156: Sage Liver Pate and Shallot Jam

What happened to eating healthy? Not sure. But that picture is of something super delicious: chicken liver pate and shallot jam on bread. Last night I hate some on a sage biscuit. Sugar on butter on butter.

I used this recipe from The Bitten Word, subbing out sage for thyme. I'm not getting much sage from the final dish though, I'll add more if I do this again. Also I sliightly overcooked my livers- digging into the pate this morning I was hoping to see a little pink, but no luck. But there was bad lighting at home, because guess what I saw when I had some at work:



Slight but there! Yay! Maybe next time I get liver friendly herbage I'll be spot on.

The winner for me in all of this is the shallot jam. Remnicient of my fig jam, it's made with balsamic vinegar, but with brown sugar for extra caramelly depth. The shallots swing it nicely savory and ugh...I could, have, and will continue to just eat it with a spoon. It would be amazing on sandwiches. I need to make more sandwiches.

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.

56 & 57: Currant Jam and Curd

I'm probably insane. Need a reason? Despite the crazy heat wave, I spent several hours in front of the stove. Making and canning ONE HALF PINT JAR of currant jam. Then a little later making (not canning) currant curd...which does require one to stand at the stove and stir for a decent chunk of time. Also simmered some barley for yet another recipe, which takes about an hour. And sauteed some kohlrabi. Lotsa heat. Lotsa crazy.

I started by placing all of my currents (meager amount, about two cups) with a little water in the bottom of the pan. Cooked until they popped, then mashed a bit and ran them through a mesh strainer. I withheld 1/3 cup of the juice for the curd, then weighed the rest of the juice and added about 80% by weight sugar (actually, weighed out the sugar then put about that much honey in. It was a weird method I'm not sure is correct, but I got the right consistency so I don't mind). Put that back on the burner then simmered/boiled until it passed the nudge test.

Apologies for not defining terms. I'm not going to get into canning basics today, but Food in Jars is an amazing resource.

Then filled my jar (could've used like two tablespoons more to get the ideal headspace, I'll try not to sweat it) and processed in a water bath for 10 minutes. The seal seems to be holding, but as I won't use it for a few months, I won't know for sure how it turned out. I honestly have too many jars from this winter I still need to work through. The leftovers in the pot were delicious though.

That lovely 1/3 cup of juice I withheld was used in a curd scaled from this recipe (the reason I had sooo many eggwhites for breakfast). I wanted about a cup, ended up with a cup and a half. No worries. It will get eaten.

I've made curd before- meyer lemon- so I was prepared for how much of a process it is. Definitely have everything ready to go when you start, as you need to stand there and stir it). This turned out well consistency-wise, but I was hoping for more of the tartness of the currant to come through. I needed more juice. That would help with the pepto color this guy's got going on, too.

Notes for Improvement:
- Don't use a towel in the bottom of the pot for canning again, it just gets all wonky. Maybe one of those 4th burner pots would be helpful? Not that I need more kitchen stuff, but still...
- Get some shortbread for that curd. It's the best combination.