Jam #1: Strawberry Fig Balsamic Jam

Posted on June 5, 2011 by

First jam-making day of the season!  The market haul was a little pitiful, unfortunately; I wasn’t careful and ended up bringing home almost a quart of bad berries along with the good.  LESSON LEARNED.  Always look at what you’re buying, especially if it’s in plastic containers.  A nearby stand was selling them for $4/pint, and I bought mine at $4/quart (though they weren’t really full).  But the $4/pint berries were GORGEOUS and in baskets, so that you could assemble your own pint.  Next time!

Once I realized how little fruit I actually had, I decided not to do anything complicated.  I love strawberry balsamic (and made far too little of it last year), and remembered the fig balsamic I still had from a trip to the evoo store in Denver last July.  So that’s it — strawberries, sugar, and balsamic vinegar.  SUPER SIMPLE.

The recipe is from Eugenia Bone’s Well-Preserved. She recommends making this with small local berries; the larger ones with white flesh don’t have enough flavor.  And because strawberries are acidic and you’re making the jam more acidic with the vinegar, it’s a nice safe beginner’s jam.

8 c. washed, hulled strawberries (cut in half or quarters)
5 c. sugar
1/2 t. unsalted butter (optional — it’s to keep the foam down)
5 T. balsamic vinegar

The recipe instructs you to put the strawberries in a pot and boil them before adding the sugar.  I worry about burning them, so I add the sugar before turning on the heat, and smash them with a potato masher while they’re heating up.  Stir often with a wooden spoon to keep the sugar from burning until it’s dissolved.  Add the butter once it’s boiling, if you choose.

The recipe calls for a 40-minute boil, but I find it takes longer than that to get the consistency I like.  Watch the way the jam runs off the wooden spoon; you’ll notice it slow down after about an hour.  Once it’s done, add the balsamic vinegar.  You can boil it a bit longer to concentrate the flavor of the balsamic and tone down the acidity if you like.  TASTE IT.  When it’s done, it’s time to can!

It should make about 6 half-pints; boil the jars and bands, and simmer the lids or wash them in hot water.  Dry everything, but fill while they’re hot. Leave 1/2-3/4″ headspace (necessary for the proper vacuum to form). Wipe the rims carefully with a dry paper towel, place the lids carefully, and screw on the bands firmly but gently.  Set in a deep pot (cover with at least 3″ of water) and bring to a boil. Boil gently for 10 minutes.  Let cool in the pot or pull them out after about 5 minutes.  Rest, check the seals, refrigerate after opening.

My measly quart of berries made 5-4oz jars — 5 little gems that I can’t wait to hand out to friends!!

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Canning Season Approacheth!!

Posted on June 1, 2011 by

One of the things I promised myself I’d do in 2011 was to blog creative projects more consistently!  The kitchen hasn’t been terribly busy yet (with the exception of some herb pestos), but with jam season coming quickly, I’m re-reading my canning journal from last year to get me thinking about summer preserving.

June 5, 2010

1. Lemon Ginger Rhubarb – basic rhubarb jam, w/ lemon zest and grated ginger
2. Ginger Mint Rhubarb – basic rhubarb jam, w/ more grated ginger and a touch of mint syrup
3. Shiso-Lime Strawberry – basic strawberry jam, w/ lime juice and zest and shiso
4. Strawberry Balsamic – this recipe, with fig balsamic

Though I remember loving them at the time I was canning, the rhubarb jams never made it out of the pantry this winter… they might have to make an appearance as ice cream sauce very soon.

If you’re thinking about getting started with jamming, I suggest getting the Ball Blue Book now. Anyplace that carries canning supplies will have it — even Lowe’s has a canning display!  You could preserve just about anything you find at the farmer’s market with that book, and no other recipes. But if you’re feeling more adventurous, check out Tigress in a Jam. She does a monthly jamming challenge throughout the summer/fall harvest season, and you’ll find a lot of creative and delicious recipes.

If food safety or the initial supply purchase $ has you concerned about getting started with jam or other canning, consider fridge/freezer jam. Besides, if you do small batches, your jam will disappear long before you have to start worrying about how long that jar’s been in the fridge…

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Food Culture

Posted on March 25, 2011 by

One of the things that intrigues me about our wide-ranging attitudes and habits around food and nutrition is how people approach cooking or preparing food at home.  I often wonder how we foster that part of our food culture, especially when I hear people express frustration about not cooking more; wanting not to eat out so much, or to get away from rushed meals in cars on the way to and from home. The Food Network would have you believe it’s just because you don’t know HOW SIMPLE IT IS TO MAKE DELICIOUS HEALTHY LOCAL FOOD YOUR FAMILY WILL LOVE, yo!  But I don’t think that’s it, nor is it (only) time, or money, or education about nutrition and the food industry. Some or all of those things, but I don’t think that’s all of it. There’s also something about values (oh, what a loaded word!), experience, and confidence around making food — with an emphasis on the latter two. Convenience food and semi-homemade packages promise fast success in the kitchen and glossy satisfaction from your family, without draining your wallet, making it easy to opt-out of the risks and challenges that scratch food preparation can bring.

My experience and confidence in the kitchen were started at home at an early age, as I spent time with my Grandmother and Mother in the kitchen baking bread, crackers, cookies, making yogurt and jam and salad dressing. Gram kept a lovely (and LARGE!) vegetable garden, cooked nearly every meal her family ever ate, made bread from scratch, (even though she didn’t eat wheat — she was a master at testing alternative flours and binders for the bread she made for herself, before there was a gf market), and did it all with such care that she made *me* care about the work that went into food preparation. I wish she could see the resurgence in vegetable gardening and preserving; I think she’d be so interested in all of it, and would have so much to teach. At her house, there were veggies in the root cellar, and an extra freezer and refrigerator in the basement pantry for long-term storage. The warmth of her kitchen and her DIY sorts of values around food and cooking had a strong influence on me (on my  mom as well, I suspect) and on my interests in food and cooking now.

Growing up with my mother’s cooking added the spark of creativity and encouraged my fearlessness in the kitchen.  My mom has a talent for making even the most complicated of recipes seem doable, and she passed along a strong technical base, even in our mostly-meat-and-seafood-free house. I still don’t consider myself a great home cook, though… I can hold my own with most everything EXCEPT meat (including fish and seafood), but that’s a pretty big except.  Happy to eat it, not so happy to cook it.

And that’s what got me thinking about some of the things that might hold people back from cooking, experimenting.  I just don’t know what I’m doing around meat… don’t know how to buy it, what to ask for, how various cuts are suited to different modes of cooking, how to build flavor profiles from them.  I feel uncomfortable experimenting with cooking meat, because I don’t have any history to draw on, no memories to start with. I was a hippie teenage vegetarian through college, and it’s like I just missed that stage of my cooking education. And honestly, I don’t care enough  about eating it at home – right now, at least – to learn. I’ll buy the occasional local bacon or brats at the market, but that’s about as adventurous as I get. Otherwise I’ll wait for Black Dog and Epiphany Farms /Station 220 and my friends’ dinner parties. Because knowing that someone took that care and interest and creativity in sourcing and cooking and prepping is still ingrained in me, even if it’s not me doing it.  Just tell me what kind of tart you’d like me to bring.

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Staples and Meal Planning

Posted on January 31, 2011 by

One interesting thing about this Madeline Island challenge has been re-thinking the way we shop, the pantry we keep.  I like a deep pantry, and Melli’s more of a “use it up” girl.  We’re learning how to split the difference, making sure we don’t stock so high that things start spoiling (since nuts and oils and whole grain flours *do* spoil, after all), and that we don’t stock things we aren’t sure we’ll use.  Don’t count them as staples until we’re buying them every week, in other words.

White Wheat bread flour, AP flour (all other flours in small quantities as needed)
Cornmeal
Brown sugar, white sugar
Basmati rice, Brown rice (all other rices in small quantities)
Pasta — by the dozen, including orzo and tiny ones for soup
Canned whole tomatoes (in #10 cans)
Canned black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans
Chunk TVP
Shredded mozzarella cheese (freezer)

Of course, this doesn’t include things like oils, vinegars, spices and such.  But with eggs/milk/cheese, it’s the basis for most of our cooking throughout the week.

Which brings me to “special items.”  A little more than a week ago, we were planning two dinner parties, and we didn’t want to veer too far off our challenge for them.  The first wasn’t too difficult: a pasta party for my roller derby league, a pre-bout carb loading session.  I agreed to provide spaghetti and sauce, and put the girls in charge of bringing salads and snacks.  Though I can usually count on roller girls to drink their weight in beer, the night before a bout is pretty tame.

The second party was a bit more challenging: we were having a group of girlfriends over for a much-delayed annual wine and appetizers thing, and I was a little worried it might be lame if I had to stick to our “island” rules.

So I made a list of things we had on hand, and started browsing around Smitten Kitchen for ideas. I’m a little embarrassed to say I made nearly everything for the party from sk.

  • I’d already planned to make the jam tart with some of the raspberry-pluot jam we’d canned last summer (sans top crust)
  • We made the carrot salad w/ harissa, feta and mint, with harissa we’d made last summer;
  • And the smashed chickpea salad – as a salad, but I can’t wait to try it as a sandwich filling;
  • And finally got around to trying the spelt crackers that I’d had bookmarked for the longest time.  They were SO easy, thin and crispy and light, with a variety of seeds and sea salt on top.  I’d like to say I won’t ever buy crackers again, but I know that’s overambitious.  But they were super cheap to make, and not hard at all.
  • I love the onion tart w/ mustard & fennel, but I’m lazy and make it on my standard pizza dough, albeit with a bit more oil.

The hardest part was sticking to recipes that really made the most of what we had on hand, but it was so worth it — no big shopping trip to prep for the party, and all the recipes are things I’ll make again, because they don’t call for too many ingredients I don’t already keep on hand.

We’re starting in on week three of this challenge now, and at this point we’re thinking of doing it for another month.  I’m not sure we’ll learn nearly enough from just a month, and it’s already inspiring me to cook in a different way, even when we have people over.

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We’re on the island…

Posted on January 22, 2011 by

Ever since our August vacation to the Apostle Islands, Melli & I have talked about doing a “Madeline Island Month”  – a month where we live as closely as possible (shopping/cooking-wise) as we would if we were living on a small island with minimal / sporadic access to mainland amenities. We might be able to pick up milk at a little shop on the island, but otherwise groceries and other shopping would have to be planned in advance and coordinated with the ferry schedule and/or a road trip to Ashland. We thought the variety of constraints would help us focus on goals:  reducing our monthly food budget, being more thoughtful about acquiring things and spending money on consumables, and saving money overall.

We picked January 16 – February 15 to give it a try, for a few reasons:

  1. It’s a time of year when the ferry/sled is still running, albeit on a limited schedule.  In February, the ice road from Madeline Island to Bayfield will open, making it a bit easier to get back and forth to the mainland, and that’s a little too convenient for this experiment;
  2. Though we don’t really do New Year’s resolutions, there’s still something about the new year that inspires some belt-tightening, especially when winter fuel costs are so high;
  3. Summer brought masses of fresh produce from our gardens, stocked our pantry with goodies, and now we have preserves to go with all that winter comfort food that’s so easy to prep and freeze. At least that’s the theory.

So week 1 we concentrated on a shopping trip that would boost our stores of staples and take us through a week or two on fresh produce and dairy.  We made meal plans for the week, made double batches of chili and pizza dough and baked bread. Now, as Melli says, we’re on the island!

The first week wasn’t a real test, since we’d just gone shopping, so it’s too early to do any sort of evaluation of how it’s going. But this week we have two dinner parties — so we’ll be drawing heavily on the pantry and on things we can make from staples, and maybe next week I’ll actually be able to reflect a bit.

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2011 Challenges

Posted on January 11, 2011 by

I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions, but I do like challenges… books, movies, cooking, canning, whatever. This year, I’m really inspired by projects I watched over the past year: Can Jam, Kitchen Diaries, and all the great food that popped up in my flickr and Twitter and Pinterest feeds (though without Diigo, I’d never be able to keep track).

So I’ve decided to take on a few challenges of my own this year.  I definitely want to tackle a list of new recipes, and work on refining a shorter list of recipes that need some work.  The first is inspired by the 25 recipes challenge, though I think my list will probably be closer to 50.  There are some very specific recipes that I’ve had in the queue for a long time, some recipes I want to compare, and whole categories of food/drink that I want to try.

So far on the refining/perfecting list:

  1. Ciabatta – I’ve tried so many times, but I fail at reproducing that gorgeous texture
  2. Chai syrup – hit it on the head by accident last summer, and I didn’t write it down properly
  3. Chili – I have a couple good recipes, but I need to nail them down
  4. Granola/Muesli – Again, I have a couple that I like
  5. Jam tart w/ cornmeal crust – from Smitten Kitchen, I just want to work on this a bit
  6. Mac n Cheese – I’d like to try making a slightly lighter version of Dave Martin’s
  7. Malt loaf – ISO a Soreen replacement, given the high cost of shipping direct
  8. Sandwich loaf – something easy, everyday
  9. Scones – looking for the perfect balance between flaky and chewy, w/o being crumbly

And for new recipes:

  1. Bagels
  2. Baklava
  3. Beer
  4. Borscht
  5. Ceviche
  6. Chevre
  7. Chocolate babka
  8. Coq au Vin
  9. Crackers (crispy, wholegrain)
  10. Creme Brulee
  11. Dulce de Leche
  12. Flan
  13. Gnocchi
  14. Gougeres
  15. Grape focaccia w/ Rosemary
  16. Ice cream
  17. Nutella
  18. Pasta (homemade)
  19. Paella
  20. Peanut Butter
  21. Pretzels
  22. Puff Pastry
  23. Ricotta
  24. Roasted golden plums w/ honey & sage
  25. Rosemary Roasted Cashews
  26. Sesame balls
  27. Speculoos Cream
  28. Strudel
  29. Sweet corn pancakes
  30. Whole Wheat pizza dough
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Happy Belly #1: Plum Jam Tart

Posted on January 3, 2011 by

it may not be pretty, but it sure was tasty


I had a knitting group (read: cool women I know who like good food, good conversation, and may also like to knit) coming over today, and wanted to bake. Like, not a huge tray of macaron bake, but something tasty. And since December always feels like the longest pay period of the year, preferably something I could bake with ingredients on hand.
I turned first to Smitten Kitchen hoping she’d have something fabulous I could make with the amazing damson plum jam that Mel made this summer, and this Easy Jam Tart recipe absolutely fits the bill. No complicated patisserie work, just a simple tart. The dough is quick and needs only 30 minutes in the freezer before pressing into the pan, and 30 minutes after. Add jam and bake about 30 minutes. Seriously, a 90-minute tart.
It was supposed to have this lovely top crust of overlapping leaves of dough, but clearly I didn’t reserve enough, and had to wing it. Next time I think I’ll skip it altogether.

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