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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.

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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.

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

Pineapple Upside Down Carrot Cake

May 18, 2011 by 10 Comments

I’m going to apologize to anyone who is on a diet or watching their waistline or avoiding sweets right now and get it out of the way. I also tender my deepest and most sincere apologies to carrot cake and pineapple upside down cake addicts because what I’ve done? Well, it’s dangerous.

Really dangerous.

My heart is heavy. So is the rest of me after eating more than my fair share of this cake. Please forgive me.

Apologies completed, I also have to tell you something. I am not usually a cake person. Cakes are alright, I guess. I won’t turn a piece down at a party, but I’m also not going to take the last piece from the buffet table. “Someone else who loves cake should eat this. Not me,” goes my usual reasoning. I don’t so much like frosting (unless it’s cream cheese*).  You could say I’m very meh on cake.

*Do you see the cream cheese commonality? The truth is, I’d sit down with nothing more than a block of cream cheese and a spoon pretty happily, so if you slather it on or bake it into just about anything I’m there.

There are a couple of notable exceptions. I love upside down cakes; pineapple, cranberry, blueberry, apple, whatever. You put butter, sugar, and fruit under cake batter and let it caramelize and I’ll beat you with a stick if it gets me to that cake before you. And I’m pretty keen on carrot cake. You know I have certain rules about certain foods, right*? Carrot cake is another one of my high maintenance areas.

*Rutabagas in my pasties, chunky guacamole, etc…

As you read my rules, it will be clear that I am in the pared-down-carrot-cake-club. I like my carrot cake without chunks of stuff distributed throughout it. My carrot cake rules can be summed up in one sentence, “I’ll omit that.” To be clearer:

  • No nuts please. I love to munch a handful of toasted walnuts, I just don’t love them in my carrot cake.
  • No dried fruit please. This includes dry, flaked coconut. See the above note on nuts.
  • Carrot cakes are not an excuse to throw out hundreds of years of cake-baking knowledge. If you use heavy ingredients (coarse whole wheat, honey instead of sugar, etc…) you will end up with a hockey puck of a cake. And while I love hockey, it belongs nowhere near my carrot cake. (Unless I’m sitting on the couch watching hockey whilst eating carrot cake, that is.)
  • No pineapple stirred into the carrot cake batter. See the notes on nuts and dried fruits.

“Ah ha!” says the stirring-stuff-into-the-carrot-cake crowd, “Then why are you making a Pineapple Upside Down Carrot Cake? Doesn’t that break your silly rule?” In a word? No.

The beauty of the upside-down cake family is that the fruit caramelizes. The fruit here gets sticky, dark, deep brown bits and highly developed caramel flavours that you simply cannot achieve by stirring that poor, sad, lonely, pale pineapple into the cake batter. In my book, caramel equals a big, fat win.

Of course, my dear stirring-stuff-in crowd, you may certainly stir stuff in here if it is what makes your days a little brighter. But I think the caramelized bits of pineapple stuck to the top of the cake will be enough to flic your Bic. I really, honestly do.

Oh hey, if you were to toss a little scoop of vanilla ice cream on your piece of warm cake you’d probably be a pretty happy person. Happy. Very happy. And then you’ll probably get a little mad at me. I did apologize though, and if you made it this far, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’ve forgiven me. So, let’s just grab another piece of cake and make nice, okay?

P.S. If you want to make this over-the-moon, prepare it with Bourbon Vanilla Infused Raw Sugar.  You’ll be so glad you did. Or mad. Your choice.

The base recipe for this beautiferous creation comes from the recipe for Ultimate Carrot Cake by Zoe François of Zoe Bakes. I omitted the dried fruit, walnuts, frosting and coconut and then performed a little upside-downing with pineapple operation.

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Pineapple Upside Down Carrot Cake
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 6-8
 

Caramelized, deep brown, buttery pineapple crowns perfect, sweet carrot cake. Top warm pieces with vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of creme fraiche for an over-the-top indulgent treat.
Ingredients
Ingredients for cake batter:
  • 1 pound finely grated then chopped carrots (see notes)
  • 4 extra large eggs at room temperature
  • 1½ cups granulated sugar
  • 1¼ cups canola oil
  • ⅔ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
  • finely grated zest of one orange
  • 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • a pinch of ground cloves
Ingredients for pineapple caramel layer:
  • 4 tablespoons of butter, softened to room temperature
  • ½ cup raw (turbinado) sugar, (preferably Bourbon Vanilla Raw Sugar. Instructions on how to prepare this are available here on Foodie With Family.)
  • 1 cup crushed pineapple, drained of juice and squeezed lightly to remove more juice

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
To prepare the Pineapple Caramel Layer:
  1. Spray a bundt pan (or six individual sized bundt pans) with non-stick cooking spray.
  2. Break off pieces of the softened butter and dot the bottom of the pan evenly. (If using mini bundt pans, divide the butter evenly between them.)
  3. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the butter. (Again, if using the individual bundt pans, divide the sugar evenly between the pans.)
  4. Evenly distribute the pineapple over the sugar.
To prepare the Carrot Cake batter:
  1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, granulated and brown sugar, oil, vanilla extract and orange zest.
  2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and stir together with a wooden spoon until there are no more pockets of dry ingredients.
  4. Add the carrots all at once and fold into the batter.
  5. Scrape the batter evenly into the prepared pan(s). The batter should rise no higher than ⅔ of the way up the pan.
  6. Bake 25-30 minutes for mini-bundt pans or 60-70 minutes for a regular bundt pan, or until a straw inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (If using mini pans, test each cake.)
  7. Let the cake rest in the pan(s) for five minutes before turning onto a serving platter.
  8. For best flavour, serve while still warm.

Notes
Zoe Francois suggested coarsely grating the carrots in the food processor then chopping them with the blade a bit. I opted to grate my carrots on the fine-grating disc in my food processor followed by pulsing them with the blade for a finer texture to the carrots in my cake. This accomplished two things. It made it a far easier sell for the anti-vegetable gruesome twosome in my house in addition to creating a lighter textured end product. I liked the fine texture so much that I’ll carry on doing it this way long after the gruesome twosome comes out of this veg phobic phase.

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Filed Under: Desserts, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , ,

Shortbread Cookie Spoons (Spookies)

March 28, 2011 by 4 Comments

You know how sometimes everything just comes together at the right time? Those moments where inspiration strikes at the same time that you have all the supplies to make it happen? This is one of those moments.

I had just made some velvety, luscious chocolate custard and one of my friends started talking about the world’s best shortbread cookies that she just made. I wished aloud that I had a couple of her cookies to dunk in my custard and asked for the recipe.

Lightbulb.

I was going to make cookies that were spoons and eat my custard with them. Were they cookies? Were they spoons? Yes, they were both; they were Spookies*.

*Like a spork, but much more delicious.

I imagined them wrapped up in cellophane and a bow as the prettiest cookie at the bake sale, bagged up with a gift tag as a hostess gift, then the dipping and dunking vistas opened up before me;  Spookies dunked in custard (as I served them), Spanish Style Hot Chocolate, coffee, hot cocoa, pudding… What couldn’t Spookies do?

I messed with my friend’s recipe ever so slightly, substituting orange zest for lemon zest out of necessity and  rice flour for half of the all-purpose flour in her recipe. Why? Well, the best shortbread cookie I have ever had in my entire life came from an elderly Scottish woman who told me she the secret to truly wonderful shortbread was to use half all-purpose flour and half rice flour.  She said as long as you used real butter and the flour blend, everything else would fall into place.

Every shortbread I’ve made since has incorporated her trick. To test her (now our) theory, I did a side-by-side comparison on my friend’s recipe. I made a batch using all-purpose flour and one using the blend of all-purpose and rice flour. They were both outstanding, but the one made with rice flour was slightly more delicate in crumb and flavor.  The verdict: Half the crew here was in the rice flour camp and half was in the all all-purpose camp but everyone agreed that they would eat either without hesitation. If you can lay your hands on a bag of rice flour, I encourage you to make it as written below. If you can’t, substitute another cup (4 1/4 ounces, by weight) of all-purpose flour for the rice flour. It’ll still be delicious!

Note: To the best of my knowledge, there aren’t any spoon shaped cookie cutters in the world. I did the next best thing. I used brute force and a pair of pliers to bend an old bell-shaped medium-sized (2″) cookie cutter into a spoon-ish shaped cutter. It was a bit wonky, but effective and efficient. If you’d prefer, you can trace a tablespoon sized measuring spoon on cardboard and cut that out to use as a template.  I found it much simpler to bend the tar out of a cookie cutter and use it than to cut around a cardboard template repeatedly, but do as the whimsy moves you!

Shortbread Cookie Spoons

Gently adapted from Krysta, Evil Chef Mom.

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

  • 2 sticks (8 ounces, by weight) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature, cut 1/2-inch pats.
  • 1/2 cup superfine sugar (Can be made by placing granulated sugar in a blender on HIGH for about twenty seconds.)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • zest of 1/2 an orange
  • 1 cup (4 1/4 ounces, by weight) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (5 ounces, by weight) white rice flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup Bourbon and Vanilla Infused Sugar (preferably Bourbon infused) or granulated sugar

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flours and set aside.

Fit a stand mixer with the paddle attachment  and beat butter on medium high until butter is totally smooth, about 1 minute. Change mixer speed to low, and with it running, gradually add the superfine sugar, then the vanilla, orange zest and salt, and continue mixing until it lightens in color. Turn mixer off, add about 1/3 of the flour blend. Turn mixer onto low and incorporate all the flour. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides and add another third of the flour blend.  Again, mix on low until incorporated, then turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides and add and blend in the final installment of flour. Continue mixing on low until the dough forms a fairly cohesive mass.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead four times, or until smooth. Dust the top of the dough with flour. Gently roll the dough out to an even thickness between 1/4- and 1/3- of an inch.

Line two cookie sheets with silpats or parchment paper and place to the side.

Use your spoon cookie cutter (or trace around the edge of our template with a sharp paring knife) and carefully transfer the shapes to the lined cookie sheets, placing them 1-inch apart.  Collect the scrap dough, gently push it back together and roll out, cutting more cookies. Continue gathering scraps, re-rolling the dough, and cutting until all the dough has been used.

Place the cookie sheets in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F with racks positioned in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. When hot, place one cookie sheet on each rack. Cook,rotating the trays from front to back and top to bottom after 7 minutes, for a total time of 15 minutes or just until they become golden brown around the edges. Remove the trays from the oven and immediately sprinkle the raw sugar over the hot cookies. Cool the cookies completely on the pans.

 

Store in an airtight container at room temperature. These cookies just improve with age.

…Want your own bourbon and vanilla infused sugar? That’s coming your way tomorrow! I guarantee you want this recipe. Think of it stirred into coffee, tea, sprinkled over cookies, etc… I thought so. See you tomorrow!

 

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Shortbread Cookie Spoons (Spookies)
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert, Cookie
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 15
 

These lightly orange-scented, spoon shaped shortbread cookies turn the ultimate cookie into the ultimate dipper. Dunk in hot chocolate, coffee, tea, or milk. Don’t stop there, though. Try them in pudding, custard, and ice cream!
Ingredients
  • 2 sticks (8 ounces, by weight) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature, cut ½-inch pats.
  • ½ cup superfine sugar (Can be made by placing granulated sugar in a blender on HIGH for about twenty seconds.)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • zest of ½ an orange
  • 1 cup (4¼ ounces, by weight) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (5 ounces, by weight) white rice flour
  • ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½ cup raw sugar (preferably Bourbon infused) or granulated sugar

Instructions
  1. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flours and set aside. Trace a measuring spoon (tablespoon size) onto cardboard and cut out to use as a template or bend a medium-sized metal cookie cutter into a spoon shape. (Of course, if you happen to have a spoon sized cookie cutter that will work!)
  2. Fit a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat butter on medium high until butter is totally smooth, about 1 minute. Change mixer speed to low, and with it running, gradually add the superfine sugar, then the vanilla, orange zest and salt, and continue mixing until it lightens in color. Turn mixer off, add about ⅓ of the flour blend. Turn mixer onto low and incorporate all the flour. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides and add another third of the flour blend. Again, mix on low until incorporated, then turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides and add and blend in the final installment of flour. Continue mixing on low until the dough forms a fairly cohesive mass.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead four times, or until smooth. Dust the top of the dough with flour. Gently roll the dough out to an even thickness between ¼- and ⅓- of an inch.
  4. Line two cookie sheets with silpats or parchment paper and place to the side.
  5. Use your spoon cookie cutter (or trace around the edge of our template with a sharp paring knife) and carefully transfer the shapes to the lined cookie sheets, placing them 1-inch apart. Collect the scrap dough, gently push it back together and roll out, cutting more cookies. Continue gathering scraps, re-rolling the dough, and cutting until all the dough has been used. Place the cookie sheets in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
  6. Preheat oven to 350°F with racks positioned in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. When hot, place one cookie sheet on each rack. Cook,rotating the trays from front to back and top to bottom after 7 minutes, for a total time of 15 minutes or just until they become golden brown around the edges. Remove the trays from the oven and immediately sprinkle the remaining sugar over the hot cookies. Cool the cookies completely on the pans.
  7. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. These cookies just improve with age.

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Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, 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

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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!

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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: , , , , , , , , , ,

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

January 6, 2011 by 61 Comments

[First published in November 2009]

I’ve received lovely notes from many of you inquiring after my absence here.  First, let me thank you all for caring enough to ask.  Second, let me explain why I’m reposting this.

My husband and I have visited his Aunt Patti in the Houston Heights area the last couple years just before Christmas. Patti welcomed us lavishly and generously, putting us and other family members in a bed and breakfast near her home, treating us to delicious meals, making us feel at home and loved and special beyond words.  Aunt Patti’s sweet tooth is legendary.


This year, my sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law and various uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews made homemade meals for her (due to her MS, she was no longer able to cook for herself), dozens and dozens of cookies, cakes, chocolate toffee, breads, and anything else that we thought would sound good to her.

We brought silly Christmas ornaments to play ‘White Elephant’ and to decorate a small tree for her bedroom so she would laugh when she looked at it. And believe me, those ornaments were laughable.


We talked, we laughed, we ate.  And we ate and ate and ate. And when it was time to go, we hugged. We talked about how we were already looking forward to seeing each other next Christmas.  Aunt Patti said how much she had loved the hot-chocolate-on-a-stick I had mailed to her the previous year.  I promised I would send a batch sometime shortly after the New Year.  I meant it.

On January 3rd, we received a phone call from my husband’s brother that Aunt Patti’s house had burned to the ground and that both she and her caregiver, Lisa, were missing and presumed dead.  I was sure he was wrong.  I hoped he was wrong. He had to be wrong.

He was not.

In the last three days,  both Aunt Patti’s and Lisa Sanders’ remains have been found. I can’t send another batch of Hot Chocolate on a Stick to Aunt Patti.  And while that’s the least of the concerns, when you miss someone, the little things seem bigger.  I had failed to deliver on a promise. So do me a favor, would you?  Please make a batch of these.  Eat them or -better yet- share them with someone else.  Patti would’ve loved it.

In Loving Memory of  Evelyn “Patti” Worthington and  with eternal thanks to her caregiver Mary Elizabeth “Lisa” Sanders.




Now that I have the attention of the entire state of Minnesota, please allow me to expound.

hotchocolateonastick 14

This is one of the most clever ideas I’ve seen out of the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Circle lately.  (And they’re no creative slouches over at King Arthur.)  In the most recent e-newsletter* from their test kitchen they included a recipe for Cocoa Blocks.

*If you’d like to receive their free e-newsletter, you can click this link and look for the sign-up box in the lower right hand corner of the page.

Oh sweet merciful heavens.  Cocoa blocks.  Very utilitarian name, no?  Nothing against my King Arthur folks, because I really do love them, but I think the name doesn’t do justice to these little beauties.  I’ve renamed them.  Henceforth, they shall be called Hot Chocolate On A Stick.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick is a creamy chocolate confection that is much like an ultra-rich fudge.  You can, as the new title indicates, put these blocks of chocolatey goodness on sticks for ease in swirling it in hot milk or nibbling.

hotchocolateonastick 13

Or, if you’re a rebel (or not from the Midwest), you can simply leave the squares alone and stir them into your hot drinks.  Or you can go another step, as I am wont to do, and skewer a marshmallow on top of the block of chocolate.

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And since we’re playing with marshmallows already, why not make them homemade*?  That opens up the possibilities of all kinds of decadent flavor combinations; mocha chocolate with cocoa marshmallows, orange chocolate with vanilla marshmallows, plain chocolate with raspberry marshmallows, or pure chocolate and vanilla marshmallows.

~~~   ~~~

*Last year Val posted a homemade marshmallow recipe in our Homemade Christmas Gifts series.  (See that post here!)  Homemade marshmallows, if you’ve never had them, are a completely different animal than those little round foam-like jobbies you get in bags at the grocery store.  They’re ethereally light, sweet and endlessly customizable.  Have a hankering for an orange flavored marshmallow without the nasty food coloring?  It can be done.  Want a mocha marshmallow?  (Just try finding THAT at your local mega-mart.)  It’s only moments away.  You get my drift, right?

So if you combine luscious, velvety, rich fudge with light-as-air homemade marshmallows it should follow that what you’ve created is heavenly.  And it is.  Oh, it is!  Not to put too fine a point on it, but having these in my kitchen was the only thing standing between me and a potential sale of my children to the gypsies early career apprenticeship commitment for my children.  I hid in the bathroom with a  ‘Hot Chocolate on a Stick’ and nibbled my irritation away.

I could’ve taken a cup of hot milk to the bathroom with me, but I was in a hurry, people.  I needed the chocolate and I needed it fast.  The kids, on the other hand, found the stash while I was hiding (and small price to pay for the peace it brought me) and stirred theirs into hot cups of milk.  I hear tell that they enjoyed it immensely.  The chocolate rings around their mouths bore out their testimony.

Kid tested.  Mother approved.

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~~~   ~~~

May I recommend that you whip up a batch or two or three of these?  Keep one batch for yourself.  Wrap one batch in plastic and pretty ribbons for gift-giving.  And that last batch?  Well, give it away one at a time to your kids’ teachers, bus drivers, your preacher, the mail carrier, the elderly man or woman down the road who lost their spouse this year, the gal in the apartment two doors down who looks a little lonely, or anyone else who looks like they could use a good dose of seasonal cheer.

First, a marshmallow refresher!

Homemade Marshmallows

This is mainly Val’s recipe, but I’ve added a few of my own notes.

Follow this link for the original post and a printable version of this recipe.

Ingredients:

  • .75-oz unflavored gelatin (3 envelopes of Knox gelatin)
  • 1/2 cup cold water
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cups light corn syrup
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or other flavor extract)
  • Confectioners’ sugar

Line 9 x 9-inch or 8 x 8-inch pan with plastic wrap and lightly oil it using your fingers or non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil.  As soon as it is boiling, set the timer and allow to boil hard for 1 minute.

Carefully pour the boiling syrup into soaked gelatin and turn on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, starting on low and moving up to high speed. Add the salt and beat for between 10 and 12 minutes, or until fluffy and mostly cooled to almost room temperature. After it reaches that stage, add in the extract and beat to incorporate.

Grease your hands and a rubber or silicone scraper with neutral oil and transfer marshmallow into the prepared pan. Use your greased hands to press the marshmallow into the pan evenly.  Take another piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap and press lightly on top of the marshmallow, creating a seal. Let mixture sit for a few hours, or overnight, until cooled and firmly set.

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Sprinkle a cutting surface very generously with confectioner’s sugar.

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Remove marshmallow from pan and lay on top of the sugar.

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Dust the top generously with sugar as well.

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Use a large, sharp knife to cut into squares.

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Separate pieces and toss to coat all surfaces with the sugar.
Store in an airtight container.

Now for the Hot Chocolate on a Stick!

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

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

Ingredients:

  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
  • 3 cups semisweet chocolate (3 cups chopped chocolate bars or chips)
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened baking chocolate (4 ounces)
  • wooden sticks, lollipop sticks, candy canes or bamboo skewers
  • optional, crushed candy canes, marshmallows and/or cocoa powder

Line an 8 x 8-inch pan or a 9 x 9-inch pan with foil and set aside.

hotchocolateonastick1

Combine the cream and sweetened condensed milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat.  Heat until it is steaming, but not boiling, stirring occasionally to keep from scorching.

Add all of the chocolate and remove from the heat.  Allow the chocolate to melt, undisturbed, for 10 minutes.

hotchocolateonastick2

After 10 minutes, whisk firmly until it is thick and shiny.  You can add a few drops of flavoring extract or oil at this point, or add some powdered espresso or vanilla.  Whisk vigorously again to incorporate the flavoring (if used.)

Use a rubber or silicone spatula to spread the mixture out evenly in your prepared, foil-lined pan.

hotchocolateonastick3

Allow to cool at room temperature 12 hours or overnight so that it firms slowly.

Take the fudge from the pan and remove the foil.  Place on a cutting board.

Using a knife heated with hot water and wiped dry, cut the fudge into 36 equal-sized cubes.  You can either stick a lollipop stick (or candy cane) into the center of each block or leave as is.  Additionally, you can press the cut sides of the fudge into crushed candy canes, roll them in cocoa powder or top with marshmallows.

Eat immediately or wrap tightly and store at room temperature.

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If you make more than one batch and use different flavorings for the marshmallows or chocolate, you can use different colored ribbons to indicate the flavors.  Silver for mocha chocolate and vanilla marshmallows, gold for plain chocolate and raspberry marshmallows, for instance…

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Hey… Someone’s snuck off with my raspberry marshmallow Hot Chocolate on a Stick…

Oh well, I’ll make more.

Remember, it’s Christmas time!

Print
Hot Chocolate on a Stick
Author: 
Recipe type: dessert, candy
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 36
 

This creamy chocolate fudge confection can be nibbled in its pure form, skewered on a stick alone or with homemade marshmallows and simply eaten or swirled into hot milk for a hot chocolate that is second to none.
Ingredients
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1¼ cups)
  • 3 cups semisweet chocolate (3 cups chopped chocolate bars or chips)
  • ¾ cup unsweetened baking chocolate (4 ounces)
  • wooden sticks, lollipop sticks, candy canes or bamboo skewers
  • optional, crushed candy canes, marshmallows and/or cocoa powder

Instructions
  1. Line an 8 x 8-inch pan or a 9 x 9-inch pan with foil and set aside.
  2. Combine the cream and sweetened condensed milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Heat until it is steaming, but not boiling, stirring occasionally to keep from scorching.
  3. Add all of the chocolate and remove from the heat. Allow the chocolate to melt, undisturbed, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, whisk firmly until it is thick and shiny. You can add a few drops of flavoring extract or oil at this point, or add some powdered espresso or vanilla. Whisk vigorously again to incorporate the flavoring (if used.)
  4. Use a rubber or silicone spatula to spread the mixture out evenly in your prepared, foil-lined pan. Allow to cool at room temperature 12 hours or overnight so that it firms slowly.
  5. Take the fudge from the pan and remove the foil. Place on a cutting board.
  6. Using a knife heated with hot water and wiped dry, cut the fudge into 36 equal-sized cubes. You can either stick a lollipop stick (or candy cane) into the center of each block or leave as is. Additionally, you can press the cut sides of the fudge into crushed candy canes, roll them in cocoa powder or top with marshmallows.
  7. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature.

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Filed Under: Beverages, Desserts, Gifts, Holiday Food, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , ,

Spicy Cocktail Nuts and a Giveaway! (Updated)

November 3, 2010 by 76 Comments

We have a winner!  Connie… You were picked by the random number generator.

“Connie

I am surprised you are out of the competition. Your recipes are so delicious and extremely helpful. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.”

Contact me for instructions on how to redeem your prize!  Congratulations!

Aw, nuts!

…Or so I said when I learned that my tenure in the Project Food Blog competition was done. After a brief spell of sitting on my bar stool at my counter indulging in self-pity, I came to three conclusions.

  1. I was truly proud of each and every entry I submitted to the competition because each one represented my approach and attitude toward food.
  2. I was kind of relieved. I had a pumpkin carving party to attend that night and that meant I could really have fun without worrying about a deadline.
  3. I have the most loyal, kind, sweet, and hilarious readers ever created. The emails and messages of support left on the Foodie With Family fan page were and are much appreciated.  And truth be told, you guys kind of choked me up a little bit.  Thank you for all your support for me both during and after the competition.  You are awesome.

Now, that being said, I thought the most appropriate way to say ‘thank you’ and express my opinion about being foisted from the competish was to make some nuts.  As in aw, nuts.  As in I’m nutty.  As in I’m nuts for you guys.  As in…  let’s just make these nuts already, eh?

Spicy, sweet, salty, and totally addictive, these nuts will become an instant necessity in your holiday food arsenal.  You will dream about these.  Years ago (and we won’t say how many because I might be having an aging crisis), a friend brought these to an event that I organized at the office*.  Let’s just say that these didn’t make it past my desk to the buffet table.  They stayed with me.  And my friend wasn’t allowed to pass the desk until he jotted down the recipe for me.  Because I’m just that kind of person.

*The aforementioned event -my brainchild- was “PigFest” wherein we spent each Friday in November bringing in dishes to pass with the express aim of expanding our stomachs to better hold the bounty that would be lain before us at upcoming holiday events.  Who ever said advertising people were impractical?

Let’s talk about these nuts for a moment.  You can serve them warm (kept that way in a little slow-cooker) or room temperature; either way has its advantages. You can change out the seasonings used to spice them up.  You can ratchet up or scale back on the heat.  You can swap out walnuts, cashews, peanuts, Brazil nuts or whatever floats your boat for the almonds. You can pour a bunch of the cooled nuts into a clean canning jar, wrap some ribbon or rafia around it and give it as a fabulous hostess gift.  But what you can’t do is skip making these.

Before we go any further, let me tell you about this giveaway.  Aside from the nuts, it is another way of saying thank you for being here!  The nice folks at CSN (and have you LOOKED at their sites?  They have over 200 of them!  It’s like my own personal candy store! That bar stool link above is to one of their sites.) have offered a $50 gift certificate just in time to stock up with the gear you need to turn out the best holiday meals you possibly can.  Thank you, CSN!  So the rules.  First, I’m tired of contest rules so we’ll keep it simple.

Da Rules

  1. Leave a comment.
  2. That’s it.  You’re entered.
  3. If you really need more rules, perhaps you should make them up and leave them in the comment area.
  4. I love you guys.
  5. Really.  Those are all the rules.
  6. Oh geez, you slave drivers.  Okay.  One more thing.  I’ll pick the winner at random on Saturday morning at an as-yet undetermined time.  Because I told you, tired of the rules.

Now, we cook.

Aw, nuts.

Spicy Cocktail Nuts

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

Recipe by Emeril Lagasse

  • 1 large egg white
  • 1 teaspoon water
  • 4 cups raw almonds (…or raw walnuts, pecans, or peanuts)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Emeril’s Essence, recipe follows (or whichever spice blend you prefer…)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together egg white and water until frothy. Add the nuts and toss to coat. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, Essence, cayenne, and salt. Add to the nuts and stir to coat evenly. Spread the nuts on the prepared pan and bake until dry, about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir to separate. Let cool on the baking sheet. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Essence (Emeril’s Creole Seasoning)

Recipe by Emeril Lagasse

  • 2- 1/2 tablespoons paprika
  • 2 tablespoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
  • 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container. Yield: about 2/3 cup

Print
Spicy Cocktail Nuts and a Giveaway! (Updated)
Author: 
Recipe type: Snack, Appetizer, Hors d’oeuvres
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: Lots
 

Addictive. That’s the only word to describe these spicy, sweet, crunchy, roasty-toasty cocktail nuts. Make with almonds, cashews, peanuts, walnuts… You choose!
Ingredients
  • 1 large egg white
  • 1 teaspoon water
  • 4 cups raw almonds (…or raw walnuts, pecans, or peanuts)
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Emeril’s Essence, recipe follows in notes (or whichever spice blend you prefer…)
  • ½ teaspoon cayenne
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together egg white and water until frothy. Add the nuts and toss to coat. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, Essence, cayenne, and salt. Add to the nuts and stir to coat evenly. Spread the nuts on the prepared pan and bake until dry, about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir to separate. Let cool on the baking sheet. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes
Essence (Emeril’s Creole Seasoning) Recipe by Emeril Lagasse * 2- ½ tablespoons paprika * 2 tablespoons salt * 2 tablespoons garlic powder * 1 tablespoon black pepper * 1 tablespoon onion powder * 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper * 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano * 1 tablespoon dried thyme Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container. Yield: about ⅔ cup

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Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Breakfast Foods, Gifts, Holiday Food, Instructional, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Non-food recipes, Party Food, Project Food Blog 2010, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Thai Sweet and Hot Garlic Dipping Sauce

August 24, 2010 by 14 Comments

…Does writing two posts in a row with a sweet and spicy theme say something about me?

In actuality, I do believe I can blame this one on you all, you sweet and spicy wildcats.  I did, after all, put it up for a vote on the Foodie With Family Facebook fan phage. (Yes, I know it should be page, but I got carried away with alliterative abandon.) The voting results were narrowly skewed in favor of this addictive Thai Sweet and Hot Garlic Dipping Sauce.  Never fear, my salsa fanatics! We’ll be back on the salsa train tomorrow.  In the meantime, if you’re looking for my first salsa recipe in my week long salsa recipe series, you’ll want to click on over to my Record-Eagle column. While you’re at it, have a gander at my Peaches and Cream Time Saver Muffin recipe.  You’ll be so glad you did!

I have a confession to make.  My husband and I have allowed all of our children to learn and adopt our own long-standing addiction.  We didn’t just let it happen, we encouraged it.  In fact, we bought the strong stuff for them.  I mean heavy-duty.  The dangerous stuff that reduces strong men to weeping babies.  The truth is that growing up in our family it was all but inevitable.

All five of our sons are hot sauce addicts.

I do mean they are fully addicted to hot sauce.  For Christmas last year, my ten-year-old and eight-year-old chucked aside their main gifts in order to crack open the miniature bottles of Frank’s Extra-Hot Sauce that we had tucked into their stockings.  Did they shake it on their eggs?  Drizzle it over their breakfast sausage?  Eat it straight on chips?  No.  Any of those would’ve been reasonable, but no.  My children shook the bottles straight into their mouths.  On purpose.  And then repeated it until each of them had consumed about two tablespoons of it straight from the bottle.  Then -and then, only- they ate a couple pieces of candy.  And then went back to the hot sauce.

My baby.  My little, sweet, cuddly four-year-old baby likes copious amounts of Sriracha on his turkey sandwiches, in his congee and on his tacos.  My twelve- and six-year olds profess not to like hot sauce as much as their brothers, but that’s only because they’re choosy.  They don’t like Frank’s, Tabasco or Sriracha, but they both like -nay, adore!- Melinda’s Original Habanero XXXXtra Reserve Sauce.  Dare I confess that we buy it by the gallon?

Considering that I do often share ‘spicy’ recipes here on Foodie With Family, and that I often get questions regarding just how hot a recipe I just offered actually is, I thought it was about time for me to create a heat-rating system; one that gives you a good idea of just how hot something actually is.  A system that was more specific and universally understandable than my usual, “Well, my four-year-old eats it…” because the truth is, my four-year-old stuffs his face full of wasabi peas, cries, knocks his head against my thigh waiting for the wasabi burn to die down then begs me for more.  And so, I present to you…

The Foodie With Family “Spicy Foods” Equivalency Rating System

  1. Eh, at least it has flavor.
  2. Not bad.  This would be good for small children and it’s pretty tasty stuff.
  3. I like it. It’s a good all-purpose kind of heat without being at all overwhelming.
  4. Tingly, definitely packs a little punch.
  5. Hot, but full of great flavor.
  6. Oooh, the roof of my mouth is sweating.  More please.
  7. My tongue is on fire and I like it.
  8. I’m sorry.  Did you ask me something?  I can’t hear you over the freight train running through my ears and I’m pretty sure my face has melted off of my head.
  9. Where did everyone go?  I think I’ve gone blind.

If I were to put this in terms of widely available and well-known foods, it might look a little like this…

  1. A little freshly ground black pepper.
  2. Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
  3. Tabasco Sauce
  4. A generous shake of crushed red pepper flakes on a piece of pizza.
  5. Melinda’s Original Habanero XXXXtra Reserve Sauce
  6. Sriracha
  7. A bite of a fresh, ripe habanero pepper.  If you eat enough you will most definitely experience the ‘hot sauce hangover’.*
  8. …Crazy off-brand hot sauces that hardly anyone recognizes because they hurt and they’re expensive.  Most people don’t pay for that honest to goodness pain.
  9. Dave’s Insanity Sauce.  There’s a reason some states require you to sign a health-waiver when you purchase this stuff. And for the record, this stuff is off-the-charts for us.  With two notable (and historical) exceptions, we do not eat this.**

*The Hot Sauce Hangover is a phrase coined by The Evil Genius to describe the phenomenon whereby the hot sauce makes its presence known  on you causing your posterior to hang over the toilet for roughly the same amount of time it took you to eat it in the first place.

**These exceptions are stories for another day and another cuppa tea.  I’ll just say the first occasion was a pride-fueled attempt to impress someone by putting  Dave’s Insanity Sauce on my burger like ketchup. The second event was my husband trying to eat it because he didn’t believe I could’ve possibly experienced that much pain from hot sauce when I recounted the story to him. I won that time.

Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s talk Thai Sweet and Hot Garlic Dipping Sauce.  I’m going to say that it falls somewhere between a four and a five in terms of heat and it gets full-marks on flavor.  If your heat-preferences run lower than ours, you can certainly reduce the crushed red pepper flakes called for in the recipe.  In terms of commercial comparisons, it is similar in flavor to Mae Ploy sauce but as with most homemade sauces, it’s just so much better.  There isn’t much that tastes better with lumpia, summer rolls or fried spring rolls, egg rolls or chicken balls.  Use to glaze or brush on grilled meats or whisk a little together with grated fresh ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil for the best dressing ever to adorn an Asian chicken salad. Just look at how gorgeous it is.  Don’t you want to drink a tall glass of it?

No?  I’m alone on this?  No one else wants a glass?  Alright, but seriously, make this.  It is one of the easiest canning projects you can try because it doesn’t require any exotic ingredients or specialty equipment aside from the canning jars themselves.  And believe me, it is worth the effort. For the sauce to reach its full flavor potential, it has to sit on the shelves at room temperature for at least three weeks.  This isn’t a moment where you can mix up the sauce and shove it in the back of the refrigerator.  It just won’t develop the same roundness and body. Veteran canners can skim through and get the information they need, but I’m going to talk this through step-by-step for the newbie canners out there.  You can do this! Yes, you CAN.  Oh man, I crack me up.

In order to complete the project, you need to be able to lay your hands on the following items:

  • Between nine and twelve half-pint (8 ounce) canning jars with new two-piece lids.  If you’re unfamiliar with two-piece lids, just buy a box of new canning jars from your local hardware store or Walmart.  They come -quite conveniently- with new two-piece lids!
  • A large stockpot or pasta pot with a tight fitting lid.
  • A rack that fits on the bottom of the pan to prevent jars from sitting directly on the pan’s surface. If you don’t have that, rings from ‘regular mouth’ canning jars can be placed facing downward sides touching to create a space between the bottom of the jars and the pan.
  • A waterproof oven mitt or canning tongs.
  • A ladle.
  • Paper towels or clean tea towels.
  • A timer or a clock.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Thai Sweet and Hot Garlic Dipping Sauce

Adapted from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Yield: About 9 half- pints as written

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup finely minced fresh garlic (Peel and mince your own garlic, please. Pre-minced garlic in jars just isn’t good enough for this recipe.)
  • 1 Tablespoon Kosher salt
  • 6 cups cider vinegar
  • 6 cups granulated white sugar
  • 3/4 cup (less if your heat tolerance is lower) crushed red pepper flakes

Prepare the jars and rings by washing on the hot cycle of your dishwasher.  Wash the lids in hot soapy water and rinse well.  Place in a bowl covered by two or three inches of very hot tap water.  Set aside.

Prepare your canner (or stockpot) by putting a rack in the bottom to hold the jars away from the base of the pan.  If you do not have a rack, use a fully opened vegetable steamer basket or extra rings from ‘regular-mouth’ or ‘narrow-mouth’ canning jars placed facing down with the sides touching.  Set aside.

Sprinkle salt over the minced garlic in a metal or glass bowl (don’t use plastic here unless you want a perma-garlic bowl!)  Stir together, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let it mellow at room temperature for an hour.  The salt will help pull some of the moisture from the garlic, so don’t skip this step!

In a saucepan, bring the vinegar to a rolling boil.  Add the sugar all at once and stir well until the sugar is dissolved.  Return to a full boil.  Lower heat just slightly so that it boils steadily but not really hard.  Boil steadily, uncovered,  for 10 minutes.  Remove the pan from the hot burner, stir in the garlic mixture and the crushed red pepper flakes.  Take care not to hold your face directly over the pan when adding in the pepper flakes as that can trigger some serious coughing and eye-watering, depending on the strength of the pepper flakes.

Ladle the hot sauce into the hot jars.  You want to leave 1/2″ of space between the top lip of the jar and the top level of the dipping sauce.  Use a ruler outside the jar to check whether you have the right amount of open space.  If you need to, use a spoon to remove some sauce or add sauce to maintain that 1/2″ of headspace.  Use a paper towel (or clean tea towel) dipped in pure cider vinegar to wipe the rims of the jars even if it doesn’t look like anything is on it.

Use your clean hands to grab a lid from the hot tap water.  Position it, rubber seal side down, directly over the center of the jar.  Place the metal ring over the jar and gently screw it into place until you meet resistance. When you meet resistance, tighten the jar until it is finger-tip tight.  (In other words, tighten until it is the tightness that you can achieve with your finger-tips, not with vice-grips.) The jars are going to be hot because you poured nearly boiling liquid into them.  I find it helpful to wear an oven mitt on the hand that is holding the jar steady.

When all of your jars are ready, set the prepared canner on your burner.  Position the jars (using an oven mitt to keep from burning your fingers or palms) over the rack (or steamer basket or upside-down canning lids) so that the jars are steady and in an upright position.  Cover the jars completely by at least one inch with hot tap water. Place a lid on your canner (or stockpot) and turn the heat on your burner to high.  When the water reaches a full, rolling boil (one that could not be stirred down), set your timer for 15 minutes.  When the 15 minutes have elapsed, remove the lid to your canner and shut off the heat.  Leave the jars in the hot water for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, transfer the jars (using a waterproof oven mitt or canning tongs) to a towel lined counter or a cooling rack with a towel under it. You should start to hear the “POP” of the lids as they form vacuums and seal.  This is a very good thing!  Leave your jars to rest, undisturbed, overnight.  In the morning, test the jars by pressing gently on the center of each lid.  If it does not give under gentle pressure or pop back up, your seal is good.  Remove the rings for storage*, wipe gently with a damp cloth or paper towel, label and store in a cool, dark place for 3 weeks prior to using.  Unopened, sealed jars of this sauce can be stored for a year.

*Storing your jars without the rings is a little bit of insurance.  When food spoils in a closed environment, the gasses produced by bacterial growth create upward pressure in the air pocket left by the headspace you so carefully measured in the jar.  If you remove the ring, any gasses produced by spoilage will push upward on the lid loosening the seal.  When you open a jar, if the seal is weak or there is no “schllllllooop” from a vacuum seal being broken, discard the contents immediately.  On the flip side, if you hear that lovely “schllllllllooop” and the lid is difficult to pry from the jar, you’ve done the job right!  You can eat your home-canned goodies, content in your foodstuffs’ safety.

Before opening a jar of Thai Sweet and Hot Garlic Dipping Sauce, be sure to give it a good shake.  There will be a natural settling of the product in storage and shaking is a simple way to distribute all that gorgeous garlic and pepper flake-age.

Filed Under: Canning, Component Foods, Condiments, Food Preservation, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Kettle Corn

August 22, 2010 by 6 Comments

A.) It’s rainy.

B.) It’s chilly.

C.) My husband was on a business trip this week meaning that I parented our five boys solo.

D.) My husband got in from that business trip at 1:30 a.m. this morning.

E.) I’ve been canning like a maniac for weeks on end.

F.) I have a hole in my heart that was created by my utter lack of time to watch my favorite movies lately.

G.) I spent all of yesterday at the Angelica Farmer’s Market with the kids (who were selling their Mortar Men and Room & Linen Sprays) on what turned out to be, according to the market’s coordinator “…the slowest day we’ve ever actually had at the Farmer’s Market.”

H.) I wanted to prove that I am still capable of writing a post that doesn’t involve putting food in jars. Although, you really could actually put this into jars.  Just a thought.

There.  This is what I like to think of as front-loading with my excuses reasons behind this post. And now that I’ve been all efficient, I can go straight to the good stuff; Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Kettle Corn. I never really cared much for kettle corn because of an unfortunate incident as an exchange student in France*. I found it an affront to the great and noble salted and buttered popcorn of my youth. I viewed it as an anemic impersonation of caramel corn; food of the gods. And last, but certainly not least, I really, really REALLY didn’t like how very many times I had seen it written ‘kettle korn’.**

*I had been in France for about three months when struck with an incredible craving for crunchy popcorn. I stopped in the first Supermarché I could find and gasped audibly when I found a bag of fluffy white popcorn on the shelf.  I grabbed. I paid. I tore it open. I stuffed a fistful in my mouth.  I spit it out into a garbage can.  I was not emotionally prepared for popcorn to be totally sweet. White Cheddar or Salted? Yes. Sickly sweet?  Not so much.  And so my prejudice against any sweet popcorn that wasn’t caramel corn was born.

**Korn with a ‘K’? No way. That rubs ever CDO** bone in my body the wrong way.

***CDO: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in alphabetical order. The way God intended.

But inspiration strikes at odd moments.  As The Evil Genius and his progeny sat on the couch watching the Little League World Series (El Salvador vs. Saudi Arabia) our eldest pined -pointedly- in my direction, “I sure could go for something sweet to munch.  Sigh.”  The Evil Genius mouthed the words “kettle corn” in my direction and accompanied it with his most charming world-domination smile.  Then they all started ululating.*

*Sorry for all the asides, but this one is one-hundred percent necessary. The guys saw a Saudi mother ululating when her son hit a home run. They’ve been ululating since.  It’s been two hours.  Send help. Now.

Since I was afraid they’d carry on ululating if I didn’t whip up a batch of kettle corn I hied me hence to the kitchen.  I planned on doing one batch of the dreaded kettle corn for them and one batch of my favorite; salted with nutritional yeast (don’t you DARE gag.  It’s delicious.  Even if it DOES contain something called ‘nutritional yeast’ which admittedly sounds like it would be served by a very serious health food adherent with no sense of humour whatsoever.) I made the kettle corn, poured it into a bowl and -in an act that I really can’t remember consciously deciding to perform- sprinkled a generous quantity of ground chipotle powder over the top. Um. Whoops?

No.  Not whoops.  Divine.  Sweet, smoky, spicy, salty and crisp; this stuff knocked off my socks. Color me converted. Well, to the Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Kettle Corn anyway. You can keep the other stuff. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

I ended up making several more batches because it was eaten almost as fast as I could make it. The kids loved it.  The Evil Genius loved it.  I loved it. Score.

Now if you’ll pardon me.  I’m going to go grab my bowl and catch up on my movies.  Middle Earth, here I come!

For a printable version of this recipe minus the photos and rambling, click here!

Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Kettle Corn

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tablespoons canola oil
  • 1/4 cup of your favorite unpopped popcorn kernels (I love ladyfinger popcorn.  So small, so cute, so tasty!) + 3 extra kernels
  • 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
  • salt to taste (start around 1/4 teaspoon and work up from there.)
  • ground chipotle pepper powder to taste (start around 1/4 teaspoon and work up from there.)

Regular Pot Instructions:

In a large heavy-bottomed pan with a tight-fitting lid, heat the oil and the 3 extra kernels over medium high heat with the lid in place.  Shake the pan every 10 seconds.  When you hear the three kernels pop, act quickly (while wearing oven mitts.)  Dump in the 1/4 each of popcorn kernels and sugar.  Put the lid back on very quickly and start shaking in a circular motion. Listen to the popping of the kernels.  It should pick up in tempo until you can’t distinguish the popping of individual kernels.  Keep shaking the pan. After that it will gradually decrease. This is where you need to pay the most attention.  When the popping tapers off to the point where you hear a two to three second pause between pops, you need to pull the pan off the heat and empty it into a bowl very quickly.

Whirly Pop Instructions:

In a Whirly Pop pan, heat the oil and the 3 extra kernels over medium high heat with the lid in place.  Keep turning the Whirly Pop handle.  When you hear the three kernels pop, act quickly (while wearing oven mitts.)  Quickly open one side of the Whirly Pop and dump in the 1/4 each of popcorn kernels and sugar. Knock the lid back into place very quickly and start turning the handle. Listen to the popping of the kernels.  It should pick up in tempo until you can’t distinguish the popping of individual kernels.  Keep turning the handle. After that it will gradually decrease. This is where you need to pay the most attention.  When the popping tapers off to the point where you hear a two to three second pause between pops, you need to pull the pan off the heat and empty it into a bowl very quickly.

~~Now for the good stuff…

No matter which way you cook it, when you’ve emptied it into a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and chipotle powder to taste, toss and stir with a long wooden spoon.  You don’t want to stir by hand because that melted sugar seriously burns!  Let cool for a couple minutes and then dig in!  Kettle corn keeps well in a paper bag with the top folded down and crimped for a day or two at room temperature.


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