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Making Strawberry Lemon Preserves

Last week, I hosted a canning workshop with my CSA… and it was a great time! We learned how to make strawberry lemon preserves, perfect for this time of year. It was a small turnout – 4 people plus myself and the teacher – but that made for a nice intimate gathering. We all learned a lot, and even after three years of canning, even I learned some important tips (and some in hindsight that seem like no-brainers). Canning 101 techniques are always good to revisit.

aj explaining something
Our teacher, AJ Simone

AJ had already combined the strawberries, lemon, and sugar and let them macerate for a day before the workshop. He mentioned that the CSA strawberries he used made a huge difference in the end product – they were far superior to supermarket strawberries. Of course, the strawberries we got from Hepworth Farms were simply incredible, and were probably the best strawberries I’ve eaten outside of the ones my grandfather used to grow in California.

strawberries and lemons cooking
Strawberries and lemons cooking

This collage shows the strawberry-lemon mixture from the initial draining, to the resulting juice that will boil down to a syrup, to the fruit cooking in the syrup.

The kitchen sure smelled amazing during this whole process.

Strawberry Lemon Preserves Processing Collage
Processing the strawberry lemon preserves

This collage shows the processing of the preserves, from spooning them into the sterilized jars, to screwing on the lids, to processing them in the hot water bath.  I’m fortunate to have a nice big pot for processing – a 16 quart stockpot! It gets used pretty much in the summer only (I bought it years ago on sale).

This is the final product:

the finished product - strawberry lemon preserves
The finished product - strawberry lemon preserves

This was one delicious batch of preserves. And look at that color! I loved the pure strawberry flavor combined with the tang of the lemon – it’s definitely not too sweet. And that’s understandable with the proportions in mind – 3 pounds of strawberries, 2 whole lemons, and only 1 1/2 cups of sugar. One can get away with a relatively low amount of sugar because pectin isn’t being used in this recipe.

This recipe makes about five half pint jars worth of preserves, but sometimes it can come out to 4.5, which is what happened to our batch. We ate the .5 amount, yum. AJ was an excellent teacher and I’m hoping we’ll see more workshops led by him in the future.

To learn how to make the preserves, head on over to AJ’s blog, Handjobs (For the Home), for the full recipe for strawberry lemon preserves. For a few more pictures, as well as full sizes of the images in this post, check out my photoset on Flickr: CSA Workshop – Making Strawberry Lemon Preserves.

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Homemade Vanilla Extract

Last week I made vanilla extract.

It was something I’ve been wanting to make for some time now, and since I seem to be caught up in a DIY wave these days, I felt this was the right time to make it. Happily, everything fell into place – the vanilla beans I ordered arrived quickly, I found some quality alcohol, and a friend recently posted an excellent recipe for homemade vanilla extract.  I was totally set.

For a little while, I was trying to decide between using vodka or bourbon.  I’m more familiar with vodka in cocktails, mostly due to my interest in the Cosmopolitan (vodka, cranberry juice, triple sec, lime juice) in the 90s. I loved that drink, and still order it sometimes. The best one I ever had was made at Caffe Venezia in Berkeley – it was pink and beautiful and deliciously tangy (excessively sweet Comos are not my thing), and I sucked it down like a champ. It was also very strong, and it hit me shortly after I drained the glass. Thankfully, I ate soon after which helped keep the intoxication at bay (for a little while).

That being said, I recently had a bourbon-based cocktail the other day at The Astor Room‘s Beaver Bar. It was in a drink call the “New Yorker” (lemon juice, claret, bourbon), and it was delicious.  The bourbon had a kind of perfume to it that I enjoyed very much.  I thought it would be perfect for vanilla extract.

In the end, I used vodka because I bought a big bottle of it to make vin d’orange, and I had plenty extra.  On the recommendation of the man at the liquor store, I bought a bottle of Pinnacle Vodka.  It is made in France and “in small batches”, according to the label. I tasted it on its own and it has a nice flavor – sort of spicy, a little sweet, and relatively smooth but with that fiery alcohol kick.

The vanilla beans – Bourbon Madagascar – come from JR Mushrooms & Specialties (via Amazon) and were priced well.  I paid a little over $15 for a 1/4 pound, which yields about 27 beans. They came vacuum packed, are nice and soft and smell amazing.

I used six beans for the pint of extract I made.  I used the entire bean – I cut each one in half lengthwise and scraped out the seeds, reserved the pods, then covered it all with 2 cups of vodka.

The pint jar is sitting in a dark cupboard, steeping for the next 6 weeks. I looked at it yesterday and it had already gotten quite dark. However, it smelled pretty strong – more like alcohol than vanilla – but good. It will be amazing once the 6 weeks is up. Then I’ll bottle it and perhaps offer it at the inaugural Queens Swap (more details on that in another post).

I’ll write again when the vanilla extract is ready.  Can’t wait!

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Lacto Fermented Ginger Carrots

Lacto fermented ginger carrots is one of my favorite ferments.  It’s got the sweetness of the carrots, the piquant nature of the ginger, and the tanginess that comes with fermented foods.  Plus all that extra vitamin C and probiotics from the fermentation process.

The jar of ginger carrots in the photo was made during a fermentation workshop I taught a couple of weeks ago.  I decided on ginger carrots because they are easy to make and get one’s head around – a few simple ingredients, easy to mix, and easy to get a brine out of it. It was fun to prepare them as a group, too, with everyone contributing to the grating and mincing. And I learned how to peel ginger with a spoon!  It’s freakishly effective.

I enjoy ginger carrots on lots of things, from eggs, to roast salmon, and it’s a nice snack all by itself. It also goes great in a bean salad, the recipe for which I’ll share soon

The process is very simple – mix everything together and let it sit and ferment.  The ferment shown in the picture above – which was made during the fermentation workshop I taught a few weeks ago – took about 6 days to get to my liking. It continues to get better and better as it ages, too.

Lacto Fermented Ginger Carrots
4 c. grated carrots
1 T ginger root
1T sea salt
4T whey

Grate carrots on the large holes in a box grater (or use a food processor).  Peel the ginger and mince it. Mix the carrots and ginger in a non-reactive bowl (glass or ceramic) until well-combined.

Add the sea salt and whey, and pound it all together to release the juices, which will turn into a brine.  Stuff  the mixture in a jar – a pint jar should fit it all. As you’re stuffing the carrot-ginger mixture in the jar, be sure to firmly press down to further help release the brine. When you’ve stuffed it all in the jar, be sure there is a brine covering the vegetables.

Cover with a lid and let it sit for a few days in a warm dark space.  Check it to see what it tastes like – if you like it the way it is, put it in the refrigerator.  If you want a stronger fermented flavor, leave it out and check it each day for progress.

Regarding the salt you use for your fermentation: you can also use kosher salt or other salt as long as it has no iodine and no anti-caking ingredients. One caution about Celtic or grey salt – moist salt is sometimes known for carrying bacteria and mold that can ruin your ferments.

Makes one pint.

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Upcoming Talk About Food Preservation

I love to teach, am fascinated by different food preservation techniques, so I’m really happy to be giving at talk this weekend for the Kensington/Windsor Terrace CSA about food preservation!  This is a closed event, but I’m thrilled to let it out and off to the universe, as I’d love to lead more educational opportunities in my lifetime.

As a fellow CSA member, I know how overwhelming shares can be at times, and depending on how busy you are in any particular week, it’s easy to let the food go and eventually dissolve into a puddle of goo (believe me, I’ve seen enough of it over the years in the bottom of my crisper drawer).  As time has gone by, I’ve found various ways of preserving my food, and each technique has its own benefits.  I’m particularly enamored with the preservation method that actually boosts the nutrition in the food – lacto-fermentation.

I’ll be talking about the most accessible ways to preserve food: freezing, pickling, lacto-fermentation, dehydrating, water bath canning… and one special preservation process that I think its pretty cool and that I only learned about a year or so ago.  I’ll reveal that next week.

Anyway, yes – really excited to be doing this talk!  Special thanks for my friend Serita for helping set this up and to Charlene for overall encouragement.

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Summer Preserving – Fig Orange Honey Jam

jars of fig jam

This summer I was fortunate enough to have access to plenty of fresh figs from the two overhanging fig trees in the backyard.  This time last year I lived elsewhere, a place without fruit trees. It was a lot of fun picking all those figs, especially since no one else in the neighboring apartments seemed interested in them. They were all mine!

figs

I went for a run that morning, then picked the figs; they filled up my largest bowl. My landlord stores ladders in the backyard, so I had one of them at my disposal, and boy was it useful. A lot of the figs were way up high and I would never have gotten them without a ladder.  Most of them were perfectly ripe, and oozing a little nectar at the blossom end.  Some were slightly underripe, but that was ok with me – I didn’t want an overly sweet jam, so the tangier figs helped with that.

oranges

orange juice

zest

I love, love, love the taste of orange and figs together.  I first tasted the combination in this Dalmatian fig-orange jam, and thought it was just amazing.  The sweet figs and tangy orange are a perfect combination.

I also wanted to try making a jam with honey instead of sugar, in part because I wanted to avoid using an overly refined sweetener.  Figs and honey seem to go together, too, so it seemed like a natural, logical combination.

At first the honey flavor was pretty prominent, but after the jam had a chance to sit for a while (like overnight), it had mellowed and balanced with the fig and orange flavors.  It also seemed less sweet, which was fine with me.

stewing figs

figs cooking

fig orange honey puree

This is a wonderful fruit preserve, and I will absolutely make it again.  I think it will be good as a sauce with chicken, perhaps with a little bit of spiciness added to it!

Fig Orange Honey Jam

5 cups figs
1/4 cup water
1 3/4 – 2 cups honey
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
zest of two oranges

Wash and quarter figs, and place them in a large pot (I used an 8 qt. stock pot). Heat the figs with 1/4 cup water just to get them started. Cook the figs on medium-low until they start to break down, stirring and smashing them with the back of a wooden spoon to help break them down further. They will start to thicken.

Add the honey, orange juice, lemon juice, and zest, and stir to combine. Keep stirring so that the mixture won’t burn on the bottom. Since you are working with honey and not sugar, the tendency to stick and/or burn might be a little higher than usual.

Cook the figs to your desired consistency; the longer you cook the mixture, the thicker it will be.  Puree it some with a stick blender if you want the figs to have a more even, smooth consistency (this is what I prefer).

Immediately pour the mixture into hot, sterilized 1/2 pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch head space. Adjust caps. Process 20 minutes in boiling water bath.

This jam tastes better after the flavors have had time to marry.

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Lacto-Fermented Salsa

lf salsa

This week I expanded my fermentation repertoire into lacto-fermented salsa.  I’d not fermented anything involving fruit (tomatoes are really a fruit) before, so this was a new experience.  I learned that fruit-based ferments progress quicker than vegetable-based ones, so I expected to see some results early on.  Additionally, it’s pretty warm right now, and that ambient heat also encourages a quicker fermentation.  I love salsa, and thought I’d enjoy a lacto-fermented one, but had no idea just how delicious it would be!

This is a timely dish because tomatoes are in season.  Summer tomatoes are one of the true joys of the season.  They taste so amazing right now. Canned tomatoes can be used, but they are nothing like fresh tomatoes.

peeled tomatoes

So why make fermented salsa?  Well, the lactobacilli helps to increase the digestibility of the salsa, plus the increased levels of vitamins and enzymes go way up.  The lactic acid helps it to not spoil, and helps promote a healthy gut with the natural probiotics that develop.

chopped tomatoes

This is a pretty easy recipe to prepare without a food processor, but if you have one (or a stick blender even), preparing this salsa will come together in a jiffy.  I like chopping things by hand, so I was fine with doing it manually, but if I ever get myself a food processor, I’ll try it that way, too.

ingredients pre mixing

This salsa tastes like summer and has a delicious tang to it from the fermentation.  I actually took it with me as an example item for my talk on traditional foods for Queens Holistic Moms, and it was very well received!  People loved it, and went back for second and third tastes.  I was really happy about that!

The whey works really well with it, too.

salsa in a jar

Lacto-fermented Salsa
Adapted from a recipe by Cheeseslave.  Directions for the salsa using a food processor can be found here.

1-2 serranos or 1/2-1 jalapenos (I used about 1/4 tsp dried Aleppo pepper flakes)
4 medium fresh tomatoes, or 2 pounds canned tomatoes, organic if possible
1 medium white onion, organic if possible
1 garlic cloves
2 limes, organic if possible
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoons whey (or, if you don’t have any whey, use an additional 1 tablespoon salt)
1 bunch fresh cilantro

If you are using fresh chiles, consider wearing gloves, especially if you are sensitive to the capsaicin, the stuff in peppers that makes them hot.   Cut open the chiles and discard the stems and seeds. Set aside.

If using fresh tomatoes, peel and de-seed them:  Fill a large saucepan halfway with water, set on high heat and bring to a boil. Cut an X in the bottom (blossom end) of the tomato, and carefully set them in the saucepan for 5-10 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon or tongs and place in an ice bath. Cool and peel.

Cut tomatoes in half and gently squeeze out the seeds, or scoop out with a spoon, and discard.  Chop finely.

Peel and cut the onion into small dice.  Peel and mince or crush the garlic.

Rinse, dry and chop the cilantro, discarding the stems.

Squeeze the limes and add the juice.

Add the sea salt and whey.

Mix everything together.

Transfer to quart-sized mason jar. Add a little filtered water if necessary (if you like it more liquid and it’s too chunky). If you add water, put the lid on and shake it up so it’s incorporated. Make sure to leave at least an inch of space from the top of the jar.

Cover and keep at room temperature for 2-3 days before transferring to the fridge. Salsa will keep for weeks or months in fridge.

This post is participating in Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.