(Off Share) Apple Jam with Honey, Lemon and Ginger

My internship got a box of apples straight from a farm for use at a special dinner, and beyond that event had no use for them on the regular menu, so I offered to give them a good home. Once I'd figured out how to get them home on my bike. It was very awkward, but they made it! I'm not sure the varieties, but tasting as I went, I noticed three flavors. The more the merrier for this kind of application.

I went to my go-to canning blog, Food in Jars, and came across this recipe for Honey Lemon Apple Jam. I've done a number of her recipes, both on the site and from her book- the Apple Cranberry Jam last year as my big batch of the season- so I felt fine entrusting a decent number of breakfasts to another of her recipes. 

This is 12 cups of chopped apples. I'd chop them a little finer next time. Most break down, but what chunks were left were on the big side. Fun fact: I still have three apples left- not enough for canning but I'll find a use. 

The other ingredients: honey, sugar, lemon juice, and (my little addition) ginger. Now and then I'm struck by how amazing cooking is- especially canning. Writing that list up was one of those moments. What I made with just those things is going to keep for a YEAR. Think about it. Anyway-

I made the mistake of leaving the lid on my apples and lemon as they worked in that initial step. Not sure if it was a mistake- it's just that water is not ideal in jam. Or jam happens as the sugar rearranges itself as water cooks off, so trying to keep that liquid in makes little sense. To counteract, I let it simmer/boil a little longer than the recipe called for.

I ended up with five pints, and just enough for the little toast samples you see above. It's very sweet, but the lemon and ginger give it a tart/spice balance. Definitely oatmeal worthy...when I cycle through to this. Check back in a few months.

191: Habenero Ginger Jelly

I was about a 1/2" short of the 6th half pint for this recipe, which turned out surprisingly well. This is the first jelly I've made, and while I was following a recipe, and read a few others I hadn't attempted, I still didn't think what is essentially a slurry of sugar and vinegar, with a few flavorful "bits," would work- set wise or flavor wise. 

But look! Adorable little flakes of habenero and ginger, suspended in a thick but totally spreadable base!

I followed this recipe as written (she waffles between writing 1 and 2 packets of pectin; it's one). Well almost. I had 5 orange habeneros and 3 green, and used a few cubes of grated ginger I generally keep frozen at all times (for oatmeal, and life). I also processed in a water bath, as opposed to the turning over method.

I made the mistake of breathing a few times while making this, you may want to be a little more careful. It wasn't the instant-death she mentions (or maybe I just breathe in a surprising amount of vinegar fumes on a regular basis), but it still wasn't pleasant.

The good part of that missing 1/2" (probably partly due to my using a pint jar) is that I have a decent amount to taste test, not that I'm sure what I'll eat it in/on besides toast. It's a situation where if you take just a little dab of it you may be mistaken on the spiciness level, but even a demi-spoonfull will make your mouth burn in a big but entirely pleasant way. Part of me is a little sad it's not overwhelming, but then I remember it'll continue to get a little spicier in the jars, and at least now I can actually use it for things.

Looking around the internets, there are much spicier versions out there, but were I to make this again I would probably just cut down on the sugar a little.

76: Lemon Marmalade Update

So I finally cracked open one of the jars of lemon marmalade. I still haven't finished the jar of jam I keep at work for oatmeal, but eh, this has enough sugar it'll last in the fridge for ages.

Tried a little on some cinnamon walnut bread my roommate had gotten on a whim from a local bakery. One with ricotta, one without. Which won?

Ricotta, obvs. Overall the rinds are definitely too tough- they needed to be cut much thinner than I was able to. Still good for oatmeal, I'm not sure if it's good enough to bring back to the place that gave me the lemons.

The thing that makes me happiest is that the consistency is spot on! I think all sugar may have been a bit too firm but the honey kept it nice. This is the first batch of marmalade I'd made in my big creuset, will have to do more. I'm thinking of getting a smaller dutch oven, which would be perfect for those one or two half-pint batches.

I'll let you know when I open the basil one. Will probably be another month or so though.

83: Pickles Roasted Bell Peppers

I realize this is traditionally done with red bell peppers, not purple and green. There was a recipe in The Pickled Pantry for regular ol pickled (non-roasted) mixed peppers, but it was quart sized, and I felt like experimenting. It's not the most appetizing looking jar- maybe thats why they do it with red?- but here's hoping it tastes good. 

I roasted both peppers under the broiler, 5 minutes each side, then let steam in a bowl covered in plastic wrap. Meanwhile I heated up a half pint jar in my 4th burner pot, as well as a 1/4 cup of vinegar and a tsp of fine sea salt (in a separate pot of course). 

The jar came out when everything was ready, I placed a clove of garlic and two sprigs of lemon basil inside. 

Once my peppers were peeled and seeded (boo to losing the color during the process), I cut them into quarters the packed them in the jar, then covered with the brine, bubbled, topped off, and processed in a water bath for 15 minutes. 

Doing a some minor internet research, I came across this recipe for marinated greens that also explains the situation well. I'll have to see how bitter these end up being when I get around to eating them. The leftover roasted pieces definitely had a slight bitter aftertaste.

Notes for Improvement:

- Per the link above, maybe add a little honey for comparison

- Try another herb, or add more spices (maybe smoked paprika?)

81: Curried Summer Squash Pickles

I feel much more confident about this batch of pickles. I used the same recipe (from The Pickled Pantry) as the cucumber batch I made last week, only actually followed/was able to follow the recipe. 

Differences:

- Squash instead of cucumbers

- Sliced these much thinner

- Used pickle crisp

- Used raisins

It took a little less than the two squash I'd gotten in this week's share to make the 2.25 cups called for in the recipe. Sliced up half a walla walla onion as thin as I could manage (which was reasonably thin). Let those soak for (ok, let's be honest here) a little longer than the 2-6 hours the recipe says with a tablespoon of fine sea salt. 

As those drained I heated up a pint jar in my 4th burner pot, and mixed the ingredients for the brine:

- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1.5 tsp curry powder

- 1/2 tsp coriander seeds

- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds

- 3 tablespoon raisins

Brought these to a boil once the jar was ready and packed, then poured in, bubbled, and topped off. It took all of my brine to basically cover. 

Processed- well started processing in a water bath before remembering that pickle crisp I had to try four stores before I was able to find. So I quick took it out, threw a new lid in the pot to soften, added the crisp, relidded, and processed for 15 minutes. The seal seems to have held, I'll let you know how these turn out in six weeks :)

Noted Improvement: the zucchini was much skinnier than the cucumbers, and cut much thinner, so were able to fit with the onions and everything into the pint jar. Doesn't seem to be floating, either.

Notes for Further Improvement: I'm worried I packed the jar too tightly, that everything may not have gotten covered by the brine. Maybe next time I'll leave a little extra room so there can be an uninterrupted layer of brine covering everything.

More notes will have to wait for tasting/comparison with the cucumber pickles. 

77: Mixed Stonefruit Ginger Jam

My surprise 1/3 of a fruit share was begging to be turned into jam. Found a lovely recipe from my fav canning food blog, Food in Jars.

A bit of chopping garnered me a cup of peaches, a cup of plums and a cup of nectarines. Mixed these with a (especially) scant two cups of sugar. This got thrown in the fridge overnight to macerate, and the next day (way way too late) I cooked it up.

As it simmered on the stovetop I added about a 1/4 cup of diluted ginger juice (grated up a knob of ginger and let it sit in a little water, then squeezed out the liquid) and the zest and juice of half a lemon.

I ended up with just two half pints, which I processed in my 4th burner pot.

Jam tends to be a little too sweet for me, but I enjoy the process. Like the marmalade yesterday, I'm letting these sit a bit- at least until I work through my current pint of jam. Considering I only put about a spoonful in my oatmeal it'll be a bit.

And thankfully this is the last of my fruit...for now. Though I was at Whole Foods the other day and my fingers started itching at the site of local apricots.

76: Honey Lemon (& Basil) Marmalade

I go through little obsessive spurts. It looks like I'm coming up on one for canning (again). Apologies (but not really) in advance. I'm thankful I didn't get a fruit share this year- it's an intensive hobby to get sucked into- but I did happen upon a free bag of lemons the other day, so I had to make something.

I came across this honey lemon marmalade recipe from food in jars, which I followed (halving it) with a little help from these tips. I sliced up the lemons- not as thin as I'd like, but it was late and I cut myself about a third of the way through. Acids and cuts do not mix, so with no gloves handy in my kitchen I just rushed through the rest. It'll just end up going in my oatmeal, and I'm not terribly picky about that kind of thing.

This is a whole fruit marmalade, so I let the lemons soak/macerate overnight in the fridge with the sugar and water. Waited to add the honey until I actually made the jam- it's mesquite from Trader Joes.

I used my huge creuset, which was lovely. Most other small batches I've made were in pots, which can take forever. If it looks like I'll be making a ton of these, I may just get a big stainless steel skillet to speed up the process. It'd been a while since I'd made marmalade, but I remembered most of the process and even noticed new little details as it thickened up. Geeky stuff.

Although the recipe said it would yield six pints, and halving it meant I should've ended up with six half-pints, I got three. Hm. I didn't measure out the lemons, just went with half the 14 mentioned in the recipe, so that could be part of it. But the consistency was good and it passed the nudge test so I don't terribly mind. To play with flavors a bit (and get a little of my CSA share in) I sliced up some amethyst basil and tossed it in one of the jars.

I've had some rough luck with herbs in jam (an insanely rosemary-y apricot jam springs to mind), but it's only one, so I'll have a nice comparison point in a month or two when I feel like opening these up.

So look for updates when that happens, though I'll try to use one relatively soon. If they were to really go to the end of the jam/marmalade queue you probably wouldn't get word on them until next year sometime :)

74: Curry Pickles & A New Toy

This is my first batch of puttin' up pickles. I've done fridge pickles before, but with this CSA I already take up a ton of fridge space, so I wanted to give this a try. It takes a little more time, but these will be shelf stable for a while- according to the recipe I should wait at least six weeks to open the jar. Magic!

The recipe is from The Pickled Pantry from Andrea Chesman. I haven't had a chance to read through the whole book but skimming I came upon a section for recipes by the jar. These can be scaled, sure, but I seldom have the ingredients for more than a jar or two of jams/pickles/etc so it's great to have that option.

I followed the recipe as well as I could. Didn't have the raisins so just left them out. My cucumbers were on the (very very) large size. I didn't feel I could pack the cucumbers AND onions in without a lot of air gaps so while they were present for the initial soaking, the onions did not make it into the jar. I'm getting a few more heirloom cucumbers in today's delivery, so I'll focus on finding some longer/thinner guys for another batch.

I'll update once I actually open these guys up...but that won't be until at least September :)

Anyway- what excited me most about doing this was a reason to play with my new toy: a 4th burner pot! 

I first heard of this lovely pot via a post on food in jars. And while I've enjoyed experiments with small batch canning, the ball canning kit with its 21 quart pot is INSANE to use for just a few half-pints of jam. I tried an impromptu method with my currant jam but was less than happy with the process, so it's nice to have something a little simpler. It's three quarts and holds two regular half-pint jars (or a lone pint) very well. Expect to see a lot more of it in upcoming posts.