Pickles every four days...

I would say that this is a "first world problem" being forced to make pickles every four days, but really, it's rather an "old world problem", as this was what it was like in the good old days. With only three cucumber plants, I am still getting enough cucumbers every four or five days to make a quart jar or more of pickles. *sigh* Life's rough.

In searching for more variety of pickled goodness (mustard pickles, dill pickles, sriracha chard pickles...) my lovely wife found a recipe for jalapeño basil garlic dill pickles... Why not? I just happen to have a planter full of basil as well.

Into each quart jar:

2 garlic cloves

2 heads dill

1 tbsp pickling spice

1 dried chilli

Handful of sliced jalapeño peppers

Packed full of cucumbers

Handful of basil

Standard pickle solution:

3 cups pickling vinegar

3 cups water

6 tbsp pickling salt

Wate bath processed for 15 minutes. Done, and done.

A peck of pickled peppers...

Visit to the Italian Centre Shoppe in Edmonton results in Pepper Fiasco!

They were on sale for $1.49/lb, from BC. I held back and only bought only 6 pounds: hot, sweet, and mild peppers. From that, I ended up with 10 pints of pickled peppers, 3 in each variety plus an extra hot jar, plus two quart jars of mixed peppers. Not bad for a day's work!

Plus, I made a small jar of jalapeños, leftover from the Jalapeño basil garlic dill pickles I made at the same time...

Into each jar:

1 garlic clove (2 for a quart)

1 tsp pickling spice (2 for a quart)

Peppers to the top.

Standard pickling solution:

2 cups pickling vinegar

2 cups water

2 tbsp salt

For hot and mild peppers: add 1 tsp turmeric to solution

For sweet peppers: add 1 tbsp sugar to solution

Fill jars with boiling pickling solution, remove air bubbles with a spatula, wipe rims and lids finger tight.

15-20 min in a boiling water bath, and wait for the pops!

Anaphylaxis Adventure!

Don't visit our house today if you're allergic to peanuts. Seriously.

Some friends gave us some of their 60lb bag of organic, raw peanuts. (Of course I planted them!) today was our experiment in making fresh roasted peanuts, and of course from there it is a short leap to home made peanut butter.

Ever had raw peanuts? Perhaps not so oddly enough, they have a slowly nutty, slightly pea-ish flavour to them. To get them to that lovely, rich, peanutty-flavour that we all love so much, they need to be roasted first. 

Using a recipe from thekitchn.com, we roasted our nuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet, 350 for 20-25 min. I actually lowered the temperature to 325 after 15 minutes, as it smelled a little like the skins were burning. A little salt on the nuts when they came out of the oven, and then the hard part: waiting for them to cool enough to eat. You could hear them crackling happily to themselves as they cooled, the nut pulling away from the skins slightly.

Delicious! Still warm, slightly salty, and rich and buttery all at once. 

Next up? Peanut butter of course! I kept half of the nuts for eating, and skinned the other half, with some help of course :) Peanut skins flying everywhere! An anaphylactic's worst nightmare, I'm certain.

It's deceivingly simple to make fresh, home made peanut butter. Nuts? Meet blender. 

After about three minutes of blending, it started to show signs of smooth oily goodness around the bottom edges. 

Little lumps were still going around inside, but I checked it out anyway. It wasn't quite as smooth as store bought peanut butter, but had a slightly whipped consistency that looked promising. Thekitchn said to give it a few more minutes at this point, so I did, and voila:

... a magical transformation occurred, and it all came together in a uniform, smooth, creamy consistency. A quick taste, and sure enough, peanut butter! I added a dash of salt and a swirl of honey for a little character and depth of flavour, and another quick blend. 

I ended up with a small jar full, and enough leftover for lunch. Peanut butter sandwiches: fresh homemade organic bread, organic blackberry jam from BC, and some apples from the Organic Box. 

#happysquirrel

Pickle Thursday

My first pick of cucumbers is finally ready, enough to make a couple jars of dill pickles. Really I should have picked them a couple days ago as a few of them ar really big, but I'll just slice them this time. I love pickles, mostly because they are so easy to make, and super delicious. I like mine with extra garlic and dill. The fresher you can get the ingredients, the better they will be!

I had enough to do two quart jars, one sliced and one whole cucumbers. Here's the recipe with enough liquid to do 3 quart jars:

4 lbs cucumbers, washed. Slice them into quarters if they're large, or leave them whole if they're smaller. It's best to pack each jar with the same "kind" - either whole or sliced.

4 cups vinegar

4 cups water

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup pickling salt

For each jar:

1-2 heads of dill

1 clove garlic

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp pickling spice

1/4 tsp mustard seed

Sterilize the jars. Keep them hot.

Bring the vinegar, water, sugar, & salt to a boil. 

Put the dill, garlic, and spices into each hot jar, and pack each jar full of cucumbers, leaving room at the top.

Fill with boiling liquid, leaving 1/2" head space.

Centre the lids and add rings, finger tight.

Process in boiling wate bath for 15 min.

Leave them sit undisturbed for 24 hrs. Listen for the "pop!" that lets you know they sealed. Always a satisfying sound!

Adventures of a Squirrel: Tomato Soup

Another 30lbs of tomatoes, what to do? How about some home made, organic tomato soup, of course! I used the recipe from http://www.pickyourown.org/tomatosoup.htm but there are a few on the Internet that sounded good. One caution however, I wouldn't add flour as a thickener, as it would throw off your acid balance and could cause problems in the longevity of your preserved food. 

So, here we go. Once again, it's important to start with clean equipment, and sterilize jars properly. I used the sterilize feature on my dishwasher for the jars and rings, and boiled the lids ahead of time. 

It seemed to take an awfully long time to bring 30lbs of tomatoes to a boil. About two hours, on med-high heat. I actually had to switch to a larger pot and move to the propane burner outside because there were so many tomatoes! Once everything was in the pot and happily bubbling away, I let it simmer for an extra half hour to help the flavours come together, and thicken the soup a little more. My immersion blender took care of the skins and most of the seeds, but there were still a few left in the pot when I was done. Extra fibre, I guess.

I could only process 7 quarts at a time, but in the end it will be worth it. 13 jars altogether, with 4 good size servings per jar. I'm appreciating my pressure canner a little more every day. :)

The Recipe:

30lbs ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered.

6lbs onions, chopped

1 head of garlic, minced

2 cups sugar 

3tbsp salt

1 cup chopped fresh basil

Lemon juice, 2tbsp per quart jar

1. Working with about a bowlful at a time, add tomatoes to a huge pot with a little water to keep them from sticking. Bring to a boil.

2. As the tomatoes boil, continue adding tomatoes a bowl at a time. Stir often, pushing down the floaters into the boiling liquid, until all the tomatoes are added.

3. Add the onion and garlic, and continue boiling until the onions are soft, about 30 min.

4. Remove from heat. Working a small amount at a time, use an immersion blender or food mill to make your soup all smooth. If you don't want the seeds you will need to strain them out with a coarse strainer. If you use a fine mesh strainer, not only will you end up removing a lot of the pulp, but it will take you FOREVER and a day. I was lazy and left mine in.

5. Put your monster pot back on the heat, and bring it back to a boil. Add the sugar, salt, and basil, to taste. I added the whole 2 cups, and I think it will be a little sweet in the end. The sugar is meant to accentuate the sweetness of the tomatoes, not overpower them, and to offset the acid that gets added to each jar.

6. Add 2tbsp lemon juice to each jar. This is an important step as it ensures that the food is acidic enough to be preserved for longer than a few days. Once the lemon juice is in, ladle in the soup, leaving 1/2" of head space.

7. Put on the lids, and rings, finger tight. Process in a pressure canner, 20 minutes @11-13 lbs pressure for a dial-gauge style canner. Tomatoes are a low-acid food, right on the verge of what would be safe for a boiling water bath process, so it's better to be safe than sorry. No botulism for me, please. (Although, perhaps I could harvest the spores somehow and sell my toxin for injection purposes?)