What are you canning/preserving today?

[CWS4322]

Calling all lemon lovers!

Lemon Relish | mrfood.com

I couldn't start a new thread under fruits and nuts or general cooking information, so I put it here because I know a couple of the lemon lovers check this thread.

 

[sparrowgrass]

I have done my tomato sauce and salsa for the year--tonight I am doing a double batch of 'cowboy candy'. Candied Jalapeños (Cowboy Candy) | Tasty Kitchen Blog

I made a substitution the first time I made it--instead of the cayenne and turmeric, I used an equal amount of Penzey's hot curry powder. The other spices in the curry powder really add a wonderful flavor--my buddy Amy calls this 'cowboy crack'!!

 

[CWS4322]

I have done my tomato sauce and salsa for the year--tonight I am doing a double batch of 'cowboy candy'. Candied Jalapeños (Cowboy Candy) | Tasty Kitchen Blog

I made a substitution the first time I made it--instead of the cayenne and turmeric, I used an equal amount of Penzey's hot curry powder. The other spices in the curry powder really add a wonderful flavor--my buddy Amy calls this 'cowboy crack'!!

How do you make your salsa?
I roast about 3/4 of the tomatoes, garlic, tomatillos, jalapenos, some onion. Those I process in the FP. Then I add skinned, seeded tomatoes (processed in the FP), more tomatillos, garlic, onion, jalapenos, hot peppers, cumin. At the end, I add lime juice (fresh) and fresh coriander, process in a water bath (depending on jar size). Oh, a bit of maple syrup and salt.

 

[salt and pepper]

Canning a few jars of sweet pickeled beets

 

[Steve Kroll]

More pickles, more wine this weekend. The pickles are dill spears and hamburger chips. The wine is from last year's vintage.

 

[CarolPa]

I've got my big Nesco roaster and another big CP full of apple slices right now, making apple butter. Not sure what we'll do with it all!

Would love to trade for grapes....

Apple butter takes me back to my childhood as my mother bought it all the time and never bought jelly. It was what we ate on bread. No one in my family likes it now so I don't buy it. Last year I made some and it was pretty good, but if I make it again I don't want to put any sugar in it. I do not like a sweet taste and with my diabetes it's better for me without sugar. But then, the only way I eat it is on bread, and I'm not supposed to have much of that either.

 

[Gwenevere]

Chili Bricks

I am making Chili Bricks with a personal family recipe. It was my Uncle Ralph's recipe that he used when he operated a small cafe in Kansas City, MO. His chili was one of his number one sellers as the flavor is fantastic! He handed the recipe down to his dad, my greatgrandfather, and he gave it to me as well. I was 13 then and now I am 66. When I am about to run out of the "bricks" I have to make another batch! I make the Chili Brick recipe in my Nesco Roaster and then freeze it is 2 cup batches as it is only a base. When the bricks are frozen, I vacuum pack them so they will last a long time, if need be, but not at my house as we eat chili year round! The base can be used for taco meat, as well as a whole slew of other Mexican dishes. When I ake chili with it I open up one of my jars of pinto beans and add the brick to it with a jar of my canned diced tomatoes and viola, dinner is done. If I am allowed I will post the recipe, but I am new here today and am just starting to look through the forums!

 

[Raspberrymocha55]

I'd love your recipe. Do you can your own pinto beans? I just leave mine dry until I need them and soak over night. Alas, no canned tomatoes this year. My garden produced nothing but green beans this year.

 

[Gwenevere]

Ralph's (my uncle) Chili Bricks Circa 1930

10# "regular" ground beef
8 large onions chopped finely
12 large cloves of garlic minced
1 cooking spoon paprika (a large chef’s spoon)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
10 cooking spoons (a large chef’s spoon) chili powder
1 cooking spoon (a large chef’s spoon) ground cumin

Cook meat garlic and onions until done use no water, will form quite
a lot of juice, but do not ladle off. When this is done add paprika,
chili powder and cumin. Stir well and often while cooking about 15
minutes longer over very low heat. If desired ( and I do) add 2 number 1 cans of
tomato puree and stir often as this mixture burns very easily. When
done pour 2 cups of the mixture into lined loaf pans or other freezer container and freeze. After it is fully frozen pop it out of the containers and Vacuum pac them, label, date and put back into the freezer. They will keep better this way.

Add a can or two of red beans, pinto beans or kidney beans to each block
when you fix to eat.

This is delicious chili! I also like to add a can or two of those Mexican stewed
tomatoes when I add the can of beans. This year I was able to add a quart of diced tomatoes to the brick and it was delicious. If you have none of your own canned tomatoes just use commercial products.

Bon Appetite

 

[Dawgluver]

Welcome to DC!

Thanks for the recipe, it sounds really good, a nice foil to just about anything, and very convenient!

 

[Addie]

My brain is getting in the mood for fall foods, the temperature outside still reads summer! I need fall to get here, I'm ready for it.

Maybe I'll turn the a/c as cold as it will go, sit with a blanket on my lap and eat apple pie...

Sounds like a plan to me. Missing those Maine Falls are you? Should I send you a bushel of fall colored leaves? You can put them in front of the a/c and let them blow around your home so you can sweep them up forever.

 

[Mad Cook]

Why is he picking the tomatoes green? I usually only do that when frost is threatening and then make green tomato relish...

Green tomato chutney is good, especially with cheshire or lancashire cheese.

Of thread a bit but still connected with cheese. There is a cheddar cheese made over here with a black wax wrapping which is called "Black Bomber". It always confuses me as I always think it should be Lancashire cheese. And the reason for this? There was a famous aircraft during WWII called the Avro Lancaster bomber. It was designed and originally built by A. V. Roe (AVRO - geddit) at their factory in Poynton in Cheshire which until recently was just up a skip and a jump from where I live. In May the last flying "Lanc" took part in the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight fly-past at the Derwent Reservoir in the Hope Valley, Derbyshire, where they did the trials for the Dambuster's Raid in 1943. I didn't see it this year but in the 1970s I saw a Lancaster and two Spitfires flying over Bakewell on their way back from a demonstration flight over the reservoir. Whatever your views on war, etc., it was certainly a sight to see.

 

[Mad Cook]

Green tomato chutney is good, especially with cheshire or lancashire cheese.

Of thread a bit but still connected with cheese. There is a cheddar cheese made over here with a black wax wrapping which is called "Black Bomber". It always confuses me as I always think it should be Lancashire cheese. And the reason for this? There was a famous aircraft during WWII called the Avro Lancaster bomber. It was designed and originally built by A. V. Roe (AVRO - geddit) at their factory in Poynton in Cheshire which until recently was just up a skip and a jump from where I live. In May the last flying "Lanc" took part in the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight fly-past at the Derwent Reservoir in the Hope Valley, Derbyshire, where they did the trials for the Dambuster's Raid in 1943. I didn't see it this year but in the 1970s I saw a Lancaster and two Spitfires flying over Bakewell on their way back from a demonstration flight over the reservoir. Whatever your views on war, etc., it was certainly a sight to see.

See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325460/Dambusters-Back-began-lone-Lancaster-marks-70-years-audacious-Dambusters-raid.html for photgraphs of the above.

Back on thread - I use the recipe for green tomato chutney from Katie Stewart's "Times Calendar Cook Book" which I also use for my Christmas puddings. Book is o-o-p but available on Amazon. It's an English type of chutney rather than an Indian type so is fruity, sweet-ish and not "hot" but you can spice it up if you like.

 

[Mad Cook]

Apple butter takes me back to my childhood as my mother bought it all the time and never bought jelly. It was what we ate on bread. No one in my family likes it now so I don't buy it. Last year I made some and it was pretty good, but if I make it again I don't want to put any sugar in it. I do not like a sweet taste and with my diabetes it's better for me without sugar. But then, the only way I eat it is on bread, and I'm not supposed to have much of that either.

Carol, what do you do to it to make it keep if you don't use sugar?

Not that keen on it on bread but I use it in the flan case under the apples for a French apple tart (not much use to you, of course)

 

[Mad Cook]

Our growing season in the UK has been so late because it's been soooo wet. Finally getting sunshine for about a week now which hopefully kick start the tomato and chile ripening. Then it's on to some Jams, salsas, tapenades, and cooking sauces (Mexican, Italian mostly) for my small local food biz. And hopefully a few extras for the fam.

Not been bad here on the Derbyshire/Cheshire borders. The hay crop has been good this summer and there's more to cut.

My tomatoes were doing well until an overnight storm blew the pots over and broke the stems when the green tomatoes were too small to use. The apples in the garden are doing better than they have for years so I think I'll freezer them until I have time to deal with them. The sloes haven't done well so no sloe gin for Christmas this year. The trees are old - the house is 90 years old and the trees were part of the old hedgerow on the border of the field it was built on so they are probably past it but Mother used to make gallons of sloe gin and wine from them.

Today, however, it's bl**dy freezing. I've had the central heating on this pm and I don't normally do that until November (and then only when my fingers freeze and my nose goes blue and falls off! I grew up in a house without CH - they made us tough in the '50s)

 

[taxlady]

Mad Cook, what is "CH"?

 

[GotGarlic]

Mad Cook, what is "CH"?

I think it's central heating.

 

[CarolPa]

Ralph's (my uncle) Chili Bricks Circa 1930

10# "regular" ground beef
8 large onions chopped finely
12 large cloves of garlic minced
1 cooking spoon paprika (a large chef’s spoon)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
10 cooking spoons (a large chef’s spoon) chili powder
1 cooking spoon (a large chef’s spoon) ground cumin

Cook meat garlic and onions until done use no water, will form quite
a lot of juice, but do not ladle off. When this is done add paprika,
chili powder and cumin. Stir well and often while cooking about 15
minutes longer over very low heat. If desired ( and I do) add 2 number 1 cans of
tomato puree and stir often as this mixture burns very easily. When
done pour 2 cups of the mixture into lined loaf pans or other freezer container and freeze. After it is fully frozen pop it out of the containers and Vacuum pac them, label, date and put back into the freezer. They will keep better this way.

Add a can or two of red beans, pinto beans or kidney beans to each block
when you fix to eat.

This is delicious chili! I also like to add a can or two of those Mexican stewed
tomatoes when I add the can of beans. This year I was able to add a quart of diced tomatoes to the brick and it was delicious. If you have none of your own canned tomatoes just use commercial products.

Bon Appetite

When I first started reading your post I was wondering what you were going to do with such a large pot of chili, then I read on. These Chili Bricks are one of the best ideas I have heard in a long time. I would never try to vacuum pack this because it is a liquid and I never would have thought to freeze it into a brick first. I freeze cookie dough in ice cube trays and then put them in a plastic bag, and I free chicken pieces on a baking sheet then transfer them to a bag so they will stay loose and I can take out a couple pieces at a time. But this is new to me, and a brilliant idea!

 

[CarolPa]

Carol, what do you do to it to make it keep if you don't use sugar?

Not that keen on it on bread but I use it in the flan case under the apples for a French apple tart (not much use to you, of course)

You know, I never thought of that. I did some research online and there are several recipes out there for apple butter that have no sugar and they are suggesting putting it in freezer containers and freezing it. My recipe only makes about 4 small jars, so I probably could make it, keep a jar for myself, and give the others to my family to eat right away. I even found a recipe that makes just 1 jar!

 

[taxlady]

Ralph's (my uncle) Chili Bricks Circa 1930
...

10 pounds of meat. Do you cook that in a huge skillet. How big? Or is it some other kind of pot?