You are here: Home / Archives for Food Preservation

Homemade Ghee (Clarified or Drawn Butter or Beurre Noisette)

June 3, 2010 by 13 Comments

Welcome to part III of the series of component dishes (Part I, Candied Jalapenos, can be read here! And Part II, Homemade Greek Yogurt and Cucumber Yogurt Salsa [Raita] can be read here!)  to make the transcendent ‘Second to Naanwich’ that still has me obsessed almost three weeks after eating it.  In the next post, I’ll share the recipe for the Tandoori Style Grilled Chicken and directions for putting together the you-know-what!

I promised myself I wouldn’t start this post with an excuse about why it’s taking me so ever-loving long to get these recipes to you. I pledged I wouldn’t tell you all that I’ve been hosting everybody and their uncle (well, everybody BUT the Uncle…), trying to finish up the year-end reports for the school district, keep the kids focused on the last few days of school, plan a trip to a theme park and catch up on my life-long enemy laundry.  I made a vow that I wouldn’t talk about the fact that I’ve spent more hours in the last two weeks outside putting in vegetable, herb and flower gardens than I have in the kitchen. And I pinky-swore that I would absolutely, positively not mention that a guy in the neighborhood (yes, three houses in five square miles counts as a neighborhood) kept us all awake until three in the morning all the way through Memorial Day weekend with a really lousy and very enthusiastic indefatigable live band*.  And I’m always good to my word, so I will not go there and we will instead jump straight to the food.   After all, that’s why we’re all here, right?

*I am writing my Congressman to ask that he propose legislation that if you are going to mike your band and turn the amps to eleven that you will be required to be good.  Anyone who has ever been forced to listen to the band who sounded like they had set up shop in my front yard would vote for it in a heartbeat.

Ghee (also known as ‘clarified’ or ‘drawn’ butter) is a staple in many world cuisines; Indian, French, English, Brazilian, and Iranian just to name a few.  It is -to use Wikipedia’s highly accurate and mega-scientific explanation- an anhydrous milkfat rendered from butter to separate the milk solids from the butterfat.  Hoo yeah!  In short, it’s pure butterfat.

Why not just use regular butter?

Ghee has gone through the process of removing the two things that tend to make butter go bad more quickly; milk solids and water.  By cooking it over low, slow temperatures, you evaporate the water and use density to separate the milk solids.  But that’s not the only amazing reason to make ghee.  Not only have you made the butter more shelf stable, you’ve raised the smoke point.  That means you can use it to cook at higher temperatures without scorching than you would be able to do with normal butter.  You get the butter flavor, it lasts more than five times as long as it would have and it is more versatile.  That’s a win/win/win situation.

As with many foods, you’ll get a better end result by starting out with a better ingredient.  If you can get your hands on cultured or European-style butter, you won’t regret it.  If you can’t, just use the best butter you can easily afford.  It’ll be delicious either way.

Let’s talk cost.  Have you ever bought or priced out a jar of ghee at the grocery store?  First of all, that preceding statement assumes you live in an area where they carry ghee in your grocery store.  In my little grocery store?  Not so much.  But if I were to head up to The Big City, I assure you that I wouldn’t pay the  $16.00 they want for a twenty eight ounce jar.  Not happening.  No way, no how.  I pay my Amish neighbor $2.00 per pound of cultured butter.  I’ll pause and let you rage at me for a moment.  Are we done?  Okay.  That means that I yield about twenty-four ounces of ghee for $4.00, if you want to add the cost of the fuel to cook it, we might generously push it toward the $5.00 range. So that’s somewhere in the range of one third of the cost of store-bought to make my own. I bet you don’t need two guesses to figure out what I do.

And don’t you let me catch you tossing out those milk solids that precipitated from the butterfat.  They turn a toasty gorgeous brown and have the flavor to match their appearance.  Spooned into a pot of fried rice, spread on a piece of fresh bread, or stirred into soup, you’ll be amazed at the depth of flavor they impart.  Plus, you can pat yourself (butter pun alert) on the back for being so frugal when so many people just tell you to discard that flavor powerhouse. You just saved even more money and provided yourself with a fan-flippin’-tastic ingredient that you cannot buy.

One warning, though.  You may want to have some snacks prepared to munch on while the ghee is cooking. This stuff smells just a little too good while it’s cooking.

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

Homemade Ghee

Yield: About 1 1/2 pints of Ghee plus 1/2 pint of crispy bits.

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds of good quality butter (use Cultured or European Style if available)

Melt the butter slowly over low heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Stir occasionally.  When the butter is melted, it will begin to foam near the top.

Continue cooking over low heat.  After a couple of minutes, you will begin to hear snapping, popping and crackling.  This is the sound of the water separating from the fat and simmering to the top to evaporate away.  You need for this to happen.  This is what helps make the ghee so shelf-stable.

You will also start to see the milk solids separate out from the fat.

Continue cooking over low heat until the crackling sounds cease and the milk solids have mainly sunk to the bottom and taken on a toasty brown color. Another good indicator that your ghee is done is that it will smell like popcorn. There may still be a thin layer of foam near the top or it may have lost all of its foam.  Either way, if the crackling sounds have stopped and the milk solids are golden brown, it is time to remove the ghee or clarified/drawn butter from the heat.

An example of a batch with no foam at the top:

An example of a batch that had foam at the top:

And my beloved toasty milk solids:

Allow it to cool, uncovered for 30 minutes.

While it cools, set up your straining station.  Line a fine mesh sieve or colander positioned over a bowl or jar with paper towels, a clean tea towel or extra-fine cheesecloth.

After the ghee has cooled, carefully pour it into the straining apparatus.

When you are through straining, there should be the toasted milk solids left in the strainer.  Scrape these into a separate clean jar to save for spreading on toast or adding to recipes.  The toasted milk solids should be stored in the refrigerator in a tightly covered container.

The ghee can be stored at room temperature in a tightly covered jar for up to six months.  At room temperature, ghee is mainly solid and opaque.  It will look like this…

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

Homemade Greek Yogurt and Cucumber Yogurt Salsa (Raita)

May 27, 2010 by 13 Comments

Welcome to part II of the series of component dishes (Part I, Candied Jalapenos, can be read here!)  to make the transcendent ‘Second to Naanwich’ that still has me obsessed almost two weeks after eating it. While you can definitely buy Greek yogurt from the store to complete this dish, the homemade variety is so much tastier and less expensive.  I encourage you all to try making it from scratch.

I am addicted to Greek yogurt.  But man-oh-Friday, is it ever an expensive habit.  I was buying cases of it through our local health food co-operative at a price that -while lower than grocery stores- was still painful to pay.  I needed a less expensive way to feed my habit and I found it.

Googling ‘homemade Greek yogurt’ yields a bunch of folks, bless ‘em all, who tell you the same thing.  Strain your yogurt and ‘voila!’ it’s Greek yogurt.  Okie dokie.  Easy enough.  So if you want a super fast homemade Greek yogurt, just strain yourself a quart of yogurt.  And that’s good in a pinch, but when you’re talking volume, that can still get expensive.  So.  Take it back one step further and make your own yogurt.  This is just as exciting from a stick-it-to-the-man viewpoint as homemade buttermilk. It’s not hard people.  Don’t fear the yogurt.

Unless you’ve been in a cave you’re probably at least minimally acquainted with the health benefits of yogurt by this point; the live and active cultures in the yogurt are like a magic bullet for intestinal health.* But don’t forget the calcium, magnesium, potassium, Vitamins B2 and B12 and protein.  Those are pretty handy to overall health, too.

*I’m sorry if you just lost your appetite reading the words ‘intestinal health’.  In my defense, as the mother of five boys ages twelve and under, I thought that was pretty restrained of me.  I could’ve said “It helps you poop regularly.”  Oh my gosh.  I’ve lost all sense of propriety. I need to hang out with girls more often.

Because I love you bigger than the bay, today’s post is a three-fer.  You get the recipe for Greek Yogurt made from scratch, but in the process, you also learn how to make ‘regular’ yogurt.  And you also get my favorite thing to do with Greek yogurt.  (Other than eating it straight with honey, making frozen yogurt, using it for dill dip, using it in place of sour cream, or turning it into tartar sauce…) Cucumber Yogurt Salsa.  This salsa is similar to a raita (an Indian and Pakistani condiment made to cool the palate) but it is made without what I think are key components of a honest-to-goodness raita (chiles, cumin, et al.) The red onion gives it the flavor punch I crave, but the dill and cucumber keep it cool and refreshing.  This is a crucial component to the Second to Naanwich (more information on the mythical Naanwich is here.)

I put Cucumber Yogurt Salsa on all sorts of things; burgers, sandwiches, vegetable sticks, spoons… Let your imagination run wild.  This is some good stuff.

So come on.  Make yourself some yogurt, I want y’all around for a while.  I like you.

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

Homemade Greek Yogurt (or regular yogurt)

Yield: About 4 cups of Greek yogurt

Ingredients:

  • 2 quarts whole, 2% or 1% milkfat milk
  • 4 Tablespoons yogurt with live and active cultures (store bought or less than 36 hour old homemade yogurt)

Heat the milk in a saucepan to 180°F.  If you don’t have a thermometer, don’t sweat it.  You can watch the milk.  When it gets lots of little bubbles around the edge but before it boils, you’re good to go.  It’ll look like this.

And if you happen to get a little warmer than that, don’t worry.  See this?

No one from the yogurt police came to have words with me.  My yogurt turned out just fine.  The important part is waiting for the milk to cool to the right temperature before adding the yogurt.  That nice lukewarm temperature encourages the beneficial bacteria to get cuddly and reproduce.  Anything too hot kills them.  So…

Cover the pan and cool to about 116°F.  Again, don’t panic if a thermometer isn’t handy.  Simply drip a couple drops of the milk on the inside of your wrist.  If it feels pleasant and slightly warmer than body temperature without feeling hot or uncomfortable you can proceed.  Remove about 2 cups of the warm milk to a small bowl and whisk in the yogurt until evenly combined.  Whisk that back into the pan of milk.  Pour into jars or a bowl.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap or a lid and place in a warm dry place at least six to eight hours or until thickened, overnight if necessary.  A good place for this is an oven that is off but has the interior light on. If you stop at this point, you have regular yogurt.  Simply refrigerate at this point if that’s what you want.

To make Greek yogurt,  place the yogurt in the refrigerator for four hours to firm it a little further and allow some of the whey to separate.  After four hours, line a colander with fine mesh cheesecloth or a clean tea towel.  Pour the yogurt into the colander.  You can either gather the corners of the towel and tie it before hanging it over your sink for 5 hours like this.

Or you can place the colander over a bowl and place in the refrigerator overnight to drain.

After draining to desired consistency, turn into a bowl.

Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to use.

Cucumber Yogurt Salsa (Raita)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups Greek yogurt
  • 1 medium sized cucumber, peeled and diced into small cubes
  • 1/2 of a small red onion, peeled and diced into small cubes
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon dried dill weed or 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh dill
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
  • salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Stir all ingredients together in a bowl.  It is preferable to cover tightly and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving, but this can be eaten immediately.

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Component Foods, Food Preservation, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Snacks, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Homemade Cultured Buttermilk

March 24, 2010 by 93 Comments

I use a lot of buttermilk.  And by ‘a lot’ I mean a ton.  Many of my baked goods contain buttermilk.  Much of my salad dressing uses buttermilk.  And The Evil Genius?  He drinks buttermilk. *  We go through a lot of the stuff.  And I may have mentioned that I live in the middle of nowhere in Amish country before (or a million times before, but who’s counting?) so frequent last minute trips to the store are not convenient.

*Now before any of you out there yawp with a resounding, “EW!” let me just mention that millions of Southerners and displaced Southerners are right now saying, “Mmmmmmmm! A nice tall glass of buttermilk with salt and pepper sounds mighty fine right now.”  A reminder: never yuck another person’s yum.  Unless we’re talking durian, then all bets are off… (You may want to read about my family vs. Durian.)

There are probably quite a few of you out there saying, “Oh pish,” (Someone other than me says that, right?), “All you have to do is add a little vinegar or lemon juice to milk and you get the same thing.  Why buy buttermilk?”  See?  I just knew someone out there was saying it.  Not so fast!  It’s not the same thing.  To prove my point, I have to make a scientific sidebar.

Scientific Sidebar Alert!

Buttermilk is used in recipes for several important reasons:

  • Buttermilk is acidic, so it helps invigorate leavening agents -such as baking powder, baking soda and yeast- when added to baked goods.  The acid also helps combat discoloration in baked goods and promotes deep, beautiful browning.
  • Buttermilk contains natural emulsifiers; this improves texture and aroma, and extends shelf life after baking.
  • Remember how buttermilk is acidic?  That makes it a wonderful addition to marinades for chicken and pork.  The acid helps tenderize the meat and gives it a tangy flavor.
  • You know the ‘cultured’ part of cultured buttermilk?  It’s good for you. It contains many active cultures similar to those found in yogurt. Most of the cultures generally found in buttermilk are form the Lactococcus Lactis family and many of their subspecies.  Those cultures are what make buttermilk so thick and creamy.  And what?  Good for you!

Now that you know more than you probably ever wanted to know about buttermilk let’s get onto the ‘Why make my own?’ thing.  Because you can.  Seriously.  You need more than that?  Okay.  Also make it because it’s dirt cheap, it’s super simple, it’s really fun and you’ll never run out of buttermilk again.

Hang on one second.  Someone out there just said, “I never use a whole thing of buttermilk.  What do I do with all that buttermilk?”  I’m so glad you asked.  How about a few of these ideas:

Bacon and Swiss Rye Muffins These are every bit as good as they sound and as easy as pie.  No wait!  They’re easier than pie.  Pie can be hard.

Buttermilk Cornbread Rounds Based on my Grandma’s Buttermilk Cornbread recipe, these perfectly portioned cornbread rounds fit neatly in the hand and go anywhere cornbread goes, but look cuter doing it!  This one’s going a little way back in the FWF archives.  When you read it, please forgive the “I’m learning” format!

Buttermilk Pancakes Nothing beats beautiful, light, airy buttermilk pancakes smothered in real maple syrup.  Nothing.  This one’s also reaching back.  Wow.  I played around with those fonts and indentations a bit, didn’t I?


Garam Masala Depression Cake from Val.  Nothin’ depressing about THAT cake, I’ll tell you. We’re talking about a decadent, Garam Masala flavored chocolate cake with orange buttercream and toasted coconut.  Oh my. I only take issue with the number of servings Val specified in it.  It looks like a one-person cake to me.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention these others…

Are you good and hungry yet?  Excellent.  Let’s make some buttermilk.  I promise it doesn’t take but two shakes.

Homemade Cultured Buttermilk

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

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk (from the store or home cultured)
  • 1 to 2 quarts skim,1%,  2%, or whole milk from the store or raw milk

Also needed:

  • 1 clean, dry quart or half gallon jar with a tight fitting two piece lid.

Okay.  Ready?  If you blink you’ll miss how to do it.

Pour buttermilk (1/4 cup for a quart jar or 1/2 cup for a half gallon jar) into your clean jar.  Top off the jar with your plain milk.  Tightly screw lid to the jar and shake vigorously for 1 minute.  Place in a warm (but not hot) area out of direct sunlight.  Let it sit there for 12 to 24 hours, until thickened.  Refrigerate when thick.  Use within two weeks.  If you re-culture this regularly, you can carry on re-culturing indefinitely.  I always feel like I’m stickin’ it to the man when I do homemade stuff like this.  Who doesn’t love beating the system?

Now here’s a glimpse of my finished product.  Note that mine is super thick.  I used raw, whole milk to culture my buttermilk.  If you use skim, it may end up a little thinner than what you see here.

4.8 from 6 reviews

Print
Homemade Cultured Buttermilk
Author: 
Recipe type: Ingredient, Condiment, Home Cheese Making
Prep time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 12
 

Once you’ve made this you’ll never want to go back to storebought cultured buttermilk or vinegar soured milk. This is thick and creamy and tangy and perfect.
Ingredients
  • ¼ to ½ cup cultured buttermilk (from the store or home cultured)
  • 1 to 2 quarts skim,1%, 2%, or whole milk from the store or raw milk
  • Also needed:
  • 1 clean, dry quart or half gallon jar with a tight fitting two piece lid.

Instructions
  1. Okay. Ready? If you blink you’ll miss how to do it.
  2. Pour buttermilk (1/4 cup for a quart jar or ½ cup for a half gallon jar) into your clean jar. Top off the jar with your plain milk. Tightly screw lid to the jar and shake vigorously for 1 minute. Place in a warm (but not hot) area out of direct sunlight. Let it sit there for 12 to 24 hours, until thickened. Refrigerate when thick. Use within two weeks.

Notes
If you re-culture this regularly, you can carry on re-culturing indefinitely. I always feel like I’m stickin’ it to the man when I do homemade stuff like this. Who doesn’t love beating the system?

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

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

Blueberry Butter Tarts with Mascarpone Ice Cream

August 6, 2009 by 12 Comments

We have a winner!  And I have my power back!  Yes.  I was without power for nearly two days.  With two stinky dogs, sixteen stinky chicks, five stinky chickens, five stinky kids and two marginally less stinky adults, our power came back none too soon.  No power translated to no pump for the well, no lights, and *gasp* no computer.  We made due by enjoying each other’s company, eeking out our water, making hot dogs on the grill, reading lots of books and playing lots of board games.  Not bad, not bad…  But I was eager to come back here and announce the winner of the Raspberry Cake Bar Gift Basket that was so kindly offered by our friends at Shelf Reliance/THRIVE.  After plugging our comments into the random.org sequencer, we have a winner.  Drumroll, please !

(Insert drumroll here.)
Our winner is: Traci!  If you’re reading this, Traci, please email me with your mailing address and I’ll forward it on to the nice folks at Shelf Reliance/THRIVE.  And may I just suggest that the rest of you check out their website?  I highly recommend their freeze-dried pineapple.

It is officially blueberry season around here and I have blueberries coming out of my ears.  Almost literally.  I border on obsessed with blueberries.  I eagerly watch the local papers and bulletin boards at grocery stores for any clues about when blueberry patches open up.  I gear up the boys by repeatedly reading Bruce Degen’s “Jamberry”.  I tantalize everyone’s tastebuds with talk of blueberry crumbles, cobblers, ice cream, smoothies, muffins, pancakes, waffles, and dumplings. And for The Evil Genius, I keep mentioning blueberry daiquiris.  (What?  It’s a very manly, evil drink.  As evidenced by the fact that he loves them.  Hello.)

Last week, while picking up our new baby chicks from the local feed mill, I saw it.  IT!  The sign saying the blueberry patch was going to open the following Monday;  in three days!  I drove home at warp speed.  (Well, as ‘warp’ as you can get in an ancient purple Ford Windstar.) I counted, washed and prepped my pint jars; grabbed backpacks; located all of our Sigg bottles and miraculously found the necessary caps; popped the cooler into the back of the van; and grabbed the checkbook.  It took me three days to do this.  Have I mentioned I have five kids?  And that they’re human locusts?  They eat everything in their path except for the Legos which I’m pretty certain reproduce asexually whenever I’m not looking.  But that’s another cup of coffee.  Back to the blueberries.

Monday morning, at the crack of 9 a.m. I loaded all the kids into the van.  By 10 a.m., I had re-loaded them in the van after feeding them their breakfasts. Whoopsie.  I was a little excited to head out there… By 12 p.m., I had them all strapped into their seats. (This had to happen multiple times for some of my children [who shall remain unnamed] who remembered they had to feed the dogs, grab their water bottles from the top of the piano[?], grab a book in case they felt like reading in the patch, and/or ‘go potty’ after being strapped the first time.) And by 1 p.m., we were on our way.  After backtracking to drop off an overdue book at the library, we finally made it to the patch at the bright and early hour of 1:45 p.m.  The patch was only open until three.  By the time we got down the half mile path to the blueberry patch it was 2 o’clock and we knew we had to haul keister.

I have to brag on my kids for just a minute.  They are championship blueberry pickers.  They have been trained (very loosely speaking) from a very tender age to pick berries and they are good at it. Each of my boys has visited the berry patch from the time they were in strollers or backpacks.  When they were tiny, I carried them on my back to the patch and let them ride along while I picked.  When they were old enough to eat solids, I’d position their stroller in a shady spot in front of a berry bush and let them pick and eat while I picked for the freezer and jam jars.  The eldest three now pick like maniacs.  They fill buckets nearly as quickly as I do.  I still win because I’m taller and can reach further into the brush.  I don’t expect that to last for long, but for now, the bragging rights are still tenuously mine.)  We have a couple traditions we observe.  The first berry picked when entering the patch is picked with our teeth; straight from the branch.  I promise you’ve never had a berry that tastes as good as that first sun-warmed blueberry.  And as we leave the patch, we each take and eat one blueberry from the last bush on the way out.  I’m not sure how we got started doing either of those things, but they’re as much of a part of our summer as Independence Day, shorts, sprinklers and corn on the cob.

With buckets tied to our waists, we all threw ourselves into the task and picked ‘like the wind’. (That was how Aidan kept exhorting his brothers to work more quickly, “Pick the like the WIND guys!  We only have… Wait, Mom?  How much longer can we pick?)  Rowan, who picks more like a gentle breeze than the wind, managed half a bucket despite his tiny size and three years of age since, unlike most of his brothers, he doesn’t eat his berries as he picks them.  Ty observes the inaugural eating-of-the-berry tradition, but that’s as far as he’ll go with the eating. He lost a few when he ‘accidentally’ threw them at the back of Aidan’s head, but he assured me they were the squishy berries and he would “never, EVER throw a good berry!” and still filled his bucket.  Aidan and Liam each filled a bucket.  Leif might have, but he surely ate ten berries to every one that landed in his pail.  I filled two buckets and gathered the troops for our weigh in at the scales. When the final tally was in, we had managed to pick twenty-three pounds in a little under an hour. As we headed back for the trail to get our bounty to the van, the owner told us that he expected it to be a very short season, so we should get all our picking done in the next couple days.  We had put a twenty-three pound dent in our usual ninety-pound goal, so we felt pretty good.

Driving home, an involuntary “Booyah!” and fist pump escaped me.  Where did THAT come from?  My inner super jock?  I’m not a ‘booyah’ kind of girl.  I’m more of a “Heck, yes!” type.  Blueberries move me, I tell you. (And they move Leif in different ways since he eats so many of them.  But I digress.)

Blueberries are one of the main foods I preserve. They’re so easy to pick, freeze or make into jam.  Having a freezer stocked with blueberries and shelves lined with purple blueberry jam is like having money in the bank.

…And here I interrupt myself again.  Having food  laid up for the winter is always like having money in the bank.  I was really excited to learn earlier this year that one of my good blogging buddies, Natalie from Hot Off the Garlic Press,  was tapped to be a spokesperson for Shelf Reliance/THRIVE Foods.  This is a company that I can dig.  They specialize in food storage, food rotation and emergency preparedness products.  If you’ve hung around here at Foodie With Family much, you know this is near and dear to my heart.  We live in the middle-of-nowhere and we have sketchy, unreliable vehicles.  When the hard winter hits, which it inevitably does, I need to know that I have food to feed my mammoth family for however long we’re socked in by snow.  How does this tie in with Shelf-Reliance/THRIVE and Nat?   A little while ago, Nat contacted me on behalf of Shelf Reliance/THRIVE and asked if I’d be interested in getting some samples to try out and hosting a giveaway of their products.  Food giveaway?  Heck, yes!  (See?  I told you I’m not a booyah girl.) They sent me some goodies; freeze dried pineapple chunks, sweet corn and strawberries, and dried whole eggs.  Useful and tasty things, all, but let me tell you about those freeze-dried pineapple chunks.  We eat through food quickly at this house, but those pineapple chunks literally disappeared in a split second around the campfire.  The boys, The Evil Genius, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and I did our very best locust impersonations as we descended on that poor unsuspecting bag of pineapple chunks and inhaled it.  They were amazing.  Buy some.  (And order extra for me, please!)   Oh my goodness, am I off topic now or what?  Tune in to the end of the post for more on the giveaway and now back to our regularly schedule blueberry programming.

I went straight to work after I got home.  I made two batches of jam, froze* several sheet pans full of blueberries and still had a few cups left over.  Blueberry tarts were in order.

*Want to know the absolute best, bar-none, method of freezing blueberries so you can take just what you need from the bag without breaking out your ice pick?  First, pick at a place that doesn’t spray their berries.  That makes the next step possible.  Second, lay the unwashed- YES! UNWASHED!- berries on rimmed metal sheet pans and put them in the freezer.  When the berries are frozen solid, quickly transfer them to labeled zipper-top bags.  And that’s all there is to it!  Since the berries haven’t been sprayed, you don’t have to wash chemicals off of them.  And best yet, since you’re stinking them in the freezer, any bugs that might’ve hitched along for the ride will die and fall away from the berries. Because you didn’t wash the berries, they won’t stick together and having frozen individually, they’ll rattle around like delicious little marbles in their zipper-top bags. How much time did you just save between not washing them and not having to pry them apart?  You can thank me by sending blueberry muffins.

My favorite blueberry tarts start with a fabulous crust.  The recipe for my favorite tart crust ever can be found here. And when I have a blueberry tart, I want to taste fresh blueberries and feel like I’m eating them straight from the field;  I want them to pop in my mouth. I cooked down some of the underripe blueberries* with the tiniest bit of lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch and folded that in with the rest of the fresh berries. The end result was a sweet butter tart crust topped with bursting-with-juice blueberries coated with sweet, sticky blueberry syrup.  Pure summer bliss.  Long sigh.

*Why underripe?  Because they have the highest level of naturally occurring pectin in blueberries.  It’s an old jam-maker’s trick.  Toss a handful of underripe berries in with your jam and you end up with a firmer setting, thicker jam.

You might think that would be fabulous enough, right?  No way!  Gild that lily, baby.  I topped it with Mascarpone Ice Cream.  Mascarpone Ice Cream is only four ingredients blended together and frozen in an ice cream maker; Mascarpone cheese, cream cheese, heavy cream and dulce de leche.  Did I really do that? Yes.  Yes, I did.  And I don’t regret it even though my thighs may long pay the price for the glorious amount of calories I consumed in the process.  The dulce de leche is a background player in the ice cream lending sweetness and just a hint of caramel to the creamy mascarpone base. When I tell you this is the richest, most decadent ice cream I’ve ever made will you please believe me? On second thought, don’t believe me.  Make it yourself.  If velvet were edible, delicious and could be made into ice cream, this is what it would be.  When you throw a scoop of this on top of the Blueberry Butter Tarts you will think you’ve died and gone to heaven. This dessert is officially on my list of items I would eat for my last earthly meal.

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream 11

A note about the Mascarpone Ice Cream.  This stuff freezes up harder than a brick.  Unlike most ice creams, this is one you want to serve relatively quickly after churning.  You can store it well in the freezer, but you’ll have to plan to have it soften up on the counter for between fifteen minutes to a half hour, depending on the temperature of your room, before serving.

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

Blueberry Butter Tarts with Mascarpone Ice Cream

Ingredients for the tarts:

8 individual sized fully-cooked butter tart shells or 1- 9″ fully baked butter tart shell (click here for the recipe!) You may recognize this crust as being the same one used in the Grapefruit Tarts and the Chocolate Truffle Tarts

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream6

4 cups of blueberries, washed and picked over

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream3

1/2 cup of water plus 2 Tablespoons of water, divided

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup (or more, to taste) granulated sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

To make the tarts:

Combine 2 Tablespoons of water with the 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch with a fork or small whisk in a measuring cup.  Set aside.

Put the berries into a large mixing bowl.  Measure out 1 cup of the berries, including as many of the underripe ones as you can find, into a heavy-bottomed saucepan over high heat.

Add 1/2 cup of the water to the berries in the pan, cover.

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream4

When the berries and water reach a boil, remove the lid, lower the heat and simmer, stirring constantly, until most of the berries have burst and the liquid has begun to thicken, about 4 minutes. While stirring constantly, add the cornstarch mixture, the sugar and the lemon juice to the pan.  Simmer until the juices become thick and translucent, about 1 minute.

Remove from the heat and pour over the remaining berries in the bowl.

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream5

Toss gently to coat thoroughly.  Spoon the blueberry mixture into the tart shells.

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream7

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream8

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream9Look at how gorgeous the blueberries look.  Glistening, juicy, sweet, and vibrant; they’re so inviting.  Actually, they’re inviting me to plunge my face into this tart.

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream 10

Cover lightly with plastic wrap or a cake dome and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes or more prior to eating.  Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.  Store uneaten tarts at room temperature for up to two days.

While the tarts are resting, you can make your ice cream…

Ingredients for the ice cream:

12 ounces fresh mascarpone

8 ounces cream cheese

2 cups plus 1/2 cup heavy cream, divided

2/3 cup dulce de leche

To make the ice cream:

Add all ingredients to a blender.  Blend until smooth.  (Alternately, you can whisk them in a stand mixer or use a hand-blender to combine the ingredients until smooth.)  Freeze according to the directions for your ice cream maker.  This is best served freshly churned. If you need to freeze it for later use, allow to soften on the countertop for between fifteen minutes and a half hour prior to serving.

And because good enough is never great enough, throw that Mascarpone Ice Cream on top of your Blueberry Butter Tarts.  Throw a bunch of it on top.  I did.  Ask my girth.  Since it’s growing big enough to speak for itself…

blueberrytartmascarponeicecream2

Hey!  I didn’t forget about the giveaway.  Those neat folks over at Shelf Reliance/THRIVE Foods have kindly offered to give away a gift basket full of tasty and practical things to one of my readers.  This Raspberry Cake Bar Gift Basket is stinkin’ adorable.

raspberrycakebargiftbasket

The contents of this basket?  Oh my word.  Listen to how they describe it on their site:

Now you can easily give your friends and loved ones the gift of great-tasting THRIVE with our Raspberry Bars Gift Basket. This tasty gift comes with all the THIVE ingredients you’ll need to make mouth-watering raspberry bars. Make someone happy today by sharing the joy of THRIVE Food Storage!

Each Raspberry Gift Basket includes:

1 Pouch of THRIVE White Sugar
1 Pouch of THRIVE Butter Powder
1 Pouch of THRIVE Whole Eggs
1 Pouch of THRIVE White Flour
1 Pouch of THRIVE Freeze Dried Raspberries
1 Raspberry Bars Recipe Card
1 Sturdy Mixing Bowl
1 Wooden Mixing Spoon

Adorable AND practical AND delicious.  And they want to give it to you!  Thanks for watching out for my peeps, THRIVE.

All you have to do to be entered in the contest is leave a comment below telling me what you’d do with this gift basket.  Keep it for yourself?  Give it to some newlyweds or your Grandma?  What would you do?  The suspense is killing me!

For an extra entry, sign up for the Shelf Reliance newsletter and leave a comment saying you did.  The winner will be announced here by next Monday, August 10th.

Filed Under: Desserts, Food Preservation, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , , ,

Roasted Garlic

August 26, 2008 by 8 Comments

I am fully aware that it is still late August, but I am programmed to think of putting up food for the winter in mid-summer.  See Grandma, Mom, and Dad?  I did pay attention!  And so, in the spirit of playing ‘the ant’ to any food preservation grasshoppers out there…

 

It’s garlic season!  Yippee!

 

If the only garlic you’ve ever eaten was from a plastic wrapped box or precut in a jar you’ve been missing out mightily.   The flavor of fresh garlic is complex.  It is spicy and pungent.  There is no substitute for it.

 

Garlic from the bulk bins in most grocery stores, while a step above the cello-wrapped boxes and jarred variety, pales in comparison to good garlic purchased from a reputable farmer.  I saw my garlic guy today and stocked up on the garlic that should get us through the remainder of pickling season and the winter.  He sent me home with 10 pounds of German Porcelain and Italian Red garlic.  **These are both hardneck varieties.  Hardneck garlic remains healthy longer in storage than does softneck garlic. 

 

At a loss as to where to find fresh garlic locally?  If you’re in Western New York or the Southern Tier I can give you my garlic guy’s name.  If you’re not from these parts, the folks at Local Harvest have a wealth of information on local-to-you growers and farmers markets.

 

Garlic is, after blueberries, the second easiest thing to store for the winter.  To keep garlic for several months  you can create the ideal storage conditions by keeping heads intact in a cool, dry, dark place with plenty of air circulation.  Some good ways to do this are:

  • Buy some cheap pantyhose.  Drop a head of garlic down each leg into the foot, tie off or cinch with a twist tie, and repeat until hose are full.  Hang this from a beam or hook in your closet, basement or root cellar.
  • Store in mesh bags in your closed pantry or cabinets.
  • Hang in mesh bags from a hook or beam in your closet, basement or root cellar.
  • Store in a cool place in a mesh bowl under an overturned clay pot.

Some sure fire ways to ruin your garlic include:

  • The fridge.  Your garlic should not be stored in the fridge at all.  The cold temperature changes the flavor of the garlic.  If you chop more than you need for a recipe, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and use within 24 hours.  There will be some loss of flavor, but you’ll probably be able to live with it.
  • The freezer.  Ditto on the cold temperatures, but the freezer has the added disadvantage of ruining the texture of fresh garlic.  Don’t be tempted!

This is what 10 pounds of fresh garlic looks like!  That bowl is huge, I tell you.  For reference purposes, it’s bigger than a breadbox.

…And as if fresh garlic (bought inexpensively in late summer) readily available in your home isn’t enough to tempt you, let me share one other thought with you.  You can roast a bunch of heads of garlic and freeze the roasted garlic. **The earlier caution about freezers and garlic does not apply to lovely roasted garlic.

 

The beauty of roasted garlic -addressing for the moment the uninitiated- is that it morphs garlic into a sweet, mellow spreadable form of garlic with none of the sometimes maligned side effects of raw or fresh garlic.  The five and a half billion things you can do with roasted garlic are the subject of an upcoming post.  But for now I’m going to apply peer pressure to those who haven’t yet made this.  Come on.  Make it.  Everyone’s doing it.  You’re missing out if you don’t.  What are you, a square?  (Er, does anyone say that any more?)  And since I’m brow-beating you into making it I’ll leave you with my recipe for roasted garlic.

 

Roasted Garlic

 

Ingredients:

  • 2 heads garlic
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
  • 2 small sprigs fresh rosemary or thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried version of either herb)

 

Preheat oven to 350ºF. 

 

Trim any funky dangly bits off the root end of the garlic and brush away any loose paper without separating the cloves.  (That’s the hairy end, just in case you’re wondering!)  This should allow it to stand up solidly.  Lay garlic on its side on a cutting board and -using a sharp knife- trim about 1/2″ from the flower end of the garlic bulb.  This should just expose the tips of the actual cloves of garlic.

 

Place the garlic heads with the cut side up in a small baking dish that is at least as tall as your garlic.  (If you don’t possess such a thing, simply form a crude bowl from heavy duty aluminum foil and proceed…)  Drizzle the olive oil evenly over the tops of the garlic and sprinkle with a small amount of salt and pepper.  Top each garlic head with a sprig of rosemary or thyme.  Cover the dish with foil (or crimp your foil ‘bowl’ up at the top) and place in the oven to roast for between 30-35 minutes.  **If using the foil bowl method, be sure to place on a rimmed baking sheet before popping into the oven.  It’ll keep you from having any spills and from cursing my name.

 

Examine the garlic to test for doneness.  The ultimate roasted garlic will have a browned papery exterior (but not blackened), deep golden brown cloves and will yield when squeezed gently.  When garlic reaches these benchmarks, remove from the oven and allow to cool for several minutes before using.

 

To extract garlic to use, flip the slightly cooled heads upside down and squeeze from the root end toward the blossom end like a toothpaste tube.  Now eat!  (I’ll be posting our favorite ways of roasted garlic consumption very, very soon.  Ya’ll come back soon for the recipes!)

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Component Foods, Food Preservation, Instructional, Rebecca Tagged With: , ,

Blueberry Jam

July 30, 2008 by 1 Comment

In yesterday’s post I offered the world’s easiest blueberry preservation technique- freezing.  I also promised to provide an overview on how to make blueberry jam.  I’m a gal of my word, so as promised, I put together a primer on making and canning blueberry jam.  First, a couple words of caution:

 

  1. This recipe is specifically for blueberries.  While the principles of canning remain the same if you’re using other fruits, you cannot switch out blueberries for something else in the preparation of the recipe.  If you have other fruit, use a recipe tailored for that fruit so you can maintain the proper levels of acidity and sugar to preserve your jam best. 
  2. Have your mise en place ready to go.  (Repetitively redundant, I know…)  Think of making this like you would  a stir-fry.  If you try to measure things out and run around to find implements you’ll run the risk of ruining it.  This is not a walk-away-and-do-other-things project.
  3. Once you make your own jam you will be very, very bitter if you have to purchase jam at the store.  The flavor and cost of homemade jam will convert you powerfully fast!

Onto business…

 

Blueberry Jam Primer and Recipe

 

Ingredients for approximately 6 cups of jam:

  • 4 cups sugar, measured into a mixing bowl
  • 6 cups whole, clean, very fresh blueberries
  • 1 package powdered pectin (not liquid!)

 

Sugar, blueberries and pectin for jam.

 

 

Hardware Needed for Canning 6 Cups of Jam:

  • 1 or 2 extra sterlized half pint jars (just in case you have a bit of extra)
  • Sterilized rings in the proper size for each jar (regular or wide mouth)
  • New lids in the proper size for each jar (regular or wide mouth)
  • Large stainless steel or other non-reactive* stockpot (not pictured below)
  • Long handled wooden or stainless steel spoon (not pictured below)
  • A timer or a clock with a minute hand (not pictured below- and don’t laugh.  I know people who are not in possession of these things on purpose!)

*I’m going to keep using the phrase “non-reactive” during canning season.  Basically, all you need to really know about this is that you should use stainless steel, glass or enamelware.  Anything else (aluminum, etc…) can chemically react to the food and create off-flavors during the process of preserving food.  That is most assuredly to be avoided.

 

Necessary gear for canning jam.

 

Helpful Gear (that is not strictly necessary) for Canning Jam:

  • A large boiling water canner
  • Canning tongs
  • Canning funnel
  • Silicone hot mitts
  • Potato Masher
  • Stainless steel or other non-reactive ladle

 

Boiling water canner, canning tongs and funnel, silicone hot mitts, potato masher and ladle.  Canning made easy!

The Process:

 

  • Before you start smashing berries and boiling stuff like the witches in Macbeth, you need to have your jars, lids and rims ready to go.

 

Have your jars prepared so that when the jam is done you can fill them immediately!

  • Pour blueberries into a large bowl.  Please, please don’t use a small bowl:  You’ll be chasing blueberries around the countertop and floor if you do.  Using a potato masher or the bottom of a drinking glass or jar, smash the daylights out of the blueberries.  If you’re in a hurry, you can pulse the berries in a food processor- but don’t purée them.  Jam is supposed to have bits of fruit in it!

 

How your berries look while mashing.

How your berries look when ready to continue to the next step… Smashing, no?

 

  • Pour your 4 cups of smashed blueberries- you did measure again, didn’t you?- into a large non-reactive stockpot.
  • Sprinkle powdered pectin over the surface of the blueberries.

 

Yes, I said sprinkle but this picture shows me dumping the pectin.  I am not so coordinated that I can gracefully sprinkle pectin and take a picture simultaneously. 

  • Stir the pectin into the fruit thoroughly.

 

 

If you dump it in, don’t panic.  You’ll just have to do more stirring.

  • Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly.  Do not walk away.  Burned blueberries smell very, very bad.
  • When mixture reaches a full rolling boil*, add the sugar all at once and quickly stir it in completely.

*A full rolling boil is when it does not stop boiling even when stirred- which you’re supposed to be doing anyway, right?

 

Do not step away from the pan.  I repeat.  Do not step away from the pan.  Keep stirring!

 

  • Bring back to a full rolling boil.  As soon as it reaches the full boil, begin timing.  Allow to boil hard for EXACTLY 1 MINUTE!  Do not overcook.  Kill the heat as soon as the timer goes off!
  • As soon as you have removed the stockpot from the heat, begin ladling (or scooping by whatever sterile means are at your disposal) the jam into the jars.  And for the love of all that is holy- this stuff is HOT and it HURTS if you splash it on your bare skin so be careful!
  • Using a clean, damp paper towel, wipe the rims of the jars clean.  You don’t want gunk of the rims because that increases the risk of spoilage.

 

 

These jars are filled, wiped clean and ready to be lidded and processed.

  • Place a lid, seal side down, on top of each clean jar.  Add a ring and screw it into place.  Don’t overtighten! 
  • Put all jars into the empty canner (or other deep pot with a fitted lid) and fill with water to completely cover all jars.
  • Place lid on pot and bring to a full rolling boil.  When water reaches a full rolling boil*, start timer for 10 minutes**. 

*Again with the full rolling boil.  It’s important!

 

Doesn’t this look like a Macbeth moment?  You know- “When the hurly burly’s done.  When the battle’s lost and won,” and whatnot?

**If you’re using a larger size jar, adjust processing time accordingly.  Quarts process for 15 minutes.

  • When jars have processed for the appropriate amount of time, carefully remove all jars to a cooling rack.

 

Can you tell I have wicked hard water?

 

  • All that remains is to remove the rings carefully, wipe down the jars with a damp cloth, and check your seals.
  • If you have any seals that failed, simply put those jars into the fridge to use right away.  All sealed jars can be stored in a single layer on a shelf without their rings!

 

Voila y voila!  Blueberry jam! 

 

I hope I’ve convinced you that it’s worth your time and effort to make this.  …But just in case I haven’t convinced you yet, here are a couple other great reasons to try it:

  • It goes without saying that this jam is out of this world on toast but don’t stop there.  Put a couple spoonfuls in a bowl and mash about with a fork.  Then spoon that softened jam over vanilla ice cream (are you sensing the ice-cream-for-life-theme here?) 
  • Throw a quarter cup into a blender with plain yogurt, frozen berries and purée for a fantastic blueberry smoothie. 
  • Glaze roasted pork with softened blueberry jam.   

 

You can do so much with this stuff.  Get creative!

Filed Under: Canning, Instructional, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , ,
Newer Posts»