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Post by steev on Oct 15, 2014 18:32:31 GMT -5
Chopping herbs, then freezing them in ice-cubes also works.
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 16, 2014 1:37:23 GMT -5
My biggest cheese is apricot pineapple jam. Who came up with this recipe to torture me? i got pineapples or I got apricots. THEY are never in the same season. Yet, it's Leo's favorite.
So cots come I hull them and freeze them in pineapple juice. Finally it gets to be pineapple season. I chop the pine and grab the cots out of the freezer. Ohh, and there's love all over my kitchen. Back you boys, don't stick your fingers in that. Step away with that bread. Finally, I make bacon and pancakes and they all settle down to new jam.
But I'd love to have the bitch who made this up in my kitchen. I'd chop slap her up the head and say,"woman, I don't care how good it tastes, those things that never coincide in nature, don't you try to join them." You just make trouble for the rest of us, who've got our kitchens already full of trouble.
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Post by steev on Oct 16, 2014 23:20:56 GMT -5
Oh, dear God! Pineapple-apricot jam! I helped can/eat so much of that in my teens that I will NEVER can/eat it again! Second only to canned plums on my lifetime-over-dose list.
Now, apricot/jalapeno glaze for pork (for instance); whole 'nother thing, I kid you not.
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Post by reed on Oct 18, 2014 20:21:51 GMT -5
We do all the regular stuff,can beans and tomatoes and salsas, various jellies and jams, sweet and dill pickles. Horseradish and hot radish sauces and hot pepper sauces. Also dry pepper flakes in various degrees of hotness.
I myself mostly just do the dill pickles and a lot of the jelly. My favorite jelly is wild black cherry, tiny little cherries the size of a small pea. In a good year you can lay a sheet under the tree and just shake them off into it. I also make black cherry and wild blackberry cool-aid. I just cook them with a little sugar and strain it out and freeze in cube trays and then dump into baggies, then on hot days I throw two or three in a glass of water. Less concentrated version makes good pop-cycles too.
I also tried making chili. I grow those big pole cranberry beans and when dry they take f o r e v e r to cook, so I picked some in shelly stage and canned them in pint jar with tomato, garlic and and some hot peppers, they came out better that store bought that's for sure.
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Post by jondear on Oct 19, 2014 16:08:00 GMT -5
We just made 14 eight ounce jelly jars full of pepper/apple jelly. Last year we used just jalapeños. This year we added some hinklehatz for a little more heat. The little bit left, from the first batch, that wouldn't fill a jar is already gone.  |
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Post by Al on Jan 4, 2015 4:04:05 GMT -5
I went to Grenada, took a walk through the forest to a beautiful glade beside a waterfall, after a swim noticed the ground covered with nutmegs, brought back a sackful, I reckon I have a lifetime supply. Just go to the Caribbean, collect your exotic spices. What's the problem?? ;-/
Seriously. I have been considering buying a Nutribullet blender, I hope to turn kale & greens into smoothies together with frozen fruit. It seems to be a powerful machine which can smash up ice cubes, it might cope with dried garlic if you cannot face the boulder & mortar.
But it is not cheap, & is yet another kitchen gadget to be stored, I am still undecided.
The last gadget I bought is a valued kitchen aid. My soya milk maker gives over a litre of milk using a small handful of beans costing pennies. It has paid for itself many times over, trouble is, I now feel I should grow my own soya beans. Yet another crop to squeeze into the plot!
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 30, 2015 16:47:50 GMT -5
Kudos for recognizing them as nutmegs; most people wouldn't be able to identify them with the shells still on. I'm assuming however that they must have been on the ground for a while (long enough for the nutmeg apples to be gone)or you'd have taken the arils as well and be bragging about having a lifetime supply of nutmeg AND mace.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 1, 2015 20:49:05 GMT -5
Anybody got a recipe from Spain for Membrillo? I have one batch quince from Steev left and my neighbor has been begging for Membrillo. She can't find the recipe from her mother-in-law. Anyone? I took the rest of the quinces and made jelly. The favorite so far is Quince Pepper Jelly. Which is a "DIY" meat marinade. We had it as a glace for pork chops and it was very yummy. Thank you Steev. I'm getting ready to plant the Quince Bushes you brought over.
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coppice
gardener
gardening curmudgeon
Posts: 149
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Post by coppice on Feb 2, 2015 18:59:55 GMT -5
Anybody got a recipe from Spain for Membrillo? I have one batch quince from Steev left and my neighbor has been begging for Membrillo. She can't find the recipe from her mother-in-law. Anyone? I took the rest of the quinces and made jelly. The favorite so far is Quince Pepper Jelly. Which is a "DIY" meat marinade. We had it as a glace for pork chops and it was very yummy. Thank you Steev. I'm getting ready to plant the Quince Bushes you brought over. There are several correct recipes for quince paste (membrillo) on the web. Basically one cup of cooked mashed quince with one cup of sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of citrus rind jullienned. Cook on low heat till thick and 'red'. Pour out onto a pirex pie plate and bake in a slow oven till tight (a toothpick will stand up), on average 1-1/2 to 2 hours in a less than 200°F oven. Multiply up with one cup increments. Makes a semi rigid paste that is wonderful on a cracker with cheese. A fringe benefit from having a Spanish HS foreign exchange student years ago. |
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Post by philagardener on Feb 2, 2015 19:18:06 GMT -5
Folks say that the color change as you cook it down is amazing! Tell us how it turns out!
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Post by Al on Feb 26, 2015 6:55:59 GMT -5
Just little comment following my mention of nutmeg & Blueadzuki's follow-up, not really relevant to this thread but nutmeg is not really relevant to anyone on this forum as it only grows at equatorial latitudes. Blue assumed that I had gathered only nutmeg but I a proud to say I also have a lifetime supply of mace, the nutmegs I found were surrounded by the arils, a new word to me, I just always called them blades of mace. A very curious fruit, the mace forms a sort of lacey network around the nut, & was bright red when fresh. The nut has a hard shell, which contains the nutmeg kernel which we grate into béchamel sauce etc. The nutmeg I have is 12 years old now & is perfectly useable & fragrant. It is easy to see why it was so sought after in seventeenth century Europe, tasty & long lasting, & as valuable as gold. Nathaniels Nutmeg is a rattling good read about the early rivalry between Dutch, English & Portuguese merchants & seamen to find & control the tiny islands in the East Indies where nutmeg originates. Eventually the English found they could grow nutmeg on Grenada, which is today known as the spice island & a nutmeg features on its flag. The fruit grows surrounded by a fleshy case which makes good jam. One of my treasured memories of our holiday in Grenada is of my 7 year old daughter snuggling into her pillow after a long haul flight from the U.K., closing her eyes with a smile on her face, & just uttering on word before going to sleep, "nutmeg".ic.kr/p/r5VW  IMG_1331 by portobell0, on FlickrN7] MG_1331 by portobell0, on Flickr |
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Post by blueadzuki on Feb 26, 2015 10:20:12 GMT -5
The fruits make good pancake syrup too. I used to love nutmeg fruit syrup on my pancakes as a kid (we had an supermarket that got in some pretty odd things.)
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Post by steev on Mar 2, 2015 19:23:14 GMT -5
It is alleged that when the Dutch had monopoly of the nutmeg/mace trade, the price differential made one executive send word to the plantations "Grow more mace, less nutmeg!"
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Post by Al on Mar 3, 2015 2:49:19 GMT -5
"More mace, less nutmeg"!
These ignorant desk wallah, accountant types know nothing! Unfortunately they seem to dictate terms of trade to us worldly wise, horny handed sons of the soil.
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Post by blueadzuki on Mar 3, 2015 7:05:31 GMT -5
The funny thing is it still happens. A few years ago I remember talking with someone who had once worked as supervisor for a South American cooperative that grew fruit for one of those companies that makes "superfruit" juices and other health foods. He told me a funny story from his time there. One day he got a notice from the company that a new S. American fruit had gotten trendy and that, because of that, they were heavily suggesting the cooperative cut down some of the Cacao trees they were growing for the company (to supply them with raw cacao nibs for their products) and plant trees of this new fruit. The guy split his side laughing then, since he recognized the "new" superfruit they were suggesting as..... cacao pulp! (I always forget the name that stuff has [begins with a "c" I think]but the white fruit around cacao seeds is indeed a very popular juice item in South America and in a lot of drink mixes. Back when they still made it I used to LOVE Bolthouse's cacao pulp and acai fruit drink.
There was also the time someone made me an Indian dish that, when I took a bite, literally blasted my brains out which that dish should not do (it's a little spicy but not that much) Baffled (since I had given him the recipe in the first place) I asked him to show me what he had done. He then showed me the ingredients and I instant noticed that he was adding some long hot chilies, which were not part of the recipe. When I pointed this out, he got indignant and pointed to the recipe where he thought it said he was supposed to add them. I looked and saw what had happened. Unfamiliar with some of the spices, he had gotten confused when I had written down "add long pepper" (long pepper, or pipali is a spice related to black pepper, that is used in some Indian cooking)
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