That's What Bob's Cooking: Canning

Showing posts with label Canning. Show all posts

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Blood Orange Marmalade

Last year Craig and I set out to make canned good as Christmas presents. Well, we achieved our goal by making Bread and Butter Pickles, Honeycrisp Apple Jelly and Butter, Pineapple Chutney, Blueberry Lime Jam, Boysenberry Jam and Marionberry Jam, not to mention some Fig Spread from donated figs from a good friend. So this year, I thought let's do this again, with a few different canned goods.

Today marks the first of many canning projects this year. With a great sale and a limited season, I jumped on a few pounds of Blood Oranges, also known as Tarocco, native to Italy, Sanguinello, native to Spain, and the Moro, which is the newest variety of the three, and the most common in the area we live.

Blood Oranges are a variety of orange with crimson, almost-blood-colored flesh. The fruit is smaller than an typical orange its skin is usually more pitted, but can also be smooth. The distinctive dark flesh color is due to the presence of antioxidant pigments common to many flowers and fruit, but uncommon in citrus fruits. The flesh develops its characteristic maroon color when the fruit develops with low temperatures during the night. Sometimes there is dark coloring on the exterior of the rind as well, depending on the variety of blood orange. The skin can be tougher and harder to peel than that of other oranges. While all oranges are likely of hybrid origin between the pomelo and the tangerine, blood oranges originated as a mutation of the sweet orange. In Europe, the Arancia Rossa di Sicilia (Red Orange of Sicily) has Protected Geographical Status.

So here is the recipe I used for this marmalade:

Blood Orange Marmalade

Yield 16, 1/2 pint jars

12 cups of chopped blood oranges (approximately 16 oranges)

5 cups sugar

1 cup liquid (orange juice, water, or some combination of the two)

1 lemon, juiced

2 packet liquid pectin (use two if you like a more jellied consistency)

Sterilize your jars in your preferred manner.

Put fruit, sugar, liquid and lemon juice in a 4-quart, non-reactive pot and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and cook at a simmer for 10-15 minutes (you want it to look syrup-y and shiny). Bring back to a boil and add pectin. Stir to combine and let bubble for 2-3 minutes.

Remove marmalade from head and ladle into jars. Wipe the rims and threads of the jars with a cloth dipped into your sterilization water and apply lids and bands. Put into water bath and process for ten minutes.

(Adapted from Food In Jars)

Friday, August 2, 2013

Bread and Butter Pickles

I have always been a lover of pickles…..Sweet, Dill, Sour, Cornichons, Bread and Butter…you name it, I LOVE em! I even marinate chicken in pickle juice, but that another post (Chic-Fil-A Sandwiches) That being said, I have always been in awe of people who have made homemade pickles, but figured they were too hard to make, so I never tried.

A few years back Craig and I joined a CSA (Community-supported agriculture) farm. As part of the membership, we were asked to attend a farm event (we usually went to the fall harvest festival and fund raiser for Heifer International), as well as help work at the farm for a day. We always planned to go more than once, but out schedules never meshed out. One of the events we attended was pickle making party. I was so excited to go and help make pickles, I could barely contain myself! So the day came, and we were in the kitchen, cleaning pickles, heating up vinegar stuffing cucumbers, garlic and dill weed into jars. Then filled them with vinegar, and capped them. I was like…..THAT’S IT? Besides the water processing, we were done. Believe me, I was a little let down, and mad at myself for not trying to make them earlier.

Well, that was it I decided then and there, I would make pickles ASAP! That was about 10 years ago, and I have made pickles (with a few exceptions) every year since. The first year I made Dill as well as Bread and Butter pickles, and have had MANY requests for the Bread and Butter Pickles, so now that’s all I make. Although, I do have a neighbor that has been known for making Gin Pickles, and have been interesting in trying to make those……

Finished Bread and Butter Pickles

Here’s my recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles, if you not on my Christmas list to receive a jar!

BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES

Raw Cucumbers, getting ready to become pickles....

6 c. cucumbers, sliced
3 med. onions, sliced
1/2 c. canning salt
1 bag ice

Brine

2 c. vinegar
2 c. boiling water
1 tsp. mustard seed

Step 1, Cucumbers washed.....

1 tsp. celery seed
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 1/2 c. sugar

Sort cucumbers, discarding any with blemishes. Wash well.

Mix cucumbers, onions, ice and salt; let stand 2 hours. Drain and rinse off excess salt.

Combine vinegar, boiling water, mustard seed, celery seed, turmeric and sugar. Bring to a boil 5 minutes.

Step 2, Sliced Pickles, Salt and Ice.....

Pack cucumbers and onions into hot sterilized jars. Pour vinegar brine over the cucumber leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe rim of jar with a damp paper towel. Adjust 2 piece caps.

Process in a boiling water bath canner for no more than 10 minutes.

To avoid a cloudy brine or darkened pickles, do not use common table salt (use only canning salt).

Yield: Three 1/2 pint jars, adjust accordingly.

Cucumbers packed into jars, waiting on the brine....

I used 50 pounds of pickles and made a 16 time recipe of the brine, and still ran out.

My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!