Spiced blueberry pancakes

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Over the holiday break, my son had a friend who, last time he was over, I promised blueberry pancakes for breakfast. The blueberries I had on hand were of the preserved Delaware Valley College grown organic sort.  Lucky us!

During the spring and summer weeks, I usually make it to The Market at DelVal College once every week or two to stock up on locally-grown fruits and veggies.  Although some of what I purchase on these trips supplements my CSA produce for meals, I mostly go with a mission to find foods that I will preserve.  Berries and peppers are ridiculously easy to freeze, so often I’ll search for them first.

Choosing foods that are easy to put up makes the weekly chore of preservation simple and fast.  Of course, simple and fast means that my chances of burning out halfway through the season are lessened.  I like the efficiency of this system

The blueberries I used for the boys’ pancakes were purchased in June, on sale for $2.99 for two pints.  Taking them out of the freezer,  I remembered just what a fabulous idea it was to stock up on six pints of these organic, locally-grown dark blue lovelies.  They were absolutely divine, literally bursting with flavor inside the piping-hot pancakes.

Spiced Blueberry Pancakes
Serves 4 (eight pancakes)

1 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons canola or safflower oil (plus some for pan)
1/3 cup water
1 cup plain rice or soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons real maple syrup (plus some for serving)
1/2 - 3/4 cup blueberries (plus some for serving)

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Reserving the berries, add all other remaining ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add to the wet mixture to the dry mixture, taking care to not overmix.  Let batter sit for ten minutes.  Stir in berries.  Using a ladle, pour scoops of batter into a preheated, well oiled pan or skillet.  When the pancakes start to bubble (about three or four minutes, depending on their size), flip and fry the other side for a minute or two.  Stack pancakes and top with all natural maple syrup and whole blueberries.

In my kitchen, making pancakes is reserved for the less-scheduled and less-rushed weekend mornings.  I usually double or triple the recipe however, so we can eat homemade pancakes during the next couple school/work days.  You know, that way we at least have the illusion of calm and leisurely mornings.  Enjoy!

Cranberries and Daikon: perfect together

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Earlier in the week I stopped by the Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market and noticed in passing that they had Daikon radish in stock.  Daikon is a Winter radish, so I wasn’t that surprised to see it there.  But beyond making kimchi and that time I make Daikon noodles, I really don’t eat a lot of Daikon radish.

Well…I may need to reconsider.  Thanks to the genius folks over at Ideas in Food, I am now salivating over the idea of cranberry-cured Daikon radish.  Since both Daikon radish and cranberries are in season right now, this is of serious interest to me.  Now, the people at Ideas in Food used a cranberry-miso condiment out of their pantry, but I can’t imagine it would be too difficult to approximate your own miso-cranberry paste, right?  The process for making these delicious looking radishes involves packing daikon and the cranberry-miso mix in a vacuum sealed bag and letting it cure for a week.  The result is this gorgeous radish.

All sorts of thoughts are racing through my head right now.  What a neat idea for a Thanksgiving salad, no?

apple-maple jam

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

As I mentioned in my last market report, I bought twenty pounds of apples last month.  I’m still working my way through them as fresh apples or baked in crisps, but part of the reason I got so many was to preserve some of them.  On Sunday, I turned nine of them into apple-maple jam. 

Apple-Maple Jam

9 medium apples, chopped (3-4qts)
2.5 c turbinado sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t nutmeg
1 c maple syrup

This made 4 1/4 pints of very thick jam.

I cooked the apples, sugar, and spices until the apples were soft (adding them gradually, as they squished enough to fit more in the 3qt pot), then pureed them, added the maple syrup, and then canned the result in a boiling water bath.  The sugar, I think, is only important if you want to have chunks of apple suspended in jelly—I didn’t peel the apples, and I wanted a spreadable jam, so I could probably have left it out.  (If you do want apples in jelly, you may well want something closer to the 6 c of sugar called for in the original recipe.)  Alas, the only local ingredients in my jam were the apples themselves, but you could easily use local syrup, skip the sugar, and get only your spices from far away.

October Tomato Sauce

Sunday, October 28, 2007

The recent weather has kept our garden overflowing with summer crops as well as the colder weather stuff. So this morning I got out in the garden at sunrise (literally…the Sprout woke up at 4:30 and I couldn’t go back to sleep) and picked as many tomatoes as I could, as well as loads of parsley and some green beans.  I feel like I’m tempting fate by leaving this stuff in the ground so close to November, so I feel better having harvested a lot of these hot weather foods.  With at least 30 pounds of tomatoes to work with, I set out to make a big batch of sauce to divide up for the freezer. 

My method is based on Barbara Kingsolver’s recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which I highly recommend as a great read on local eating, by the way).

First, I blanch all of the tomatoes in boiling water for about three minutes to loosen the skin. As one batch is in the pot, another is draining over the sink and I’m working on coring and peeling the drained tomatoes. Then, I just throw the skinless, cored tomatoes into the food processor and puree them for a few minutes.  This whole process can take quite some time if you have a lot of tomatoes and you’re working by yourself (or with a toddler “helping”).  It’s also pretty messy, especially if, like me, you’re not the neatest cook in the world. Once all of the tomatoes are pureed, I saute some onions and garlic in olive oil, and add the tomatoes along with whatever fresh and dried herbs I feel like using.  Today I harvested bunches of parsley to freeze in cubes for the winter, so I added a lot of that as well as basil leaves whose days were numbered. Of course, lots of salt and pepper go into the pot too.

Depending on the types of tomatoes, it may take a few hours before the water cooks off a bit and the sauce is a good consistency. The smell is divine and the taste of fresh tomato sauce in January is definitely worth it.

Preserving the harvest is such an important part of eating local. I’ve seen deals on tomatoes from local sources recently, so it’s a great time to stock up even if you don’t have a garden before these gems are gone for another year.

A peck of pickled… cucumbers!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

To supplement my garden and CSA tomatoes for canning, I bought a box of tomatoes from the Shoemaker’s road side stand.

A side note here, that the link will take you to the Shoemaker’s machine shop. The family has run their welding and machining business and lived on Leidy Road since the 1950’s. It’s been as long as I can remember that they’ve sold their garden crops out front. Out here in the ‘burbs, among all the McMansions and age-restricted townhome developments, there are occasional glimpses of realness that reflect the area’s agricultural, small town roots. The several front yard road side stands in town are probably my favorite of those reflections

While I was there, I couldn’t pass up a few delicious-looking cucumbers. I don’t usually see cukes so late in the season, and my mouth was watering at the thought of a crispy cucumber sandwich.

Shortly after, when my tomatoes and I headed over to my dad’s for canning, I was surprised with a bunch of local kirby cucumbers. Thanks pops, but yikes - what to do with them all? Naturally, pickles seemed out best option, though neither of us have preserved them before.

Thank goodness for the Pickle Preservation Society (seriously, who knew?!). They have several recipes on their site, and I copied the one we used below. We went with an easy, traditional kosher recipe that required no hot-packing, and also one that utilized local ingredients we had on hand. The recipe called for dill and garlic, which I received in my CSA share that week (though the dill was not flowering as the recipe recommends). Man, I just love it when things work out like that!

Kosher Pickles: The Right Way
From Mark Bittman, New York Times

1/2 cup kosher salt
1 cup boiling water
2 pounds small Kirby cucumbers, washed, and cut into halves or quarters
5 cloves or more garlic, peeled and smashed
1 large bunch dill, if desired, fresh and with flowers OR 2 tablespoons dried dill and 1 teaspoon dill seeds, OR a tablesoon of coriander seeds

1. In a large bowl*, combine the salt and boiling water; stir to dissolve the salt. Add a handful of ice cubes to cool down the mixture, then add all remaining ingredients.

2. Add cold water to cover. Use a plate slightly smaller than the diameter of the bowl and a small weight to hold the cucumbers under the water. Keep at room temperature.

3. Begin sampling the cucumbers after 2 hours if they are quartered, 4 hours if they are halved. In either case, it will probably take from 12 to 24 hours, or even 48 hours, for them to taste “pickly” enough to suit your taste. When they are, refrigerate them, still in the brine. The pickles will continue to forment as they sit, more quickly at room temperature, more slowly in the refrigerator.

Yield: About 30 pickle quarters.

*We went with pickling in one of those giant industrial-food-sized jars instead of bowls. We tried the bowls, the jar was just way easier to manage.

These turned out quite garlicky, so next time we’d probably use only three or four cloves. I can totally see how people get into making their own “special recipe” pickles. With slight adjustments to so many different and easy-to-find ingredients (garlic, hot pepper, peppercorns, mustard seed, onion, celery, sugar), there are endless taste possibilities. This is definitely a project we’ll be doing again next season!

Busy bee!

Monday, October 08, 2007

You know that FedEx commercial?

“Worky work! Busy bee!”

God, that cracks me up

Are you a busy bee preserving some of this fantastic fall food? I’ve scheduled the last four weekends around dates with my Foodsaver and Ball jars. I’m sure there’s a joke somewhere in there.  Maybe something about “cold” versus “hot” dates? 

Anyway, so far I’ve preserved pumpkin, peppers, pears, peaches (what’s with the P theme?), butternut squash and tomatoes. Details to be forthcoming - as soon as I can slow down on all the worky work! This is the most food preservation I’ve done and I’m open to any tips, suggestions and/or recipes. Share ‘em, if you got ‘em!

You say ketchup, I saw catsup

Sunday, September 30, 2007

The table on my back patio was a sea of red as far as the eye could see.  Or, at least as much as the table would allow.  Tomatoes!  Tomatoes from my garden, tomatoes from the CSA share.  Too many tomatoes!

You know, maybe next year I’ll learn my lesson and plant a few less tomato plants.

I have made tomatoes in every conceivable way this year - sauce to salsa to dried tomatoes.  But I have not made catsup.  Until yesterday, that is.  Now I can say that I’m a catsup-making fool.

Nearly 12 pounds of tomatoes gave me two pints of ketchup.  It’s a good amount for our house - I barely eat catsup on anything, whereas my husband eats it pretty often.  After our current bottle of store bought catsup runs out, I think two pints of catsup should last us awhile.

Here’s how to make it:
4 pounds tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon allspice
1 cup vinegar

Peel tomatoes, then drop 2 or 3 tomatoes at a time into boiling water. Leave them in the water for a minute, or until the skins begin to split. Remove them to a bowl until they are cool enough to handle. Peel and chop the tomatoes, making sure to catch all the juices. Simmer tomatoes and onion in a heavy saucepan until tender, about 10 minutes.

Puree the tomato-onion mixture in a food processor and return to saucepan [if you really want that uber-smooth consistency, run the puree through a food mill before returning to the saucepan]. Add spices and vinegar and simmer on low heat, uncovered, for 2 hours, stirring frequently.

Spoon into jars and process in a water bath for 35 minutes.

For Those Short on Space

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Let’s face it, a lot of us in the city are operating in small kitchens that have limited shelf space and even more limited freezer space.  Canning and freezing fresh produce to use over the winter isn’t nearly as feasible under these conditions.  Still, you don’t want to be left out of the “eat local” revolution for six whole months until Mother Nature decides to dust off her chilly shawl.  Cooks in by-gone days solved a similar problem (their’s being more along the lines of “I have a fireplace and an ice box”) by drying much of their summer harvests.  Once vegetables are dry, they’ll keep for several months and can be used much as you would the fresh version once they’re reconstituted after a soak in hot water.  I’ll be trying my hand a various drying techniques over the next few weeks on www.straightfromthefarm.net.  Let’s start here with some corn since its season is winding down fast. 


DRIED CORN

Use fresh sweet corn, husked and silk removed with a brush.  Six ears will fill up one standard baking sheet and yield about 2 cups of dried corn.

Cut corn off the cob using a sharp knife and a shallow bowl or cutting board.  Be sure to cut as close the cob as you can to remove all the kernels and juice possible.  Line a baking sheet with foil and give it just a very light coat of nonstick spray.  Spread corn kernels out on the baking sheet into an even layer.

Turn oven onto 150 F and place tray on the middle rack.  The drying process will take several hours (up to 12, depending on the freshness and juiciness of your corn) so be sure to check on it every 2 hours or so, turning it and shaking the tray gently to loosen any kernels that are sticking together or to the tray.  You’ll begin to notice the kernels shrinking and eventually becoming much darker and hard.  When all the moisture appears to be out of the corn, remove the tray from the oven and allow to cool off completely.

By the way, if you don’t really feel like monitoring the stove for 12 hours straight, you can turn off the oven, letting the tray sit inside, for several hours and come back to it later.  Or, if you have an older gas stove with a large oven pilot light, you might not even have to turn the oven on - just leave the corn sit in there for a day or so to dry on its own.

When the dried corn is cool, place in a paper bag and hang in your kitchen to dry out any remaining moisture.  After about a week or so, transfer dried corn to a ziplock bag and store in your cupboards for use later this winter.

Apple-tomatillo chutney

Sunday, September 23, 2007

After my week of canning with my dad, Nicole asked for my recipe for apple-tomatillo chutney.  Since I’m sure a few other people would be interested, here it is.  (Please note that it’s an approximation of what we did this year.  It varies from year to year, but I have yet to encounter a version I didn’t like.)

2 qt processed* tomatillos
5 med apples, chopped & cored
1/2 c cider vinegar
1 c sugar
1 t each of mustard seeds
          cumin seeds
          coriander seeds
          fenugreek seeds
2 onions, diced
2 t cinnamon
2 t granulated garlic
1 c currants

Start by toasting the seeds and then cooking the onions to translucence.  Add the tomatillos and then the apples and the rest of the ingredients.  Cook until the apples have fallen apart, then jar and seal in a standard water bath.  I think this batch made two pints and six or eight half-pints. 

*processed=chopped and cooked enough so they won’t go bad if you leave them in the fridge a few extra days

Pickled carrots

Friday, September 21, 2007

I feel a little silly about waxing poetic about a bunch of carrots, but the carrots I picked up yesterday at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market were absolutely gorgeous!  They were fat and bright orange and weirdly shaped and the greens were fresh and just lovely.  I’ll spare you the actual poetry, but they really were fabulous.  I had to have them!

And since putting food up for the Winter is the special focus of the September Eat Local Challenge, I could not resist making these little beauties (grown by Lancaster Farm Fresh) into pickles.

If you’re anything like me, anything other cucumber pickles is sort of scary.  For me, I should say ‘was scary’.  I’m not grossed out by other kinds of pickles anymore.  But I used to hear the word ‘pickled’ and think of my grandmother’s disgusting homemade bread and better pickles (sickeningly sweet) or the wretched pickled eggs my mother makes (just plain sickening).  And let’s not forget those nasty store-bought pickled beets!  Argh!  Just this Summer, though, I found out how good pickled vegetables can really be…and now I find I crave them.

The best thing about all this is that making pickled vegetables is a total snap, and some of the stuff I need can be found in my garden.  Dill and garlic, for instance.

1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into small lengths
1/4 cup minced dill
3 large garlic cloves, sliced
pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons pickling salt
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar

Blanch the carrots for 2 minutes in boiling water, then immerse them in cold water until they have cooled.

Pack the carrots and dill into a canning jar or two. In a saucepan, bring the remaining ingredients to a boil. Pour the liquid over the carrots. Cap the jar, and let it cool to room temperature.

Refrigerate the jar for 2 days or longer before eating the carrots. Refrigerated, they will keep for at least 2 months.

Alternatively, you can give these a water bath to seal.

This jar was made last night, and I tried a pickled carrot this morning - wonderful!!

Fermentation station

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Traditionally, kimchi is a pickled vegetable buried in a clay vessel underground to ferment over the winter.  It’s classically Korean, and Americans primarily see kimchi take the form of cabbage - good, hot, pickled cabbage.  I’ve been making cabbage kimchi for years, although it is not the standard fermented variety.  Up until recently, I was a little afraid of home fermenting experiments.  With the success of the sauerkraut trial, though, I’m over it.

And so my real kimchi experiment begins!

A bunch of small Daikon radishes came in this past week’s CSA share.  What better way to use the Daikon than to make them into kimchi?

First things first: I had to find Korean ground chile paste.  A trip to the H-mart in Upper Darby provided a massive wealth of choices.  I cannot tell you what brand I purchased because the brand name is in Korean.  However, I snuck a taste at home and it was the perfect choice.  This kimchi is going to be fabulous!  I picked up a ginger root, as well, and the project was off to a great start!

So here’s the recipe:

1 head garlic (cloves separated and peeled) 2 pcs. of ginger root (1-inch) 2 Tbsp. Korean ground chile 2 Tbsp. Salt 2 large Daikons (peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes) - or in my case, one bunch of small Daikons 1 bunch of Swiss chard (chopped into 1-inch pieces) Sugar

Whirl the ginger, ground chile, salt and garlic (from my garden) in a food processor until it’s minced.  Place the chile mixture and Daikon radish (from the CSA share) in a large ziploc and mix together.  Really mush the chile mixture into the Daikon - make sure it’s absolutely covered with chile mixture.  Grab a couple of freshly sterilized canning jars (wide mouth pint jars work best for this) and load the Daikon in until the jars are about a quarter full.  Layer in some swiss chard (from the CSA share) and sprinkle a bit of sugar on top of the chard.  Layer in more Daikon until the jars are half full.  Layer in more swiss chard and sugar.  Layer in more Daikon until the jars are 3/4 full, and top with more swiss chard and sugar.  Wipe the threads of the jar to remove any bits of stuff that fell over the jar, and screw the lids on really tight.

Burying your jars underground for the Winter is not necessary for fermentation, I’m happy to say!  In fact, you need only find a dark, cool space and place your jars in there for a few days.  The kimchi should ferment within three to four days.  My recipe says not to disturb the jars while they’re fermenting, and you’ll know they’re fermenting because water will rise from the vegetables.  I made my kimchi last night and I can already see the fermentation process in action.

When the kimchi is done fermenting, refrigerate the jars.  It should last for about a month in the fridge.  I have three pints and a half pint of kimchi currently fermenting.  I love kimchi, but enough to eat four jars of it in a month?  Probably not.  My plan is to keep two jars, give one jar away to a friend, and put one jar through a water bath.  I really want to see if the texture of the Daikon is negatively affected by the water bath.  Certainly canning pickles for long-term storage is a common practice, so why not kimchi?

Baked eggplant cutlets

Monday, September 10, 2007

Eggplant was a foreign thing in my household growing up.  They were certainly available, but my mother had no idea what to do with one.  In fact, she still doesn’t - last Summer she called and asked how to make eggplant parmesan for my vegetarian cousin.  My people just don’t know from eggplant, I guess.  And while I like eggplant and do know how to prepare a mean eggplant parm, my experience with eggplant is still so limited my first instinct is always to go with what I know when faced with eggplant.

It should come as no surprise that the eggplants that came in my CSA share last week are on their way to becoming eggplant parm.

Well, sort of.  Who wants eggplant parm when it’s 90 degrees outside?  Not me.  So the eggplants are now hibernating in my chest freezer, made into baked and breaded eggplant cutlets.  So they’re halfway to eggplant parm.  I imagine that one day this Winter I will want to hug myself for thinking to have locally-grown, organic eggplant cutlets put up.

Making breaded eggplant cutlets is a breeze, but you do need to plan ahead a little.  Eggplant has a way better texture for cutlets if you salt and press the slices before breading and baking.  So slice up the eggplants about a 1/2 inch thick.  Put down a plate covered by a paper towel and put down a single layer of eggplant slices.  Sprinkle salt on the eggplant slices (I like to use sea salt for this).  Put down another layer of paper towel on top and another single layer of eggplant and salt.  Repeat until you run out of eggplant and end with a paper towel.  Now put another plate on top of that and weigh it down with something.  You don’t want to use anything too awful heavy, but something that’ll weigh down the top plate a little.  The salt will draw the water out of the eggplant and the paper towel sops up some of the extra water.  Just walk away for about an hour.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

OK, whisk and egg or two with a bit of water blended in.  Put out a plate of bread crumbs.  Depending on how much salt you used, you might want to brush some of the salt off your eggplant cutlet prior to dipping it in the egg.  And after you dip the eggplant in egg, coat the cutlet in bread crumbs.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for five minutes.  Flip the cutlets and bake another five minutes.

Let them cool, layer them on wax paper, and freeze in a freezer bag.  There you go: baked eggplant cutlets for a snowy day.

Picked a peck of roasted peppers

Sunday, September 09, 2007

The other day I mentioned to a friend that I planned to roast peppers this weekend (my kitchen is overrun with bell and hot peppers).  She was confused.  “Why would you bother?” she asked. “That’s so much work for something you can just buy in a jar at the store.”

This weird idea that cooking or canning takes so much effort and time is pervasive in people who don’t do either.  And yes, you can certainly make a bigger production out of cooking or canning than is necessary - but it can also be a simple, quick thing, too.  And roasting peppers is one of those simple, quick things.

Realizing that not everyone in the city has the space for a grill, I’ll discuss oven roasting, gas range-top roasting, and grilling for the purposes of making roasted peppers. 

Grilling.  Turn your grill up to high and coat the peppers with olive oil.  Sure you can be genteel and use a brush, but I generally just pour a little oil on my hands and rub the peppers.  It’s quicker and you get the benefit of a little olive oil bath for your hands.  Toss the peppers on the grill and wait for the peppers to get charred.  Turn the peppers so all sides get charred.
Gas range.  Turn on a burner or two on your stove top.  Make sure the flames just reach the trivet.  As with grilling, coat the peppers with oil.  Place them directly on the trivet over the open flame on the burner.  Wait for them to char and keep turning the pepper until all sides are charred.
Oven roasting.  Preheat your oven’s broiler.  Coat the peppers with oil and arrange them on a cookie sheet.  This will generally take a little longer than roasting over an open flame, but keep an eye out for the peppers to start getting charred.  Turn the peppers so all sides are charred.

In all cases, this is your next step: grab a ziploc bag and seal the hot peppers inside.  Wait at least 10 or 15 minutes and then peel the peppers - the charred skin should come off pretty easily.  Discard seeds and membrane and pepper stems.

They can be stored in a few different ways.  If you plan to eat them immediately, you can store them in oil in the fridge.  They’ll last for maybe a week or two.  For longer term storage, freeze them.  It’s easiest to freeze them in a single layer on wax paper.  Or peppers can be canned - pack jars with peppers, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace and pour in hot water and a smidgen of canning salt.  Process in a water bath for 30 minutes.

Linvilla Orchards - raspberries!

Saturday, September 08, 2007

The Linvilla website reported this morning that raspberry picking was “excellent”.  The guys working the Pick-Your-Own stand were less enthusiastic.  “These raspberries are pretty picked out.  Jump on the back of the tractor and we’ll take you up to a patch hidden next to the apples,” they advised.

Of course, the man driving the tractor had yet another opinion.  According to him, it was the last couple of rows of the regular raspberry patch that we wanted.  “No one ever looks there!” he declared.

Happily, the tractor man was right.  The husband and I picked four quarts of gorgeous raspberries this morning.  And we amazed the guys working the stand in the bargain.  “We haven’t seen that many raspberries come out of there in at least a month,” they said.  Never underestimate the picking power of two determined people with a yen for raspberries!

One of these quarts will be frozen for a nice snack mid-Winter, but three of those quarts are now raspberry jam.  And, in a nod to the September Eat Local challenge, I used a new canning method.  Well, new to me, at least.  Short cuts tend to make me a little nervous, but the idea of skipping the water bath and simply sealing cans by inverting them was too irresistible. 

All my jars of raspberry jam have sealed correctly (I heard the “ping”!), so it seems to have worked.  It took such a small amount of work that I think this would be an ideal first foray into canning for the novice.

Here’s how to do it and what you’ll need:

3 lbs. raspberries
5 cups sugar
3 oz. liquid pectin
a mess of small canning jars

OK, start with your canning jars.  Separate the lids from the jars and put everything in the dishwasher.  Set your dishwasher to its hottest setting and put them through a cycle.  Alternatively, you can give your jars a wash in hot, soapy water and keep them warm in a 200 degree oven, and placing lids in a bowl of boiling water.  The point is that you need your jars to be hot when you start packing in the jam.

Place raspberries in a sink full of cold water.  Swish your hands around in there a few times and make sure all the stems and assorted stuff is removed.  Lift the berries out of the water gently and drain.

Puree the raspberries in a blender or food processor for about 15 seconds.

Put the berries in a large saucepan with the sugar and bring to very full boil and be sure you stir constantly.  Add the pectin and return to a full boil.  Boil hard for one minute and keep stirring!

Remove the pan from heat and skim off the foam that’s floating on the top.  Immediately ladle the jam into the hot jars (you should leave about 1/8 of an inch of headspace).  Wipe off any jam that gets on the threads of the jar and screw on the lids tightly.  Turn the jars over so they’re resting on the lid for about five minutes.

Turn the jars upright and be sure to test the lids to make sure they sealed within one hour.  There you have it: homemade raspberry jam!

And if you have a jar or two that doesn’t seal, you can always put it through a water bath for five minutes.  This made five half pints and two pints of raspberry jam.

Coincidentally, if you want to try to make jam minus the pectin, I found a recipe here.

Head to Headhouse and Make this Soup

Thursday, August 30, 2007

The bounty of the much-touted Headhouse Farmers Market inspired this soup recipe.  Make a list of the ingredients and head to the market to see if you can get one item from a different stand to spread the love around.  Or, just stop by our table, Weavers Way Farm, and buy everything but the corn.  Deliciously fresh, this soup can be served hot or cold so it’ll make the transition between seasons with you.  To stock up for the colder months, buy extra fresh corn to cut off the cobs and freeze.  Then buy bushels of tomatillos to make salsa verde to also freeze or can.  That way, when winter settles in, you can call upon your stockpiles to make this hearty soup to remind you of the freshness of summer.

Corn and Tomatillo Chowder
Adated from The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Soup

2 T. peanut or corn oil
4 large shallots or 1 medium onion, diced
1 hot pepper such as Hungarian Hot Wax, diced
1 sweet pepper (purple, red or green), diced
2 ears of fresh sweet corn, kernels cut off (about 2 cups)
12 or so tomatillos
3 c. of vegetable or chicken stock
1 c. light cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper


Husk tomatillos, place in a small sauce pan and cover with water.  Place on high heat until water boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes until tomatillos loose their bright color and float to the top.

Meanwhile, heat oil in large deep skillet.  Add the diced onion and peppers, reserving a tablespoon or so of the pepper for garnish later, to the hot skillet and saute over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes until they get soft and brown on the edges.  Add the corn kernels to the skillet and saute for 2 minutes until softened and the color pales.  Finally, drain tomatillos from their hot water and add to skillet to toss with sauted vegetables.  Stir to incorporate.

Carefully pour contents of skillet into a blender (or use an immersion blender for extra ease) and process until smooth, adding a little stock if needed to loosen it up.  Transfer blended contents back to skillet and slowly add in stock over low heat.  Allow soup to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes to scrap up any corn sticking to the bottom of the skillet.

Remove skillet from heat and stir in cream.  Serve soup chilled or warm.  If serving warm, gently reheat - never allow soup to come to a boil.  Garnish each bowl of soup with diced pepper and thin slices of an uncooked tomatillo.

(makes 4 large servings)