Luckily, there are options. Making preserves from frozen fruit is a great way to clear out the freezer and after a long winter, it’s exciting to sample sun-ripened fruit again! (Hitchhiking to Heaven has a great post about making jam from frozen fruit, including invaluable tips on how to store your fruit over the winter so you can have fantastic preserves for the future.)

Another option and one of my favourites is mustard. We eat a lot of mustard and enjoy its versatility. Like a fine wine, mustard gets better with age and starting now gives your mustard a chance for flavours to develop and deepen, just in time for the upcoming barbeque and salad season.  Mustard is one preserve that gets used up the fastest. We add it to vinaigrettes, slather it on grilled sausages, stir it in with tuna, pasta and potato salads, add it to pan drippings and a splash of wine for a quick and tasty pan gravy, slather it on bread for sandwiches and add it to our marinades. One of our favourites is honey mustard dip.

Garrison's Raspberry Wheat Beer Mustard

This mustard features the sweet and mellow Raspberry Wheat Beer from Garrison’s Brewery in Halifax, one of our favourite breweries. Paired with yellow mustard seeds, it’s a really lovely mild mustard. The recipe is direct from Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving and the recipe can be found online at the Ball website. I like the versatility and ease of this recipe as it allows you room to play around with different textures (smooth vs grainy), different colours of mustard seeds (black mustard seeds are bolder and spicier) and room to play with the underlying beer flavour, swapping a light beer for something stronger and complex. Or, swap the beer entirely and try a hard cider. Mustards are incredibly easy to make, have good storage length in the fridge and many can be canned.

To venture further into mustard making, consider these:

• Roasted Garlic Lemon Mustard from Local Kitchen
• Hard Apple Cider Mustard from Gastronomy Blog
• Lactofermented Mustard from Well Preserved
• Fig and Port Grainy Mustard from My Man’s Belly

Buttermilk Cake with Plum Port Preserves. Is is coffee time yet?

It’s hard not to be jealous when I see pictures of gardens coming alive, forsythia and apple trees blooming and ramps reading for harvesting. This Easter, we awoke to 8 inches of snow, which was disheartening and somehow not surprising, given that we had the exact same thing happen five years ago. On the upside, this “Poor Man’s Fertilizer” is great for the gardens and hopefully all our fruit bushes will reward us.

While the garden is slowly reawakening, our family continues to grow and thrive. I’ve had to dramatically alter my expectations of what I can accomplish in a day, never forgetting that my kids “won’t keep.” Thankfully, my daughter loves to help me in the kitchen and you can count on her to happily dump cupfuls of flour or help stir dry ingredients together. You can also expect that she’ll take the pepper mill and grind you some fresh pepper or sneak bites of raw-egg batter when your back is turned.

I made two versions of the following cake recipe and even baking with a toddler, I had both cakes ready for the oven and the kitchen cleaned within 45 minutes. Total and complete score! Since my stomach revolts when I eat gluten and baby Sam’s system seems to revolt when I eat dairy and soy, I absolutely love a recipe that’s open to dietary interpretations and this one fits the bill. The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking’s Buttermilk Cake is a gluten-free riff of What Julia Ate’s original recipe, so my adaptations are an ode to them both. I chose a rhubarb preserve to play up the tangy note of buttermilk, but a conserve with dried fruit and nuts would be really tasty. Lots of room for interpretation!

Gluten and Dairy Free “Buttermilk” Cake

1 cup gluten-free all purpose blend (I use Land O’ Lakes recipe)

1/2 tsp xantham gum

1/2 tsp baking powder and baking soda

1/2 cup sugar (I used palm sugar)

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 tsp ground vanilla powder or extract

1 egg

1/4 cup any flavour jam

1. Stir dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl.

2. Mix wet ingredients together.

3. Stir wet ingredients into the dry and spoon into a greased 8″ pan. Smooth and even out the batter. Spoon jam over batter and smooth.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

"Buttermilk" Cake with Rhubarb and Grand Marnier Jam

The second cake, I followed Hip Girl’s recipe exactly, substituting organic, unbleached flour for the gluten-free blend. It came out beautifully and had more of a lunar appearance. I topped this cake with a Plum Port Preserve and offered it as a get well gift for a friend. The richness of the plum and port should pair nicely with the cake and hopefully it tastes as good as it smells!

Lunar Goodness.

Life continues to buzz and flutter with lots of exciting activities. Our uncanny toddler is now 2.5 and our newcomer, Sam, is a big, bouncing 4 month old. While I still stare at my kitchen in sheer longing for just one afternoon to play, I recognize the importance of living in the moment with my kids. That’s why recipes that involve my kids are a big hit right now and ones that repurpose jam are even better.

This recipe comes from my dear friend and total kitchen renegade Alyson at Dates and Quinces. I love how her recipes are always full of story and flavour, rich with beautiful photography that inspire me with every post. She made Jam Oat Bars and I loved its simplicity and versatility and bonus for being accessible for kids. Expecting her own child, I’m sure there will be more child-friendly recipes in her future!

Child Labour

The Jam Oat Bars are similar to a date square: an oat and buttery flour base and topping with a sweet filling in the middle. The dough is basic and perfect, with no competing flavours so your jam can really shine through. I went for the gooseberry jam, since it’s often overlooked for its sexy sister, strawberry jam. It was perfect. The brightness added a great contrast to the hearty sweetness of the dough. While any jam works, I like something with a good acidic nip to make the bars really shine.

Voila!

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!

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!

Armed with grapefruits, lemons and limes, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to try out some new recipes and a new style of preserve I’ve never conquered.

Behold…

Vanilla Cupcake with Grapefruit Curd

Last winter, I kept seeing recipes for really beautiful curds and I vowed that the following winter, when we weren’t participating in the 100 Mile Challenge, I’d give them a try. I used this recipe, from Confections of a Foodie Bride and what I especially liked about her recipe for Grapefruit Curd was that it was a smaller batch of curd and that it used whole eggs. Right now, I don’t have time to use up 6 egg whites in another recipe, like angel food cake or meringue and I feared they’d get wasted. I also wasn’t sure how I’d feel about a curd and how quickly I’d use it up. According to the National Office of Home Food Preservation, curds can be canned, they be frozen up to a couple of months (just insure lots of headspace because they’ll expand) and they’ll also hang out in your refrigerator up to a week, so there are plenty of options. I opted for the easiest method since my time is very limited by chosing a smaller recipe.

The recipe results in a creamy, delicious and decadent curd. The one thing I noticed was the recipe didn’t state to use unsalted butter. My curd, while delicious, is a touch too salty and so the obvious butter tastes is more prominent than I’d like. Still, it’s a great recipe for beginners like me!

My next citrus project is this:

The Beginnings of Cointreau

I use a lot of Grand Marnier because I love the orange flavour and depth it adds to preserves. However, it’s pricey and if I can make it cheaper, I will. Again, since this is the first time with this liqueur, I quartered the original recipe found at Foodista. I took a very cheap, 375 mL bottle of brandy, a lime and two oranges. I’ve microplaned the citrus and will let it sit for a month, as per the instructions. Hopefully, I’ve made something delicious!

It All Starts Here

No Scurvy Here!

Last spring, I had about 30 lbs of rhubarb donated to me and not wanting to waste anything, I froze a quarter, made rhubarb syrup with a quarter and made rhubarb preserves with the remainder. Some of it was preserved in a simple syrup and some with vanilla bean.

Well, it’s been over 6 months since I made it and let me tell you, it’s delicious. Add in some apples and the fruit I froze over the summer and you’ve got yourself a delicious fruit salad that is deliciously local (OK, minus those oranges, but it *is* citrus season and I can’t resist).

Added bonus is the syrup. While it’s a tasty base for the fruit salad, it also makes a killer drink.

Rhubarb Vanilla Syrup

While I’m sure it’s noon somewhere and it’d be a delicious martini, I decided to opt for a morning mimosa-style by adding club soda to the syrup and grabbing a fancy flute and pretending I was somewhere warm and sunny. Besides, nothing starts off a Saturday morning quite like sipping something sweet with the extravagence of real vanilla bean floating in your flute.

Have a happy Saturday!

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!

It’s been such an exciting year for us at uncanny preserves! Another happy and successful summer at the Sackville Farmer’s Market and the sheer joy of  participating in a community pillar. The Farmer’s Market really is the heart of Sackville on a Saturday morning and you must budget at least an extra 30 minutes to catch up with all the friends you’ll meet there. I appreciate the kindness and generosity of the friends, customers and vendors at the Market.

I also give thanks for the wonderful online community that has shared their passion for preserving with me. The creativity continues to inspire and challenge me to keep trying new things. I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings!

It was also a banner year for our family as we welcomed our son last month. While life has yet to find a groove and rhythm, I wouldn’t change it for the world and am relieved that when life feels chaotic, our pantry is stocked with delicious, homemade and lovingly crafted preserves to keep our meals interesting.

From our family to yours, we wish you the best of the season and many blessings in the coming year.

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.