Marisa McClellan's Blog, page 60

Links: Pickled Onions, Watermelon Rinds, and Winners

For the last half of this week, my cousin Harlan and his family were visiting from Hawaii. When I was growing up, we spent a lot of time together, but as so often happens as people get older and more involved in their own lives, we’ve drifted. Until Thursday, it had been nearly 10 years since I’d seen him or his family. And it hadn’t been for the fact that his four kids were giant people, it would have felt like no time had passed at all! It was so good! Now, links!

Brandied cherry berry preserves.
Cherries in cointreau.
Strawberry tomato jam.
Low sugar peach jam.
Sour cherry rosemary jam.
Watermelon rind marmalade.
Candied jalapenos.
Pickled mouse melons.
Pickled onions.
Sauerkraut with apples, onions, and fennel.
Spicy refrigerator pickled peppers.
Peach salsa with plums.
Five ways to wrap a jar.
Cornmeal and rosemary jam tart.
Cherry almond oat bars.
Iced almond milk masala chai.

Thanks to everyone who entered the Infinity Jars giveaway last week! The winner, Anna, has been contacted. If you think that’s you, check your email!

Stay tuned for another giveaway tomorrow!

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International Can-It-Forward Day Charity and Participation Pledge

International Can-It-Forward Day is in less than a week (Friday, July 22), but there’s still plenty of time to get in on the action. The first thing you want to do is sign the participation pledge. This will ensure that you’ll get email updates about the live stream schedule and you’ll also get a coupon good for $5 off on the Fresh Preserving website.

There are so many reasons to tune in on Friday. You’ll get lots of great canning information and tips. There will be tons of giveaways on Twitter throughout the day. And, you’ll be supporting five small non-profits.

For every like, share, reaction and comment on the Can-It-Forward Day Facebook Live videos on July 22, Ball Canning will donate $1 to the following local charities (up to $1000 per charity):

Southside Middle School Panther Pantry (Muncie, Indiana) selected by Jarden Home Brands
The Food Trust (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) selected by Marisa McClellan (that’s me!)
EnrichLA (Los Angeles, California) selected by Linda Ly, Garden Betty
Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee (Nashville, Tennessee) selected by Angie Holden, The Country Chic Cottage
Food Lifeline (Seattle, Washington) selected by Malia Karlinsky, Yesterday on Tuesday 

The demonstrations will start at 10 am and run until 3:30 pm (I’m on at 2 pm). Hope to see you all then!

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Farro, Kale, and Feta Salad + OXO SNAP Glass Round Containers

This farro, kale, and feta salad is easy to make, tastes great, and stores beautifully in OXO’s 8 Piece SNAP Glass Round Container Set.

I have always had a thing for food storage containers. When I was in elementary school, I would beg to be allowed to pack peanuts or raisins for my lunch in one of my mom’s two tiny Tupperware containers (when I was still an infant, she had been invited to a Tupperware party by a neighbor, and though she wasn’t particularly interested in plastic food storage containers, had picked out the smallest item in the catalog so as not to be rude).

In middle school, I cajoled my parents into buying me set of matching plastic containers, so that I could tote my lunchtime yogurt and granola in style. And I still remember how delighted I felt my senior year of college, when my roommates and I went in on the large assortment of food storage tubs and bowls at the local Kmart. Looking back on this, it’s really no wonder I’ve made a career out of putting food in containers.

About a year ago, I became a little bit obsessed with this new wave of glass food storage containers with snap-on lids. Every time Scott and I went to Costco, I’d pause in front of the display of Pyrex Snapware for so long that he’d sigh and make a move to put a box in our cart. I’d snap out of my trance and tell him to put it back. Between the set of containers we’d gotten for our wedding and my VAST collection of jars, we simply did not need it.

So, when I got an email from the folks at OXO, asking if I might like to participate in a blogger promotion centered on their new 8 Piece SNAP Glass Round Container Set, my resolve crumbled and I said yes. I was finally going to get a chance to work with food storage containers with snap-on lids.

I’ve now had this set of containers in my kitchen for a couple weeks and they’ve become my preferred containers (so much so that I’ve taken to hand-washing them between uses rather than wait to run them through the dishwasher). The containers themselves are made of sturdy, shock-resistant borosilicate glass, so they can go straight from the fridge or freezer and into the oven or microwave.

The lids have a thick, leakproof gasket (it comes out for cleaning) that, once locked into place, prevents even a drop of moisture from leaking out of the container. This means that you pack soup or a dressed salad into one and tuck it sideways into your work bag or backpack, secure in the knowledge that it won’t leak all over your computer. This feature is also fabulous if you find yourself occasionally needing to set container sideways in order to get it to fit into your fridge (this happens in my kitchen more than I’d like to admit).

These containers are the perfect thing for the picnics and potlucks so many of us plan during these warmer months. Lately, my go-to dish for such events is a room temperature salad made of farro, lightly cooked kale, feta cheese, and golden raisins. I use a technique that I learned from my Deena many years ago, in which you cook the farro and the kale in the same pot, adding the kale no more than two minutes before the grain is finished.

You end up with both components cooked perfectly and only one pot to clean. I mix the rest of the salad in the cooking pot as well (wait to add the cheese until it’s cooled a bit), and then transfer it to the OXO container when it’s time to store or transport. I like to serve it over a bed of baby arugula, though considering the amount of kale you tuck into it, is entirely optional.

Disclosure: OXO sent me their 8 Piece SNAP Glass Round Container Set, 2-in-1 Salad Servers, and Little Salad Dressing Shaker to try and write about. No additional compensation was provided. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. 

PrintFarro, Kale, and Feta Salad

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups uncooked pearled farro
4-5 cups washed, stemmed, and chopped kale (1 big bundle should do it)
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup olive oil
2-3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 cup crumbled feta
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Using a pot that holds at least 5 quarts, bring 12 cups of water to a boil. Once it is rolling vigorously, salt the water generously and add the farro.
Cook the farro for 10-12 minutes, until it is nearly tender. Add the chopped kale to the pot and put it down into the water with a wooden spoon. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the farro is tender and the kale is bright green. Drain well, rinse briefly with cool water, and then drain again.
Return the cooked farro and kale to the pot and add the raisins, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Stir to combine.
Once the salad is at room temperature, stir in the feta. Taste, add salt and pepper as needed, and taste again.
Serve either at room temperature or chilled. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/07/farro-kale-feta-salad-oxo-snap-containers/

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Yellow Plum Apricot Jam + Facebook Live

This little batch of yellow plum apricot jam is sweetened with honey and is gorgeously sunny and bright.

A giant thank you to everyone who joined me on Facebook Live last night! I had a great time talking my way through a batch of jam and answering your many canning questions. I had such a good time that I’m going to do it again next week. Join me again on Tuesday, July 19 at 9 pm EDT/6 pm PDT. I’m not sure what I’ll make yet, but I’ll announce it over the weekend (when I have a better idea of what produce I’ll have on hand).

If you missed it last night, you can still watch, and in fact, the video is embedded below. Just skip over the first 3 minutes, because I started a little early to make sure the technology was going to work and then left it running while I finished getting ready. I won’t do that next time. Live and learn.

Finally, the recipe I made last night is after the jump. You could easily double the batch, should you wish! It’s set up with Pomona’s Pectin, so there’s a bit more flexibility in the size of the batch than there is when you’re not working with pectin.

PrintHoney Sweetened Yellow Plum Apricot Jam

Yield: makes between 2 and 3 half pints.

Ingredients

1 pound yellow plums, pitted and chopped
1/2 pound apricots, pitted and chopped
8 ounces honey, divided
juice of half a lemon
1 teaspoon calcium water
1 teaspoon Pomona's Pectin

Instructions

Prepare a boiling water bath canner and the necessary jars.
Combine the plums and apricots in a pot with 6 ounces of honey, the lemon juice, and the calcium water. Stir to combine and then let sit for a few minutes, until the honey has helped pull the juice out of the fruit.
Set the pot on the stove over high heat and bring the fruit to a boil. Once it is happily bubbling, reduce the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring often, until the fruit has softened, the syrup has thickened, and the overall volume has reduced by at least a third. If your fruit is still really chunky, use a potato masher to help break down the big pieces.
Mash the pectin powder into the remaining honey and stir it into the cooking jam. Cook for an additional minute or two, until you see the jam visibly thickening.
Remove the pan from the heat. Funnel the jam into the prepared jars. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.
When time is up, remove jars from canner and let them cool on a folded kitchen towel.
Once they're cool enough to handle, test the seals by pressed down on the lids. Sealed lids will feel firm and solid. Unsealed lids will pop up and down as you press them.
Sealed jars are shelf stable for up to a year. Unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/07/yellow-plum-apricot-jam-honey/

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How to Find White Grape Juice Concentrate

Struggling with how to find white grape juice concentrate to use as a sweetener in canning? I’m here to help!

In my newest book, Naturally Sweet Food in Jars, I devote an entire chapter to recipes that used 100% fruit juice concentrates as their source of sweetness. Though the work of the developing that book is behind me, those juice concentrates continue to be a favorite tool when I need a relatively neutral natural sweetener.

White grape juice concentrate is my preferred flavor and I reference it in the book often. During the time I was writing the bulk of the recipes in the book (a mere year and a half ago), it could easily get it at both Wegmans and Acme. However, in the last few months, it’s become harder to find (of course!), and I’m hearing from a number of you that you’re also struggling to find it in your stores.

For those of you who are experiencing sourcing issues, don’t give up. There are a few ways around this.

1. Go to your grocery store’s customer service desk and ask if they can special order some for you. Make sure you specify that you want the version that is 100% fruit juice (not fruit cocktail). If you need a brand name, ask for either the one made by Welch’s or the Old Orchard version.

2. Instead of torturing yourself to find the frozen concentrate, boil down a bottle of white grape juice until you have a concentrated strength. Most of the time, it is sold in bottles holding half a gallon, which means you’re starting with eight cups. Cook that down to a syrupy two cups and you’ll be good to go.

3. Use apple juice concentrate instead. However, while it’s more readily available than white grape, it’s not as a sweet. To compensate for that intensity, use 25% more apple juice concentrate that you would white grape, to make up for the different in flavor.

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Sponsored Post: Infinity Jars Giveaway

Made from deep violet glass, the jars featured in this week’s Infinity Jars Giveaway can help preserve color and flavor!

I spent most of my time extolling the virtues of mason jars, but truly, my jar love knows no bounds. I appreciate the beauty of old apothecary jars, and have a weird fascination with large vintage peanut butter jars. Most recently, the deep violet jars sold by Infinity Jars have been the objects of my interest and fascination.

Made from specially pigmented glass that renders the jars nearly black (you’ll find that they’re actually a deep purple-y blue), they are smell-proof, block harmful UV light, and are thicker than your run-of-the-mill jam jar.

They are designed to help extend the lifespan of foods, salves, and other ointments that are sensitive to light. I’ve found that they do a really nice jar preserving the color and flavor of dehydrated foods, which often lose their vibrancy after a few months on the shelf.

The jars you see pictured here are from the Screw Top Variety Gift Pack and the sizes range from 50ml to 1L. I have my hibiscus flowers tucked into the largest jar to stop their light-related color loss.

This week, I have one of these jar gift packs to give away to a lucky Food in Jars reader. Use the widget below to enter the Infinity Jars Giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Infinity Jars compensated me in exchange for my time and consideration. Additionally, they sent me the jars you see pictured here for photography purposes. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. 

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Upcoming Events: July and August 2016

In past years, I’ve made a critical error during my book tours and that is that I spent so much time on the road that I don’t leave myself enough time to do my own canning. This year, I’m trying to mend my ways and not commit my entire summer to travel.

So this month, I’m only doing a few events so that I can make sure I put up plenty of July produce. I’ll be back out on the road a bunch in August, though, so mark your calendars!

July 12 – Online! I’ll be streaming live from my kitchen on to the Food in Jars FB page, using Facebook Live. Festivities start at 9 pm eastern time.

July 13 – Chestnut Hill, PA! Jam Making with Natural Sweeteners, with the Weaver’s Way Co-op at the Henry Got Crops Farm in Roxborough. 7-9 pm. Register here.

July 24 – Hellertown, PA! Canning demo and book signing at the Saucon Valley Farmers Market. 10 am. Free!

July 22 – Online! It’s International Can-it-Forward day and I’ll be presenting a live streaming canning demo via the Ball Canning website. Sign the participation pledge today!

August 6 – Washington, DC! Canning classes at the US Botanic Garden. Morning class (10:30 am – 12:30 pm) features canning with honey and maple. Afternoon class (1:30 – 3:30 pm) features recipes using coconut sugar and fruit juices.

August 7 – Philadelphia! Book signing and jam tasting at Headhouse Square Farmers Market with Food Swap Cookbook author Emily Paster! 10 am to 2 pm. Free!

August 8 – Sewell, NJ! Free canning demo at the Margaret E. Heggan Free Public Library. 7 pm.

August 13 – Millersville, PA! Canning class at Homefields Farm. 10 am – 12 noon. More details here.

August 19 – Amaganesett, NY! Canning class at Amber Waves Farm. 3-6 pm. Register here.

August 20 – Great Barrington, MA! Demo and book signing at the Great Barrington Farmers Market! 9 am – 1 pm. Free!

August 21 – Hillsdale, NY! Canning class at Hillsdale Home Chef. 2:30-5 pm. $65. Register here.

August 24 – Chestnut Hill, PA! Easy Tomato Salsa, with the Weaver’s Way Co-op at the Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting House. 7-9 pm. Register here.

August 27 – Fayetteville, AR! Canning demo at the Fayetteville Roots Festival. More details to come!

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Links: Cherries, Musk Melons, and Winners

I went to the farmers market this morning, intending to pick up eggs, peaches, and some salad greens. I came home with everything on my list, plus four ears of corn, a giant musk melon and a flat of red and white currants from Three Springs Fruit Farm. This happens to often in July. There is just so much produce. I am powerless to resist it.

It’s been a few weeks since I did a link round-up, so the list is a bit longer than normal. There’s good stuff here, though. Take the time to wade through!

Cherry almond preserves.
Chocolate cherry jam.
Cherry bbq sauce. 
Pickled strawberry sundae sauce.
Plum strawberry jam. 
Elderflower cordial.
Vin de noix.
Quick rhubarb chutney.
On storing crock fermented pickles.
Quick pickles. Cucumber pickles.
Using calcium chloride for crunchier pickles.
How to dehydrate garlic in the oven.
Salted spruce tips.
Bang bang sauce.
Mini chocolate cherry cheesecakes in jars. Braised cherry cheesecakes in jars.
Cream cheese jam muffins.
No-bake fig newtons.
A jamtastic e-book.
A canning e-course for absolute beginners (use the discount code ILOVEFOODINJARS for 10% off the course fee).
I’m a little bit obsessed with this Epicurious video series called No Recipe Required. I feel like both jam and pickles would make fabulous topics!
Homemade waxed fabric food wrappers.

It’s been a while since the Bee’s Wrap giveaway closed, but I’ve yet to post the winners (oops). However, without further ado, our winners are #109/Katie B., #271/Karley, and #302/Jessica D. Another giveaway will be live soon, so stay tuned!

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Tiny Batch Gooseberry Jam

In possession of just a few gooseberries? Make this tiny batch gooseberry jam!

I have a standing work date with my friend Audra. Once a week, we meet up at a coffeeshop to catch up, do a little work, and do our best to shake off the inevitable sense of isolation that comes when one works from home.

Audra and I met in early 2009 because we both happened to be Philadelphians who were blogging about food preservation (she was once the primary voice behind the site, Doris and Jilly Cook). While our friendship has long since expanded beyond the kitchen, we do often find ourselves on the topics of cooking, gardening, and sourcing produce for our canning pots.

A few weeks ago (and knowing that I would appropriately value them), Audra showed up with a pint container of gooseberries from the bush in her backyard. Gooseberries notoriously hard to come by in Philadelphia (at the turn of the last century, they were thought to harbor a fungus that was a threat to pine forests, and so were banned in many states. Their commercial production has yet to recover) and so my excitement was audible.

Once home with the container of gooseberries, I debated how to best make use of my small cache. I pondered incorporating them into some larger recipes, before deciding that their highest purpose was to become a tiny batch of gooseberry jam.

I consulted The River Cottage Preserves book (written by Pam Corbin, who is the reigning queen of gooseberries) to refresh my memory on ratios and preparation before diving in. With so few berries, it took no time to trim away the tops and tails, before heaping them in a pan.

I made this jam with one part fruit and one part sugar, by weight (it’s more sugar than I normally use, but gooseberries are quite tart). I also added a generous splash of water, to dampen the sugar until the berries burst and added their liquid. The finished jam vibrates with the tangy essence of gooseberry and I’m saving the sole 12 ounce jar I made as a mid-winter treat.

PrintTiny Batch Gooseberry Jam

Yield: 12 ounces

Ingredients

8 ounces gooseberries, topped and tailed
8 ounces granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
juice from 1/2 a lemon

Instructions

Prepare a boiling water bath canner and a 12 ounce jam jar.
Combine the prepped gooseberries, sugar, water, and lemon juice in a small saucepan.
Set the pan on the stove over medium-high heat and begin to cook. If all the liquid evaporates before the gooseberries pop, add a splash more water.
Cook for 10-12 minutes, until the gooseberries have popped and the mess has thickened.
Taste the jam and add more lemon juice, if necessary for flavor balance.
Remove the pan from the stove and funnel the jam into the prepared jar. Wipe the rims, apply the lid and ring, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/07/tiny-batch-gooseberry-jam/

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Garlicky Pickled Green Beans on Freshly Preserved Ideas

Last month, I mentioned that I’ve teaming up with the folks at Ball Canning (much like I did last year) to help spread the word about the many pleasures of home canning. As part of our collaboration, I developed a series of five recipes that will live on the Ball Canning Tumblr, Freshly Preserving Ideas.

I’m here today to share the second recipe I cooked up. These Garlicky Pickled Green Beans have all the flavor of a classic garlic dill cucumber, but with the crunch-keeping power of string beans. Snappy, flavorful, and shelf stable, they may well be the perfect pickle (at the very least, they are MY perfect pickle).

While we’re talking Ball Canning, I also want to make sure that you guys have your calendars marked for the annual International Can-It-Forward Day. This year, it will be taking place on Friday, July 22, 2016, starting at 10 am and wrapping up at 5 pm (eastern time).

Make sure to sign the participation pledge, which will get you a coupon for $5 off for the Fresh Preserving online store, and will ensure that you’re kept in the loop about all the CIFD happenings!

Disclosure: I am a paid ambassador for Ball Canning. 

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