This recipe comes from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving. The book says you'll get about six 8-ounce jars or three pints. I got five 8-ounce jars plus a little (maybe a quarter cup) left over, which was nice because I got to taste it. The rest of the jars will sit for at least 3 more weeks, as the book recommends letting the salsa mature "to mellow and round out the outstanding flavor."
Here are the ingredients (and some pictures and my commentary):
When my sister and I were kids, my mom used to put us to work at various points throughout the summer helping her prep vegetables for freezing. She used to do a lot of canning, originally. Probably before we came along, or before we were big enough to help. Or before she and my father bought that really big stand-up freezer and put it in the basement. I think it maybe just became easier to pack things in the freezer in plastic containers than to can them. I don’t know.
All I know is, my sister, me, and our friend, Dolores, if she was at the house, became extremely cheap labor.
Oh, how I love blueberries.
No, it's not jewelry or coins or highlights in my hair.
No, it's not the sun, which is finally out after days and days of "should we be building an ark?" weather.
It's stock.
If you've never made jam, and are feeling hesitant about going through the whole cooking and canning process, and you just want to maybe dip your toe into the jam-making pool and see what temperature the water is, then this is the way to do that.
It's thick and rhubarb- tart and cooked-sugar-sweet and has a little heat from the fresh ginger and a little something friendly from the vanilla.
It's terrific. I'm already thinking of ways to use this, and I'm also already thinking I should have made more.
Guess I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed when I go to the Farmers' Market on Friday.
But back to the beginning....
Alex - the jam afficianado in our house - has pronounced this jam "Not bad...it's actually pretty good." With two approving nods of his head. So I'm thinking I got about an A-.
As I'd mentioned after my trip to the Farmers' Market on Friday, I bought a total of 4 quarts of strawberries: 6 individual pints of berries from one farm, one quart from another farm. All were gorgeously ripe and red all the way through. I also bought 2 lbs of rhubarb from the Honey Stick Man. So I figured I'd have enough for a batch of jam and a pie. Happily, I was wrong - I got two batches of jam and a pie out of the deal. Well, nearly two batches. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Two weeks ago I bought about twelve heads of garlic, intending to roast them in olive oil at the same time as some of the batches of tomatoes I'd been doing, but I didn't get to them until today.
I'm making dinner...fish tacos and roasted diced sweet potatoes and a cold bowl of shelled edamame and corn sliced off the cob. Sort of a succotash, only cold. Not exactly a salad. It doesn't need anything else. As I stood slicing cooked corn off the cobs a few minutes ago, I was whisked back to… Continue reading Fresh Corn and Soybeans
I've had a pretty happy day for myself. We went grocery shopping this morning and got stuff to have on hand so we can throw meals together quickly during the week...especially the days when Bill works late and I'm throwing food around and juggling children at the same time. It's like Iron Chef only there's… Continue reading Stocking Up
