Notes from my Freshman Canning Summer
Last year's canning stockpile
Preserving is addictive. I started canning with a rhubarb jam that I had been thinking of and before I knew it I was ordering pound after pound of rhubarb from Bailey’s. When strawberry season hit, I knew I was in trouble. I made so much jam last summer that I sold a lot of it at a Christmas craft and jewelry get together that my mom held at the end of November. I remember being in the kitchen sweating over my stove berating myself about why I have bought so much fruit and then ordering more the next day.
I was on a very steep learning curve last year. I can be a bit fearless in the kitchen so I did take some chances with reducing the amount of sugar in the jam that I made but I did do a lot of reading and saw that if you are using high acid fruit then it is fine to reduce the sugar in jam. The main caveat is to use enough sugar so that the jam sets.
I learned a lot last year and there are now quite a few things that I did or made last year that I will not be repeating. I decided to write a post that discussed some of my mistakes and some of the things that worked the way they were supposed to but I was just not happy with. There are many jams and preserves that I made last year that will be repeated this year with the odd tweak. There are also many preserves that I made last year that I will not be bothering with this year.
Won’t be doing again
Pie Filling with Clear Gel: I had read about people canning pie filling so I thought that I would give it a try. I sourced some Clear Gel at a bulk food store near me and got to it. I thought that peach and blueberry would make a nice mix, so I made a batch, following some instructions that I found online. The first problem that I ran into was that the filling expanded in the water bath canning process and pretty much overflowed the jar.
That pissed me off so I decided I needed to try again. The second time it worked but still expanded more than I wanted. It was then that I fully understood that the mixture of the juice from the fruit and the Clear Gel was creating this thick glue-like mixture. The processing with the water bath was extracting more juice from the fruit which would then mix with the Clear Gel and create more nasty glue. This mixture resembled nothing that I would make a pie with. When I make a pie it is basically loads of fruit held together with a little bit of a thickening agent. Others may get different results but what I got was mushy fruit that was barely indistinguishable from the thick fruity glue that the juice from the fruit and Clear Gel made.
What I learned from this was that if you want to made a pie you are much better off making a simple fruit preserve and thickening it with corn starch when you go to make a pie. The best option is to freeze the berries or stone fruits and bake the pie with the frozen fruit. I mix frozen berries with sugar and corn starch and add it to the prepared pie crust. I will do a post some time soon with how I make a pie. I must confess that I am not an expert but the pies that I make get rave reviews.
Pomona’s: There really wasn’t anything wrong with Pomona’s Pectin but I probably just won’t bother. I don’t have nearly as much time on my hands this year since I work full time. This means that my experimenting will be much more limited. The texture of the jam when using Pomona’s reminded me of gelatin, so I didn’t love that.
Peaches: Since peeling peaches is a supreme pain in the ass, I won’t bother making very much peach jam since I much prefer preserved peaches.
Agave Syrup/Nectar: Last summer I was all about the agave nectar but I have been doing some reading lately and there is some controversy about how healthy agave actually is. I am not a nutritionist so I will not be rendering an opinion on the debate. What I will do is stick with what I feel comfortable with – using sugar and honey in my preserves. As much as I can I will use organic granulated sugar but I will not be fanatical about it. I will be fanatical about using local honey and I encourage you to do the same.
Preserves to make more of
- peaches in honey and vanilla bean syrup
- preserved cherries (hopefully the season is better this year)
- lots of rhubarb jam
- peach juice (as used in Honey Vanilla Peach Margarita)
Preserves to try
- rhubarb syrup
- honey peach & vanilla bean juice (as used in my new favourite cocktail)
- conserves (all sorts)
- ketchup
- barbeque sauce
- plum preserves
- preserved apricots
I am sure that I will think of more preserves to try this summer and my husband will just shake his head and walk away when I am still up at 11:30 filling jars and putting them in the canning pot. There will probably be other times when I have to call him up to help me peel peaches (Simon – you have been warned).
Part of my learning experience last year had to do with finding sources for all the fruit that I wanted to preserve. I did not want to get any fruit to preserve from the grocery store because I wouldn’t really be sure where it came from or how fresh it was. I am lucky to live in Waterloo Region where there are wonderful sources for local produce.
Here is a list of some of the sources of local produce in Waterloo Region that I have discovered so far. It is by no means exhaustive but it is a good start.
Herrle’s Country Farm Market: My favourite spot for strawberries. I was at that store about once a week for strawberries and a myriad of other locally sourced fruit and vegetables.
Martin’s Family Fruit Farm: This is where I found black raspberries. Naturally, this is where I get my apples as well. I often go there to get veggies as well since it is close to my house.
Bailey’s Local Foods: This is a great source for all local fruit and vegetables. I did get some strawberries from here last summer as well as blueberries. I would bulk buy rhubarb and I plan on doing the same this year. This is also one of my best sources for local honey.
The Petters: This was my source for orchard fruit. They drive down to Niagara and pick up the ordered fruit from Palatine Fruit & Roses. I ordered a great variety of peaches and plums. I plan on ordering cherries and apricots this year in addition to peaches and plums.
I will continue my love affair with putting honey and vanilla bean in my preserves this summer. Some things that you are unlikely to find on this blog is a collection of pickles recipes. I am a recovering picky eater and in general, I don’t like pickles. My mom asked me to make salsa last year, but I don’t like jarred salsa and I won’t make something that I am unwilling to taste. I have a fierce aversion to any chunky tomato sauce. I buy San Marzano but I put them in the food processor to eliminate the chunks before adding them to whatever I am making.
I can’t believe I got to the end of this post without giving a huge Thank You to the people over at Punk Domestics. Finding that site was a major source of inspiration and the community that they have built there is very welcoming. I follow quite a few people on Twitter that I discovered through that site and they were very helpful when I threw questions to the wind when I was running into canning troubles. I am also very grateful that Sean accepted many of my recipes to include on Punk Domestics. If you are interested in reading what home preservers are doing, experts and amateurs, then a visit to Punk Domestics is a must.
2 comments May 9, 2012
Baby Arugula Salad with Prosciutto, Shaved Parmesan and Balsamic Vinaigrette
Baby Arugula salad with shaved Parmesan, Prosciutto and a simple Balsamic Vinaigrette that stays emulsified for days
This is my absolute favourite salad to make. I enjoy other salads that are more difficult to put together but I very seldom make them at home – I leave that for restaurants. This salad is so simple and so satisfying that I find that it is enough for a meal for two.
You needn’t worry about getting Prosciutto di Parma from the gourmet deli, although for the salad in the picture I did use the good stuff from Vincenzo’s. I usually make this with the pre-sliced, packaged prosciutto from the deli section at the grocery store. Getting Parmigiano-Reggiano wedges is an absolute must. Again, you needn’t make a special trip to the gourmet store, the vacuum packed Parmigiano-Reggiano at the grocery store works just fine. What would ruin this salad to the point of it being inedible would be to sprinkle pre-grated parmesan cheese over the salad. Yes, that is the food snob in me speaking but just trust me on this.
The vinaigrette for this is also very simple. It is just balsamic vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. What is different about the dressing is that it stays emulsified for days and it is all in the technique. The trick is to whisk the mustard into the vinegar with the salt and pepper and then slowly add the olive oil, whisking constantly. It is like you are making a mayonnaise but it is slightly more forgiving than mayo. I am including exact measurements for the oil and vinegar in this recipe because it covers the arugula with just the right amount.
Whisk the mustard into the vinegar until it is completely mixed in. Then slowly add the olive oil, dribble by dribble, whisking constantly until it is all combined. What you get is a dressing that stays emulsified for days.
I chose to include a photo with the mustard on the whisk because I wanted to show what type of whisk I use to make this. I strongly recommend a very small whisk like this to avoid frustration when making this dressing if you are trying to get it to stay emulsified. If you only have a regular size whisk then just make a larger amount and use a bowl that will allow you to whisk vigorously.
This little whisk is a Nigella Lawson brand tool and it is something I bought with a gift card I received as a wedding gift. When we got married over 7 years ago we were a pair of broke-ass, newlyweds living in dingy a basement apartment (with a lovely landlady who lived upstairs). Doing things like buying a magazine at the time was an unthinkable luxury but I read them for free because I was working at Chapters (still my favourite store). Most of the Nigella Lawson line of kitchenware was completely out of my price range, even with a gift card, but I could buy this little whisk. Every time I use it, it brings me back to that time in our lives and it reminds me to go have a read through one of Nigella’s books. Oh, how I love her..
Nigella is my food hero the way that Julia Child is to many. I love her sloppiness, her overt greediness toward food and frankly, I love everything about her kitchen in the Nigella Bites series. I believe I was traumatized by the near complete lack of natural light in that basement apartment so now I am drawn to not only kitchens with lots of light, but white kitchens. If you watched any of Nigella’s cooking shows you will recall that she has a white kitchen with a wall of windows. Some time in the near future I will write a post extolling Nigella and all she does.
| Baby Arugula Salad with Prosciutto, Shaved Parmesan and Balsamic Vinaigrette |
- 1 five ounce package of pre-washed Baby Arugula
- 4-6 slices prosciutto, torn into bite size pieces
- 2 oz (approximately) Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (Parmesan), shaved
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
- pinch of salt and pepper
- In a small bowl, mix the balsamic vinegar with the salt, pepper and mustard until well combined using a small whisk.
- While whisking continuously, add the olive oil to the vinegar in small dribbles, making sure that each dribble of oil is emulsified with the vinegar before adding more oil.
- In a large bowl, toss the vinaigrette with the baby arugula until the arugula is coated pretty evenly.
- Tear the prosciutto into bite sized pieces and lay over top of dressed arugula.
- Using a vegetable peeler, shave as much Parmesan cheese onto the salad as you like. I use approximately 2 ounces.
- This serves 2 for a dinner salad or 4 for a generous side salad.
Add comment April 26, 2012
Carrot Cake with Honey and Cream Cheese Icing with a Gluten-Free Option
Carrot Cake Cupcakes with honey instead of white sugar!
I have been planning on posting a carrot cake recipe for quite some time. I make carrot cakes twice a year, one cake for each of my dogs’ birthdays. Don’t run away from reading this recipe – this is a human cake and I give a small piece to my dogs as a treat. Every time I would pull out the Canadian Living recipe that I used to make I would cringe at the disgusting amount of sugar and oil that the recipe calls for. I just felt that it was all really unnecessary so I was determined to do better. I’m not going to humble about this recipe – I really knocked it out of the park this time. The cake is damn near the perfect carrot cake. As a bonus, since my husband can’t have gluten any more this recipe works with gluten-free all purpose flour as well. I used Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour with a half teaspoon of Xantham Gum powder. I found this works better than the rice based gluten free all purpose flour I used before.
These cupcakes are not low fat, low sugar or low calorie by any stretch. What I did was remove the unnecessary oil and sugar and use a form of sugar that still has nutrients in it rather than the negative-nutrient white sugar. When it comes to the icing though – all bets are off. If you choose to ice these cupcakes, don’t punish yourself by using nasty artificial sweeteners. Just own it and put some good, tasty icing on the damn cupcakes. If the sugar-induced guilt gets to you though, you can add 1/4 cup of milled flaxseed to the cupcakes and nobody would be the wiser. It just blends right in. My family did not have a clue over Easter weekend that I add flaxseed to the gluten-free version of the cupcakes that I brought home to Barrie in my over-priced fancy cupcake holder that I bought from Bed Bath & Beyond that seemed an absolute necessity when I dragged my ass to the other side of town to go there a few weeks ago.
Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Honey Cream Cheese Icing
Getting the regular version of these cupcakes/cake right was easy. I tried it twice and it worked a treat both times. The gluten-free version required a bit more finessing and frankly, I was on a pretty steep learning curve. I had not adapted a recipe to have a gluten-free option before. The first time I had baked using gluten-free flour was at Christmas when I made a gluten-free pound cake for a trifle and we were drizzling Sherry on to the cake in our dishes to take some of the sweetened brick aspect away from the aptly named pound cake. Not in itself a bad thing but it was not what I was going for.
The first attempt resulted in an under-baked cake because for whatever reason, the cake tester came out clean but the centre was still in its batter form, albeit slightly heated through. I didn’t know until I cut a piece from in. Before I cut into it I was dismayed that they cake had fallen in the centre but that was not clue enough for me to realize what the problem was. The outer ring of the cake was cooked through and it tasted great and had good texture.
The second time I made it, I forgot to put the vanilla in and only realized this when the cake had been in the oven for ten minutes. Genius that I am, I thought that maybe I could mix it in anyway. No. You can not mix vanilla into a cake after it has been baking for 10 minutes. Before you think that I am a total idiot, in my defense it was 10pm on a weeknight, I work full time, I have a toddler and I had just baked 2 dozen carrot cake cupcakes with regular flour. It looked terrible but I was going to see the cake through; until I dropped the pan cake side down on the oven door when I was taking it out to test it. After a torrent of expletives, I chucked the cake in the garbage, washed the mixing bowls, measuring cups, etc. and tried again. Happily I ended up with a lovely, vanilla-included, fully baked version of the gluten-free carrot cake.
It has not gone without notice that most carrot cakes include nuts in the recipe. I loathe nuts in baked goods with a fiery passion but if you felt the need to ruin your cake with nuts, be my guest. A half a cup of chopped walnuts or pecans should do the trick.
| Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Honey and Cream Cheese Icing with a gluten-free option |
- 2 cups all purpose flour*
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 organic brown sugar
- 1/2 cup local honey
- 1/2 cup light olive oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup canned, crushed pineapple with juice
- 2 cups finely grated carrots
- 1 250 gram package of brick cream cheese, room temperature (for the icing)
- 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups icing sugar (for the icing)
- 2 tbsp local honey (for the icing)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line your baking trays with cupcake liners or grease a 9″x13″ baking dish (I use a Corningware one and I serve the cake straight from it)
- Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer (or a medium sized mixing bowl if not using a stand mixer).
- Grate carrots using the fine grater attachment of a food processor or grate the carrots by hand using a box grater and set aside.
- Add the oil to the dry ingredients. Then measure and add the honey using the same measuring cup so the honey slides out easily.
- Mix gently for 5 seconds.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix gently again for a few seconds.
- Add the carrots and pineapple and mix until they are well distributed in the cake batter.
- Spoon batter into the cupcake pan and bake for approximately 20 minutes.** Use a toothpick to test a cupcake. If it comes out clean they are done.***
- When the cupcakes are done, remove them from the pan to a rack to cool.
- While they cool, beat the softened cream cheese in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until it is smooth.
- Add the icing sugar, use only one cup of icing sugar if you prefer a slightly less sweet icing or use the full 1 1/2 cups. Beat very slowly at first so that you don’t cover your kitchen and yourself in icing sugar.
- When the icing sugar is combined with the cream cheese, add the honey and beat for 2 minutes or so.
- When the cupcakes are fully cooled, spread the icing on top of the cupcakes and serve.
*If you are making the gluten free version and are using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour you use the same amount of flour but add 1/2 tsp Xantham Gum powder. If you are using a different brand of gluten free all purpose flour then follow the directions on the box for the conversion from conventional flour to their gluten free product.
**A full size cake version will take approximately 40 minutes depending on your pan and oven. Set the timer for 35 minutes just to be on the safe side.
***When testing a gluten free version, I recommend using the tip of a knife to pierce the centre of the cake so that you can look into the cake. If it looks like it is still wet in the centre then add a few minutes to the bake time.
1 comment April 15, 2012
