shaft, you need to rest your elbow on the top of the motor to keep it stable. Otherwise, you’re liable to flip the machine.

It’s not hard to hold it in place once you realize that it’s necessary, but a metal body would have given it a little more weight and heft. But metal is heavier and more costly, so I understand why it’s been made as it is.

I got this tomato strainer from the nice folks at Weston Products. They’re a company devoted to tools for those of us who like to make our food from scratch and carry an extensive collection of food mills, pasta makers, dehydrators, and sausage makers. Want to press your own wine or cider? They’ve got you covered. Because they’re awesome, they’ve given me a second Roma by Weston Electric Tomato Strainer to give away to one lucky Food in Jars reader. Here’s how to enter.

Leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite canning helper (animal, vegetable, or mineral).
Comments will close at 5 pm east coast time on Sunday, September 8, 2013. Winners will be chosen at random (using random.org) and will be posted to the blog later that day.
Giveaway is open to US residents.
One comment per person, please. Entries must be left on the blog, I cannot accept submissions via email.

Disclosure: Weston Products gave me a tomato strainer for review and photography purposes and are also providing the unit for giveaway. No money changed hands and all opinions expresses are exclusively mine. 
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September Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, and Preserving Now

It’s a new month and that means it’s time to mention and thank the current Food in Jars sponsors. These are the companies make it possible for me to spent time testing recipes, writing tutorials, and answering canning questions.

First up is Cuppow. They are the maker of the original mason jar travel mug topper and, more recently, of the BNTO (they sponsored last week’s awesome giveaway). Best of all, Cuppow is having a 10% of sale on all their products today (and if you buy four or more items, your shipping is free). If you want to get in on the action, use the code SUMMER2013 at check-out.

The second sponsor is Fillmore Container. They sell all manner of canning jars and lids, as well as a handful of books and jar accessories. They’re a family-owned business based in Lancaster, PA and they happily work with home canners and commercial producers alike. Look for another Fillmore Container-sponsored canning tutorial in this space soon!

My newest sponsor is Preserving Now. Operated by Lyn Deardorff, Preserving Now is both a website and school dedicated to helping people expand their canning and preserving skills. If you’re in the Atlanta area, make sure to check out her schedule of upcoming classes and events!

I am always delighted to welcome new sponsors to the site. Ads start at $75 a month. More information can be found here.

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