Marisa McClellan's Blog, page 80

Canning Projects for Late August + Reminders

I am about to dash off to teach a weekend-long workshop up at the Omega Institute, but I wanted to drop in with a couple reminders as well as some suggestions for good things to can this time of year.

First up is a reminder that tomorrow is last day to get your first month of MightyNest’s MightyFix for free (it’s $10 a month after that). Make sure to use the widget in this blog post to get that deal.

Our friends over at Fillmore Container are sponsoring a couple giveaways right now and I thought you guys might like to know so you can toss your hats in the proverbial ring. On their blog, they’re offering up a Mason Jar Meal Kit to help with packing lunches and eating well. And over at Countryside Magazine, you have a chance to win a water bath canner and a Fillmore Container gift card.

Finally, the winner of last week’s Wusthof Clip Point Paring Knife giveaway is #290/Amelia.

Peach Mostarda. This tangy, slightly spicy condiment is wonderful with cheese or cured meats. I’ve also used it as a component in braised chicken thighs, to very good results.

My Low Sugar Spiced Peach Jam is a winner for anyone looking to capture the flavor of summer without bogging down their jam with buckets of sugar. It’s a classic and is delicious on a nut or seed butter sandwich.

This Plum Cardamom Jam works beautifully with the late summer Italian prune plums that I’m seeing in the markets these days and a jar makes a very nice holiday gift. And speaking of plums, these pickled slices are awfully good as well.

On the honey sweetened front, might I suggest either this chutney, a slow cooker butter, or my beloved lazy peach preserves?

So, those are my suggestions. Now it’s your turn. Tell me what you’re preserving this weekend!

Related Posts:

Monday Morning Odds and Ends
Good Things to Preserve in Late October
Ten Ways to Use and Preserve Spring Rhubarb

Live Online Tomato Canning Class Tonight!

Tomato season is upon us! Join me tonight for a one-hour long tomato canning class. In this session, I’ll demonstrate how to prep tomatoes for canning and show you how build a water packed jar. We’ll talk about safety, best tomato practices, and I’ll answer all your questions!

The class starts at 8 pm eastern time and the fee is pay what you want. Join up over on Concert Window.

Related Posts:

Upcoming Classes: Online! Collingswood! DC! Carlisle!
Upcoming Classes: Morris Arboretum and Online!
Upcoming Classes: Online Tonight! Collingswood Tomorrow!

Honey-Sweetened Roasted Nectarine Compote

I’m back home in Philly after a week out west. I always have grand plans for blog posts while traveling, but the moment I leave home, it becomes nearly impossible to get my brain into the writing game. But now that I’m back, I’m determined to work my way through my lengthy recipe backlog before the seasons change for good.

Today, a very lightly sweetened compote of roasted nectarines. The nectarines caramelize a tiny bit as they cook in the heat of the oven and end up tasting like the pie filling that oozes out during baking. In other words, not bad at all.

You could do this same thing with peaches, though I’d probably peel them first, as I find that peach skins never tenderize, no matter how much you cook them. It is not an issue with nectarines and for that, I am grateful.

The nectarines I used in this recipe were part of the shipment of fruit that the nice people from Washington State Fruit Commission and Sweet Preservation sent out as part of their Canbassador program. Here are the many things I’ve made using their fruit in past years.

Spiced Nectarine Jam (2015)
Sweet Cherry Rhubarb Jam (2015)
Cherry Kompot (2015)
Sweet Cherry Chutney (2015)
Slow Cooker Peach Vanilla Butter (2014)
Low Sugar Spiced Peach Jam (2014)
Lazy Peach Preserves (2013)
Honey-Sweetened Peach Chutney (2013)
Oven-Roasted Nectarine Butter (2012)
Luisa Weiss’s Spiced Plum Butter (2012)
Italian Plum Jam with Star Anise (2011)
Honey-Sweetened Apricot Lavender Butter (2011)
Apricot-Blackberry Jam (2010)
Pickled Sweet Cherries (2010)

PrintHoney-Sweetened Roasted Nectarine Compote

Yield: five half pints

Ingredients

4 pounds ripe nectarines
2/3 cup honey
juice of 1 lemon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Cut the nectarines into quarters and remove pits.
Lay the nectarine pieces in a large baking dish and add the honey and lemon juice. Gently toss to combine.
Place the pan in the oven and roast for 35 to 45 minutes, until the fruit is tender. Remove the pan ever 15 minutes or so to stir the fruit. I like to do a bit of mashing as I stir, to help the nectarines break down.
Once you like the texture of the fruit, remove the pan from the oven. Mash the fruit a bit more, so that the texture is pleasing to you.
To can, prepare 5 half pint jars. Funnel the finished compote into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
Using a bubbling tool, remove any trapped air bubbles. Add another spoonful if necessary, to maintain proper headspace.
Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes.
When time is up, remove lid from pot and turn off heat. Let the jars sit in the cooling water for an additional 5-7 minutes to help prevent siphoning.
Set jars on a folded kitchen towel to cool. Once jars are cool enough to handle, remove rings and test seals.
Sealed jars can be stored in a cool, dark place and will be good for up to a year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2015/08/honey-sweetened-roasted-nectarine-compote/

Related Posts:

Honey-Sweetened Peach Vanilla Jam
Spiced Nectarine Jam
Low Sugar Spiced Peach Jam

Lightly Pickled Cucumber Salad + OXO Hand-held Spiralizer

I am not immune to kitchen trends. Over the years, I’ve succumbed in turn to the allure of no-knead bread, chia seed pudding, avocado toast (though I swear, I ate that one before it was cool), and even zucchini noodles (made with a julienne peeler).

One fad that I’ve somehow managed to resist up until now has been spiralizing. Though spiral slicers have been around for a while, they’ve recently become incredibly popular, owing to the fact that they allow you turn all manner of vegetable into contiguous strips that mimic the look and feel of noodles.

My primary reason for staying away from spiralizing has been the fact that it typically requires a specialized appliance to make it happen (and with just an 80 square foot kitchen to work with, I have to be careful about how much gear I bring in).

However, thanks to the new Hand-Held Spiralizer from OXO, even the smallest kitchen can be a spiralizing one. This tool is small in size but mighty when it comes to twisting soft vegetables into springy lengths.

For my first spiralizing session, I made a quick pickled cucumber salad to eat with a summery meal of corn on the cob and chicken sausages. I added some finely sliced red onion and let it mellow in the fridge for an hour before we ate.

My thinking is that this will be a useful tool for small batches of pickles, when I want something finely and neatly shredded and don’t want to pull the food processor out in order to make it happen. For those of you who have jumped aboard the spiralizing train, what’s your favorite thing to spiralize?

Disclosure: OXO sent me this spiralizer to try and write about. No additional compensation was provided. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. 

PrintLightly Pickled Cucumber Salad + OXO Hand-held Spiralizer

Ingredients

1 large slicing cucumber
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1/2 small red onion, finely sliced
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, optional

Instructions

Trim the end off the cucumber and fit it into the spiralizer. Twist the cucumber through the spiralizer until it has been transformed into a frenzy of cucumber springs.
Toss the cucumber slices with the salt and sugar and let sit for 15-20 minutes. Drain away any liquid that gathered in the bottom of the bowl.
Add the vinegar, oil, and red onion and toss to combine.
Just before serving, top with the toasted sesame seeds, if using. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2015/08/lightly-pickled-cucumber-salad-oxo-hand-held-spiralizer/

Related Posts:

Roasted Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote + OXO GreenSaver
Strawberry Lavender Caramel + Giveaway
The 10 Pound Cherry Challenge

Vanilla Yellow Plum Jam

The summer is waning and I have a massive backlog of recipes that are rapidly becoming moot as produce moves out of season. My plan for the next couple weeks is to keep my posts relatively simple and just get as many of these new preserves up here as I can before they are no longer timely.

This yellow plum jam variation is one I’ve made three times over the years and yet it hasn’t wound up on the blog or in any of my books. I find that yellow plums aren’t always easy to find, and so when I do stumble across them, I like to pick up a few pounds and make this jam.

This year, I came across yellow plums at my Saturday farmers market, where one of my favorite farmers had no more than a dozen pints, at just a buck a pint. So ripe that they barely made it back to my kitchen intact, I prepped them by squeezing them into pulp over a large measuring cup.

Because the plums were so sweet and ripe, I tempered them with a goodly amount of lemon juice to keep them from being cloying. If your plums are quite tart, back off on the lemon juice or skip it entirely (remember, when a recipe calls for fresh lemon juice, that’s your signal that it’s there for flavor balance, not safety. It’s only when a recipe indicates that you need to use bottled lemon juice that you should stick exactly to the amount of lemon juice called for).

PrintVanilla Yellow Plum Jam

Yield: makes 4 half-pints

Ingredients

3 pounds yellow plums (about six cups of pulp)
11/2 cups granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
Juice of 1 lemon

Instructions

Prepare a small boiling water bath canner and 4 half pint jars.
Chop or crush the plums, remove the pits, and combine them with the sugar and vanilla bean seeds. Stir to incorporate the sugar.
Once the sugar is dissolved, set the pan on the stove over high heat and bring to a boil.
Cook, stirring regularly for 15 to 25 minutes, until the fruit thickens and reduces by at least one-third.
Taste and add lemon juice as needed.
When the jam seems quite thick and glossy, remove it 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 the canner and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool.
When jars are cool enough to handle, test seals. Sealed jars are shelf stable for at least one year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2015/08/vanilla-yellow-plum-jam/

Related Posts:

Urban Preserving: Pear Vanilla Drizzle
CSA Cooking: Smoky, Spicy, Skillet Tomato Jam
Small Batch Peach Jam for Live Online Class

Giveaway: Wüsthof Clip Point Paring Knife

My grandma Bunny was an expert with a paring knife. She believed that fancy peelers and trimming tools were unnecessary if a paring knife would do instead. There were always one or two well-sharpened little blades on the magnetic strip near the stove and guests to her kitchen knew that future dinner invitations would be in peril should they mistreat her tools.

As an adult, I have also become attached to my collection of small, pointy-tipped, and serviceably sharp knives (though unlike Bunny, I often can’t resist picking up a new gadget or tool). As much as I love a good chef’s knife, I find that I reach for a paring knife far more throughout the day.

Recently, I had the opportunity to add Wüsthof’s clip point paring knife to my magnetic strip and it’s become a favorite. The clipped tip gives it a bit of extra flexibility that helps with things like cutting the cores out of tomatoes and hulling strawberries.

Thanks to the nice folks at Wüsthof, I have one of these little paring knives to give away this week. Here’s how to enter.

Leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite kitchen is for handling summer produce.
Comments will close at 11:59 pm east coast time on Saturday, August 22, 2015. The winner will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, August 23, 2015.
Giveaway is open to US residents only (and is void where prohibited).
One comment per person, please. Entries must be left on the blog, I cannot accept submissions via email.

Disclosure: The folks from Wüsthof gave me my clip point paring knife at a press event I attended back in June as a review unit. They are also providing this giveaway unit. However, all the opinions I’ve expressed here are entirely true. 

Related Posts:

Giveaway: New West Knife Works Paring Knife
Giveaway: Wüsthof Classic 7 Inch Chinese Cleaver
Wusthof Vegetable Knife Winner

Links: Tomatoes, No-cook Jams, and Winners

I may have bitten off more than I can chew. With just 48 hours to go before we leave for vacation, I picked up 50 pounds of tomato seconds. I’ve divided them into a few different categories for canning (salsa, pizza sauce, jam, puree), and I’m going to do my best to make them all happen before we leave for the airport at 4 pm on Tuesday. We shall see. Now, links!

Zesty bread and butter pickles.
Roasted red pepper spread.
A quick re-pickling project.
Roasted salsa.
Fermented salsa.
Super speedy pickles made with a syringe.
Peach peel jelly.
No-cook blackberry chia seed jam.
Cucumber mint jam.
Pickled blueberries.
Blueberry yuzu preserves.
Simple blackberry syrups.
Preserving Now’s tomato can-a-thon.
Homemade cheddar crackers.
Everyday granola.

The winners of last week’s Fante’s Fruit Ripener Bowl giveaway are #24/Kristal, #82/Holly, and #107/Sherrie Smith. More tomorrow!

Related Posts:

Links: Poached Tomatoes, Spicy Beans, and a Winner
Links: Berry Jams, Pickles, and Winners
Links: Berry Jams, Pickles, and Winners

CSA Cooking: Smoky, Spicy, Skillet Tomato Jam

Skillet jams really are the best way I know to deal with a couple pounds of rapidly ripening fruit. Today’s batch was a slimmed down, extra spicy and smoky version of my classic tomato jam.

I had just two pounds of mismatched tomatoes from last week’s Philly Foodworks share and with a vacation looming, I’ve been trying to make useful things out of everything that could possibly go bad around here.

I chopped up the tomatoes, combined them with 1 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, and let them macerate over night (I do so love breaking up the work of even the smallest batches of preserves into easily manageable pieces).

Then today, I poured the juicy sugared tomatoes into my trust 12 inch skillet and added 4 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice, 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger, 2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper flakes, 1 generous teaspoon of smoked paprika, another teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne.

The tomatoes cooked down over hight heat for just around 20 minutes, until it was glossy, thick, and didn’t look at all watery. Into a trio of half pint jars and processed for 15 minutes, this little batch took less than an hour total of active time.

Like all tomato jams, this one is good with cheese and crackers, slathered on a burger, eaten with sweet potato fries, or dolloped alongside scrambled eggs.

Related Posts:

CSA Cooking: Roasted Tomatillo and Banana Pepper Salsa
CSA Cooking: Zucchini, Fennel, and Green Pepper Relish
CSA Cooking: Salad Pickles (aka Waste Prevention Pickles)

Sponsored Post: The MightyFix from MightyNest

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed over the last few years has been the redefinition of subscription programs. Where once subscriptions were limited to magazines and newspapers, we can now subscribe to beauty product samplers, snack boxes, freshly roasted coffee, and even spices.

My friends over at MightyNest recently launched one of these programs. It’s called the MightyFix and is both simple and entirely fantastic. The deal is that for $10 a month they’ll send you full sized product that is actually worth at least $10 (and often, will have a far higher price point) and they’ll ship it for free. What’s more, anything else you want to add to your FIX from their site also ships for free.

For August, the MightyFix is featuring these snazzy Lunchskins. Made from European pastry bags, they are lightweight, moisture-proof, and dishwasher-safe. Each MightyFixer gets one sandwich size and one snack size, which is fantastic if you’re gearing up for the lunch packing season.

Because they’re a rock star partner, MightyNest is offering a MightyFix deal to all Food in Jars readers. If you sign up using the widget below in the next two weeks, you’ll get August’s fix (the Lunchskins!) for free.

And, if your lunch gear needs a refresh (or you need a few more Lunchskins, so that there’s no fighting over who gets it in their lunch today), you could add some containers like these or these to your order, without paying a cent more in shipping (I do so love a bargain).

Each item featured in the MightyFix will be money saving (because it will replace a disposable product), easy to clean (a must for things that come in contact with food), and will be plastic-free (no funky chemical leaching). And with anything you buy on MightyNest, they’ll donate 15% of your purchase back to the school of your choice.

I took my sandwich-sized Lunchskin out for a test drive on Tuesday. I was teaching a class that was a two-hour drive away and so packed myself a simple dinner to eat in the car on the way home. I had a couple pieces of fruit, some cashews for munching, and a peanut butter and plum jam sandwich on whole wheat.

The Lunchskin kept my sandwich fresh for hours. I wiped it out with a damp, soapy sponge when I got home and perched it on a wooden spoon in the dish drainer. By morning, it was dry and ready to hold a sandwich again. I’m hopeful that I’ll never have to buy a box of plastic sandwich bags again.

Disclosure: MightyNest is a Food in Jars sponsor. They sent me the gear you see pictured here at no cost to me. However, every word I said about the MightyFix comes from the heart. I think it’s a really nifty program and I’m seriously tempted to subscribe. I’ve already bought a gift subscription to my sister, who has two young boys who are incredibly hard on things like lunch containers and water bottles. 

Related Posts:

August Sponsors: Cuppow, iLids, Mason Jar reCAP, Fillmore Container, and More!
Links: Berry Jams and Cucumber Soup
Home Canned Peaches in Fruit Juice + MightyNest Giveaway

Marinated Red Peppers with Cooking up a Story

Photo courtesy of Cooking up a Story

Last summer when I was traveling to promote Preserving by the Pint, I filmed a few short videos with Rebecca Gerendasy from Cooking up a Story. Earlier this week, she posted the final video from that shoot. In it, I demonstrate how to prepare and preserve a few roasted red peppers.

The finished video, along with the recipe, can be found over at Cooking up a Story.

Related Posts:

Canning with Taste of Home Cooking School & Cooking Up a Story
Upcoming Events: New York! Philadelphia! Lancaster County!
Upcoming Events: Philadelphia! Short Hills, NJ! Hudson, NY!