Hot Mustard Relish

I came home after a week away to find all sorts of things ready to use in the garden: hot red peppers, cucumbers, tomatillos, zucchini, green beans. I made a batch of mustard pickles with red pepper and onions I had on hand with freshly gathered green beans, cucumbers, and tomatillos.

We liked the flavor of the mustard sauce so much, I decided to throw together a mustard relish heated by some of the hot red peppers.

Hot Mustard Relish Makes 9-11 half pint jars.
2-4 hot red peppers (even more if your peppers are somewhat mild or you like it really hot!) with seeds and membrane removed
2 sweet red peppers
1 sweet green pepper
6-8 tomatillos
6-8 cucumbers (if seedy, remove seeds)
3 cups chopped onions (3-4 med - to - large onions)
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons mustard powder
1/3 cup organic sugar (or light brown sugar)
4-6 teaspoons pickling salt (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/4 cup white vinegar

I ran all the vegetables through my food processor. Add more tomatillos and cucumbers if needed to get a final quantity of a generous 8 cups. Taste for heat as you add the hot peppers and they blend through the vegetable mix. It is far easier to add more peppers than cope with a relish that is too hot!

Prepare your jars and lids. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine the spices, sugar, salt, flour, and vinegar. Cook until thickened. Add the processed vegetables -- you may want to keep back some of your hot peppers so you can adjust the heat. Simmer gently for about five minutes to blend flavors and develop the relish's heat.

Ladle into hot jars, leaving a generous 1/2 inch head space. Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

Tomato Stock

This is a pantry basic for me. I fire-roast my tomatoes and drain off liquid (see my post on passata) from them to make it. It certainly cuts down the boiling-down time to produce tomato sauce! I usually produce 1 pint of tomato stock for every 2 pints of tomato sauce (this is still some boiling down) I put up.

You can refrigerate the drained liquid for several days if you're accumlating it from several small batches of sauce making.

Recipe for Tomato Stock

12 cups of drained tomato liquid
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 c fresh basil
1 small onion, cut up
1-2 stalks of celery, cut up
1/2 c parsley
other herbs to taste: tarragon, hot pepper, oregano
Bottled lemon juice or citric acid for jars

Put 1 cup of the liquid in the blender. Add the seasoning ingredients. Puree.

Put the rest of the liquid into a pot. Add the seasoning puree. Salt to taste. Prepare your jars as you heat the stock to boiling; you can simmer it for 5 to 10 to develop flavours for your tasting and adjusting.

For each pint jar, use one tablespoon of lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid for acidification (double amount for quart jars). Pour stock into jars, seal, and process 35 minutes for pints, 40 minutes for quarts.

Fire-Roasted Passata

Passata from its Italian name: passata di pomodoro, when tomatoes have been "passed" through a sieve to remove seeds and lumps.


I bought a bottle of Del Monte passata this summer and really enjoyed its versatility and "closer to fresh" taste. Unadorned in the bottle, it combines well with any kind of pesto to make a sauce for pizza or pasta. It is thicker than tomato juice or canned tomatoes but not as thick as tomato paste.

Most home processing of tomatoes requires a boiling off of tomatoes to thicken their consistency for sauce. I use a method that involves fire-roasting, drainage, and passing through an Italian-type tomato press to remove the liquid.

Equipment: grill (with cover), tongs, large colander, bowl of sufficient size to hold the colander, masher (optional), spoon for scooping, pot or bowl for pulp transfer if you can't set your sieving device next to your draining setup, Italian tomato press (a large food mill would also work but is more effort), container to hold strained pulp.

Tomatoes and their washing: I use Roma tomatoes for all my preserving. I can obtain a bushel at a time from local grocers or the farmers market in my area. A quarter bushel will yield 6 to 8 pints of passata and 2-3 pints of tomato stock -- yield depends on tomato size and dryness (due to the season's weather). Ripe Romas make the best passata. They also roast quickly and pass through your sieving device easily. I wash the tomatoes in cool water to which I've added a tablespoon or two of vinegar. This will kill mold spores and bacteria on the tomatoes in case you have hold any of the steps over night.

Fire-roasting: I do this on a gas grill. It can be done on a charcoal grill as well -- I imagine there would be more "fire flavour" in the result. You can also roast tomatoes in the oven, but it's too hot where I live to do at the time of tomato harvest. I roast the tomatoes under cover until they are lightly browned on both sides or until they soften and begin to bubble a bit. You don't want them so soft that they fall apart as you lift them from the grill.

Draining: Put the tomatoes in a colander over a bowl. You want them to cool before putting them through your sieving device anyway. If properly cooked, they will flatten on themselves and begin to release some of their juice. Stir to promote this; mashing also helps. I let one batch drain while I load my grill with the next batch.

Sieving: Once the roasted tomatoes have reduced in volume by a quarter to a third, spoon into your sieving device or the vessel to transfer the pulp to your sieving device. Your device will take out the seeds and skins (which can be composted) and leave you with an unseasoned puree of sauce consistency.

Don't throw out the juice you drained. It makes a wonderful gazpacho base or canned tomato stock for winter soups.

Processing: Once you've sieved all your tomatoes, measure the puree to determine how many jars you'll need. Prepare them and heat the puree just to boiling. Put a tablespoon of bottled lemon juice in each pint jar (double it for quarts), fill with puree with at least a half inch head space. Process pints for 35 minutes, quarts for 40.

Orangey Canned Beets

I bought beets because I want them for winter. I also wanted them with an orangey flavour. This was going to be easy to do because I have dried orange peel and some orange oil. I thought caraway would be nice too and I threw in some green peppercorns for a bit of a bit.



Recipe for Orangey Canned Beets

8 cups cooked, peeled, sliced beets
3 cups white vinegar
2/3 c water
1/2 c organic sugar (more if you really have a sweet tooth)
1 tablespoon dried orange peel
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
2 teaspoons green peppercorns
a few drops of orange oil if you have (to taste)

Put your peel, caraway and peppercorns in a large tea ball or a cheese cloth bag. Place in pot with the vinegar, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes (prepare your jars while doing this). Add orange oil to taste if using.

Take out the spices and add the beets to the vinegar brew. Bring to a boil. Put in jars, leaving at least 1/2 inch headspace once topped up with brew. For pints, process 30 minutes. I had quarts, so I processed 35.

Rhubarb After Wine

... when you make rhubarb wine, you have shrunken, lightly sweetened rhubarb pieces left in your strainer.  They could be composted.  I tasted one -- just the right amount of sweetness (most of the sugar used in extracting the juice is in the juice). 

I really like the rhubarb-elderberry flavor combo I'm using in the wine.  I've got some elderberries frozen in the freezer.  The rhubarb chunks and a cup of elderberries went into my 2 quart glass measure (nice deep sides and a handy handle) and into the microwave.  First for three minutes, another three minutes, and then two (microwave wattages vary, so break up cooking times the first time out with something -- you can add more time to cook more, you can't undo overcooking).  The rosy hue of the rhubarb deepened,  a lot of the chunks held their shape with some saucing, and the result tasted divine over sourdough waffles with yogurt on top.  On the weekend away at a potluck breakfast I found it went equally well with yogurt on granola.  People also ate it as a side.  It was universally loved.

On the next batch of wine,  I cooked the sauce on the stove and canned it.

Rhubarb-Elderberry Sauce  (makes 5 half-pints)

6 cups rhubarb chunks (juice extracted via sugar)
1 cup elderberries (frozen is fine)
5 half-pint jars

1. Clean and heat jars as for any canning.
2. Cook the rhubarb and elderberries together.  The sauce is done when remaining juice in the rhubarb and juice from the elderberries combine and make a lightly gelled base for the softened fruit.  It will soften more during processing.
3. Spoon into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.  Use a knife or spatula to get out air pockets.
4. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  
5. Remove, cool, check that seals are made, label and store.

If you are making two batches of wine (two gallons) at the same time or a few days apart (store the chunks from the first batch in the refrigerator), you can double the recipe and put it into pint jars.  The water bath processing should then be 20 minutes.

A Rose from Rhubarb?

... wine that is!

Two years I began make a rose (don't know how to do the accent here -- it's pronounced "rose-ay") wine from rhubarb with the addition of black raspberries to colour it that delicate pink and give it a flavour lift as well.  I didn't get to drink any of it the first year because local teenagers explored my basement when we left the back door unlocked and made of with it!  After upping our house security and putting potables under lock and key as a backup, I've got 20 bottles of rose wine to enjoy in coolers, cooking, and straight sipping.

This year I had leftover canned elderberry juice and white grape juice (from my own shrubs and vines), so I've begun using those instead.  The elderberry juice adds the needed colour and both deepen the flavour dimension of the wine.

Equipment you'll need:

• kitchen scale -- you do have to weigh the rhubarb and sugar
• 6 qt stainless steel pot with cover
• a second bowl or pot for the straining step
• 2 quart measure
• fine-mesh strainer
• glass gallon jug  (clean and sterile)
• fermentation lock to fit the jug's mouth

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 - 3 lbs rhubarb
• 2 1/2 lbs white sugar  (this produces a dry wine )
• 1 cup elderberry juice
• 2 cups white grape juice
• 2 quarts filtered water
• 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (provides elements for the yeast not in the rhubarb)
• 1/2 packet of wine yeast (champagne type is good because it sinks to bottom of your jug)

Steps:

1. Gather rhubarb, wash, slice 1/2" thick.  Put 2 and half pounds of it (or up to three pounds) in the steel pot.
2. Add 2 and half pounds of sugar to the pot.  More sugar will make a sweeter wine, but no more than three pounds is advisable. 
3. Stir the sugar through the rhubarb and cover.
4. Leave for 24 hours,  stirring it every few hours.  The sugar will draw the juice from the rhubarb. 
5. Strain the juice from the rhubarb.
6. Put the rhubarb back into the empty pot,  add two cups of  filteredwater,  stir throroughly and strain again.  Do this twice. You're trying to get all the sugar and juice out.
7. Measure the amount of liquid you now have.  Add the juices.  Top up with more filtered water to make a gallon.  Rhubarb liquid + elderberry juice + white grape juice + filtered water = 1 gallon.
8. Heat to lukewarm.  Add yeast nutrient and yeast.
9. Pour into the gallon jug.  Set up your fermentation lock with some filtered water with a little bit of bleach or sulphite in it -- be careful not to overfill!  Insert the fermentation lock into the jug's mouth.
10. Let ferment 6 weeks in a coolish (less than 72 degrees F. but more than 60) dark place.  If fermentation takes place at more than 75 degrees,  you'll get a "lighter fluid" taste to your wine.
11. Check that fermentation is done:  jiggle the jug and no bubbles should come up through the fermentation lock.
12. Sterlize 5 750 ml bottles  (I use Perrier bottles I collect from household recycle bins in the neighborhood -- the caps are fine for this wine).  Use a tube siphon to tranfer the wine from the jug to the bottles.  You want to leave behind the yeast sediment at the  bottom of the jug. 
13. Cap and label.  Store in a cool, dark place for at least four months.  
14. When using, carefully decant into another bottle to leave behind any yeast that may have settled during the storage period.

Tomorrow:  what to do with the shrunken rhubarb after the juice is extracted

Turning 1 Pound of Butter into 12 dozen cookies

I found this great recipe a couple of years ago on the Internet. Of course I've lost the link. But I decided to give it a try this year since earlier this fall I bought a pound of unsalted butter in stick form on special. The basic recipe calls for one stick of butter and makes three dozen cookies. I also wanted to make cookies with the cookie stamps I have: a tree of life, a dove, and flower/sun. I used one stick of butter for some oatmeal cookies earlier in the week.

Here's the basic recipe:
Cream together in a bowl: 1 stick of unsalted butter, 3/4 cup of organic sugar (or use yellow, brown or white). Beat in 1 large egg and 1 tsp vanilla. This goes fast if you can use an electric mixer.

Mix together the dry ingredients in another bowl: 2 cups white whole wheat flour or unbleached flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 tsp sea salt.

Add the dry ingredients gradually to the butter/sugar mixture and blend well. I used a wooden spoon for this.

Preheat your over to 350 deg F. Line cookie sheets with silicon sheets (or parchment paper).
You can form your cookies by rolling them out, slicing them from a log, or forming into balls that you press flat with a cookie stamp. The first two methods require you to chill the dough, which make the cookie stamp method appealing. Whatever method you use, bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookie edges lightly brown. They will firm up more as they cool on a wire rack.

Cookie stamping: form the dough into balls and place on your prepared cookie sheet. Press flat with the cookie stamp. The cookie should go to the edges of the stamp and be about a quarter-inch thick.

Additional variations: It's nice to have a variety of cookies at holiday time, I think, so I tried two of the variations to the recipe.

Chocolate Mocha Cookies: Add 1 tablespoon of instant coffee and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the dough. I used two tablespoons less of the flour so they wouldn't be too dry.

Ginger Spicy Cookies: Substitute 1/4 cup of molasses for 1/4 cup of sugar. Add 1 teaspoon of ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon of allspice to the dough. You might want to add two tablespoons more of flour as well so the dough will be less sticky. I had to flour the glass cookie stamp I used so the cookies wouldn't stick to it.

Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies: Add 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 c finely chopped pecans (I would try pecan meal in these) to the dough and drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto your cookie sheets.

A Thermal Cooker Trifecta

Soup This past Sunday was the Quaker potluck in a space that doesn't have a stove, though it does have electrical. Rather than get out my crock pot, I used my thermal cooker for soup. It also had the advantage of being a deeper pot so there is less likelihood of leakage while transporting. Another Friend brought chili in an oval crockpot and he had some mess to clean up.

The soup was based on the harvest I have on hand: tomatoes ripening in newspaper, delicta squash in storage, canned tomato stock, lightly salted vegetable stock, dried chard, and dried zucchini slices. I add some mixed dal and curry and produced a hearty, warming soup for lunch. After bringing it all to a boil, I set the pot in the vacuum sleeve, closed the insulated lid, and went for an hour long walk. I checked the seasoning when I got back, brought it to a boil again, and set up for Meeting. The soup cooked through meeting and announcements and all but two servings was joyfully consumed. I put those two servings in the fridge and rinsed out the cooker preparatory to its next use.

Rice Once I got my thermal cooker and found out how easy it was to cook rice in it, I donated my rice cooker to a thrift store. It was also far easier to clean and you never have to worry about it burning. It takes 45 minutes to cook brown rice in the cooker. Just bring 2 cups of rice in 3 cups of water to a boil, set it in the sleeve, cover and forget it. Supper got a little bit delayed, but the rice stayed fluffy in the cooker. We always use leftover rice in fried rice, under stir-fries, or perhaps even in a rice pudding. After supper I put the remaining rice in a container and cleaned out the cooker for its next use.

Steel-cut oats Usual recipes for steel-cut oats (the oat grains are cut into pieces rather than rolled flat) call for a half-hour boil. There is also the ease with which the oats will cling and burn to the bottom of your pot. I used the same proportions of water and oats as called for: 4 parts water to 1 part oats and did up 2 cups of steel-cut oats for a week of breakfasts. I also added hemp hearts, nutritional yeast, ground flax seed, and wheat germ (a round teaspoon of each per quarter cup of oats) as I do for my usual oatmea. I brought this to a boil and set the pot in the vacuum sleeve, closing the lid. After 4 hours they were nicely cooked through. It was bedtime then, so I simply took the pot out of the sleeve and set it in our "walk-in" fridge (the enclosed porch in December - March).

I moved the finished oats to containers this morning (Tuesday) so I could used the thermal cooker for tonight's supper of Southwestern stew. To used the oats, I microwave them for 2 minutes with fruit then top with some yogurt -- a very hearty, rib-sticking breakfast!

First,, cut a delicta squash in half lengthwise...

That's how my session in making squash granola begins. Kathie's recipe is an adaptation of one that uses applesauce. I, in turn, adapted hers to what I have on hand.

When I cut open a delicta squash (commonly called a sweet potato squash here in southern Ontario), I get a half cup of seeds or more. I save all my squash seeds, because you can toast them for a lovely snack, hulls and all. You can also use them instead of bought-at-the-store pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds). Sesame seeds make me gassy, so I substitute half a cup of ground golden flax seed and half a cup of oat bran for those. I did use sunflower seeds as called for in the recipe. I didn't have any brown rice syrup, but I did have a can of date syrup from Syria.

I wasn't making the granola just for myself. I have two friends on wheat-free diets and cans of this granola will be in their Christmas bags from me. I added coconut flakes, dried cranberries and raisins to fancy it up a bit.

So to start, I cut a squash in half and take out the seeds. I set them on a plate to dry after pulling them off the fibrous stuff and rinsing them for the next batch of granola. I use seeds from previously cooked squash for this batch. I cut the squash in 3/4 inch slices and put them in a covered glass dish with some water. Ten minutes in the microwave cooks them. I let them cool while I get everything else together. I scoop the squash from the rind and mash it for the granola. I usually get over a cup of mashed squash; what I don't use for the granola will go into soup, pancakes, cookies, or waffles.

Here's my recipe:

Mix the following dry ingredients together in a bowl:
5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup dried squash seeds
1/2 c ground golden flax seed (I use a coffee grinder to do this)
1/2 c oat bran
1 cup coconut flakes -- break up long pieces
2 tsp cinnamon

Mix the following wet ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a boil:
3/4 c cooked, mashed orange squash
1/2 c honey
1/3 c date syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil

Pour over the dry ingredients and mix well. I can fit this into one fairly large lipped cookie sheet (or "jellyroll pan", though I never make any cake in it), but you may need two pans. Bake in a 300 deg F oven for 45 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.

After it is baked, add the fruit:
3/4 c dried cranberries
3/4 c raisins

This makes three coffee tins (originally holding 12 - 16 oz of coffee) of granola. You can also put it into pint jars. I'll probably do that to put them by for the summer!

Drinking Rhubarb...

The rhubarb is still growing because I water it if there's been more than 4 days without rain and I only pick a third of it when I do pick it.

We went away to the southwest the last week of July and first of August. I picked the rhubarb before we left and stuck it in the freezer. When we got back, it was ready to pick again and I got enough for a gallon of wine, 4 pint jars of drink concentrate, and a 9"x13" crisp.

I had a gallon of rhubarb wine fermenting: it was the batch that I made with some elderflowers steeped in it. It was actually ready to bottle and tasted quite fine; it should be really nice by Christmas. I've been making concentrate with some spearmint steeped in it, so I did the same for this batch of wine. The spearmint had grown like crazy too. Half of what I picked went into the new batch of concentrate.

I bottled up the first batch of rhubarb wine in glass bottles. This middle batch I put into 2 liter plastic bottles that I'll decant later into bottles I empty from wine I have on hand.

I have about 24 pints of drink concentrate on basement shelf. In this hot summer I've managed to already drink up what I made last year. I'll probably use a half dozen pints before fall really sets in. It's a very low calorie refresher (1 pint has 1/4 c organic sugar; 1 pint makes 8 12 oz glasses of beverage -- less than 2 tsp of sugar per glass). Its sweetness is much less than that of any commercial iced tea or lemonade. I get a slight lift from what sugar is in it, but not enough to raise my metabolism (make me hotter!).

The rhubarb wine is a like a dry, light white wine. The batches with elderflower steeping or spearmint steeping will probably make good spritzers.

I love drinking rhubarb!

Rhubarb and Raspberries

Well, the last of the first flash of black raspberries is done. By hoarding pickings in the freezer, I was able to accumulate enough for a gallon of black raspberry melomel (honey-based fruit wine) as well as a hearty mixed raspberry shortcake on my son's birthday. The very last picking went into bumbleberry spread.

I tried making a berry spread earlier this summer based on apple juice concentrate and no sugar. The strawberries washed out in colour and it took a long time to cook down.

Some low-sugar fruit spread are based on apples (so it's more like a fruit + apple butter), but local apples don't come in until mid-August (green ones, too).

I have a six plant rhubarb row. When I pick a third of it, I have enough rhubarb for 4 pints of rhubarbade concentrate plus a small rhubarb crisp, or 4-6 jars of rhubarb sauce plus some left over rhubarb sauce. I love rhubarbade as a summer drink that is an alternative to lemonade or iced tea. Making it this year I used up some runny orange marmelade that had been sitting on my preserves shelves. I also steeped elderflowers in the concentrate before its final heating and jarring. Once or twice I threw in a handful of black raspberries to cook with the stalks.

The first few batches I threw the leftover pulp once the juice is extracted into my compost. Then my frugal nature clicked in and I thought: this pulp is already cooked, it is smooth, it is acidic but not overly so and its flavor is mellowed down. Why not use it as a neutral base for fruit spread? I put it in the fridge and when I produced some cherry pulp a few days later from making the cherry melomel base, I combined the two with some additional sugar and produced a rhubarb-cherry spread. This will be excellent over waffles or in the middle of cookie bars.

Then I made a rhubarb BBQ sauce with it. And two batches of bumbleberry spread. "Bumbleberry" is simply any mixture of berries. The first mix was strawberries and black raspberries The second mix was black raspberries, a lot of blueberries, cherries, and a few red raspberries. I use a cup of sugar per 4 half/pint jam jars. This is much less than regular jam recipes, but enough to preserve the berry color in the spread.

Here's the recipe for the first batch:
3 - 3 1/2 c rhubarb pulp
3/4 c. black raspberries
1/2 c. strawberries
3/4 c. raw sugar (more to taste if pulp not sweet)
1/4 c. lemon juice (to ensure enough acid)

Mash berries with sugar and lemon juice. Heat to a boil, gradually adding rhubarb pulp. Add more sugar to taste if needed.

Put into 4 half-pint jars, being sure to remove any air pockets, with 1/2 inch head space. Process 15 minutes.


Last year we had rain all summer and I had rhubarb all summer. It looks like the same is happening this year. Last year all I preserved was rhubarb sauce that I'm still eating. This year I have a lot more useful items on my preserve shelves!

Shipwreck BBQ Sauce

What do cranberry mustard, apple-rhubarb chutney, spicy tomato sauce, roasted red pepper spread, runny orange marmalade all have in common besides their original recipes being in the Bernardin home preserving book? They're ideal components for a shipwreck BBQ sauce for ribs, chicken, pork, and tofu!

"Shipwreck" originally was a way of using up odds and ends in the fridge. The first iteration of the sauce was just that. I also had some chipolote ketchup and mesquite smoke on hand that I could throw in. I made up about half a cup of sauce which was great for ribs for two in the crock pot.

Then I thought about the odds and ends I had in my canning pantry that would be entering their second or third year on the shelf -- and I still had some remains of odds and ends in the fridge. And my husband said he wanted that sauce again on the next batch of ribs and he thought it would go great on chicken. So I put together 6 cups of sauce and canned it in 3 half-pints and 6 quarter-pints. The half-pints are ideal for the occasional 2-person crock pot meal in the winter. The half-pints are for company meals.

Ingredients
1 pint of spicy tomato sauce
1 pint of apple-rhubarb chutney (or another chutney)
1/2 pint of roasted red pepper spread
2 tablespoons cranberry mustard (or other mustard)
1/3 c orange marmalade

Method
Combine the above in a deep bowl and blend with an immersion blender. You can also just do the chutney, marmalade, and mustard in a regular blender and combine with the two sauces in a bowl. Now taste. Need more spice? Add something like chipolote ketchup (which will add a small touch of sour). Need more sour? Add malt or apple cider vinegar. Like it smoky? Add any smoke flavoring you have on hand (one drop at a time! -- then retaste).

When you're satisfied with your blend, you'll probably have about 6 cups of sauce. Prepare your jars while slowly bringing the sauce to simmering boil. Fill jars, seal, and process for 10 minutes.