Elevating the Loquat

Posted on April 29, 2013 by The Wife

I had no idea what a loquat was, until we moved to Texas and I discovered a loquat tree in our backyard. Unfortunately, the squirrels got to them before I knew exactly what I had in my backyard. So all last year I researched and planned, and found a million wonderful canning recipes for loquats that I was just dying to try.

And then, we moved. We moved before our loquat tree bore any fruit this year, and that made me sad. Now what was I going to do with all these wonderful recipes? You can’t usually buy loquats in the grocery store.

And then I met our new next door neighbor, Nikki. Nikki, who happens to have a loquat tree in her back yard that produces more fruit than she can eat. So she let me raid it for my own nefarious purposes. This was my haul:

Despite their name, loquats are more closely related to apples than anything else. They taste like a plum and an apricot had a baby. And, since they are an asian fruit, I decided to go for broke and make a Chinese five-spice preserve.

Chinese Five Spice Loquat Preserves

Ingredients:

4 Pints loquats (about 6 cups)
4-5 C. granulated sugar
1 C. water
3 tsp. bottled lemon juice
1 Tbsp. chinese five-spice powder
1 tsp. ground ginger

Step 1: Prepare your jars, lids, and canner. If you have never canned before, see the tutorial here. Throw a couple of ceramic plates in the freezer. You’ll need them to test for gelling later.

Step 2: While your lids and canner are heating, slice the loquats into thin slices. The loquats have a large seed in the middle (sometimes t hey have more than one). I find it easiest to slice around the middle of the loquat long-ways, and remove the seed before slicing.

also, loquats turn brown once sliced, so unless you work very quickly (or you are lazy, like me) I’d recommend sprinkling some lemon juice over the sliced loquats as you go.

Step 3: Add the sliced loquats to a deep pot. Pour in the water, sugar, lemon juice, and spices, and bring everything to a boil. I added 4 C. of sugar and then tasted it for sweetness. 4 C. was enough for me.

Once everything comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer it for about 25-30 minutes. Stir it frequently to keep the bottom from scorching.

Step 4: Once the preserves have simmered away for 25 minutes, take one of your plates out of the freezer. Spoon a little of the preserve on the cold plate, and put it back in the freezer for a few minutes. Take it out again and push your fingernail against the side of the pool of preserve. If the surface wrinkles, it’s done! If it doesn’t you can either cook it for five minutes more, or add a Tablespoon or two (go with two) of powdered pectin to the mix. I didn’t do either of these things, and my preserves were a little runny. They still taste good, though.

Step 5: Once your preserves are ready, ladle them into 1/2 pint jars, leaving 1/4″ headspace. This recipe made 4 1/2 pint jars for me.

Add the lids and screw bands and proccess the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. let them sit for 24 hours, then store them in a cool dark place.

These preserves almost remind me of spiced peaches. Almost. I’ve been eating them stirred into yogurt, but they’d be good on just about anything.

If you have access to a loquat tree, or access to a friend who has access to a loquat tree, tell them you’ll give them a jar if they let you pick as many as you want. You won’t be sorry, and neither will they.

The Wife

P.S. Is it weird that rainy days make my kitchen look super-yellow? It’s not really that yellow, I promise.

An Over Abundance of Eggs

Posted on April 22, 2013 by The Wife

One of the doctor’s at The Renaissance Man’s clinic keeps chickens. And, apparently, he keeps more chickens than his family can keep up with, egg-wise. So, he brings the extras in to the clinic, and people can take them if they want them.

The other day, nobody wanted eggs (apparently) and Dr. J made TRM take home two dozen eggs. That is on top of the two dozen he brough home a few days before that. And there’s only two of us, so it takes a while to work through a dozen eggs.

This is what my kitchen looked like over the weekend:

Of course, when faced with such over-abundance, my first instinct is to figure out how to preserve the bounty. Unfortunately, there are not many ways to preserve eggs. The most popular way is to pickle them. Pickled eggs keep for about a month in the fridge, unless you talk to anyone who has ever pickled them; they will tell you that they last several months at least.

So I pickled 16 eggs.

Purple Eggs

Ingredients:

1 beet, peeled and sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 C. vinegar
2 C. beet juice
1 C. sugar
8 whole allspice
16 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
16 hard boiled eggs
2 1-quart mason jars

Step 1: Hard boil your eggs. It helps if you do this the night before, since cold eggs are way easier to peel.

Step 2: After you peel and slice the beet, place the slices in a saucepan and cover them with water. Bring them to a boil and then reduce the heat and cover, simmering for about 30 minutes.

Step 3: While the beets are simmering, add the vinegar, sugar, and whole spices to a large saucepan. Slice the onion and add that to the pot, too. Once the beets are finished, add them and 2 C. of the beet liquid to the pot. Bring everything to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat.

Step 4: Put one beet slice and a few onion slices in the bottom of each jar. Add some boiled, peeled eggs to each jar (I fit 8 into each). Oh yeah, if you didn’t peel your eggs, now is the time. Ladel enough of the hot pickling brine into each jar to cover the eggs completely. I added another beet slice on top. Shake the jar just a little to dislodge any air bubbles, then put the lid on them and let the jars sit until they cool off.

Step 5: Once the jars are cool, put them in the fridge for at least 2 days before you eat them. The longer they sit, the more the brine penetrates the eggs.

You can tell that this jar was just filled, because the eggs still appaear white. They will begin to turn purple as the brine penetrates the egg white.

We have not opened our jars yet, since it hasn’t been 48 hours, but people use pickled eggs as a garnish for salads, or as an extra-flavorful deviled egg.

The Wife

P.S. I still have 32 eggs left. Any more suggestions on what to do with them?

Pressure Canning: Garbanzo Beans

Posted on January 28, 2013 by The Wife

I have been kind of obsessed with hummus for the last few weeks. Obsessed to the point of getting tired of going to the store every few days to buy canned chick peas (or garbanzo beans, if you will).

Then it occurred to me: I can black beans so that this doesn’t happen. Why can’t I can chick peas?

As it turns out, I can. And I did. I used the method I use for my black beans here.

Chick peas are bigger than black beans, so I cut the amount per pint jar down to 1/2 C. In retrospect that was not necessary. 2/3 C. would be fine.

Then I boiled some water and filled each jar to 1/4″ headspace.

I processed them at 10 pounds of pressure for 75 minutes. I lost quite a bit of liquid, which probably would not have happened with the full 2/3 C. of dried chick peas in there.

One pound of chick peas yielded 7 pint jars. If you fill them with 2/3 C. of chick peas, it will be more like 4 or 5.

Now I won’t have to run to the store for at least a few weeks!

The Wife

Winter Canning: Banana Sauce

Posted on January 14, 2013 by The Wife

I love to cook and can (duh.) but in the Winter, canning sometimes falls by the wayside. I can dried beans in the Winter to replenish our supply, but other than that, there’s not a whole lot of produce begging to be canned.

So when I ended up with a batch of dangerously ripe bananas for the second time in two weeks, I started to investigate whether or not it is feasible to can bananas.

As it turns out, there are ways to do it, and this is one of them. I found several recipes for banana jam, banana’s foster jam, or brown sugar banana jam. So I combined them all to make what I call a sauce: it’s looser than a jam, and is meant to be spooned over ice cream or cake. Or anything, really.

And I have to tell you, the result of this experiment is a caramel-colored jar of banana heaven. Rum extract and cinnamon give it the classic “banana’s foster” flavors, and ripe bananas boost the flavor even more.

So if you end up with a bunch (ha!) of ripe bananas, think about mixing up a batch of this sauce.

Spiced Banana Sauce

Ingredients:

10 ripe bananas, peeled and diced
7 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. fruit fresh (optional)
3 C. granulated sugar
2 C. dark brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. butter
2 Tbsp. powdered pectin
2 tsp. rum extract

Step 1: Dice the bananas and place in a large pot. If you are canning this, get your canner, jars, and lids ready. Sprinkled the lemon juice over the bananas and stir. I did not use fruit fresh for this recipe, not because I didn’t want to, but because I thought I was out. As it turns out, I had a whole new jar tucked away in my pantry. Oh well! If you are using fruit fresh, sprinkle it in with the bananas and lemon juice, and stir to coat the bananas.

Step 2: Add the sugars, cinnamon, and butter. Heat on medium until the sugar goes from this:

to this:

Step 3: Bring the mixture to a boil. Once at a boil, add the pectin. Return the mixture to a boil and boil hard for 2 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the rum extract. Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes before ladling into hot jars.

Step 4: Fill the jars to 1/4″ headspace. Put on the lids and screw bands and place in the canner. Process for 10 minutes.

This stuff is to die for spooned over homemade frozen yogurt. in fact, it’s so good, I’m going to share my homemade frozen yogurt recipe on Wednesday! No ice cream maker required!

The Wife

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Christmas Gifts: The Culmination

Posted on December 19, 2012 by The Wife

I finished my Christmas canning, which meant it was time to think about gift presentation.

I have always been a fan of gift baskets for giving gifts to people you’re not terribly close with. These gift baskets are for the families I sit for, with the addition of wrapped presents for the kids.

Included in my gift basket is a jar of brandied apple butter, a jar of honey-lemon marmalade, and a large jar with cranberry bran muffin mix in it (recipe to come). Plus a card, and books for the kiddos.

The labels came from My Own Labels. They have quite the array of labels for all kids of things, and a whole section of labels specifically sized for canning jars.

I got baskets from Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale, and lined them with festive tissue paper. The hardest part of the whole thing was the canning!

I bet you wish you were on my gift list, now, don’t you?

What are you gifting this year? Is it homemade, or store bought? Do you think it’ll be “re-gifted”?

The Wife

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Christmas In A Jar

Posted on November 26, 2012 by The Wife

I have been posting the canned goods I’ve been making to give as gifts this holiday season. This particular recipe is not a gift. It’s too good, I am going to hoard it all for myself. But it would make a wonderful holiday gift, and the taste can only be described as “Christmas in a jar”. It is cranberry conserve, and while it’s best use is spooned over poultry, I am not above stirring it into yogurt, spreading it on toast, or eating it right out of the jar.

Conserve is a fruit preserve that includes nuts and dried fruits as well as fresh. It sounds like an odd mix, but I promise it is oh, so right. In this conserve I used pecans and dried apricots, but walnuts and raisins would be good, too.

This recipe is perfect for canning, and uses the boiling water bath method. It yields approximately 8 1/2 pint jars.

Cranberry Conserve

Ingredients:

1 orange, seeds removed and chopped
3 C. water
6 C. fresh cranberries
3 C. granulated sugar
1 C. brown sugar
1 C. dried apricots, roughly chopped
1 C. pecans, chopped

If you are canning this recipe, assemble your canning supplies and begin to heat your lids and jars right when you start the recipe. Everything will be ready at the same time this way.

Step 1: Chop the orange into small pieces, leaving the peel on. In a stainless steel pot, combine the oranges and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 5 minutes.

Step 2: Once the orange peel has softened, add the sugars, cranberries, and chopped apricots (oh, yeah. Chop the apricots.)

Stir everything together and bring it back to a boil. Boil hard for about 10 minutes.

Step 3: If the gel is important to you, remove the conserve from the heat and test the gel. If it is not set enough for you, return to the heat and boil for another 5 minutes. If not (it wasn’t important to me), remove it from the heat and stir in the chopped pecans. Ladle it into hot jars.

Fill the jars to 1/4″ headspace, wipe the rims (this stuff is sticky!) , top with hot lids and screw bands, and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Aside from being really beautiful in the jar, this stuff is good on everything. Spread some on a turkey sandwich. Dollop some over ice cream. The possibilities are endless.

The Wife

Pressure Canning: Black Beans; Method 2

Posted on November 7, 2012 by The Wife

When I first started canning earlier this year, I focused on canning things we use on a regular basis. Since we use a lot of black beans, I took dried beans and canned them using this method. Basically, I cooked the beans for a little while, then canned them with the cooking liquid.

One of my lovely readers (thank you, Sheri!) commented that cooking the beans isn’t necessary. You can put dry beans in the jars, top them with hot water, and pressure can them, thus preventing mushy beans. And, while the first batch of beans I canned weren’t mushy, omitting an extra step did appeal to me. So, since we ran out of canned beans a few weeks ago, I thought I’d try out Sheri’s method.

I put 2/3 C. of dry black beans into pint jars (2 pound of beans filled 8 pint jars)

Then I boiled water and poured it into the jars, leaving 1/4″ headspace.

Then I topped the jars with hot lids and screw bands and placed them into my preheated pressure canner.

From here I followed the regular procedure: venting the canner and processing the beans for 75 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.

The only drawback I can see is that two of my jars didn’t seal. This may be my fault, and not the method used. Either way, I put those two in the fridge, and will use them in the next few weeks.

This method was definitely easier and didn’t take as much time (or cooking equipment). I will use this method from now on. Anything to keep from cleaning…

The Wife

Christmas Gifts: Phase 2

Posted on October 23, 2012 by The Wife

Last weekend I started making gifts for Christmas. I am going with gift baskets full of home-canned goodies and a muffin mix in a jar. I made brandied apple butter last week; a recipe of my own.

This week I relied on Marisa McClellan (of Food in Jars) for a marmalade recipe.

Since you can find her recipe here, or better yet, buy her beautiful book, Food in Jars.

I used the recipe from her book. She has reworked it a bit since posting it on her website, but either one will work; the pectin just comes from different sources.

Honey Lemon Marmalade

It took me over an hour to turn 12 (ish) lemons into tiny lemon slivers.

You can chop them in half, but I left them like this. I thought it was prettier. After you spend all that time chopping, you cover the lemons with two quarts of water, bring them to a boil, and then cover them and let them sit overnight at room temperature.

Instead of adding pectin, I saved the seeds and bundled them in some cheesecloth.

The little seed bundle goes into the pot when you boil the lemons.

The next morning, I strained the lemons from the liquid, then put the lemons back in the pot. 6 cups of the strained liquid go back in, as well as 4 C. of sugar, and 2 C. of honey.

I couldn’t resist this picture. Not only is this honey good, raw Texas honey, but they spelled my last name right! Am I the only one who buys things with my name on it?

Bring the lemon/sugar/honey mixture to a boil. Let it boil for about 40 minutes (until it reaches 220 degrees).

Once it’s the right temperature, take one of the little plates you had in the freezer (I told you to put those there, right?) and drop a spoonful of the marmalade on it. Pop it back in the freezer for two minutes, then take it out again. With your fingernail, push on the edge of the marmalade. If it wrinkles, it’s ready to be processed. If not, it needs another few minutes on the heat.

This is called the wrinkle, or saucer test. it speeds up the gelling time, giving you an indication of how “set” a jelly or marmalade will become.

Process the marmalade in a boiling water bath canner for ten minutes. I suggest you get your setup going before you start the marmalade’s final cooking time.

Also, I suggest you taste it soon after you add the honey and sugar. The marmalade is a little bitter. Not unpleasantly so, but it may be too bitter for some. I think I’ll add another 1/2 C. of honey next time I make this.

I used these really cute, squat square 1/2 pt. jars. Ball makes these square jars in 1/2 pt. and pt. sizes, but I thought a pint of marmalade for a gift was a little much. Plus I got exactly 8 1/2 pts. Marisa is always spot-on in her yields.

My house smelled like a cough drop while I was making this, and I really want to stir some into my tea. The honey flavor is really present; it’s a great gourmet recipe for gifts, or as a gift to yourself.

The Wife

P.S. Is it weird that all of my Christmas Present posts have Halloween towels in them? It’s WAY too early to break out my Christmas towels, even for a photo op.

Christmas Gifts: Getting Started on Canning

Posted on October 16, 2012 by The Wife

I am giving home-canned goodies as gifts this Christmas. I figured I learned a new skill this year, I might as well use it to spend less money on Christmas. I finally landed on three things to put in baskets:

apple butter
lemon curd
cranberry compote

I’ll put a little bag of gingerbread cookies in the baskets too. But there’s not a whole lot of time left between now and Christmas if I’m going to be cooking and canning all this, so I started with the first thing on my list this weekend: apple butter.

But of course I couldn’t leave well enough alone. Why make plain apple butter when I could jazz it up a little? After scouring the internet (and my liquor cabinet) I decided on spiced apple butter with brandy.

You wish you were on my gift-giving list now, don’t you?

Brandied Apple Butter

Ingredients:

5 Lb. apples (I used granny smith)
1 1/2 C. apple juice or cider
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2-2 C. brown sugar (depending on the sweetness of the apples. Taste-test this one)
1 1/2 C. brandy

Step 1: peel, core, and chop the apples. If you have one of those spinning apple peelers around this should be easy. I don’t but now it’s on my list, because this task took forever without it.

Step 2: Place the chopped apples into a deep pot. Pour the juice over them and heat to boiling, then turn the heat down and simmer for about 25 minutes. They should go from this…

…to this.

Step 3: If you want a smoother consistency, use an immersion blender to puree the apples. Don’t blend them until they’re runny, stop at smooth. Once the apples are the consistency you want, add the sugar and spices (taste and add more sugar if necessary) and bring it back up to boiling. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes, adding the brandy halfway through.

You can refrigerate this for up to two weeks, or you can can it. If you’re canning, do the following while step 3 is happening:

Wash and dry your jars, lids, and rings. Place the jars in your boiling water bath canner and fill it with water until it is at least an inch above the jars.

Bring the water (and jars) to a boil. Place your lids in a small saucepan and cover with water. Heat these just to a simmer.

Once the apple butter is done and your jars are boiling, remove the jars to a towel on the counter. Fill them with apple butter to 1/4″ headspace. Remove any air bubbles, then place the lids on the jars and tighten the rings to fingertip tight.

Process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Let them cool on the counter overnight.

This is the first canning recipe that I devised myself. I’m pretty pleased with myself about it, too. It has a great spice to it (the cardamom really comes through) and the brandy adds some depth that it would lack otherwise. I hope these little guys last until Christmas; I only saved a 1/2 pt. for us, and The Renaissance Man has his eye on it!

The Wife

Ravioli Day 3: Assembly

Posted on October 14, 2012 by The Wife

So you’ve made the filling for the ravioli a day ahead, and you made the dough early enough to let it rest for a while. Now it’s time for the fun part!

First, using a rolling pin (which is really difficult) or a pasta roller (which makes things easier) roll out the dough on the roller’s largest setting until it is smooth, then roll it on increasingly smaller settings until it’s about 1/8″ thick. I have found that rolling out a quarter of the dough at a time works best. I roll out the first piece, assemble those raviolis, then start with the next piece of dough. That way things don’t stick together as much.

After you roll out your dough, cut it in half. Lay one half out on the counter (or cookie sheet) and mound small spoonfuls of filling onto it.

Leave enough room on the sides to crimp the edges.

After you’ve got your filling spooned out, lay the other half of the dough on top. Gently press the dough together around the filling.

I use a pie crimper to cut the dough into squares, but a ravioli cutter would probably work better. The pie crimper works pretty well, though.

Once the squares are cut, pick them up one at a time and gently squeeze the edges together with your thumb and forefinger. If they aren’t sticking well, run a little water in between the two dough layers; that should help it stick.

Flour a plate and lay the ravioli on it in a single layer. Sprinkle more flour on top.

Continue with teh next piece of dough until you’re done!

You can boil the ravioli for 5 minutes fresh, or freeze it in a Ziploc bag for later. We froze some, and ate some with alfredo sauce.