Hot sweet chile-garlic sauce - the new ketchup...

I cannot believe I haven't posted this recipe yet.  Made this sauce last fall with some of the last hot peppers from the garden and after opening the first jar, we decided to ration it so we wouldn't run out before we could make more this summer.  We're using it as a dipping sauce, like ketchup, for fried potatoes, meats and wraps like spring rolls (fresh or fried) plus brushing it on grilled vegetables and meats and any other way we might use a sauce with a little kick. 

My niece posted a FB photo of their homegrown chicken wings (photo above) prepared with this sauce. She wrote "decided we need the recipe. They were perfect." So here it is.

Hot Sweet Chile-Garlic Sauce
1 cup vinegar (5% acidity for canning - I use white or apple cider vinegar)
1 cup water (or fruit juice -- see note*)
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup minced garlic
1-1/2 cups hot red peppers, stemmed and seeded (save the seeds)

Briefly blend peppers in a food processor or blender so peppers are reduced to small bits but not liquified.  Drop seeds in and blend for a short burst or two at the end, just till seed clumps are broken into individual seeds.  Seeds should remain whole.

In a large, heavy saucepan, bring vinegar, water (or juice/fruit, if using), sugar and salt to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt.  Reduce the heat and boil gently until the mixture thickens slightly, about 30 minutes.

Stir in the peppers and garlic.  Increase heat to medium-high and bring the sauce to a rolling boil.  Let it boil for several minutes, until temperature on a candy thermometer reads 230º or a drop of sauce in cold water forms a short thread.

Pour into canning jars (pints or smaller) and process 10 minutes in a BWB or store cooled jars in refrigerator where the sauce should keep well for at least a year.

*Note:  Excellent with pureed peaches or nectarines.  Maybe applesauce or plums?

Notes from 2011-09-29 batch:
Pureed nectarines left from batch of nectarine vinegar (made with 2 quarts white vinegar, 1 quart chopped nectarines, 1/2 cup sugar - let sit in cool, dark cabinet for 6-8 weeks, strain off fruit) subbed puree for water in recipe above.  Yield was 4 cups of pureed fruit so all ingredients, except sugar, were quadrupled.  To offset sweetness of fruit (even though vinegar-soaked), sugar used was closer to 6-3/4 cups than the 8 cups called for when recipe X4.  Peppers were a mix of hot red peppers including hot banana, cayenne, jalapeno and cherry peppers.

Yield for X4 was 5-1/4 pints so as recipe is written above it should yield around 2-1/4 cups sauce.

Adapted from The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich

Cleaning out the freezer. . . again.

I love the way food keeps without developing freezer burn in our manual-defrost freezers.  But I'm not too fond of the day, and it always comes, when they must be defrosted.

This weekend it was the big chest freezer that had to be turned off, then quickly unloaded, blow-dried out and re-packed.  We're getting better, though, as I only found two fruit juice popsicles and a lone mini-muffin (where did its packaging get to I wonder?) which had to be discarded.  But there were a couple packages of chicken, a package of pork chops and one chuck roast which needed to be used soon so I cooked a pot roast with vegetables for Sunday's dinner and thawed the chicken and chops in the refrigerator in covered containers of buttermilk.

Buttermilk seems to refresh even the oldest frozen chicken.  (And it's not too bad as a marinade for frozen pork either.)  One package of chicken was boneless, skinless chicken breasts and those went straight on the grill when they'd thawed.  I'll use them sliced on a garden salad and in quesadillas for lunches later this week.  The other package was bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts which I turned into seven pints of spicy pineapple chicken.  (The recipe, found on the Canning2 list a couple of years ago, is supposed to be a PF Chang copycat but I've never tried the original so can't vouch for that -- just that it's easy to make and tastes good when we need a meal in a hurry.)  I cut the meat from the bone and used the bones and skin to make the quart of broth called for in the recipe.  (Because I thawed the meat in buttermilk, I rinsed it before throwing the scraps in the pot for the broth.)

The photo below shows the jars right before I added the liquid to fill.  Pints like this are perfect for two but don't quite stretch when we're all three home.  But since I had the canner out I did a fast soak of 5 pounds of pinto beans and put up 7 quarts of beans when I'd finished the chicken.  (Sort beans and add to enough boiling water to cover by several inches, boil for 2 minutes, cover and let soak for 2 hours.  Drain and reserve soaking liquid, fill jars half-full with soaked beans.  Top with reserved soaking liquid, brought back to a boil, and process for 75 minutes at 10-lbs pressure. Altitude adjustment, if necessary)

The last couple of years I've made more meal-in-a-jar batches than my old freezer-style oamc.  There are still things I make ahead and freeze, of course, but for space-savings and ease of use, a meal-in-a-jar can rarely be beat.


PF Chang Spicy Pineapple Chicken

• Chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces (I started with 3-lbs of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts)
• 2 (20-oz.) cans crushed pineapple
• 1 (8-oz.) can pineapple tidbits, drained and juice reserved (optional)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon chopped onion per jar
• 1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce per jar
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic per jar
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce per jar
• 1 teaspoon sugar per jar
• 1 teaspoon vinegar per jar (I used apple cider vinegar)

Stir fry the chicken.  Meanwhile, divide the crushed pineapple and pineapple tidbits among the jars.  Add seasonings. 

Divide cooked chicken pieces among jars.  Combine chicken broth and reserved pineapple juice, use to fill jars.  Leave 1" headspace.  Process for 75 minutes at 10 lb pressure. Adjust pressure for altitude if necessary.  (Refer to NCHFP website for directions.)

To serve: Add thickener such as cornstarch or arrowroot to sauce while heating and serve over rice.

More dehydrated carrots

Two years ago I posted about buying 10 pounds of marked-down organic carrots and how I diced, blanched and dried them.  I even dried the peelings (but did not blanch) and used them when making stock or ground them to powder and used for seasoning blends.  I've continued to dry any extra carrots I have on hand.  They are very handy to toss into soup or rehydrate for a casserole.

Before Christmas I did a program for my Garden Club on garnishing.  Like most of our programs, it was a hands-on workshop so everyone brought their favorite sharp paring knife and went to town making carrot flowers, apple swans and more.  Garnishing is a lot of fun and especially nice to try when the garden is in full swing as you can just grab what you need and not worry about how many tomatoes you may ruin on the way to producing a perfect tomato tulip.  In the winter, the cost can add up.

To help contain the cost of the program, I planned to work with some vegetables we had from the winter garden.  Turnips and onions, both green and bulbing, make great garnishes and readily take up food coloring if you want to go that route.  Apples are another thing we keep in cold storage so I knew I'd have them available.  But I ended up buying a 25-pound bag of what's often labeled "organic juicing carrots" -- really big but still sweet and flavorful carrots.  They were perfect for cutting into garnishes and we've been eating the rest.

But they were beginning to sprout feathery greens and since I didn't want to lose the last 10 pounds or so, I determined to dry them.  This time I opted to scrub them rather than peeling and then shredded them in the food processor.  I spread them out on the papery lining because I didn't want the shreds slipping through the plastic mesh as they shrunk during drying.  I'll use them mainly for baking -- carrot cake or carrot-orange muffins are the first things that come to mind but I can also see using them in cornish pasties, meatloaf or spaghetti sauce and I'm wondering how they'd work in cha gio.

Preserving in a great Christmas present

Yesterday I made marmalade in a maslin pan my mom gave me for Christmas.  It wasn't the first time I've used it since December but it was the first time I'd used it for it's intended purpose: preserving.

I'd already made several large batches of pudding and tapioca in it over the last few weeks. That's one of our favorite ways to use up the last half-gallon of milk left before we pick up the new week's share.  And the maslin pan's shape seems to contribute to the process by allowing me to heat the milk even faster than I can in the large heavy-bottomed pan I usually use.

But the citrus needed to be used and marmalade is great on its own and as an ingredient in food prep (on its own to glaze chicken, added to a little salsa for a good sauce for chicken or pork, sandwiched between cookies or gingerbread, heated slightly and drizzled over ice cream).  So this was my first opportunity to use the maslin pan as it was intended.

I used my standard marmalade recipe and started the process the night before when I put the chopped fruit pulp, thin-sliced peel and water in the pan, heated it to boiling and simmered for 5 minutes.  Then I put the lid on the pan and let it sit on the back of the stove till the next day.  So yesterday morning, I brought the fruit mixture back up to a boil and simmered it quickly till the peel was tender.  Then I measured the mixture and added 1 cup sugar for each cup of fruit.  The recipe I use comes from an old Ball Blue Book and is listed below but there are many marmalade variations available.

Once I add the sugar and stir to dissolve, I have to be prepared to devote my whole attention to the process for 30-40 minutes or until the mixture is brought to jelling temperature (8ºF. above the boiling temperature of water for your altitude or around 220ºF.)  I don't rely on the thermometer as much as I do testing the sheeting action and quickly chilling a few drops on a saucer to test for jelling.  Maybe I was just excited to use a cool new pan, but I thought the process went faster (timing was 28 minutes from start to jell) and while I couldn't walk out of the kitchen and I did manage to step away from the stove several times during the process without risking a boil over which has happened to me with other pans.

When it came time to put the marmalade in jars, I opted to use 23-ounce recycled applesauce jars with the plastisol-lined metal lids that feature a pop-up button seal.  This, of course, is NOT the recommended jar/lid type.  (Refer to the National Center for Home Food Preserving for approved canning information.)  Because I had doubled the recipe (again, NOT recommended) I ended up with 5 full jars and one three-quarters full which, upon cooling, went straight into the fridge for immediate use.  DH was already eyeing it this morning...

 

Orange-Lemon Marmalade
[Adapted from Ball Blue Book, year unknown]

2 cups thinly sliced orange peel
1 quart chopped orange pulp
1 cup thinly sliced lemon (including peel)
6 cups water
Sugar, as needed

Combine orange peel, orange pulp, lemon and water in a large preserving pan. Bring to a boil, simmer 5 minutes. Cover and let stand 12 to 18 hours.

Bring to a rapid boil and cook over high heat till peel is tender, about 30 minutes. Measure mixture and add 1 cup of sugar for each cup of mixture.

Stir well to dissolve sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture reaches jellying point, about 30-40 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon butter to reduce foaming, if desired, and skim any foam from surface of mixture as it develops.

Pour hot into prepared jars, leaving 1/4" head space. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath (see National Center for Home Food Preservation for detailed BWB directions). Yield: about 5 half-pints.

My notes: I added a lime to the mix because I had one and I like lime in marmalade. As long as I keep the ratio of fruit to liquid, then to sugar, the same as listed above, I've found I can use whatever citrus I have on hand, even grapefruit. And, when I have it available, pineapple juice is an excellent sub for some of the water called for. It adds a piquant tropical touch to the marmalade that's very tasty.

One lost turkey yields quite a few current and future meals

Trying to clear out the chest freezer before we defrost it later this month and found a turkey. Yes, a 22-lb turkey, in fact. I don't know where it's been hiding but I spotted it under bags of frozen nectarines and strawberries intended for smoothies.

What's worse than admitting I lost a turkey in a large chest freezer? Admitting I haven't bought a frozen turkey in at least 2 years, maybe longer.

The turkey didn't show any signs of freezer burn but our manual-defrost chest freezer will hold well-wrapped meats and most produce in good condition for a long time. Drawbacks? It needs to be defrosted every 12- to 18-months and, if you're short like me, plan on standing on your head to retrieve anything that falls to the very bottom.

Because the outside temperature stayed in the 30s during the day (lower at night), I let the turkey thaw outside for several days. Instead of taking up (a LOT of!) space in the refrigerator, it sat (still sealed in plastic) on the deck in a large enamelware dishpan covered by a laundry tub. When it had thawed enough to allow the giblets and turkey neck to be retrieved from the cavities, DH plunged the turkey into a 5-gal (food-grade) bucket of brine (recipe here), enough to cover the turkey completely and set the covered bucket outside in the cold. Overnight temp was well below freezing but the high concentration of salt and sugar in the brine keeps it from freezing. I swear by brining -- it does wonders for a turkey, especially an aged one.

After brining overnight, I drained the turkey and soaked it in buttermilk for several hours. I did this because I've found with this step the skin will turn the most gorgeous perfectly-roasted brown color, even in a roaster oven, and, perhaps more importantly, the buttermilk soak lessens the saltiness of the pan drippings. Before I started taking this extra step, I didn't like using the pan drippings to make gravy or add to stock.

Rather than use a rack, I put carrots, onion wedges and celery stalks on the bottom of the pan under the turkey. They add good flavor. When the drippings are cooled in the refrigerator, it's easy to lift off the solidified fat that rises to the top. The gelled liquid goes back in the roaster along with the bones, skin and other bits and pieces plus water to make rich turkey stock.

This time, I cut up the roast turkey immediately, while still hot, and readied about half of it for canning immediately. I heated (home-canned) seasoned chicken broth in a pot and added the turkey to it as I carved. Then transferred the hot chunks of turkey to pint jars (ended up with 8) and added the hot broth to cover. Processed for 75 minutes while we had dinner: turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, butternut squash and peas. The rest of the meat went in the refrigerator destined for several days worth of hot turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy, cold turkey sandwiches, turkey hash and, one of DS's favorites, turkey vegetable soup.

As soon as it was stripped, the turkey carcass went into the roaster oven which still contained the warm drippings and roasted vegetables. I added the roasted skin, the still-raw turkey neck and the gizzard from the giblet pack along with some fresh thyme, rosemary and sage leaves and about 3 gallons of water. The turkey stock simmered on a low setting (200ºF.?) for several hours while the canner was going and I cleaned up the kitchen. By then it was nighttime and I was ready to call it quits for the day. So DH helped me strain out the bones, skin and vegetables and set the covered roaster oven outside under the laundry tub till morning.

It was definitely cold enough overnight to chill the turkey stock thoroughly and I lifted off almost 3 cups of white turkey fat the next day. It's great for making pastry or biscuits to top a pot pie. The turkey stock I brought to a simmer, still in the roaster oven, and then jarred and processed in the pressure canner for 25 minutes. I really love the tall AA canner we have as it lets me stack jars so I could do all 11 quarts of turkey stock in one batch -- a definite time-saver.

I used part of the turkey fat to make potpie crackers which we ate with, naturally enough, turkey pot pie made from part of the leftover turkey. DH and DS also like the potpie crackers in their turkey vegetable soup instead of oyster crackers or crushed saltines but I've never been one to put crackers in my soup (served alongside, yes!) so I can't recommend that personally but even plain, as a snack, they're pretty good...

Potpie Crackers
(adapted from Doris Janzen Longacre's More-with-Less Cookbook and attributed to Doris Brubaker, Mt. Joy, PA)

3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup turkey fat, other shortening or lard, or butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk, kefir, yogurt or buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut in fat. Add eggs and milk, stir lightly and form into a ball. Divide dough into 3 or 4 parts. Roll each out on a lightly floured board, as for thin pie crust.

Either cut and transfer each 1" square or lift dough and lay in cookie sheet before cutting into small squares. Bake at 375ºF. for 10 minutes or until crackers are lightly browned. In my oven, the bottoms brown long before the tops -- check carefully.

Crackers keep well in tightly-covered container so can be made in advance. Except at my house the fact that they will keep is no guarantee that I can keep them. See note above regarding snacking...

Serve with creamed turkey or chicken, soups, anywhere you might think to serve dumplings or saltines.

Creamed turkey or chicken (like a potpie filling)
(adapted from Doris Janzen Longacre's More-with-Less Cookbook)

1/4 cup turkey or chicken fat or butter
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped (optional)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups turkey stock or chicken broth
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
2-to-3 cups diced, cooked turkey or chicken
1 cup frozen peas or peas and carrots (optional)

Melt fat in heavy saucepan. Add onion, and celery if using, and sauté until translucent. Sprinkle flour over all, stir, and cook until bubbly.

Add liquids. Cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add frozen peas and turkey. Heat through and serve with potpie crackers.

Instead of peas, try adding a cup or two of any favorite leftover cooked vegetable you have on hand -- chopped broccoli, diced potatoes, or green beans are ones we like to add.

Can't forget the lard

This past weekend, a beautiful one by the way, we enjoyed an afternoon with homeschool friends at Polyface Farm. As always the day included a hayride and farm tour followed by a potluck picnic with delicious burgers made from salad bar beef and pigaerator pork. DH came home reinvigorated and ready to implement a few more ideas here at home and I came home with 20 pounds of creamy white pork fat for rendering.

This stuff is gorgeous. Yeah, it's fat and feels greasy but once I put it in the roaster oven, melt it for several hours over low heat and strain it into jars for storage, it's like buttah, I tell you. (Said with a plummy accent...) And, yes, I do this outside -- the roaster oven sets on a small table under the eaves on the back deck. At night I use a couple of bungee cords criss-crossed over the lid to be sure no small nocturnal animal gets into it as it slow cooks. If we had large nocturnal animals, I'd bring it into the garage or shed overnight but other than two coyotes last spring we don't seem to have that issue.

The rendering doesn't make a big mess and the smell isn't bad -- it's just a very rich roasting-meat smell. Makes me hungry, in fact, but also hangs around inside after the rendering's done. So outside is more practical though the wafting scent did raise the expectations of at least one visitor today who was disappointed to learn it was only lard rendering and not the beginning of a pig roast that he could smell.

Once the pork fat's melted, I strain the hot liquid lard through a couple layers of cheesecloth and pour it into canning jars.  Put on lids and rings and the lard's ready to use.  I store it along with our other canned goods as it will keep on the shelf for a good while.  When I open a jar to use, I store the opened jar in the refrigerator.  Cold lard makes the best pie crust...

Here's a link to stovetop directions for rendering lard. The basic idea is the same as how I do it except I use an electric roaster oven (set on 200-225ºF.) and don't add any water. If I was only rendering a pound or two, I'd probably go back to doing it on the stovetop or try out one of my crockpots so I could still set it outside.

One potato, two potato, three potato, four...

Bushels of potatoes. Mostly Kennebecs, some Yukon Golds and some Red Pontiacs. All neatly sorted and stacked in (thrifted) bread racks, ready for cool, dark and humid winter storage.

That just leaves the culls.  A few were culled because they were small.  Past experience says that if we store the smallest potatoes, there'll be nothing left when/if they sprout.  (Mid-winter we sort through the stored potatoes, breaking off any sprouts and removing rotten ones.  Helps keep them through till spring -- or till we eat them all, whichever comes first.)

This was a good year for potatoes so we have only a small dishpan of itty bitty potatoes to deal with.  Those won't last two weeks as I'll scrub a potful at a time, boil in their jackets and put them in the refrigerator for use in a baked dish like Doris' Golden Potatoes or make our favorite late morning breakfast -- home fries (cold boiled potatoes, sliced and fried) paired with garden tomatoes, cucumbers and onions in vinegar, plus farm fresh scrambled eggs with just-picked chives.  Yum!

The other culls are potatoes injured while digging or showing damage from wire worms or other pests.  A few more of those but still not a bad year. 

Some will be used over the next few weeks in the usual manner -- mashed, scalloped, roasted or perhaps as oven fries.  But today I'm filling the Excalibur with 10+ pounds of grated potatoes so we'll have dehydrated hash browns ready to prepare when needed.

Peeling, shredding and blanching that many potatoes is a tedious job but it's pouring rain outside and the heat from the stove burner and the dehydrator are welcome. DS's helping by running the Salad Shooter and even set up one of Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World audiobooks for us to listen to as we work. Wish Alex Bellos' Here's Looking at Euclid was available as an audiobook, too, since we're using that as a math read-aloud this month but Jim Weiss' narration of Bauer's works are surprisingly soothing on this rainy day.

The difference between the white-fleshed Kennebec and Pontiac Red potatoes as compared to the buttery yellow Yukon Gold potatoes makes for some pretty hash browns when laid out on the dehydrator trays but once they're dried the difference will fade to almost nothing. When I'm ready to use, I'll pour boiling water over top, let them rehydrate for 20 minutes or so then prepare according to whatever recipe I'm following. If I'm following a recipe -- these are really good simply tossed on a hot greased griddle and quickly grilled. Maybe with a few onions added...

Doris' Golden Potatoes

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, divided
2 cups sour cream (*see note)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 large potatoes, cooked -- approx. 6 cups diced

Cut cooked potatoes into a medium dice.

Combine cheese and 1/4 cup butter in medium saucepan; stir over low heat until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream, onion, salt and pepper. Add potatoes, mixing gently.

Pour into a greased 2-quart casserole; dot with remaining butter. Bake at 350°F. for 30 minutes.

*Note:
I like to sub lightly drained kefir for the sour cream and when I'm short on cheddar, I use almost any hard cheese or blend of cheeses including Monterey jack, colby, or Swiss that's on hand.  And leftover ham, diced and tossed with potatoes, and toasted breadcrumbs sprinkled on top before baking make nice additions.

Canning ham or smoked picnic shoulder plus making ham salad with or without puff shells

Earlier this month I canned ham I bought on sale prior to Christmas.  Hams are often on sale before the Christmas and Easter holidays so that's a good time for me to can a few jars.  We don't eat a lot of ham so a couple of hams each year go a long way -- a little diced ham in a frittata, in scalloped potatoes or macaroni and cheese can make the meal.  And, as I mentioned before, ham salad is another great way to use up ham.  When I make ham salad, my mom always expects me to send a little bit over for her, too.  It makes a quick meal with crackers, stuffed in a garden tomato or as a sandwich.

I can western ham and sometimes smoked picnic shoulder (picnic ham).  Sometimes it says semi-boneless.  And even though the ham I buy these days is always labeled Ready-to-Eat, which means it's already cooked,  I like to cook it in the roaster oven (regular oven would work, too).  That way it's hot and ready to go straight into the canning jars as fast as I can get it cut off the bone.  How long I cook it depends on the size of the ham -- the package has directions as to temperature and how many minutes per pound as well as recommended internal temp.

Once the ham is cooked, I lift it out onto a cutting board and trim away all skin and fat.  That goes into a stock pot along with the bone when I'm done.  Makes great ham stock for canning beans or cooking potatoes for potato soup.  The ham gets cut into chunks.  I try to cut the meat into even-sized pieces about an inch thick.  Since I'm never sure just what I'll want the ham for when the jar's opened, I go with large pieces overall -- I can always slice, cube or dice it as needed later. 

Hot jars are packed with  hot ham to within an inch of the rim.  Wipe rim of jar clean.  (I use a clean cloth dipped in vinegar as it seems to help cut any grease that may be on the glass jar.)  Place lid on jar and tighten ring.  Using a pressure canner, process pints and half-pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at the appropriate pressure for your altitude.  If you've never canned before check out the latest Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving or the USDA-funded website, National Center for Home Food Preserving, for detailed directions. The ham will yield a little juice so when you remove the jars from the canner you'll often see an inch or two of liquid in the tightly-packed jars.  That's normal.  If you don't take care to trim away all fat, there will be a bit of that in there, too.  It will harden as the jar cools and form a white layer on top of the liquid or ham.

When I told DH I was going to post my recipe for ham salad, he just rolled his eyes and said "what recipe?  You just throw it together and taste as you go!"  And he's right.  I have four ingredients that I combine to make ham salad but I don't measure any of them.  One reason is because I rarely have the exact same amount of ham each time because ham salad is a favorite way I use up leftover ham -- after we've eaten it hot from the oven and in cold slices on a sandwich we have it ground up with mayonnaise, mustard and sweet pickles added to make ham salad.  But I can give you what I start with and then suggest you let your taste buds lead you on.

Ham Salad

2 cups cold, cooked ham
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sweet pickles or 1/3 cup sweet pickle relish
1 to 2 tablespoons yellow mustard

Using a food processor or meat grinder, process ham and pickles.  You want them to be finely chopped but not pasty. 

I scrape the ham and pickles into another bowl before adding the mayo and mustard as I don't want to risk processing to much.  Texture is important here. 

Add mayonnaise and the smaller amount of mustard, then taste and adjust mayo or mustard till you have the right combination for you.  I don't want to add so much mustard that the salad turns yellow but I definitely like to have a little tang to the salad -- it offsets the sweetness of the pickles, I think. 

This is ready to eat at this point but it's even better if you can give it an hour or so in the fridge to chill and let the flavors meld.

----------

If you're tired of sandwiches or crackers, try making little puff pastries to fill.  They're pretty easy and they look impressive on a plate. They're also good filled with chicken salad.

Puffs for Filling
(adapted from Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, 1976)

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup flour
dash salt
1 egg
1/4 shredded Swiss or Cheddar cheese (optional)

Melt butter in 1/4 boiling water.  Add flour and dash salt; stir vigorously.  Cook and stir till mixture forms a ball that doesn't separate.  Remove from heat and cool slightly.  Add egg and beat vigorously until smooth.  Stir in cheese.  Drop dough onto greased baking sheet, using 1 level teaspoon dough for each puff.  Bake at 400ºF. about 20 minutes.  Remove puffs from oven; cool and split.  Fill each puff with 2 teaspoons of ham or chicken salad.  Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.  (They are actually still tasty the next day but will eventually soften in storage so best not to plan on storing too long.)

Ham and beans

Just because I haven't posted doesn't mean we haven't been busy.  Why, last week I canned 13 pints and 1 half-pint of ham plus 14 quarts of pinto beans with broth from the bone and trimmings.

I bought the ham in a pre-Christmas sale with the intention of canning it.  I discovered we liked canned ham as well as when the extra is frozen and I don't have to worry about freezer burn or freezer space when it's canned. Baked ham is great when it's just prepared and we like ham sandwiches, of course, but ham is something I use in small amounts for cooking.  When layered in scalloped potatoes and macaroni and cheese or included in a frittata, a cup or so of ham goes a long way.  Half-pint jars would have been plenty big for most uses but that's not a size I had available.  So I used pints and probably will be forced to make ham salad with the extra each time I open a jar.  (Forced?!  Hah!  A little ham salad on crackers is a perfect quick lunch.  And I guess I'll share if I have to.)

As for the beans, I had planned to make ham broth with the bone and trimmings from the ham and then can it.  But when I thought about it, the ham broth would be used to cook dried beans.  So I thought why not go the next step? 

After carving the hot ham, I put the ham bone, skin and usual trimmings in a big stockpot and covered it with water.  I also threw in one of the bags of vegetable parings (carrot peels, onion skins, and celery trimmings) which I had collected in the freezer.  Let that simmer for several hours and then strained it.  Cooled the ham broth in order to remove the layer of fat that always rises to the top and brought it back to a boil.  Filled quart jars with 1-1/8 cups dried pinto beans which I'd sorted and rinsed to clean.  Then filled the jars to the 1" mark with the boiling ham broth.  (Added a small amount of plain boiling water to two jars as I ran out of ham broth before all the jars were filled.)  Processed the jars in the pressure canner for 90 minutes and now I have 14 quarts of ready-to-eat pintos on the shelf. 

Cajun Cowboy Candy Pickles

Is that a mouthful to say or what?  But they taste good and are a sort of by-product of another session of canning.

A few months ago I posted about a tasty hot and dill pickle recipe a friend had shared called Cajun Pickles.   Then, last weekend in anticipation of our first frost, DH pulled up all the pepper plants in the garden.  So I've been busy putting up serrano, jalapeno, thai dragon and Fooled You peppers.  Some went into a ristra, some were spread on trays for drying, some were canned for later use in salsa or crockpot Italian beef, some went into more hot sauce and some went to another friend because I'd run out of ideas.

But I still had about 8 pounds of jalapeno peppers.  And peppers are like anything else we produce, I hate to waste any.

Earlier this summer I had filed away a hot pepper relish-type recipe (attributed to Galen Gann) from the Canning2 list as it sounded like something we would like -- Cowboy Candy.  Hot jalapeno peppers, sliced, and onions, diced, simmered together till just tender in a vinegar brine which is then drained off.  Sugar and spices are added and the result was billed as a "tasty and spicy addition to almost any meal."

 So I used the recipe (posted below) to make 9 pints of Cowboy Candy.  One of the reasons I like the Canning2 list is most posters hate to waste anything, too.  So the original recipe recommended saving the vinegar-water brine to make hot pepper jelly.  But nothing was suggested for the heavy syrup that remained after canning the peppers.

Luckily DH had been asking when we were going to have another batch of Cajun Pickles which made me consider that while they start with a jar of dill pickles, the additional sugar and vinegar called for seemed a possible solution for what to do with the leftover sweet syrup from Cowboy Candy.  So I made a batch of cajun pickles using some of the leftover syrup and an additional two cups of sugar which I estimated would approximate the original sweetness called for in the cajun pickle recipe.  Instead of adding hot sauce, I relied on the heat left in the syrup after simmering the jalapenos plus the jalapeno seeds and almost 1/2 cup of jalapeno and onion bits left after bottling the cowboy candy.  And since the cowboy candy recipe included garlic, mustard seeds and other spices I didn't worry about not using tarragon vinegar or the other seasoning called for in the cajun pickle recipe.

Yes, this makes something slightly different from the original cajun pickle recipe.  Is it very new and different?  No.  It's just a little tweaking, no different than I do on a sometimes daily basis to modify recipes in order to use what's on hand.  Do we like this version?  Yes!  The sweet hot dill flavor is still predominant.  Can't tell too much difference from the original version -- tho the addition of mustard seeds gives it a slightly more "sweet pickle" flavor, if that makes sense.  We like them so much I'm saving the rest of the pickling syrup left from the cowboy candy to make another batch of cajun pickles when these are done.  I love a happy ending.

Candied Jalapenos (Cowboy Candy)
Recipe by: Galen Gann

This makes a very tasty and spicy addition to almost any meal.

First process
4 lb. fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced
2 lb. onions diced
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
Second process
6 to 8 cups sugar
2 Tbs. mustard seed
1 tsp. turmeric
2 tsp. celery seed
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1 tsp. ginger

Slice Jalapenos into thin slices and dice onions.  Place in pan with water and vinegar, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat & simmer about 10 min or until tender. [Note: You could start with canned pickled sliced jalapenos and skip this step.]

Pour off most of the water-vinegar mixture (reserve for making hot pepper jelly, if desired), add the sugar and spices bring to soft candy temperature to completely dissolve sugar (about another 10 min.).  Place boiling mixture into pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. (Reserve extra sugar syrup for making Cajun Pickles, if desired.)  Put on 2-piece lids.  Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

If you've never canned before check out the latest Ball Blue Book of Preserving or the USDA-funded website, National Center for Home Food Preserving, for detailed directions.

This year's hot pepper sauce

Is a blend of Thai dragon and serrano peppers. 

Why?  Because those are the main hot peppers, along with cayenne, which DH planted.  And, when it came time to make a batch of hot pepper sauce, those were the two that were ready to harvest.  The cayenne peppers aren't ripening as fast for some reason.

I make hot pepper sauce that's vinegar-based so it can set on the pantry shelf after opening.  Because I make enough to last a year, I process pints or quarts for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.  Then when it's ready to use or we need to open another batch, I can decant into a recycled glass bottle more appropriate for dispensing dashes of hot sauce.

Like pickles, this hot pepper sauce benefits from some time just sitting in the jar before using.  The flavors will meld and the vinegar will lose some of its overpowering strength.  Which improves the overall flavor and lets the peppers shine.  I do add a bit of salt and, if I remember, I add a few cloves of garlic -- we were so busy processing tomatoes for juice and ketchup, canning another 18 quarts of chicken broth from chicken backs and necks stockpiled in the freezer, and putting up the pimiento peppers from my brother-in-law's garden that I didn't think of pulling garlic to add this time till I was pureeing the sauce.  Thus this batch is garlic-free.

This recipe doesn't require precise measurements but I've learned that it's a good idea to weigh the peppers and measure the amount of vinegar I use so I can come close to duplicating a batch if it turns out to be a very good year.  Even with precise amounts, tho, the batches may not be the same year-to-year as the peppers themselves can vary depending on growing conditions.  Some years just yield better flavor than others.  Lucky for us, drier years seem to be particularly good.

For this year's Thai Dragon-Serrano Pepper Sauce, I used 12 ounces Thai dragon peppers and 26 ounces serrano peppers.  Weighed before cutting off the short stems and little caps.  I put the peppers in a large dutch oven and added 8 cups distilled white vinegar and 1 tablespoon salt to the pan.  I loosely covered the pan and simmered the peppers in the vinegar-salt mixture for about 30 minutes, until they were softened for pureeing.

The peppers and liquid went into the blender in two batches as it was too much to process in one.  I put a lid over the opening in the blender lid to try to hold back the splashing.  Plus, I put the blender outside on the back deck instead of doing this in the kitchen.  The wafting pepper steam will burn eyes and sinuses so fresh moving air is a good idea.  Don't do the blending in a small enclosed space!

Even tho using the blender, it's a good idea to strain the mixture through a wire mesh.  I processed it in our well-loved and tough-working vitamix and still had over a cup of seeds and pepper bits left to strain out.  (The remaining pulp can make a good pest deterrent in the garden but ours went into the compost this time.)

I was left with 2 quarts and almost 1 pint of hot pepper sauce.  It was too thick to sprinkle easily from a bottle so I thinned it slightly by adding almost 2 more cups of white vinegar.  The hot pepper sauce went into canning jars which I processed for 10 minutes in a BWB.  Yield of 6 pints.

If you've never canned before check out the latest Ball Blue Book of Preserving or the USDA-funded website, National Center for Home Food Preserving, for detailed directions.

Something old and something new

Well, maybe familiar would be a better choice than old...

After canning 16 pints of a spicy plum dipping sauce I've made for years, we tried something different with a few pounds of the damsons picked earlier in the week.  I've read of fruit cheeses in novels and English cookbooks and finally the time seemed right to try making some myself.

Fruit cheese is made from fruit and sugar and will hold its shape; it can be made in a straight-sided crock or jar and turned out for slicing when ready to serve rather than being spooned out like a softer preserve.  Tart fruits such as damsons and gooseberries seem most common but there may be other fruits that would work as well.  And fruit cheese will keep for months, too, thanks to all the sugar.

It's a pretty basic recipe.  For each pound of damson pulp left after sieving to remove the pits and break up the skins, you use 2 cups of sugar.  Here's a link to a page on the neat site, The Cottage Smallholder, with the easy directions.

The spicy plum dipping sauce is my adaptation of Helen Witty's "Chinese-style Plum Sauce" recipe included in her wonderful Better Than Store-Bought: A Cookbook. I modified it to include crushed pineapple and exclude the corn syrup and whole mustard seeds.  I previously posted the original version on Farm Bell Recipes at Chickens in the Road in case you want to compare the two.  Either one is great for dipping egg rolls, chicken strips, etc. 

The original recipe makes about 4 pints and the version below makes about 15 pints though it could be halved without a problem.  I found we liked this so well it's better to make enough to last till the next year's fruit harvest and still have a little to give away.  I hate it when friends or family beg, don't you?

Remember that this is a sauce for canning.  It's meant to be made and then held on the shelf for a minimum of a couple of weeks before serving -- better yet, make it this summer than wait till Thanksgiving to enjoy.  Almost any recipe for a preserve like this, or for pickles or relish -- similar dishes, really -- will benefit from a waiting period to allow the flavors to meld.  If you taste this as you're preparing it (and I always do and think you should, too) it will likely taste too vinegary and the flavor of the peppers may be too strong, too.  That's normal.  Give it a few weeks, preferably a couple of months if you can wait that long, and the flavors will meld into a wonderful dipping sauce you'll certainly prefer over that orangey-pink stuff in the little plastic packets.

Spicy Plum Dipping Sauce

8 cups plum pulp, *See note
8 cups peach or nectarine pulp, *See note
2 (20 ounce) cans crushed pineapple in juice
2 large onions, diced
2 sweet bell peppers, seeded and diced
5 jalapeno peppers, seeded and membrane removed, finely diced
3-inch knob of gingerroot, peeled and finely diced or shredded
1 head garlic, peeled and minced
6-1/2 cups apple cider vinegar, 5% acidity
3 cups water
1/4 cup dry mustard
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 cups granulated sugar
2 pounds brown sugar (approximately 4-1/3 cups)

Combine the fruit pulp, pineapple, onions, peppers, gingerroot, garlic, and vinegar in a very large non-reactive kettle.  Bring to a simmer over low heat.  In a bowl, combine remaining ingredients and whisk to blend.  Add to the fruit mixture and allow to simmer for an additional 45 minutes.

If you prefer a smoother sauce, press mixture through a chinoise or food mill. Return to the kettle and boil gently, stirring, until the sauce has thickened, about 15 minutes longer (it will thicken a little more while cooling).

Process in BWB in half-pint (10 minutes) or pint (15 minutes) jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace.

Allow the flavors to meld in the jars for at least 2 weeks, better a month, before serving. This one definitely improves with a month or two of waiting — it’s worth it.

Notes:
I use a steam juicer to prepare the damsons and nectarines or peaches.  It lets me obtain juice from the fruit than run the remaining pulp through a chinoise or food mill to yield stoned, sieved fruit ready to turn into a smooth sauce. (The juice I either can or use for another purpose.)

Alternatively, coarsely chop fruit and place in a large pot.  Heat fruit till softened sufficiently to run through a food mill, removing pits and skins, then measure out the amount of pureed fruit called for in recipe. Repeat for other type of fruit indicated in recipe.

Optional but good:
Roast the sweet red peppers over a flame or under the broiler till the skin is burned almost black. Let stand 5 minutes, then wrap in a plastic bag and let stand for 15 minutes. Quarter lengthwise, scrape off the skin and remove the seeds then set the peppers aside till called for in recipe.

Damsons!

We picked about 4 gallons of damsons yesterday. I put together one jar each gin- and vodka-infused damsons with sugar. Both will take several months to work their magic and then damson liqueur for everyone! 

For each 1/2-gallon jar I used 2 lbs of damsons, each pricked several times with a fork, plus 12 ounces of granulated sugar and enough vodka or gin to cover the fruit -- about .65L each. Put a lid on the jars and covered them with brown paper to keep out the light. I'll shake them once every day or so till the sugar's dissolved. Then they'll sit on an out-of-the-way shelf in the kitchen for at least three months when we'll taste and decide if it's time to strain and bottle or wait another couple of months.

The other damsons are on their way to becoming damson cheese, spicy plum sauce, damson preserves and juice for syrup or drinking.  More recipes to come...

Preserved Bean Sprouts (dua gia)

3 cups water
1 tablespoon salt (pickling salt or 1-1/4 tablespoon kosher salt)
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 pound mung bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
1 carrot, cut into very thin strips or shaved with a vegetable peeler

Bring water, salt and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Pack the bean sprouts and carrot shavings together in a 2-quart jar.  Pour the cooled brine over the vegetables and cover the opening with a towel.  Don't worry if  the brine doesn't cover the veggies completely to begin with.  After an hour or so the liquid and vegetables will equalize or you can press the veggies down with a spoon to get them below the level of the brine.  Cover the jar loosely and let it stand on the counter at room temperature for 3 days.  Taste to be sure the bean sprouts are sour enough, then cap the jar tightly and refrigerate it.  The sprouts will keep for 3-4 weeks.

Lots of pickles but no cucumbers yet.

When I was a kid, pickles meant pickled cucumbers. Even pickled beets weren't really considered pickles. But now when I think of pickles, my mind races with the possibilities.

The sugar snap pea vines are producing like mad.  We pick in the morning and by the next evening the vines look loaded again.  Monday I prepared a batch of Pickled Sugar Snap Peas from Linda Ziedrich's The Joy of Pickling, Revised Edition: 250 Flavor-Packed Flavor-Packed Recipes for Vegetables and More from Garden or Market.  The directions say to let them set in the fridge for 2 weeks but DS and I tried them last night (barely 24 hours) and they're tasting pretty good. Maybe they'll last long enough to try them at the proper time or maybe they won't.

Tuesday, while DH and DS went on another hike with the WILD GUYde, Lester Zook, and some other homeschoolers, I took advantage of the morning spent in Harrisonburg.  Besides the usual stops at the downtown library and A World of Good thrift store, I went by  a Taste of Thai's food market to pick up a few groceries. 

I bought lots of bean sprouts because I planned to make Ziedrich's Vietnamese Pickled Bean Sprouts plus Bean Sprout Salad in Outrageous Dressing, a great summer salad that becomes a main dish when I add cold cooked chicken or shrimp.  After setting on the counter overnight, the fermenting bean sprouts look like this and, after another day or two at room temperature, the taste will be pretty mild.  Makes them a good accompaniment to spicy or rich foods.

I cut up the last of the garden's daikon radishes for another fresh pickle so the refrigerator's full for the time being.  The beets are ready in the garden but I think I still have plenty of beet pickles canned and on the shelf from last year so they'll probably be prepared some other way.  DS and I like them steamed and plain but I might try something different to tempt DH.

Dehydrator Diary - Socks and Mushrooms...

This week I found organic mushrooms marked down at the grocery. I spent about $15 and came home with 5 pounds of cremini mushrooms, 2 pounds of portobello mushrooms and a pound of shitake mushrooms. They were in very good shape so I put a 1/2-pound of cremini and a pound of portobello mushrooms in the fridge for a couple of meals later in the week. The rest of the mushrooms I prepared to put in the dehydrator.

But first I had to take out the socks that were in the dehydrator. Yes, for the second time in 5 days I've dried DH's wool kilt socks in the dehydrator. You see, it's too warm here for a fire in the woodstove but it's been raining. The socks are so thick they'd take more than a day to dry after handwashing (don't want them to felt so I eschew machine washing and drying) and the dehydrator racks offered good support. Drying went pretty fast; took about 4 hours at 105°F. and, since I add a drop or two of patchouli essential oil to the rinse water as an insect deterrent, the house smelled faintly of patchouli for several days. I like that, too.

Once the socks were out of the way, I spread sliced cremini mushrooms (or, according to the label, baby portobellos) and whole shitake mushrooms on the racks. Before slicing, I removed the stems and sliced them for drying separately. Sometimes they're tough but the flavor's good so I won't waste them but use when I'm going to puree or just need stock. I did the same with the portobello mushrooms, and because I only had a few of them, I mixed them in with the cremini. The dehydrator was full and ran overnight at 115°F.

Kale chips

Finally had a chance last week to try another suggestion from Mary T. Bell's "Food Drying with an Attitude: A fun and fabulous guide to creating snacks, meals and crafts" and made a double batch of kale chips in the dehydrator. I've seen mention of these things for a couple of years but didn't get around to trying them till now -- wish it'd been sooner as they are GOOD!

They're crispy, almost melt-in-your-mouth light and slightly salty. I followed Bell's directions and used a vinegar, olive oil and salt mixture to coat the chips before drying but DS suggested trying Old Bay seasoning next time. I can think of several seasoning blends worth trying but I'll have to wait till late summer as the chickens finished off the wintered-over kale when they were on the last garden section.

Besides rinsing any sand from the kale, I chose to remove the tough stem that runs up the middle of each leaf. They can become hard and tough after drying. But I did save them as Bell recommends and dried along with the kale chips, then ground to a powder, they'll make a tasty addition (like last week's post about ground carrot peels) to soups or other dishes. I'm thinking I should add a spoonful of the powder to the next batch of vegetable dip we make...

Kale Chips

4 cups kale (stems removed)
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon salt (I recommend reducing the salt, maybe by half?)

Cut kale leaves cross-wise into 1- or 2-inch pieces. They'll shrink while drying so don't worry if the curly leaves look over-large to start.

Mix vinegar, oil and salt together and pour over kale pieces in a bowl. Toss to coat. Let sit for about an hour, tossing every 15 minutes or so to make sure all surfaces are coated. (Bell recommends putting a weight like a large plate on the kale to press it into the liquid seasoning -- this would relive much of the tossing I had to do but my container wasn't shaped to allow this.)

Spread the kale pieces on the dehydrator shelves and dry at 125º-135ºF. till kale is crispy-dry. Depending on variables, it could take from 4 hours to overnight. Mine took about 8 hours to get to the right crispness.

Notes: I liked the cider vinegar but think any vinegar would work. Red wine or a flavored vinegar, like garlic, would be good, too. If you double, the recipe (I did), don't double the salt (I didn't and I was glad).

When 10 pounds of carrots yields 24 ounces

Stopped at the grocery the other day to get olive oil (50% off regular price--YAY!) and found they had two pound bags of organic carrots marked down to 50¢. The store often has fresh produce marked down as it "ages" but those carrots looked as good as (if not better than!) the ones in my refrigerator crisper at home. So I bought 10 pounds.

When I got home I set DS to washing, then peeling them. I put a big pot of water on to boil and pulled out a knife and cutting board. DH brought the dehydrator in from the garage where it's stored in the off season.

First the peels went in the dehydrator on three shelves. Once upon a time I would throw them in the compost, then I learned to put them in a bag in the freezer along with onion skins and celery trimmings. Those vegetable scraps make an excellent addition to chicken broth fixings. When the broth's ready, I just strain out the cooked vegetables and then they go to the compost pile.

But having a dehydrator has changed that. Now when we need to peel more than a couple of carrots (the chickens get the small amounts) or other vegetables like onions, I dry the peels and grind them to make vegetable powders. You know, the basis for those seasoning blends that can cost a dollar an ounce at the store.

So this week, $5 worth of carrots (10 pounds) yielded 4 ounces of dried carrot peelings (small jar on right in photo) and right at 20 ounces of diced dried carrot pieces (quart jar on left in photo). I blanched the diced carrot before drying but not the peels. The pieces are perfect for adding to soup.

The peels were dried in their long form, just as they came from the carrots, but I crumbled them after drying to reduce their volume. Once I'm ready to use them in powder form, I'll either crush with the pestle and mortar or run them through a little electric coffee grinder. When I first started drying vegetables suitable for making powder, I made them into powder as soon as they were dry. But I don't add any anti-caking agents such as may be found in many store-bought salts or seasoning blends and even though I might vacuum seal the jars, I found the powder could make like a rock and become so hard I had to chip it out of the jar.

Dehydrating the carrots was a good warm-up for the coming growing season. Now that the dehydrator's out on the counter again I'm thinking about what else I want to preserve. There's rhubarb ready to pick and we're out of fruit leather so I think a batch of rhubarb juice for punch and the remaining pulp for fruit leather is a good idea. Also plan to can 10-15 pounds of dry pinto beans and a smaller amount (3 pounds?) of black beans later today. Just seemed like the thing to do as I have a ham bone to use up in the pintos and if I get out the canner for them I might as well do the black beans, too. So back to the kitchen for me...

Homeschool has a snow day

The weekly homeschool co-op we participate in was supposed to reconvene Friday after its month-long Christmas break. But the group uses the local county schools as a guide for weather cancellations so when another couple inches of snow fell early Friday morning, school and co-op were called off.

It presented an odd flip-flop on the usual snow day emotions -- homeschooled kids tended to feel regretful while parents were pumping fists and shouting "yeah!" DH and DS still managed to get together with some of the other homeschool families for the afternoon at the local roller skating rink. But we spent the morning playing board games in the living room.

For supper I was planning to make spaghetti and I can never seem to do that on a small scale. I like to use the tomatoes we've canned or dried to make the sauce and when I start putting the ingredients into a pot it always turns out to be a stockpot that's required. Because I had time due to the "snow day" I purposely prepared 2-1/2 gallons of spaghetti sauce and canned the excess in quart jars. Previously I've frozen the extra but the freezers are full and the ease of using my still-new-to-me All-American pressure canner makes it no real effort to process the quart jars at 75 minutes and store them on the shelf. Besides with the cold spell we're having (daily highs still under the freezing mark) the usual problem with the heat canning generates is a plus instead of a drawback. I think I'll look around and see what other convenience-type foods I might want to consider canning.

Pineapple vinegar

For Christmas a friend sent us a pineapple in a box of assorted organic fruit. We enjoyed every bite of the fruit -- the pears were ripe and juicy, the apples crisp and tart. DS especially liked the dried mango and kiwi; he's ready to try drying our own in a couple of years when the kiwi vines are bearing. But I was eyeing the pineapple. We ate it in a mixed fruit cup but the parings went into a 1/2-gallon jar with a little sugar and water.I've wanted to make pineapple vinegar ever since I read of it six years ago in "Wild Fermentation: the flavor, nutrition and craft of live-culture foods" by Sandor Katz aka Sandorkraut. I waited all this time to try it because I only wanted to use an organic pineapple since I wanted to make it using the parings rather than the edible fruit. You know, part of the making-something-from-nothing or use-it-up mindset so prevalent around the ol' Walnut Spinney homestead.

We've been making other infused vinegars with fruits and herbs we grow and so know what they've (not) been sprayed with. But pineapples aren't easy to grow in this part of Virginia though I did see at least one pineapple in fruit at Edible Landscaping last fall. In their greenhouse, that is. And while I can find a selection of organic fruit at the local grocery, organic pineapple hasn't been available. Plus, there's the whole "how far did it have to travel"-thing that's been nagging at me the last few years. But, this pineapple, this was a gift! And I was very happy to be able to make use of every last bit of it, right down to the peel.

The sweet pineapple scent and flavor of the sample I tasted today when I decanted it into a bottle already have me thinking of how a cabbage slaw will taste if I use pineapple vinegar instead of my regular apple cider vinegar in the dressing. And I'm wondering if I could sub it for (some? all?) the lemon juice in the Apple-Carrot Salad from Simply in Season. And the next time I have fresh mung bean sprouts, I'm going to try making Outrageous Dressing with pineapple vinegar. Oh, and a chicken or pork marinade with pineapple vinegar? I think the possibilities are endless. Wish my flask of pineapple vinegar was bottomless...

Pineapple Vinegar

1/4 cup sugar
Peel and core of 1 pineapple
water *See Note
thin cotton kitchen towel or cheesecloth

Dissolve the sugar in 1 quart of water. Coarsely chop and add the pineapple peel. Cover with cheesecloth to keep fruit flies out, and leave to ferment in a dark spot at room temperature. I used a small glass plate and a small sealed jar of water set on top of the parings to keep them below the level of the liquid. (Same as I do when making pickles.) Otherwise, any peel that extends above the water may grow a bit of mold.

When you notice the liquid darkening, after about 1 week, strain out the pineapple peels and discard. (compost!)

Ferment the liquid 2 to 3 weeks more, stirring or shaking periodically, and the pineapple vinegar is ready to use.

*Note: You may also start with white vinegar instead of water. The vinegar will be ready after you discard the peels. (Too Hot Tamales does it this way.)