You are here: Home / Archives for Kitchen Techniques and Hints / Instructional

Smoky Roasted Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

September 14, 2011 by 22 Comments

 

Are you ready for some salsa? It’s a salsa time of year, after all. Now is the time for all good tomatoes to come to the aid of the salsa. Salsasalsasalsasalsasalsasalsasalsasalsa!

Clapclap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clapclap. Clap. Clap. Clap*

*Ahem. That’s a salsa beat. Trust me.

It’s not that I get carried away over salsa in general, but I do over this particular salsa. Aside from fresh salsa (pico de gallo, or whathaveyou) this is what every single little salsa wants to be when it grows up. It’s smoky, thick, brick-red, and vibrant with guajillo and chipotle chiles, roasted tomatoes and tomatillos, and garlic that you forget you’re eating a jarred salsa. This is the salsa that makes people stop and say, “WOW!” and “Where’d you get this?” That, my friends, is no time for humility. Show them the rows of this on your shelves and puff your chest out a bit and say, “I made it.” I’d advise you fix a dollar amount in your head before serving to company, though, because you will inevitably be asked by reasonable people how much you would charge for a jar*.

*Unreasonable people, or younger siblings, however, will ask, beg and plead for you to give them a jar for free and remind you of the fact that they never told mom that you made them wear your fluffy pink nightgown in exchange for playing Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars with them even though they still don’t know you would’ve played it anyway because you liked them better than Barbies anyway.

It is best to be prepared is my point.

Back to the salsa. There are a few key points that differentiate this salsa from your average chunky jarred stuff.

  • It uses dried, reconstituted chiles instead of fresh ones. For some reason this just feels so much easier. Am I crazy? Maybe. But this is what my brain says and I’m listening.
  • It is made from roasted tomatoes rather than blanched, peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes. (Read: two-step tomatoes rather than four-step tomatoes.) This makes peeling easier because you roast the tomatoes, put them in a paper bag, crimp the top and wait a few minutes, then the skin just sloughs right off. I’m sorry about using slough while talking about food. I know it’s not appetizing, but I couldn’t think of another word that fit just right.
  • It is a “ground” salsa. Instead of uniformly (and angrily, depending on how much salsa you’re making and how many times you’re interrupted by the people who will eventually eat this salsa) hand chopping all the prepared ingredients, you toss them into the food processor and pulse until all the contents have been chopped to the point where they’re pretty derned little. Almost (but not quite) smooth. Why? Well, because I can. And because it tastes great. And because my kids like it better that way. And because it makes this end product more versatile. You can dump a jar on a pork or beef roast or a whole chicken, marinate it overnight, then drop it in the crockpot the next day on low. After several hours, shred everything together for the ultimate in simple main dishes. Eat the meat on sandwiches, on barbecue pizzas, in quesadillas, in this glorious dish, or on tacos. I guarantee you’ll come up with many more ways to use meat cooked in this salsa.
  • It just plain tastes better. I realize that’s not scientific or terribly persuasive, but there you have it. This is the best salsa in the world.

I have one final piece of advice about this salsa. Double the recipe. You really should just trust me on this or one of two things will happen to you. You will find yourself crying over your last jar of salsa between bites ~OR~ you will be reduced to guarding your stash jealously, suspiciously staring down anyone walking past your pantry or basement stairs and menacingly slapping a wooden spoon against your palm to show them you mean business. It will be easier on your mind in the long run if you just go ahead and double it. You’ve been warned.

Print
Smoky Roasted Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

Smoky Roasted Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

It's smoky, thick, brick-red, and vibrant with guajillo and chipotle chiles, roasted tomatoes and tomatillos, and garlic that you forget you're eating a jarred salsa. This is the salsa that makes people stop and say, "WOW!" and "Where'd you get this?" Be sure to double the recipe because it will be one of the most popular things you ever can.

Recipe from the canning bible: The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

Ingredients

  • 12 dried chipotle chile peppers, stemmed
  • 12 dried guajillo (cascabel) chile peppers, stemmed
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 2 pounds tomatillos, husks removed
  • 2 pounds plum tomatoes, cored
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 head garlic, broken into cloves with excess paper brushed away
  • 1 cup cider vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons sugar (raw or granulated)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (non-iodized)

Instructions

Place a large, dry, heavy skillet over medium heat.

Toast the chipotle and guajillo peppers on both sides (this may take more than one go-round as the size of the skillet determines how many peppers you can fit in at a time without overcrowding), about 30 seconds to a side, until they are pliable and fragrant. Transfer the toasted chiles to a stainless steel or glass bowl and pour the 2 cups of boiling water over the peppers. Weight the peppers down with a bowl or plate to keep them submerged and cover the whole bowl with plastic wrap or a tight cover for 15-30 minutes or until the peppers are softened.

Transfer the contents (water and peppers both) to a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until smooth. Set aside.

Put cored plum tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic in a single layer into a rimmed baking pan. Put them under a broiler set on high until tomatillos and tomatoes are blistered, blackened and softened and onions and garlic have black spots on them. Put tomatillos and tomatoes into a paper bag and cinch the top closed. Set aside until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes.

Pull the tomatoes out one at a time, rub them to remove the skins, depositing the peeled tomatoes directly into the food processor bowl that is fitted with a metal blade. When the processor is full, pulse until smooth. Pour the smooth processed tomatoes into a large, stainless steel stockpot. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes and tomatillos.

Peel the onions and garlic and pulse in the food processor until finely chopped. Add those to the tomatoes and tomatillos in the stockpot.

Add the reserved pureed chiles and remaining ingredients to the stockpot and stir until evenly distributed.

Prepare canner, jars and lids. (For more information on how to do this, see this link. )

Bring the tomato mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to a simmer, stirring frequently, and continue simmering until it thickens slightly. This should take about 15 minutes or so.

Ladle the hot salsa into the prepared jars, leaving 1/2-inch (1 cm) of headspace.

Use a stainless steel chopstick or butterknife to remove any air bubbles. If you need to add more salsa to maintain the headspace, do so.

Use a clean towel dampened with vinegar to wipe the rims of the jars.

Center the lid on the jar then screw on the band until fingertip-tight. Don't overtighten but don't leave loose!

Place jars into a canner, cover with water by an inch, and bring to a boil with the lid on the canner. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, begin a 15 minute timer. When the timer expires, turn off the heat, remove the lid to your canner and let the jars rest in the water for 5 minutes.

After five minutes, carefully transfer the jars to a towel or cooling rack on your counter and let stand, undisturbed, for 24 hours. Any jars that did not seal should be stored in the refrigerator.

After 24 hours, remove the rings for the sealed jars, wipe the jars clean and label them for storage. Store with the rings off (and in a single layer.) This is a little insurance policy. If there is bacterial growth in the jars, the bacteria will produce gas which will loosen and push up on the lid. This is an indicator that the jar has gone bad. If you have the rings in place, the lids cannot loosen and pop up to tell you something is wrong.

Store in a cool dry place for up to a year.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/14/smoky-roasted-tomatillo-and-tomato-salsa/

 

 

 

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Canning, Component Foods, Gifts, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, kid food, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian

Homemade Hot Italian Sausage Links

September 6, 2011 by 3 Comments

 

There is a lot of pretty food in the world; Much of it provokes your salivary glands into action when you look at it. But if you lay out a bunch of pictures of beautifully photographed food side by side, the one that’s going to fire me up the most is going to be a perfectly cooked sausage. There is no food that makes me hungrier just to think about it.The snap of biting into it (because a great sausage link always, always, ALWAYS has a snappy casing), the perfectly moist interior, the balance of spices and herbs and the fat.

There’s no getting around it. A sausage needs fat. No fat/low fat sausages = not sausage. It’s true. If there is no or low fat it is simply spiced up ground meat stuffed into a casing. That’s not to say it’s going to be bad, but it is what it is and what it isn’t is a sausage.

For many moons, I’ve made my own bulk sausages (in other words, not in casings) but I’ve had a hankering to stuff sausages for quite some time. This urge, desire, obsession, whatever-you-call it, is the fault of Bell’s Meat Market in Kane, Pennsylvania. When my dad was working at a camp down in the Harrisburg area, Kane was directly on the path between our two homes. En route to or from my house, my dad and stepmom had discovered this little place in this little town that made what had to be the best hand made sausages any of us had ever eaten. Since the drive was well outside of the “I’d drive that far for a craving” range, the idea of making exquisite sausages (not to be confused with the a-okay for every day but not earth-rockingly wondrous variety available at local grocers) firmly rooted itself in my mind.

When Dad and Val moved back to the Upper Peninsula, Kane was no longer on the way to or from and the situation became culinarily urgent.

Then came Charcutepalooza. This “Year of Meat” project brought people from all walks of life together to get all meaty together.  Cooking from scratch? You bet. Canning? Oh sure, everyone has dabbled in that, but preserving your own meat? That was hardcore. And I was all over it. I bought the “manual” for our collective project, “Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing” by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Reading that book made me feel like the heavens had opened and the angels were singing. There was the answer to my sausage conundrum. I had the method, I had the basics, and I was ready.

I recruited my nine year old minion because he is currently infatuated with the Two Fat Ladies and is willing to do anything and everything remotely connected to Jennifer and Clarissa (and he had watched an episode where they made Bangers and Mash the night before our grand project.) With Ty turning the handle on our old school meat grinder/sausage stuffer and me feeding meat into the hopper and then manning the casings (an admittedly off-putting and slightly blush-inducing job),  we managed to turn out a glorious string of Hot Italian Sausage Links.  To say we were proud would be an understatement. We shuffled around like the Tim-Conway-as-the-old-guy-on-Carol-Burnett saying, “Would you like some huh-weenies?”

Those sausages were not going to be admired for long. We popped half of them in the freezer (for later minestrone or Sunday sauce or some other such project) and put the other half straight into a pot to simmer in beer before their ultimate destination… The grill.

We cut peppers and onions into strips to fry up with olive oil and garlic.

Let’s have a word about properly grilling sausages, shall we? If you throw them on a hot grill and ignore them you’re going to, in all likelihood, have three tragic things happen.

  1. You will have unevenly cooked sausages.
  2. Your sausage casings will explode which will cause tragic thing #3.
  3. You will have dry little sausage jerkies because all the juices and fat will leak out on account of the breached casings.

There is no drama like sausage drama, so let’s discuss how to do it the right way, shall we? This applies to all “raw” sausages, not just homemade ones.

  1. Gently par-boil your sausages in something yummy. Beer, apple cider, wine? All good choices. If you want to know what is best to use, consider whether what you’re using for simmering would be tasty served alongside the finished sausage. If the answer is yes, then use it! The goal here is to get heat moving into the sausage, not to cook it completely.
  2. When you move on to grilling, put the sausages over moderate direct heat to start with so you get nice browning on the outside.
  3. When you have some nifty grill marks and tantalizing browning started, move the sausages to indirect heat (in other words, not directly over the flames/coals/what have you, until it is done through. For these sausages, that is 150°F.

When the sausages look like this, make haste in getting them off the grill!

These were crackling crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. This is a good reminder of why you want the casings to pop open only when you bite them. All that lovely fat and those intense juices from the meat were contained in the casing.  If you do it right, you get to eat all that good stuff. If you do it wrong, it sizzles out onto the grill and is wasted forever and ever amen. Not to put too fine a point on it or anything, but a dry sausage is a sad sausage.

This is not a sad sausage.

Neither were the other two that I ate. I’m just being honest.

Print
Homemade Hot Italian Sausage Links

Prep Time: 1 hour

Heavily seasoned with garlic, Italian herbs and spiced up with crushed red pepper flakes and cayenne, this succulent Hot Italian Sausage is worth every effort involved in making it. You can stuff it into casings to make links, or leave it in the bulk form for browning and adding to sauces. Either way, you won't want to go back to store bought after eating this!

Ingredients gently adapted from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, but the method is theirs.

Ingredients

  • 4 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder butt, trimmed of sinew (but not fat) and cut into 1 1/2" cubes
  • 8 ounces pork back fat, partially frozen and diced into 1/2" cubes
  • 3 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons white or raw sugar
  • 3 tablespoons fennel seeds, toasted or not
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander (or 1 tablespoon coriander seeds)
  • 3 tablespoons sweet paprika (not hot)
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you like it)
  • 4 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves (or 1 1/4 teaspoons dried)
  • 4 tablespoons minced fresh basil leaves (or 1 1/4 teaspoons dried)
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
  • 2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  • 3/4 cup ice cold water
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, well chilled
    • If you want link sausage you will also need 10 feet natural casings soaked in room temperature water for 30 minutes then rinsed.

Instructions

Combine the pork and the rest of the ingredients (minus the vinegar and water) and toss to evenly distribute the seasonings. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-12 hours before proceeding.

Using a small die or disc on your meat grinder, grind the meat/spice mixture.

Transfer the meat into the work bowl of your stand mixer (or into a very large mixing bowl) and mix the vinegar and water in with the paddle attachment (or a hefty, sturdy spoon) until the liquids are all fully incorporated and the meat is sticky and uniform in appearance. This should take about 1 minute on medium speed.

Pinch off a quarter-sized amount of the sausage and pan fry it to check for seasonings. Adjust if necessary before proceeding.

Thread the casings onto your sausage stuffer and fill, taking care not to overfill but also not to leave air pockets, and twist it into links of your desired size.

Cook immediately with desired method or store tightly wrapped in the freezer.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/06/homemade-hot-italian-sausage-links/

 

 

Print
Foodie With Family's Favourite Grilled Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onions

There is nothing quite like a grilled Italian sausage with a hearty dose of yellow mustard and garlicky peppers and onions to make you feel like all is well in the world. I heartily recommend you try our favourite version of this classic!

Ingredients

  • 6 raw hot Italian sausage links
  • 1 can (12 ounces) drinkable quality beer (lager or ale is a good choice here)
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 large onion, sliced into half and then into thin strips
  • 2 large bell peppers, green, red, orange or yellow or a blend, sliced into thin strips
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 6 hearty sausage rolls or Homemade Hot Dog Rolls
  • Lots of yellow mustard!

Instructions

Preheat half of your grill to high (or build a bed of moderately hot coals on one half of the grill.

Place the sausage links in a single layer in a heavy-bottomed skillet and pour the beer over the top. Put the lid on the pan and bring up to a boil, covered tightly, over medium high heat. As soon as it boils, remove the lid, drop the heat to low and simmer for 1 minute only.

Transfer the sausages to the hottest part of the grill. Cook them, turning often, until they start to become golden brown.

Immediately move them to the coolest part of the grill and let them cook , turning frequently, until they are very hot all the way through (150°F on an instant read thermometer).

Move the sausages to a platter and tent loosely with foil while working on the peppers and onions.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Add the sliced peppers, onions, and garlic, sprinkle with salt, and stir to coat. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the peppers and onions are tender with just a little bite in the center. Transfer to a bowl.

Serve each sausage on a bun, smeared with yellow mustard and piled with sauteed peppers and onions!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/06/homemade-hot-italian-sausage-links/

Filed Under: Charcuterie, Instructional, kid food, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes

Snickerdoodle Cake with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream

August 26, 2011 by 147 Comments

Here is the cake that upended my tidy little world. This is a Snickerdoodle Cake with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not fond of cake or frosting. (Here and here, for starters…) As a little girl, I watched “Pollyanna” over and over. I’m talking about the original nineteen-sixty Disney film. It was one of the twenty five movies available for rental in the small movie  section of the Glen’s Market in Gaylord, Michigan where we shopped.  Despite my dislike for cake, I dreamed of the giant slab of cake she scored at the fair. That towering layer cake called to me like no other cake could. And for the most  of my life, I resigned myself to the fact that while that Pollyanna cake looked so good, no cake measured up to the promise it offered.  That is still true except. for. this. cake.  And who do I blame thank for this earth shaker? My friend, Krysta. She, without a word, sent me this link. No word of warning, no heads-up. No. Just a link. She knows my feelings on snickerdoodles so she sent it my way. She didn’t know it, but she delivered my Pollyanna cake to me.

All of a sudden, in my brain at least, I was Hayley Mills wandering around a small town fair with the world’s largest slice of layer cake and a sunny disposition. I might’ve even belted out the National Anthem and poked at the little prism dangling in my kitchen window. It was as good as I thought it would be.

The cake itself is a cinnamon vanilla butter cake. (I died a little bit just typing that…) It is moist, it is cinnamon-y. I’ve never had a cake like that. It is layered around and slathered with the only buttercream I have ever craved in my life; brown sugar cinnamon butter cream. (A little more dead now…) It is smooth yet still crunchy with sugar. It has little bursts of brown sugar and cinnamon and it is smoothed out with half and oh-my-goodness half. People. The buttercream. It must be stopped.

Who’s in?

Here are some tried and true cake baking and decorating tips to help you get the most polished finished product before you polish off your finished product.

  • To butter two pans easily, smear the pans with the butter wrappers you used for the cake itself (use more soft butter if necessary.) *If you choose to use parchment, too, butter under AND over the parchment for easiest release.
  • To flour those pans neatly, toss 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour into one pan, swirl it around over the second pan then tap the excess into the second pan. Repeat the process with the second pan, then tap the excess into the garbage.
  • When dividing cake batter between pans, use a scale to get them as close to even as possible. No scale? Scoop it in with a measuring cup.
  • Smooth the top of the cake batter into the pan and tap firmly on the counter several times before baking to settle the batter evenly.
  • Rotate pans front to back and side to side mid way through baking.
  • Cool the cakes COMPLETELY before slicing into layers. Do not hurry this or you will regret it immensely while you cry over your broken cake.
  • Before slicing your cooled cakes into layers, use a large serrated knife to even up the top of the cake. (In other words, to slice off any dome that formed while baking.)
  • Before you move your cake to the plate you’ll use to frost and serve it, lay four strips of parchment or waxed paper around the edges. Center the cake on the parchment strips. This will help you frost the cake rather than the plate. When you’re done frosting, pull the strips straight away from the cake. Ta da! Professionally done. Go you!
  • Make sure each  layer of frosting/cake is level before adding another level. It is much easier to adjust as you go along than to try to fix everything with frosting.
  • When the cake is assembled, refrigerate for at least an hour (preferably more) before attempting to slice into wedges. If you skip this step, the cake is likely to shift around on the frosting and look like it was thrown together by drunken monkeys.
  • If you forget all of these steps it really won’t matter because you’ll still have this cake. Pour yourself a nice hot cup of coffee or tea and enjoy it anyway!

Before you rub your eyes and question me, that is not a typo. Yes, there really ARE 4 1/2 sticks of butter in the buttercream. I told you it must be stopped.

Print
Snickerdoodle Cake with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Snickerdoodle Cake with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream

The name says it all: Snickerdoodle Cake with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream. This is the well-loved snickerdoodle cookie rewritten as a moist cinnamon vanilla butter cake layered and surrounded with a smooth, decadent buttercream laced with sweet ground cinnamon and brown sugar.

Gently adapted from Always With Butter

Ingredients

    For the Cake:
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 sticks butter (8 ounces by weight), softened to room temperature
  • 1 3/4 cups fine or superfine sugar
  • 4 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups whole milk, warmed to room temperature
    • For the Buttercream:
  • 4 and 1/2 sticks butter (or 1 pound, 2 ounces by weight), softened to room temperature
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 8-9 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup of half and half, plus more if needed
    • Optional:
  • Whole cinnamon sticks for garnish

Instructions

To Bake the Cake:

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Butter and flour two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in colour.

Beat the eggs in one at a time, fully incorporating each egg and scraping down the bowl between each addition. Beat in the vanilla.

Add about 1/3 of the milk, beat to incorporate, then 1/3 of the flour, again beating to incorporate.

Repeat this process, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until all of the milk and flour are added and mixed in evenly.

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake, rotating midway through, for about 35 minutes or until the cake tests done.

Let the cakes cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes before turning out onto the racks to finish cooling.

To Make the Buttercream:

Beat together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until fluffy and pale in colour.

Add 6 cups of the confectioner's sugar and the vanilla extract and beat, starting on low and moving up to high, until it is fully incorporated.

Scrape down the bowl and add the half and half. Beat to incorporate again.

Add another 2 cups of the confectioner's sugar and beat, starting on low and moving up to high, until fully incorporated. Check the consistency of the buttercream. If it needs to be thicker, add the remaining confectioner's sugar. If it is too thick, add more half and half a teaspoon at a time, beating after each addition, until it reaches the consistency you like.

To Assemble and Frost the Cake:

Level out your cooled cakes and cut each into two even layers.

Place one layer on a cake plate then add a layer of buttercream, spreading to the edges and evening out as you go. Repeat with the remaining layers.

Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream.

If desired, garnish the top of the cake with whole cinnamon sticks.

Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before slicing.

Store leftovers tightly covered in the refrigerator.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/08/26/snickerdoodle-cake-with-brown-sugar-cinnamon-buttercream/

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Cakes, Desserts, Instructional, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , , ,

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

August 25, 2011 by 21 Comments

 

It is no secret that I am a big proponent of making things that many folks buy at the store. From the common (potato chips, bread, ice cream, laundry detergent) to the hard-or-impossible-to-find (furikake, candied jalapenos, game stock), home kitchen alchemy can do it if it’s worth having or doing. Sometimes my efforts earn me admiration, but just as often it gets me a resounding, “Why would you bother when you can easily buy this fill-in-the-blank at the store?” My motivation for this DIY spirit tends to vary with the project, but here, in no particular order, are a few reasons that pop up frequently.

  • To save money: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m cheap. I want to stretch every household dollar as far as it can reasonably go without breaking. Starting with basic ingredients prepared at home is almost assuredly gentler on your wallet than pre-fab food.
  • To make it taste better: I honestly believe that the best food is never, ever going to come from a box mix or a shelf-stable pre-made package. This is not to say I’m a food snob; I’ll eat just about anything you put in front of me. Food should sustain your body, yes, but it should also nourish your soul, so if I’m the one slinging grub, I’m going to make it the best grub I can possibly sling.
  • To make it better for you: Soup made at home is, unless you’re very heavy handed, certain to contain less sodium than the canned or frozen variety. You can opt to make foods with healthier ingredients (for example olive oil vs. vegetable oil, butter vs. shortening, etc…)
  • To avoid certain ingredients: Thankfully, my husband, children and self are free of food allergies, but there are still certain preservatives and ingredients that I choose not to serve to us. Making our own food from scratch is a much easier way to accomplish that than obsessively reading labels.
  • To know the source of the item: This is not a star-bellied sneetch issue; I don’t care whether something has stars on thars. The problem is that there have been some real problems in the recent past with food, household, or health and beauty items that did not meet safety standards. Besides, why pay for something to come from overseas when I can make it here at home, saving goodness-knows-how-much fuel and/or energy for better purposes?
  • To prove that I can do it: It’s that pioneer spirit, that sisu, that I-don’t-know-what. It’s the same reason my dad put on his winter kit and walked around the house three times after the meteorologist said that the weather was too bad for anyone to be outside. We do this because we are capable and we are not intimidated. If a machine can make it, I darned well better be able to make it, too. (This is where we pound our chests and do warrior cries, folks.)

Chocolate syrup is a big deal around here. Chocolate syrup is stirred into cold milk for chocolate milk, hot milk for hot chocolate, blended into smoothies, squirted on ice cream, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, pound cake,  and –when I’m not looking- directly into mouths. We consume it in vast quantities. A couple years back, I got tired of actively ignoring the ingredient lists (the major brands all have high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavouring, food dyes, and other things on my no-no- list) and paying through the nose for the privilege. A little experimentation yielded a vastly superior in taste, higher quality, far less expensive chocolate syrup that was simple to make and required nothing more exotic than Dutch-processed cocoa powder.

I played around with the classic Alton Brown cocoa syrup recipe and found that our crew greatly preferred it made with raw sugar because of the light caramel undertones it delivers and the added richness. Honestly. How could rich + chocolate go wrong? I make at least one batch (sometimes more if the hot chocolate consumption is especially high around these parts) of this good stuff a month.

Bonuses: If you are looking for fat-free, this recipe is for you! If you’re not looking for fat-free, I suggest making it anyway. This chocolate syrup is mighty good. This syrup can be made with honey if you have corn allergies or aversions chez you.  Try finding a chocolate syrup at the store that is corn syrup free for this price!

Print
Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

This simple homemade DIY chocolate syrup delivers a mega punch of deep, dark, and chocolatey flavour for drizzling on ice cream, stirring into milk, blending into Coffee Milkshakes , or whatever else your chocolate-loving heart desires.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups water
  • 3 cups raw sugar
  • 1 ½ cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1 ½ tablespoons vanilla extract (preferably homemade)
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup or mild honey

Instructions

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a medium-to-large saucepan (this will expand as it boils in later stages of the recipe), stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Whisk in the remaining ingredients until the cocoa powder is also dissolved. Return to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 5-8 minutes. You do not want to boil it until it is very thick, as it will become even more viscous as it cools.

Pour the hot syrup through a fine mesh strainer and let cool to room temperature before transferring into squeeze bottles.

Notes: Dutch-processed cocoa powder is used here because it dissolves more easily in liquids than common (a.k.a. natural) cocoa powder; No matter what its other benefits, a homemade chocolate syrup that is gritty isn’t what we want. Dutch-processed cocoa powder is generally easy to find in grocery stores with well-stocked baking sections and in bulk food stores. I use raw sugar in this recipe because I like the added depth of flavour and touch of caramel it contributes. If you cannot find it easily (it is also sold under the names turbinado, sugar-in-the-raw, and demerara) you can substitute white granulated sugar for it. You can get squeeze bottles at big box stores or in the kitchen notions sections of grocery stores. If you use an opaque ketchup or mustard bottle to store your syrup, remember to label it so you don’t forget what’s in there at an inopportune moment. While chocolate syrup is good on many things, hot dogs and hamburgers are not among them.
http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/08/25/chocolate-syrup/

Filed Under: Chocolate, Component Foods, Condiments, Instructional, kid food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Pickled Ginger (Gari)

June 24, 2011 by 9 Comments

I love sushi. I love it so much. I love everything about it. The fish, the rice, the nori, the little wad of wasabi, but as much as I love all of that, I love the pickled ginger, or gari, even more.

Oh, pickled ginger, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. You’re sweet and sour, spicy, fresh, snappy and PINK!* You pack so much punch into such a little package.

*Pink. Sigh. I love pink.

On those rare occasions when my husband and I can actually go. out. of. the. house. without. children, we almost invariably head for sushi joints. Being creatures of habit and fond of our ruts, we’ve established a little routine. (If you’re a sushi purist you may want to look away.)

  1. We look over the menu and order far too much sushi with the justification that we can take leftovers home to the children.
  2. When the sushi arrives, we each take an identical roll.
  3. He pours soy sauce over the bottom of his plate, drops his portion of the roll into it, piles it with wasabi then manoeuvers the whole thing to his mouth adeptly with chopsticks.
  4. I eat a piece of pickled ginger, put a couple dots of wasabi on my roll, dunk a corner in soy sauce, and dive in.
  5. We then repeat until we have to call for more pickled ginger and wasabi and the waitress gives us the stink eye.
  6. We call for a small box to house the one lonely California roll we managed to save for the children and waddle out of the restaurant clutching our overfilled bellies.
  7. We take a nap in the car then drive home.

I know. The glamour and high-living we exhibit is stunning. It’s okay if you need a moment to process that.

The pickled ginger, though. Mmmm. During each of my pregnancies, I craved it like other people crave ice cream. I ate it on everything from rice bowls to sandwiches. I sent my husband over to the Asian foods market across the street from his office to grab a new jar for me almost weekly. Then one day I looked at the ingredient list and saw two things I didn’t like; aspartame and food dye.

I sent him back the next day to get me a different brand. He came home with a white pickled ginger. Still with the aspartame. Blech.

It curbed my enthusiasm for pickled ginger a little bit until I got to thinking about making my own. It was a duh-and-a-half moment. Me. The Kitchen DIY Queen. I hadn’t even considered making my own. *headsmacksdesk

A little searching on the internet yielded a plethora of pickled ginger recipes for experimentation and an interesting tidbit of information about the pink connection for pickled ginger. I learned that young ginger, the variety that yields the best pickled ginger, naturally turns a soft pink when pickled. Old ginger, on the other hand, may not. So I ask you, what gives on the food dye?

After playing around with several recipes, I realized that the best of the lot was also the simplest. I also learned a few helpful tips:

  • While young ginger yielded the best texture and flavour, old ginger that was pickled also had a certain charm to it.
  • Slice the ginger as thinly as is humanly possible. A mandolin or extra sharp knife and a dose of patience is your best bet.
  • Slice across the ginger instead of slicing lengthwise. This yields an easier-to-chew result.
  • To easily peel ginger, scrape the edge of a regular spoon over knobs of ginger. The skin should easily peel away. If it doesn’t, and you have to dig the skin away with the spoon, you have older ginger.

Don’t be alarmed by the quantity yielded by this recipe. It keeps nearly forever in the refrigerator and -if you have friends that are like me- it makes a thoughtful and unique food gift.

Print
Pickled Ginger (Gari)
Author: 
Recipe type: Condiment, Side Dish
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 16
 

Snappy, spicy, sweet and sour, pickled ginger is not just for sushi. Serve with rice bowls or as a palate cleanser with seafood dishes. You’ll be thrilled at how easy it is to make this classic Japanese condiment.
Ingredients
  • 1½ pounds young, fresh ginger (*see notes)
  • 2½ teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt
  • 3 cups unseasoned rice vinegar
  • 2 cups granulated sugar (**see notes)

Instructions
  1. Wash the ginger and use the edge of a spoon to gently scrape away the skin.
  2. Slice the ginger as thinly as you possibly can across the knob (not lengthwise!)
  3. Toss ginger slices with salt in a colander and leave over a bowl or the sink for one hour, tossing again occasionally.
  4. Lay the ginger slices out on a clean tea towel or paper towels to blot some of the excess moisture from them before putting them in a heat-proof jar or container that has a tight fitting lid.
  5. Bring the rice vinegar and sugar to a boil and pour immediately over the ginger.
  6. Put the lid on tightly and allow to cool completely at room temperature.
  7. Refrigerate for at least one week before serving.
  8. Stores indefinitely in the refrigerator.

Notes
*You can test the age of the ginger in your store several ways. In young ginger, the skin should look smooth and tight. It should feel heavy for its size when lifted. If you scrape your thumbnail over the skin gently, it should peel away with little effort. You can pickled older ginger, but it may be a little chewier. **Use granulated white sugar for the best looking pickled ginger. You can use raw sugar, but the pink colour will not be as pronounced and it may add a slight caramel flavour.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

 

Filed Under: Condiments, Food Preservation, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , ,

Braided Semolina Bread

March 4, 2011 by 11 Comments

Bread with soup. Bread for toast. Bread to sop up the last streaks of sauce or gravy or pan juices. I suppose you might be able to survive without bread, but you sure can’t live without it. A big, fat, puffy, chewy, golden loaf of homemade bread is just about the best thing that could possibly happen to your day.

This is not one-hour or no-knead, but is so worth your time. This is another one of those foods that make you want to gnaw off your own foot while it’s cooking; It smells so good that you just can’t help yourself. When you tear a hot corner from this loaf and watch a cold pat of salted butter melt down into the soft crumb you’ll go weak in the knees. Assuming you haven’t eaten past your knees, that is…

Fresh from the oven and ripped into hunks, this bread is exactly what you want to sop up soups, sauces, dressings, gravies and pan juices.  If you are a patient, forbearing, big-picture type person and you let it cool completely, this slices beautifully for sandwiches or toast.

This is The Minions’ favorite bread. They like that it yields two mega-sized loaves. They love that I top one with just sesame seeds and the other with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion flakes, and garlic flakes. They live for the times I tell them they can tear off industrial sized pieces from the loaf that’s dressed like an everything bagel.  Butter is applied liberally. There are animal noises.  Crumbs fly.  They wait, slightly more patiently, for the sesame loaf to cool.  They slice quarter-inch thick pieces of bread and like them toasted on one side with a top-hat of blueberry jam.

On the nights that I make them wait, they mill around the kitchen aimlessly, standing silently behind me like little ghosts waiting… waiting… waiting… making their way to the table and half-heartedly helping themselves to the whatever-else-I’m-serving then pouncing when the bread basket gets to them.

This is a bread of beauty; golden brown, crispy crust topped with crunchy seeds (and perhaps spices) and a soft, yielding interior.  It is another gem of a recipe from the King Arthur Flour Company and their top notch baker’s test kitchen. I’ve been making this bread for somewhere near ten years- ever since this recipe appeared printed in the pages of their horribly tempting catalogue. It’s a hard recipe to mess up beyond edibility.  I’ve accidentally left the dough to rise overnight. I’ve hurried it along and forgotten the second rise.  I’ve brushed and topped it with exactly nothing at all.  I’ve substituted bread flour for all-purpose flour out of necessity.  And every. single. time. it’s wonderful.  It’s a very forgiving bread to make if you’re nervous about working with yeast* or dough, as I have accidentally proven time and again.

*Here’s a comforting bit of knowledge about yeast.  If you don’t have a warm place to let the dough rise, don’t worry!  It will still rise, it’ll just take longer.  Sometimes much longer.  Just be sure to keep it lightly covered to prevent the surface of the dough from drying.

Please try this.  Pretty please. With sesame seeds on top.

Braided Semolina Bread

Gently adapted from King Arthur Flour Baker’s Catalogue.

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups (1 pound, 1 ounce, by weight) all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups (11 1/2 ounces, by weight) semolina flour
  • 3 teaspoons SAF or instant yeast
  • 3 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons sugar or non-diastatic malt powder
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cups (16 ounces, by weight or volume) lukewarm water
  • 1 egg white

Optional Toppings:

  • Sesame seeds
  • Poppy seeds
  • Onion flakes (dehydrated)
  • Garlic flakes (dehydrated)
  • Coarse salt

To Mix Dough By Hand:

Add all ingredients except the egg white and toppings to a large mixing bowl and stir together with a sturdy wooden spoon until you form a shaggy but cohesive dough.  Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, covered with a clean towel. Turn out onto a lightly floured counter top and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Transfer dough to a clean bowl, cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

To Mix Dough By Stand Mixer:

Add all ingredients except the egg white and toppings to the work bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.  Turn mixer onto the lowest setting and mix until a shiny, elastic dough forms.  Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

To Mix Dough By Bread Machine:

Add all ingredients except the egg white and toppings to the pan of your bread machine that has been fitted with the dough paddle(s). Set the bread machine on the dough setting and press start.  When the cycle is completed, proceed with shaping…

To Shape the Dough:

Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and form into a neat mass. Divide the dough in half, then divide each half into 3 pieces.  Cover three of the pieces with a towel while working with the other three.

Pat one piece into a rough oval.  Use the side of your hand to press an indentation along the length of the dough piece.

Fold the dough together along the length of the indentation.

Roll lightly with the hands to form a thick rope between 12 and 14 inches long. Repeat with the other two pieces so that you have 3 ropes of roughly equal length.  Line them up in parallel with the ends facing you.

To Braid the Dough:

Gently grasp the end of the rope on the far left. Lift it to about the center, leaving the far end on the counter, cross it over the rope nearest to it and lay it down. Now grasp the end of the piece on the far right and lift it to about the center, leaving its far end on the counter, cross it over the (now) center rope (which is the first one you moved) and lay it down. This is the manoeuver you will repeat – far left over center, far right over center, and so on- until you have ends too short to continue.  At that point, pinch the ends together and tuck under the braid.  Now go back to the center of the loaf and finish braiding the loaf toward the top. When you reach the ends, pinch together and tuck under.

The whole process looks like this:

Cover the loaf lightly and let rise in a warm place until puffy in appearance and about doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Whisk the egg white until it is frothy.  Paint generously onto the risen bread braids and sprinkle the braids with desired toppings.

Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a golden brown color and firm on top.  Turn the oven off, prop the door open a little (two inches, if you can make your door behave) and let cool for at least an hour.  Or tear into the loaves with your teeth.  I won’t tell.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Print
Braided Semolina Bread
Author: 
Recipe type: Bread, Side
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 12
 

This Italian style bread is a thing of beauty: golden brown, crispy crust topped with crunchy seeds (and perhaps spices) and a soft, yielding interior.
Ingredients
  • 4 cups (1 pound, 1 ounce, by weight) all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups (11½ ounces, by weight) semolina flour
  • 3 teaspoons SAF or instant yeast
  • 3 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons sugar or non-diastatic malt powder
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cups (16 ounces, by weight or volume) lukewarm water
  • 1 egg white
  • Optional Toppings:
  • Sesame seeds
  • Poppy seeds
  • Onion flakes (dehydrated)
  • Garlic flakes (dehydrated)
  • Coarse salt

Instructions
  1. To Mix Dough By Hand:
  2. Add all ingredients except the egg white and toppings to a large mixing bowl and stir together with a sturdy wooden spoon until you form a shaggy but cohesive dough. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, covered with a clean towel. Turn out onto a lightly floured counter top and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Transfer dough to a clean bowl, cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
  3. To Mix Dough By Stand Mixer:
  4. Add all ingredients except the egg white and toppings to the work bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Turn mixer onto the lowest setting and mix until a shiny, elastic dough forms. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
  5. To Mix Dough By Bread Machine:
  6. Add all ingredients except the egg white and toppings to the pan of your bread machine that has been fitted with the dough paddle(s). Set the bread machine on the dough setting and press start. When the cycle is completed, proceed with shaping…
  7. To Shape the Dough:
  8. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and form into a neat mass. Divide the dough in half, then divide each half into 3 pieces. Cover three of the pieces with a towel while working with the other three.
  9. Pat one piece into a rough oval. Use the side of your hand to press an indentation along the length of the dough piece. Fold the dough together along the length of the indentation and roll lightly with the hands to form a thick rope between 12 and 14 inches long. Repeat with the other two pieces so that you have 3 ropes of roughly equal length. Line them up in parallel with the ends facing you.
  10. To Braid the Dough:
  11. Gently grasp the end of the rope on the far left. Lift it to about the center, leaving the far end on the counter, cross it over the rope nearest to it and lay it down. Now grasp the end of the piece on the far right and lift it to about the center, leaving its far end on the counter, cross it over the (now) center rope (which is the first one you moved) and lay it down. This is the manoeuver you will repeat – far left over center, far right over center, and so on- until you have ends too short to continue. At that point, pinch the ends together and tuck under the braid. Now go back to the center of the loaf and finish braiding the loaf toward the top. When you reach the ends, pinch together and tuck under. Cover the loaf lightly and let rise in a warm place until puffy in appearance and about doubled in size.
  12. Preheat oven to 400°F. Whisk the egg white until it is frothy. Paint generously onto the risen bread braids and sprinkle the braids with desired toppings.
  13. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a golden brown color and firm on top. Turn the oven off, prop the door open a little (two inches, if you can make your door behave) and let cool for at least an hour. Or tear into the loaves with your teeth. I won’t tell.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

 

Filed Under: Bread, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , ,

Nana’s Spanish Style Hot Chocolate (Hot Chocolate Pudding)

January 28, 2011 by 23 Comments

My Mom -known around these parts as Nana- does a lot of things very well.  She remembers the name of just about everyone she’s ever met, plays a mean piano and a killer game of chess, makes stupendous lumpia, and always delivers a hug right when you need one (even if you don’t know you need one…)

And Nana isn’t your average, ordinary Nana… To hear her grandkids tell it, she’s a bit magical.  She talks to her garden, creek stomps, climbs trees, fixes boo-boos, spins fantastic tales, rides her bike down dirt roads at warp speed wearing a long skirt, engineers popcorn explosions, walks barefooted in the snow, drinks full-caffeine espresso as a nightcap, wrestles like a pro and cuddles better than a dog*.

*That last one comes from my fourth born.  Believe you me, from my boy that is a monstrously huge compliment.

Nana also makes the world’s best hot chocolate. Oh, her hot chocolate. Oh, yeah. After a hard day of hopping through snowy fields like rabbits and swinging from icy branches there is nothing quite like Nana’s Spanish Style Hot Chocolate to warm you down to your toes.  Nana’s hot chocolate is like warm velvet; It’s thick, rich, smooth, and sticks to your lips like pudding.  It’s not too sweet.  It’s the bees-knees*.

*Incidentally, even the bees are happy at Nana’s house.  When they wander in, she gets a clean mason jar and gently returns them to their native habitat.

Nana makes hers thick, but drinkable, very much like the hot chocolate served with churros in Spain or in Italy or France.  Sometimes, though, when the muse strikes, I thicken it up to the point where it’s strictly spoon-fare.  When I go that far, I almost always gild the lily, as I am wont to do, and top with chocolate shavings or ground cinnamon.

Hot chocolate pudding.  Can you imagine something more decadent? (Well, if you accidentally splashed a thimbleful of dark rum or brandy over the top, that might be more indulgent.) Once you have this under your belt, you never have to worry about what you’ll make for dessert. I regularly bust this out after dinner with friends, sledding parties, and necessary moments*.

*I have my necessary moments; Everyone does.  I mean the moments when only chocolate stands between you and googly eyes and head-spinning and pea soup spewing.

When Nana wrote down the recipe for her hot chocolate for her grandboys, she included this instruction, “Think of Nana and warm hugs (and the icy creek!)” … And look out, ’cause Nana’s coming at you with a big, warm hug and she just might ask you to climb a tree.

Nana’s Spanish Style Hot Chocolate (Hot Chocolate Pudding)

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 2-4 tablespoons sugar, or more, depending on sweet you like it (I prefer raw sugar for the caramel-like flavor it imparts here.)
  • 4 tablespoons good quality Dutch process cocoa powder
  • 2-4 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch (use less for a more drinkable product and more for a thick, pudding-like finish.)

Optional, for garnish:

  • Whipped Cream
  • Shaved Chocolate
  • Cinnamon Sugar
  • Graham Crackers, Waffles, or Pretzels for dipping

Whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder and arrowroot powder or cornstarch in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan.  Take care to smash any lumps.  Whisk the milk into the powder.  The powder will not dissolve in the milk, so don’t worry.  The goal is to simply to mix it at this point. Place the pan over a medium flame or heat and whisk constantly. Watch for the following changes.  First, the powder will dissolve and it will begin to look like chocolate milk.  Next, the mixture will darken and begin to thicken slightly; Take care to scrape the whisk across the bottom and sides at this point to prevent scorching. Finally, the mixture will become very bubbly and thick. When it reaches this point, remove the pot from the burner immediately.

Spoon or ladle immediately into serving dishes.  Garnish as desired.

4.0 from 1 reviews

Print
Nana’s Spanish Style Hot Chocolate (Hot Chocolate Pudding)
Author: 
Recipe type: dessert, breakfast, snack
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 2
 

Thick, creamy, spoonable hot chocolate like that served with churros in Spain. It’s very like a hot chocolate pudding. Whatever you call it it is delicious.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 2-4 tablespoons sugar, or more, depending on sweet you like it (I prefer raw sugar for the caramel-like flavor it imparts here.)
  • 4 tablespoons good quality Dutch process cocoa powder
  • 2-4 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch (use less for a more drinkable product and more for a thick, pudding-like finish.)
  • Optional, for garnish:
  • Whipped Cream
  • Shaved Chocolate
  • Cinnamon Sugar
  • Graham Crackers or Pretzels for dipping

Instructions
  1. Whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder and arrowroot powder or cornstarch in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan. Take care to smash any lumps. Whisk the milk into the powder. The powder will not dissolve in the milk, so don’t worry. The goal is to simply to mix it at this point. Place the pan over a medium flame or heat and whisk constantly. Watch for the following changes. First, the powder will dissolve and it will begin to look like chocolate milk. Next, the mixture will darken and begin to thicken slightly; Take care to scrape the whisk across the bottom and sides at this point to prevent scorching. Finally, the mixture will become very bubbly and thick. When it reaches this point, remove the pot from the burner immediately.
  2. Spoon or ladle immediately into serving dishes. Garnish as desired.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Chocolate, Desserts, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Bacon Jam (a.k.a. Oooh-Mommy! Jam)

January 17, 2011 by 101 Comments

You know food is going to make you happy when it smiles at you.  (Probably could’ve made a buck selling a smiling egg yolk on eBay, but honey?  There was no way I was walking away from this breakfast.  And even if I did, there were twelve people waiting to take over the job for me this morning.)

My love of bacon has been pretty well documented (proof of my bacon-obsession) but I can honestly tell you that today’s recipe, Bacon Jam,  is the my favorite way I’ve ever eaten it.

I’m just going to say right here -at the beginning- that this is one of the hardest pieces I’ve ever written.  I’ve flogged my brain for hours, but the fact is, there aren’t enough superlatives to describe how core-shakingly good this bacon jam is. It is umami jam.  It is Ooo-Mommy jam.

Since every way I conceived to ‘splain this jam ends up sounded like a big, fat cliche in my brain (lip-smacking, mouth-watering, etc…) I thought a few anecdotes about the power of this Ooooh-Mommy, holy-cow, sweet-crappy-pappy-this-is-good jam might do the job.

  • While this jam was cooking, a neighbor (who we haven’t met in the three years we’ve lived here) came over to introduce himself.  He didn’t say as much, but I assume the smell drew him since he kept looking over at the stove where my pot of bacon jam bubbled away. He left as a friend.  He’ll be back. I’m sure of it.
  • I was chatting with my friend, Krysta, who lives on the opposite coast,  telling her how the scent of the cooking jam made me want to gnaw my own leg off at the ankle.  She realized she had the ingredients and decided to make it right then and there.  Within an hour she was drooling all over the place.  Ask her.  She’ll tell you.
  • When my beloved, The Evil Genius, tasted Bacon Jam for the first time, his eyes rolled back into his head and he said, “Ooooh- Mommy.”  While my husband is a food guy, those are reactions that he just doesn’t have. That equals spectacular food.
  • We had a grown-up slumber party last night (Okay, not just grown-ups.  Four adults and nine children. The kids were tucked in and it was party time, Foodie With Family style.  We were hard-core.  We broke out the Gilbert and Sullivan and sang along.  You haven’t played a drinking game until you have to take a sip every time someone in ‘Pirates of Penzance’ says ‘duty’!) This morning, breakfast was toasted slabs of fresh homemade bread smeared with bacon jam that we heated in a cast-iron frying pan next to sunny side up eggs.  Our friends and their kids have now moved into our house.

Speaking of these friends…  While we collectively munched our breakfasts, our dear Daytons, Pamela and Jon, helped us hash out just why a Bacon Jam topped piece of toast with a fried egg was superior to the traditional fare of bacon, eggs, and toast.  Jon observed that with Bacon Jam and fried egg on toast, you get the taste of bacon, egg, and toast in every bite. Because of his keen insight, he got double rations and the ability to choose the keyword the next time we all indulge in our Gilbert and Sullivan proclivities.

This post is special for one other reason.  The aforementioned Krysta  happens to have a pretty stylin’ food blog. You have read Evil Chef Mom, right? I really did tease her about the salty, sweet, meaty, maple-y, coffee-tinged dutch-oven-of-joy that I had just created, and she really did inventory her pantry and chill-chest and make her own batch.  We waxed rhapsodic over our new discovery.  And more than that, we decided that we both needed to post this at the very same time, because Bacon Jam turned us into giddy little teenage girls who buy and wear matching Johnny Depp* t-shirts. Hop on over to Evil Chef Mom and read Krysta’s reflections on the recipe.  She tried the recipe using Martha Stewart’s original instructions (using a slow-cooker.)

*Or somebody.  But probably Johnny Depp.  Because he could be the Bacon Jam of actors.  Or not.  But probably he is.

You can join the Bacon Jam Club, Krysta and I aren’t exclusive.  We want the whole world to know this joy.  Just be warned, once you try it, it’s like the mob. There’s no going back.

Bacon Jam (a.k.a. Oooh-Mommy Jam)

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Inspired by Martha Stewart and The Perfect Pantry

Yield: About 6 cups.  (You can easily halve this recipe.)

Ingredients:

  • 3 pounds bacon
  • 4 large yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 8 cloves garlic, smashed with the flat side of a knife or a pan and peeled
  • 1 cup cider vinegar
  • 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 1/2 cups very strong brewed black coffee
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cut the bacon slices into one inch strips.  Add the bacon to a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Cook the bacon, stirring frequently, until the bacon is browned.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate.  Drain all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings into a heat-proof jar with a tight-fitting lid.*

*Save the bacon drippings in the refrigerator.  That’s too much flavor to trash!

Place the Dutch oven back over the medium-high heat and add the onions and garlic.

Stir well and reduce heat to medium.  Continue to cook for about 8 minutes, or until the onions are mostly translucent.

Add the remaining ingredients, stir well, and drop heat again, this time to low.

Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and boil hard for 2 minutes.  After 2 minutes, stir the browned bacon into the onions and liquid.

Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally to make sure things aren’t sticking, adding 1/4 cup of water if it seems to be drying out. When the onions are meltingly soft and the liquid is thick and syrupy, remove the dutch oven from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

Transfer the contents of the Dutch oven to the work bowl of a food processor that has been fitted with a blade.  Fit the lid in place and pulse several times or until the Bacon Jam is a spreadable consistency.  Scrape into a jar (or jars) or a container with a tight fitting lid.

Store in the refrigerator for up to one month or the freezer for up to six months!

Can be served cold, room temperature or warmed.

I do believe that breakfast just doesn’t get much better than this…

5.0 from 16 reviews

Print
Bacon Jam
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 32
 

Salty, meaty, chewy, sweet, savoury, smoky, bacony goodness. Bacon is crisped and made into the ultimate breakfast spread with maple syrup, onions, coffee, brown sugar and pepper.
Ingredients
  • 3 pounds bacon
  • 4 large yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 8 cloves garlic, smashed with the flat side of a knife or a pan and peeled
  • 1 cup cider vinegar
  • 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • ½ cup pure maple syrup
  • 1½ cups very strong brewed black coffee
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
  1. Cut the bacon slices into one inch strips. Add the bacon to a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook the bacon, stirring frequently, until the bacon is browned. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate. Drain all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings into a heat-proof jar with a tight-fitting lid.*
  2. *Save the bacon drippings in the refrigerator. That’s too much flavor to trash!
  3. Place the Dutch oven back over the medium-high heat and add the onions and garlic. Stir well and reduce heat to medium. Continue to cook for about 8 minutes, or until the onions are mostly translucent. Add the remaining ingredients, stir well, and drop heat again, this time to low.
  4. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and boil hard for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, stir the browned bacon into the onions and liquid.
  5. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally to make sure things aren’t sticking, adding ¼ cup of water if it seems to be drying out. When the onions are meltingly soft and the liquid is thick and syrupy, remove the dutch oven from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
  6. Transfer the contents of the Dutch oven to the work bowl of a food processor that has been fitted with a blade. Fit the lid in place and pulse several times or until the Bacon Jam is a spreadable consistency. Scrape into a jar (or jars) or a container with a tight fitting lid. Store in the refrigerator for up to one month or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
  7. Can be served cold, room temperature or warmed.

Notes
The bacon jam could take up to 3 hours to reduce to a syrupy consistency. Just stick with it!

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Breakfast Foods, Camping Food, Charcuterie, Component Foods, Condiments, Eggs, Instructional, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
«Older Posts
Newer Posts»