I mastered the postcards, so I had time to do this today

I made this apple fig jam today.  I slow cooked the fruit in my crock pot for 16 hours and then I added the sugar and pectin to it.  It's outrageously good.  I'm calling it apple butter jam.  Boo ya.

More food preservation

I canned 10 and 3/4 quarts of Roma tomatoes yesterday.

Salsa!

Home canned salsa, the first batch of the season.

Grow your own

The warm winter and early spring meant that we got an almost four week head start in planting the garden and being able to use plants we already had planted, like strawberries. 

We've had a bumper crop of strawberries and we've got potatoes, onions, carrots, radishes, spinach, Swiss chard, cabbage, broccoli, peas, cilantro, basil, and more in our regular garden plots, which we were able to cover over with some of our rich compost and straw that we had left over from the sewer pipe replacement job we had done in our front yard this past winter.  And last night Sparky planted some of the tomato plants we got at a local nursery.  The garden then, should be gangbusters this year.

Speaking of strawberries, the local strawberries are finally in at area stores and produce stands, so I bought 6 quarts to make into jam.  I combined them with a quart of ones we had grown, a bag of organic raspberries, the juice and zest of one lemon and I made strasselberry jam:

After making two batches I still had berries left over so I added some sugar and cooked them down a bit and I made strawberry syrup, thick rich bursting with flavor syrup:

There's lots more canning, jam making, and pickling to be done this summer, so I'll try to keep you posted about it when I do it.  And if you're curious as to why I do this kind of stuff in today's modern world where I could just as easily buy this stuff in a store, the fact is I don't want to buy it in a store because I don't know what's in the foods they sell and I don't want to give them any more of my money than I have to.  I'd rather buy local or from local people and put it up myself, it's my way of saying, "Fuck you!" to the corporations and to factory farms.

Summer magic

In just a few hours yesterday I turned this
into this:
Magic huh.

Preserving with Dr. Monkey

Today's episode: roasted pepper salsa.

Local tomatoes are trickling into local produce stands so that means for the next six to eight weeks it's tomato canning time! I bought a box of canning tomatoes, some onions, and a dozen fat jalapenos so that I could make the first batch of salsa of the season. Here what I did:

I start out by cutting out the stem area of the tomato.
Next I turn each one over and I
cut a rather deep incision on the bottom of the tomato. I do this so that when I pour the boiling water over them the tomato skin will peel off easily. Unless your tomatoes are absolutely filthy and manure covered, then don't bother washing them because you're going to peel the skin off later once you scald them in boiling water.

Earlier I had already cut and deseeded three sweet bell peppers, a couple of sweet banana peppers, the dozen jalapeno peppers, and three green and red Serrano peppers. I coated them with a thin coat of vegetable oil, tossed some sea salt on them, and I roasted them in my oven, that is to say I broiled them until their skin started to blacken, which was about 10 to 12 minutes.

When they were done I pulled them out and set them aside to cool. And then I went back to preparing my tomatoes.
Once I filled my big Tupperware container with cut tomatoes, I poured boiling water over them and I peeled the skins off. As I peeled them I put about two thirds of them into my food processor and I liquefied them. The other third I squeezed by hand and put in my stock pots. I did this until all the tomatoes in my box were gone. Once I put my now pulpy tomatoes in my stock pots I put them on the stove to begin cooking. To each pot, which was about two thirds full, I added 2 tablespoons of crushed black peppercorns, a tablespoon and a half of coarse sea salt, two tablespoons of chili powder (and I use just regular chili powder not one the is hot or exotic), a tablespoon of cumin, the juice from a freshly squeezed lime, an eighth of a cup of apple cider vinegar, one big diced red onion, and one big diced yellow onion. The salt, the lime juice, and the vinegar not only add flavor, they help in preservation.

Next I peeled as much of the skin off of the now cooled peppers as I could. I find the roasting the peppers intensifies the flavor and mellows the heat a bit. Always peel the skin off with your fingers, never ever rinse it off with water because of you do you're washing all the flavor off the pepper. I put the peppers, as I peeled them, into my small food chopper and once all the peppers were in I pulsed them until they formed a pepper paste. Then I added the pepper paste to my stock pots and I let them cook for about an hour. It's crucial that you cook your salsa for at least 20 minutes and that it comes to a rolling boil. You can cook it as long as you like but you have to go at least 20 minutes to kill all the micro organisms that could make you sick. Also bear in mind the longer you cook your salsa, the more intense the flavor will be. I like to bring mine to a boil and then turn it way down so that it simmers while I sterilize my jars and lids.
This is a shot of one of my stock pots cooking away just after I had put the pepper paste in.

Once my jars were sterile, I used pint jars and they need to sit in boiling water for at least 10 minutes prior to being filled, I began to fill and lid my salsa. Once all my jars were full, I emptied out some of the boiling water from my stove top canner, which is just a big stock pot with a wire rack in it, and I began putting the full jars back in the water. You do this to kill any bacteria that may have gotten in your food while you were putting it in the jars prior to sealing them. Each jar of salsa that I canned and sealed sat in the boiling water for 10 minutes then I took them out and and put them on my cool down area.
I got 18 pints of salsa out of that box of canning tomatoes which is not too shabby. This salsa is a thin runny batch, which is very much like the salsa one gets in authentic Mexican restaurants and that's the kind I prefer. I can use this salsa on chips, in soups, as a marinade to slow cook meats, and as a condiment to put on sandwiches and tortillas.

I'm happy with how this batch turned out and I may make another later but now it's onto making and canning tomato sauces and passatas with all the local Roma tomatoes that are in season now.

Kitchen magic

I turned this
and this
into this:
Magic huh.

Preserving with Dr. Monkey (or Pickling my way on the shining path to culinary freedom here in my urban homestead)

Today's episode: pickled jalapenos with garlic.

I've been wanting to try pickling ever since I bought that food preservation book the other day, so when I noticed a local grocery store had big ol' fat jalapenos on sale for .99 a pound, I sprang into action. The recipe for pickling chili peppers in the book said it would make 4 pints of finished product, and I've learned the hard way it's always better to have more sterilized jars ready if and when you need them, I put 7 jars and lids in my water bath canner pot and filled it with water and left it to boil.

Next I washed and laid out my peppers:

I like the heat from jalapenos but I'm not crazy about heat that overwhelms everything else, so I de-seeded and I cut out most of the ribs from the peppers. Then I sliced them lengthwise:
Next up I peeled and sliced about 8 medium sized cloves of garlic:
My jars had been in the sterilizing water bath for about 25 minutes so I put my pickling solution on to boil. This solution is three cups of distilled white vinegar, two cups water, 2 tablespoons of sugar, two tablespoons of salt (and I used canning and pickling salt which I bought last year to use in my canned tomatoes and my homemade canned tomato sauce).
When the pickling solution (aka brine) came to a boil I took it off the burner. I then took my jars and lids out of the boiling water bath and I filled up as many jars with pepper and garlic slices as I could. Then I ladled the brine over them making sure that the contents of each jar was covered by the brine. Then I put lids on the jars and I tightened them and put them back into the water bath for fifteen minutes. When that fifteen minutes was up I let them sit for five more minutes in the water after I took the pot off the burner.

And here's what my finished product looks like:
As you can see I only got three jars out of two pounds of peppers. I could have gotten more if I had not de-seeded the peppers I guess. But the recipe does say to pack whatever you're pickling tightly into your jars and to then pour the brine in.

Next time I do this I'll cut de-seed the peppers but I won't cut them in to the long thin strips, I'll cut them into rings. I'll also use three or four pounds of peppers, or perhaps more, and I'll adjust the brine solution accordingly. Actually what I'll do is I'll double the brine solution and cut up about eight to nine pounds of peppers.

The book says to let whatever you pickle stay in the sealed jar for at least two weeks, so in a few weeks I'll open a jar and let you know what these peppers taste like.

I'm going to pick a pack of pickled peppers

Two years ago I learned how to make and can jam.

Last year I learned how to can tomatoes and how to make and can salsa and tomato sauce.

This year I'm going to learn how to pickle.

I bought this book today:

It's got clear, easy to read and follow instructions on how to pickle and can properly. It's full of recipes of things to can, pickle, dry, and freeze. I'm ready to begin my journey of food preservation. Bring on the local produce!

Cooking with Dr. Monkey

Today's episode: Spinach/ricotta balls and rigatoni in simple red sauce.

I saw a guy make this on TV the other night and it looked pretty good so I decided to try it. Here's how it went down:

I started out by grating a half a cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Next I blanched a 9 ounce bag of spinach plus about a third of a bag I had from before. Once all the spinach was blanched I drained it and I squeezed out as much water as I could out of it. I then chopped it up and added it to my cheese. Next I added some one quarter of a large onion and a couple of roughly chopped cloves of garlic that I had caramelized. Then I added one egg and a half a cup of bread crumbs and one container of lower fat ricotta and I mixed it all up.
Then I rolled it up into balls and I put them it in my big glass baking pan:I tossed in some toasted chili pepper flakes and sage leaves, then I drizzled a bit of extra virgin olive oil in and I baked them for about 25 minutes at 350F.

While the balls baked, I diced up one large onion and about a third of a yellow and red bell pepper.I sauteed all that in some olive oil.
As that sauteed I opened up quart jar of tomatoes that I canned last summer and I put about 3/4 of that jar in the food processor and I pulsed it on high until all the tomatoes were chopped up.
I tossed in my tomatoes in with the onions and peppers and I added a about 3/4 cup of diced pitted diced olives. I let it all simmer with the lid off the frying pan for a few minutes to let some of the water cook off. As it cooked I diced up three large cloves of garlic and then I tossed them in with the simple sauce and I covered it with a lid and took it off the heat.

I had been boiling up some rigatoni and when it got done I tossed it in the sauce. When I use a fresh pasta sauce like this I like a pasta like a rigatoni or a coniglio, both of which are pastas that can hold sauce. If you use spaghetti or other flat pastas, the sauce doesn't stay on or in the pasta like it does when you use a rigatoni or coniglio.

I mixed my pasta in with my sauce and let it sit for a bit while I took my balls out of the oven.
I served it all with some toasted slices of Sparky's homemade Cuban style bread:
And it was freakin' delicious.

Next time though I'll use more spinach, less ricotta, and I'll add another cup of bread crumbs. That should make the balls a little less susceptible to losing their shape and give them a bit more bite. But over all, holy hell they were really good and they tasted even better after they had sit for a awhile. The sauce was also super, it tasted so fresh, like the tomatoes were fresh picked. Next year I'm going to can about two to three times the amount I canned last summer.

Last batch, I swear

I made tomato sauce from fresh locally grown Roma tomatoes again the other day. I worked up the entire box and I ended up with 15 pints and nearly one quart of sauce. I kept it simple this batch, it's just Romas, roasted red pepper, salt, and black pepper, with a tablespoon of lemon juice in each jar to boost acidity levels and to aid in preservation.

Cooking (and canning) with Dr. Monkey

Today's episode, Fig Bomb Preserves!

It's fig time in Tennessee, that's right kids the figs on our tree are finally getting ripe and they're coming in faster than incumbent Democrats in Congress can sell out progressive voters. So I decided to make some fig preserves, with a twist.

I started off by picking, stemming, washing, and chopping up all the ripe figs I had. I ended up with four cups of ripe figs: And no, you don't ever want to peel figs. The whole thing, aside from the stem is edible and should be used when preserving or eating said figs.

After getting my figs ready for cooking, I put one half cup of sugar per cup of figs into my cooking pot. Then I added one quarter cup of water per cup of figs to the sugar and I cooked it up together:As soon as the sugar dissolved in the water I added half my figs and I let them cook down for about a half an hour. As the figs cooked down I stemmed and deseeded this many cherry bomb peppers:
Then I diced the peppers and I added half of them to the figs that were cooking and half to the uncooked figs. After the first half of the figs cooked, I added the other half of the figs and peppers and I let it cook for another half hour. I also added the zest and juice from two lemons to the fig pepper mixture.

As the figs cooked I sterilized my jars. And after the whole batch of figs and peppers had cooked down, I ladled them into my jars. After tightly sealing them I then placed my jars in the hot water to make sure they were sealed properly and to let them rest in the near boiling water. Once they had sat in the water bath for about a half hour I took then out and let them cool. And I ended up with five 8 oz jars of what I call Fig Bomb preserves.
They have a sweet taste to start but by the end of your bite you fell the heat of the peppers. It's not too hot and it's not too sweet, it's just right Goldilocks.

Saucy!

I made some roasted red pepper tomato sauce today from fresh local peppers and Roma tomatoes. I slow cooked it and canned it properly. It's fantastic. I almost wish it was the dead of winter now so I could open a jar and have it on some homemade pasta.

Thirsty?

Then try a sip of some nice cold White Rock brand Lithia. Go on. Have some. I join you later when I get done making and canning some tomato sauce/paste. That box of German pinks won't cook themselves up you know.

Preserving with Dr. Monkey

Today's episode, salsa!
I started out by washing and cutting up 8 cups (two quarts) of tomatoes. I made a batch yesterday and it was really soupy because I scrupulously put as much of the liquid from the tomatoes in the pot, so today I wanted my salsa to be less soupy so I didn't put the excess liquid in the pot. And as I cut my tomatoes I put them in a colander and let them drain even more before I measured them before putting them in the pot.

After I got my 8 cups cut, drained somewhat and in the pot I put in my seasonings. I added 2 tsp of sugar, 4 tsp of pickling salt, 2 tsp of paprika, 2 tbsp of coarsely ground black pepper, the juice of two limes, and 4 tbsp of apple cider vinegar. (The salt, the limes, and the vinegar help preserve the salsa.)
Next I chopped up one large onion, one half of a red bell pepper, one sweet banana pepper, three de-seeded cherry bomb hot peppers, and four cloves of garlic and I added it to the tomatoes and spices. Then I turned on the burner and brought it to a gentle boil.
As soon as I saw it was gently boiling, I turned the heat way down and let it simmer for about 2 hours. Most salsa recipes call for two to three hours of cooking time.
I got four full pint jars and one nearly full pint jar (which I stuck in the fridge after it cooled down) out of this batch and while it was much less soupy than yesterday's batch, it was still kind of on the too soupy side. Now that I've worked with the basic recipe, which I found here by the way, a few times, I'm good with monkeying around with it. Next time I'll add more tomatoes but I'll try pressing a lot of the liquid out of them first and I'll add way more peppers, probably some pablano, more banana, and jalapeno, and more onion.

When I open and use these jars that I made yesterday and today, I'll try to remember to chop up some cilantro and to add some freshly chopped onion to give it more bite and crunch.

All in all though, I like this recipe and I like what I've made so far. But most of all I like knowing what's in my salsa.

I'll probably try canning some tomato based pasta sauces and some tomatoes before the summer is out. I like canning and I may even try pickling a few things as well.

Amazing and true!

I bought 7 pints of fresh locally grown strawberries:
Cleaned them and cut out the rotten parts:
And I turned them into this:
Strawberry jelly!

Suck it corporate America and Monsanto, there's no high fructose corn syrup in my jelly you bitches.

Garden update

Here's a shot of Sparky's herb garden:
It's chock full of basil, oregano, thyme, sage, mint, lemon grass, chives, cilantro, lavender, and some other stuff.

And here's what growing in our main vegetable garden:
From left to right that's potatoes, tomatoes, egg plant, and watermelon.

Red onions.

White sweet potatoes and onions from seed. The sweet potatoes look scrawny because I just planted them yesterday.


More sweet potatoes, shallots, and a couple different varieties of peppers.


Peppers and green beans.

Several more varieties of tomato plants, which have many green tomatoes on them now, which means I'll have ripe fresh tomatoes in a few weeks. Yay me!

Broccoli and lettuce bordered with marigolds.

In the side garden bed we have:
Peas, butternut squash, zucchini, yellow squash, cantaloupes, strawberries, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, green beans, and cucumbers.

Everything has been grown with no pesticides, no herbicides, and no non organic plant food. We've been watering the garden with rain water from our rain barrel. We're trying to grow this food as close to naturally as possible. And we've been eating lots of lettuce, peas, herbs, and potatoes out of the garden so far.

I'm hoping to have enough tomatoes and peppers to make and can some salsa and to perhaps can some tomatoes by themselves. And I do this despite all the warnings from my blog buddy XUP. She claims it's not worth the time or effort to can stuff, especially homemade jams, but I did a cost analysis on my pints of strawberry jam and we're coming out way ahead on the cost of what I canned versus store bought stuff. Plus home canned stuff is fresher, contains no High Fructose Corn Syrup or other additives, and it tastes better too. I grew up thinking that canning and jam making was a huge undertaking that was something akin to hard labor because my drama queen crazy aunt used to act like it was the hardest work in the world. I have found the opposite to be true in my case. It's not hard at all, it took me less than an hour each time I made my batches of strawberry jam. What it takes to make the salsa however, remains to be seen.