Archive | Recipes RSS feed for this section

Thinking Outside the Jar: Elderberry Cream Hearts

11 Feb

Elderberry Cream Hearts

Now that my daughter is 2.5 we’ve been having such fun with holidays. She has a much greater understanding of the activities and rituals behind holidays and looks forward to them with anticipation. From her books and talks with her friends, she now understands Valentine’s is about cards, candy, hearts and “I love you’s”. Since this is her first year of really experiencing these holidays, I’m feeling compelled to really make the most of it and help make her first introduction to them really special.

After watching the Tedx Manhattan video about the effects of eating processed, food colour rich foods, I’m hesitant to let my daughter enjoy much of the candies that may come her way and so this treat was my attempt at using natural ingredients to create something nutritious and fun.  Debating between rhubarb and elderberry syrup as a base, I opted for the antioxidant rich elderberry syrup, mostly for its dramatic colour. When I canned this syrup, I intended to pour it over pancakes or add it to club soda, but I’ve done neither and my syrup is wasting away in the pantry. I like recipes that give preserves a new life!

Elderberry Cream Hearts

2 cups elderberry syrup

1 cup water

3 packets of powdered Knox gelatin

1/2 cup whipping cream (unwhipped)

1. Dissolve the packages of gelatin in a cup of cold water. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan and set aside.

2. Pour syrup into a small pot and bring to a soft boil. Remove from heat and add gelatin.

3. Pour in whipping cream and stir. Pour into prepared pan and refrigerate until set. Cut into squares or shapes.

** While I’m not 100% convinced elderberry syrup was the right choice, there’s something here and with some tinkering, we could  create something really fantastic. Perhaps my rhubarb syrup with orange zest or a mango juice with orange concentrate might taste good? Or, switching agar flakes instead of gelatin? Since this is my first attempt at making homemade gelatin, I welcome your suggestions and feedback!

Thinking Outside the Jar: Marmalazed Chicken Legs

27 Jan

In my sleep deprived sleep, I honestly typed marmalazed without realizing how it’s the perfect fit for this recipe. It’s marmalade used as a glaze for chicken legs; marmalazed.

I tend to use up preserves for other sweet things, like thumbprint cookies, as a cake filler or thinned for a glaze for quick breads. I almost always forget how preserves can be used for savoury purposes, especially as a glaze for meat. I really liked this glaze and when baked, it became caramelized and delicious spooned over some brown rice.

Marmalade Glazed Chicken

Yields enough glaze for a dozen chicken legs

1 cup orange marmalade

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce

Dash of hot pepper flakes

Touch of water to thin it out

In a small pot, combine ingredients and over low heat, stir until everything has come together. Taste and adjust to your taste. If you want to reserve the glaze as a sauce, bake in a smaller dish and pour over chicken and bake at 350 until chicken is cooked. If using this as a glaze, spread chicken out on a greased, tin foil lined baking sheet and coat legs with glaze. Bake at 375.  Enjoy!

End of the Year Spicy Marmalade with Kaffir Lime Leaf

31 Dec

The Makings of Something Great

I can’t think of a better way to cap off 2011 then with a preserve, especially this one. It represents the best of my year, a little spontaneous, a little spicy, definitely sweet and totally ready for celebration. I’m not sure what I’m most excited about, the fact that I managed to make this after a two month preserve-making hiatus, that I made this preserve quickly and while wearing a baby, or that it tastes delicious.

The uncanny clan are visiting with family near Toronto and a trip here always means one of our famous “ethno-grazes”, where we visit several spots in Toronto and load up on ethnic delights and refill our spice cabinet. This past trip meant a stop to Chinatown and returning with a big bag of kaffir lime leaves. While I normally reserve these leaves for my curries, one sniff and I knew I had a preserve in the making. Luckily, there were some lone oranges kicking around my father’s fridge that needed some love and some lovely dried chill peppers meant an interesting preserve could me mine.

It’s a very small batch, totally spur of the moment, but preserves can be that fabulous. While canning means more preparation with cleaning and sterilizing, but mini-batches means you can experiment and have a lot of fun discovering flavours you might like (or not!). I particularly liked this preserve and am looking forward to featuring this preserve over a chèvre and crackers for our New Year’s Eve celebration.

I opted for the largest orange in the fridge and sliced it using my favourite citrus slicing method a la Hitchhiking to Heaven. I tossed in about 1/4 cup of water and then added more orange juice as it softly boiled to prevent scorching, about 1/2 cup of liquid all total. Two small pieces of hot pepper were added and that was enough for a nice kick, but you can start judiciously and add more near the end if it’s not spicy enough. 4 kaffir lime leaves seemed the right amount, so adjust accordingly if you’re making a larger batch.

Let the mixture softly boil until the orange slices turn to mush when you squish them between your fingers, or eat a slice and when its softened to your liking, add your sugar (I added to taste).

Voila!

To try this yourself:

Spicy Marmalade with Kaffir Lime Leaf

Yields: 1 cup

1 large orange, cleaned and scrubbed, quartered with the middle pith removed and thinly sliced

4 kaffir lime leaves

1 inch piece of dried hot pepper

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup water/orange juice (approx.)

1. Combine orange slices, hot pepper and kaffir lime leaves and water/juice and bring to a low simmer, cover and stir occasionally, about 40 minutes.

2. Put a dish in the freezer to test for gel point.

3. When you’re happy with the softness of your citrus, add sugar and increase heat to medium-high and continue cooking until the set point is reached. Remove hot pepper and lime leaves. Enjoy!

Thinking Outside the Jar: Cranberry Preserves

24 Nov

Since the arrival of our son, Samuel, life is definitely hopping! Before his arrival, I made up a batch of Cranberry Preserves, a la Linda Zeidrich, a lovely baked preserve that keeps the berries whole and imbued with lovely citrus flavours. What I love most about this recipe is its adaptability – you can either can it or store it in the fridge for up to a month. I chose the latter, since I had some big plans with the preserves and today, my first day of being alone with two kids, I managed to whip up this dessert using the stored Cranberry Preserves, but any kind of cranberry sauce will do.

For my American buddies, you may have plenty of leftover cranberry sauce and this is just one way to use it up besides pairing it with turkey. For my gluten-free/grain-free/dairy-free buddies, this cake is for you! The cake is beyond delicious and really easy to prepare. Enjoy!

Cranberry Preserves

German Chocolate Cranberry Cake

Recipe courtesy of a friend.

100 grams unsalted butter (or dairy-free margarine, if needed)

100 grams sugar

3 eggs, separated

4 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking powder

150 grams almond flour

1  348 mL can whole cranberry sauce or equivalent home made

250 mL whipping cream, whipped (or whipped topping, if going dairy-free)

Dark chocolate shavings for topping.

1. Mix butter, sugar and egg yolks until they are frothy.

2. Add cocoa powder and baking powder, then almond flour.

3. Whip egg whites until stiff then fold into above mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes in a greased spring-form pan and when you take it out, spread the cranberry sauce immediately over the top.   Cool.   Spread with whipped cream and sprinkle with chocolate shavings. Serve.

** Since I’m going dairy-free, I cut an individual slice and topped it with whipped topping and dairy-free dark chocolate, but feel free to slather the top of the cake with whipped cream and chocolate shavings before serving. **

As a side note, here are a few things I’ve learned about cooking with a toddler and newborn:

1. Wear your baby.

2. Now is the time to have “mise en place”! As much as you’d love to tackle a recipe from start to finish, chances are mayhem may ensue and you’ll get called away from your recipe. If you’ve got all your ingredients in place, it’ll make finishing that recipe even easier when you have a minute.

Mise En Place is Critical

3. Toddlers need to be watched like a hawk. No matter how many times I mentioned how we’d have cake when it was finished, I turn my back for a second and my 2 year old has eaten a big chunk of cake dough. Let’s hope those farm-fresh eggs won’t do any harm.

Goat Cheese – Take 1

17 Oct
I love making preserves, I really do, but after hundreds of different kinds made I’m itching to break into different forms of preserving and one of my stated goalsis to branch off into cheesemaking.This is take 1 of the Great Cheesemaking Experiment and thanks to the wonderful blog notes from maggie’s farm, I had a wonderful recipe and tutorial. I made a very scaled back version of her recipe, but was still satisfied with the amount it made. Maggie suggests really fresh goat milk and since I’m a member of a CSGS (Community Supported Goat Share), I pick up my freshly pasteurized goat milk every Saturday morning for the incredible price of $2.50/L. I figured even if the cheese didn’t work out, it was hardly a risky financial venture. (For more interesting information on CSGS and the trials and tribulations of my local goat farmer, see the CBC article and video found here.)

Sunday afternoon, in went the litre of goat milk into a medium sized pot set over low heat (my range goes from minimum to 5 and I kept it around a 1.5). If you have a candy thermometer it comes in handy as mine had the attachment to rest on the side of the pot, unlike my meat thermometer. Stir frequently. Your goal is 175 degrees, which takes about 30-40 minutes to reach.

How It Begins

Once it has reached the proper temperature, we dropped it down to the minimum heat setting and kept it there for 10 minutes before removing from the heat and stirring in 1/2 ounce of white vinegar, covered the pot and let it sit for five minutes. Realizing it wasn’t enough to separate the whey from the curds, we added an extra 1/4 ounce for a total of 3/4 ounce of white vinegar. We covered the pot for another five minutes and was rewarded with this:

Separating the Curds from the Whey

We poured it into a fine mesh cheese cloth, hung it from a cupboard knob and let it drip overnight. Easy peasy.

Strain

Mr. Uncanny went ahead and mixed in the salt the following morning (with unknown quantities, I was a little groggy and pre-coffee and didn’t think to ask). Shaped it and threw it in the fridge and I enjoyed a little hunk of it tonight with some cranberry preserves. It was a delicious, mild cheese that adapted itself well to sweet and savoury. It did lack the distinct tang you expect from a goat cheese and reminded me of a paneer. Still, as from maggie’s farm points out, you’re a cheesemaker and that’s a pretty fantastic accomplishment!

Behold: Goat Cheese!

I wonder what’s next…

Prune Plum Conserve

28 Sep

After talking about and seeing recipes for preserves with prune plums, I was delighted to finally find some at the grocery store. Having made a Blue Plum and Port jam, I was happy, but not over-the-moon happy like I was with last year’s Prune Plum and Port Jam. Prune plum jam is robust and rich and to me is perfectly suited to the holidays.

While the majority of my 2 lbs went to the soon to be Port jam, I saved the other half pound to try my hand at a homemade conserve. It’s ideally suited if you need something quick and don’t want to bother with storing the conserve long term, or just double or triple the recipe for a larger batch and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

The Makings of Something Great

Prune Plum Conserve

Yields: Approx. 1 cup

1/2 lb prune plums, pitted and diced

4 dried apricots, diced

1 tsp lemon juice

Scant 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

1/4 cup sugar

1 cinnamon stick

2 tsp water

1 tbsp Grand Marnier

1. Combine plums, sugar, cinnamon, water and lemon juice in a small sauce pan and bring to a gentle boil, stir occasionally until plums and dried apricots have softened. Continue to cook gently until the gel point has been reached (thereabouts, I like a soft set).

2. Add in walnuts and continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes. At the end, add in your Grand Marnier and remove from heat.

This Conserve Really Sparkles with Flavour

I’m storing this in the fridge, with the cinnamon stick for added flavour. I intend to make this again when I’ve replenished my stock of prune plums, but I see no reason why this recipe couldn’t be tripled or quadrupled. There are a variety of textures, from the soft plums, to the harder walnut pieces. The splash of Grand Marnier adds a great citrus flavour and I can’t think of a better holiday jam to tuck into a last minute gift basket. I tried mine stirred into plain yogurt and it was heaven.

Feel free to play around with the flavours – maybe a dash of nutmeg? Cardmamom? A little spice bag with all spice, cloves, citrus strips and cinnamon sticks? Lots of room to expand here. Enjoy!

Honey Jasmine Tea and Peach Jam

31 Aug

I keep meaning to slow down. I *want* to slow down, I really do. All those prenatal exercise videos keep staring at me and my prenatal clinic keeps reminding me about signing up for labour preparation classes (like I need a reminder of how it’s going to go – its labour! It’s long. It’s painful. It’s not for the faint of heart,  but you get a cool present at the end.)

So, I jokingly blame canning and preserving bloggers for keeping me from nesting. Particularly bloggers much further south of me that come into their fruit season a good 3-4 weeks ahead of me. I’m taunted by some drool-worthy food photography and the most incredible sounding recipes with bold combinations that I just keep squirreling away until my turn arrives. Everyday I seem to be canning just one more preserve, while I tell myself that eventually I’ll get around to preparing for 2.0′s arrival (in a way, I am preparing, right?!) Besides, I’d take a well stocked preserves pantry over a pristine nursery any day!

So, I present this gem of a jam – Honey Jasmine Tea and Peach Jam. Initially inspired by Buffy and George’s recipe for Peach Jam with Honey and Earl Grey Tea, my jam is a riff on theirs and makes use of an ingredient I’ve been longing to try for years: loose leaf tea. I loved the colour of their jam and how the brightness of the peach was still intact and yet the subtle tea flavour still shone through. If you haven’t tried preserving with tea, give it a whirl. This jam had the lovely aroma and flavour of green tea, without being too tannic or punchy. It was delicious on an afternoon scone and I think the floral peach and Jasmine tea combo is a winner.

Honey Jasmine Tea and Peach Jam

Honey Jasmine Tea and Peach Jam

Adapted from: Peach Jam with Honey and Earl Grey Tea from Buffy and George

4 cups peeled, chopped peaches (if you want a smoother texture, mash with a potato masher)

1 tsp good quality loose leaf Jasmine Green Tea

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup lemon juice

4 tsp calcium water

3 tsp Pomona’s pectin

1. Combine chopped peaches with 4 tsp of Pomona’s calcium water, loose leaf tea and lemon juice in a large preserving pot/pan. Let stand for 10 minutes, giving the tea time to rehydrate.

2. In a bowl, measure out your sugar and stir in 3 tsp of Pomona’s pectin. Measure honey and reserve.

2. Bring peach mixture a boil over medium-high heat and boil for 2 minutes. Stir in sugar/pectin mix and reserved honey. Boil for another 2 minutes. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars with 1/4 inch headspace and process for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Got Crabs?

30 Aug

Crabapples, that is.

I was fortunate in my travels to Ontario to visit my in-laws neighbouring farm in White Lake, Ontairo about 45 minutes outside Ottawa. The Brearley farm provides incredible produce for the renowed Castlegarth Restaurant restaurant, just down the street from the farm. Looking at their menu is inspiring and proof that eating locally can be both delicious and gourmet. Mr. Uncanny, our toddler and I really enjoyed a tour of the gardens and were amazed at the variety of heirloom tomatoes that we enjoyed sampling as we toured the various gardens and polytunnel. While our daughter enjoyed chasing the chickens around the sprawling farm, I couldn’t take my eyes off their gorgeous, full and healthy crabapple trees that graces their front lawn.

Clearly seeing the longing in my eyes, they offered up their trees and let me go to town picking and before long, I had 7 lbs of crabs to take as carry-on back to Sackville.

Recognizing this gift and wanting to make something extra special, I made this:

Crabapple Star Anise Jelly

It’s really just a basic crabapple jelly recipe, with a couple of star anise thrown in the stewing process to liven up the flavours and add that licorice intrigue that matches well with poultry/game meat as it would used as a glaze over a fruit tart. It’s subtle, so if you like it spicier, feel free to add more. Here’s how I did it:

Crabapple Star Anise Jelly

Yields: 3×250 mL jars

7 cups washed, stemmed and quartered crabapples

3 cups water

2 whole star anise

2 1/4 cups sugar

1. Combine water, crabapples and star anise and bring to a slow boil until crabapples are softened. With a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon, mash to help it break down further.

2. Pour into a dampened jelly bag and suspend over a large bowl and let it rest overnight. I like to rest a fine mesh strainer in a large pot, underneath my suspended jelly bag. That way, in case it falls, it’ll fall into the strainer and not into your pot of juice (a heavy bag of pulp splashing in a bowl of bright red juice wouldn’t be pretty).

3. Measure your juice – it should measure around 3 cups. Add water to bring it up to 3 cups, if necessary.

4. Pour juice in a clean preserving pan/pot and pour in sugar. Bring to a full boil, checking your setting point after about 5 minutes and keep boiling under jelly has set. Pour into clean, sterilized jars with a 1/4 inch headspace and process for 10 minutes. Voila!

Thinking Outside the Jar: Strawberry Liqueur Update

8 Aug

After patiently waiting my almost four weeks for the vodka to extract all that fantastic strawberry flavour, today was the big reveal. I wish I could convey the full aroma of the liqueur and its perfect strawberry smell; it’s like opening “June”. The process was really simple and in a nutshell: Take some berries, throw some vodka over them, put them in a cool dark place and gently shake once a week until the four weeks are up. To complete the liqueur, I strained the berries in a large coffee filter nestled in a fine mesh strainer for crystal clear liquid and poured it into a hot and clean 1 L mason jar, where it will reside in a low traffic cupboard so it won’t lose its colour from sunlight exposure. Another idea is to get fancy and fill dark green, 250 mL wine bottles and cork it so it’s ready for gift giving. The dark green will help protect it from colour loss.  (Full instructions on how to begin found here.)

My batch yielded about 2.5 cups and although I had the best of intentions of using this as Christmas presents, one whiff and I realized I couldn’t bear to part with it. It really is that good.

It started like this:

Vodka Meets Berries

And turned into this:

Strawberry Liqueur

I tried serving the strained, boozy strawberries with a sweetened ricotta dish when I made for company and while they enjoyed the berry-turned-shooter, it was agreed that I should find another use for them. Given that I hate wasting food and they still had a lot of strawberry flavour, I decided to repurpose them into this:

Rhubarb Pineapple Strawberry Preserve

 

Rhubarb Pineapple Strawberry Preserve
* Actually, it’s closer to Kitchen Sink Preserve as I had some leftover crushed pineapple that needed to be used, but it doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Yields: Almost 5×250 mL

4 cups diced rhubarb (frozen works fine)

1 small can of crushed pineapple, with juice

1 cup strawberries, from the strawberry liqueur

2 1/2 – 3 cups sugar

2 tbsp strawberry liqueur

1. Combine pineapple, strawberries and rhubarb and bring to a boil over medium heat.

2. When the fruit has broken down to your liking (I prefer my rhubarb more on the stewed side), add your sugar and return to a boil, stirring until jam has thickened to your liking, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add strawberry liqueur. Pour into hot, clean jars and process at 10 minutes in your boiling water bath.

These are not pectin rich ingredients and I was aiming for a very soft set and something to spoon over my morning porridge or blend into yogurt. The strawberry flavour really shines through and balances nicely with the pineapple and rhubarb. A great, impromptu preserve that takes very little effort. Enjoy!

Can You Can It? – Highbush Blueberry Lemon Verbena Jam

7 Aug

For those unfamiliar with uncanny‘s whereabouts, we’re nestled at the farthest south-east tip of New Brunswick, on the border with Nova Scotia. Oxford, Nova Scotia, a little town about half an hour away that has the honour of being the wild blueberry capital of Canada. With our acidic soil, we produce some really great blueberries, both wild and highbush.

Highbush Blueberry

 

Since wild blueberry season is still a few weeks off and anxious for blueberries, my family and I decided to head out to a highbush blueberry u-pick. The highbush blueberry is about triple the size and is incredibly easy to pick. While I normally hold off until wild blueberry season, Mr. Uncanny has recently become a real homebrew whiz and after a very successful batch of strawberry wine, he decided to try his hand at blueberry wine and it turns out highbush is the way to go.

 

With a scant 1 lb remaining from the 8 lbs we picked, I decided to make the highbush blueberry shine with the help of some citrus and some citrusy herbal goodness growing in my garden. This jam was a lot of fun to make for two reasons: 1. I’ve never made a micro-mini batch of jam 2. Small batches are perfect for the fridge and I didn’t have the heat and steam of a boiling water bath on a hot summer day and 3. I rarely make jam for home consumption. People love to joke about how much jam we consume and it’s true, we love our jam and find unique ways to eat it, but truthfully, it’s the dribs and drabs after I’ve finished bottling them. Most jams get purchased and it’s only in the case of very large yields or double batches that I keep a jar for our use.

 

I humbly present to you my ode to the highbush blueberry and my entry into the Can You Can It? contest:

Highbush Blueberry Lemon Verbena Jam

Yield: 2×250 mL jars

1 lb highbush blueberries, washed and stemmed

1 lemon, quartered, sliced thinly with middle membrane removed (see photo)

7 leaves of lemon verbena, rinsed and sliced

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

Blueberries and Lemon Verbena

Lemons

 

Directions:

1. Put saucer in the freezer.

2. Place quartered, sliced lemon with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/3 cup water and simmer over low heat until lemons have softened, about 10 minutes.

3. Add in blueberries and lemon verbena and increase heat to medium.

4. Stir until blueberries begin to break down and add remaining 3/4 cup sugar.

5. Continue boiling over medium heat until the gel point is reached on your frozen plate test. For me, it was about 5 minutes.

6. Pour into jars and refigerate, or, pour into sterilized jars and boil in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Highblush Blueberry Lemon Verbena Jam on a Croissant

 

I enjoyed it almost straight away and admittedly, the citrus is outnumbering the lemon verbena, but I know better than to judge a jam by it’s first bite. Time and mellowing can do wonderful things with a jam and I have no doubt the herbal citrus flavour will shine through. If not, it’s still tasty! Enjoy!

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 35 other followers