Preserving: Peppers, Chilies & Pesto

Summer is coming to an end, and so is the first season I've put an effort in preserving the harvest.  It's been a learning process and a revelation as to the amount of stamina it takes to really put by enough food for winter.  I didn't even come close to hitting that mark, but now there's a better understanding of what it would take.  My hat is off to our grandparents and all the ancestors before us who danced to the annual rhythm of sowing, growing, and preserving food.  It's truly and art.  And a marathon.

One of the last tastes of summer to tuck away are the peppers and chilies.   To preserve extra bell peppers for later use in dishes like simple chili, refried beans, and spaghetti sauce, I simply chop the tops off, de-seed, cut them into fourths, and give them a whirl in the food processor.

I chopped three peppers this time around, so I'm dividing it into thirds and freezing them in individual containers.  When a recipe calls for a minced bell pepper, I grab one of these guys from the freezer and plop it in the pot, already nicely minced and harvested in-season.

After making several batches of salsa verde, there are still serranos and jalapeños that need to be rescued from going bad, so I followed the first part of the same procedure as the bell peppers.  You can de-seed these smaller guys but you don't have to.  I just chopped the tops off and called it good.

I keep track of how many chilies (or peppers) I'm mincing, then they are divided into however many were just processed, gently pressed down into an ice cube tray, and frozen in one-chili-sized cubes.

Once they are frozen, they're put into an air-tight container (this is what I use and love) and stored in the freezer for whenever I'd like to add a bit of summer's heat to a dish.

I also freeze pesto in ice cube trays and use them for turkey pesto pasta, as pizza sauce, in soups, or anything I want tasting pesto-ish.

Have you done any preserving this year, or tried any new methods?  I'd love to hear about your success stories and save them to pull out for next year.  Happy harvesting and preserving, friends!  Before we know it, we'll be sipping hot tea by the wood stove again.  Bliss!

I'm sharing this at Simple Lives Thursday, Pennywise Platter.

Preserving: What I Choose To Freeze

Maybe it goes without saying, but I'm an incurable squirrel.  There is this insatiable instinct that kicks in from summer to fall where I have to put food up for the year, whether it's home-grown or not.  I find great satisfaction filling our pantry and freezer with nourishing, homemade staples.  Depending on what I can get my hands on or grow, every year looks a little different.  Since I don't have a pressure canner, I mostly stick to high-acid items to can, like jam, salsa, and tomato sauce.  But I'm not a strict canner, and with the purchase of our first beef cow last February, we put a chest freezer in the barn to expand our freezing capabilities.  Here's a breakdown of what fills our freezer and why:

• Beans.  Because of BPA and lack of flavor, I stopped buying canned beans years ago.  It is extremely cheap to buy dry beans and they are easy to make.  About once a month, I make a new batch of refried beans to stick in the freezer and pull from.  I'll also soak and cook big batches of black, navy, and garbanzo beans to freeze in batches and pull out for soups, side dishes, and hummus.
• Berries.  We pick most of the berries we eat ourselves.  We have plans to plant many blueberry bushes, raspberry canes, and a huge strawberry patch, but for now we frequent the no-spray strawberry stand down the road while they are in season.  Some are made into jam, some are eaten fresh, and some are frozen (here's how to freeze them).  There is a you-pick blueberry farm we can utilize for our blueberry stash.  I use some for fruit leathers and freeze the rest.  Wild blackberries grow everywhere up here so we usually choose an August morning to pick as many as we can.  Some are dehydrated and put in scones or snacks and the rest are frozen for smoothies or frozen treats.
• Beef.  Twice a year we go in with three other families on a grass-fed cow.  This takes up the majority of our chest freezer.
• Fruit slices.  We'll stock up on peaches, nectarines, and apricots.  After washing, pitting, and slicing them (you may also want to peel them), I lay them out on a cookie sheet, not touching, let them freeze, and put them in an air-tight container and back in the freezer.  They are used for smoothies and crisps.  My kids also like to eat the frozen slices by themselves.
• Nuts.  We glean walnuts with a friend every October.  The kids and I shell them (they can't be stored in their shells), then I soak, dehydrate, and freeze them for use throughout the year.  We also buy bulk pecans and almonds and I soak, dehydrate, and freeze those too.  Freezing prevents their oils from becoming rancid.  They are used to eat by themselves, put into raw dishes, for pies, or nut butters.
• Almond flour.  We buy it by the 25-pound box when it's on sale and I freeze it in 5-pound containers to make a plethora of grain free dishes like blueberry banana bars and apple cinnamon coffee cake.
• Spelt Flour.  After milling spelt berries with my handy dandy WonderMill, I store it in the freezer to keep it fresh.  I use it to make sourdough flatbread and many other baked goods.
• Seeds.  If you haven't noticed, bulk-buying is my jam, yo.  I soak and dehydrate seeds too, and pull them out when I need them.  I use: sunflower seeds for salads, butters, and raw dishes, sesame seeds for baba ghanoush or anything I feel like sprinkling them on, and chia seeds for smoothies and many other dishes.
• Coconut flour.  I buy bulk coconut flour here (usually 2-4 bags at a time), pull out one bag at a time to store in the fridge and make things like zucchini chocolate chunk muffins, orange muffins, maple pecan cupcakes, and pigs in a blanket with it.
• Corn.  While corn is in season, I boil the cobs, cut off the corn, and freeze it to make things like creamed corn for the oncoming holidays.
• Green beans.  This is another crop I'm freezing to make our favorite green bean casserole (now modified to be gluten-free) for Thanksgiving.
• Pies.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, this year I tucked a couple grain-free apricot pies away in the freezer to lighten the load once holiday baking mania hits.
• Cobblers.  I also made a couple cobblers using the same ingredients of the pie mentioned above sans the pie crust.  Those will be nice to pull out as a treat on a cold winter's night.
• Cacao.  Another bulk item that resides in the freezer for raw hot chocolate, raw samoas, and other yummy treats. 
• Leftovers.  They don't happen often these days with all these growing kids running around here, but when we end up with leftovers, I freeze them to pull out on a busy night.  This prevents the urge to fall prey to becoming dependent on drive-thrus or take-outs.
• Tortillas.  Once I get my tortilla press, I'll start making them again.  For now, I buy them in bulk and freeze those guys, too.
• Bone stock.  Chicken and beef stock take up a lot of space in the freezer.  We use it for nourishing potato cheddar soup, creamy tomato bisque, warming butternut squash soup, slow cooker beans and greens, slow cooker beef & root veggie stew, enchilada sauce, and for cooking rice.
• Enchilada sauce.  We usually go through one batch of this enchilada sauce a year, frozen in 1-pint mason jars.  Each pint is enough for one batch of these enchiladas.

There ya have it, folks.  These are the things that fill the Riddle freezer.  Please ignore the sounds of squirrel chirps.  Sometimes it escapes me without notice.  What do you like to freeze?

I'm sharing this at Monday Mania, Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Pennywise Platter.

Preserving: Homemade Fruit Roll Ups ~ A Recipe

When I was a child, back in the days before home computers, cell phones, and Internet (my children don't understand how we survived), I loved me a good fruit roll-up.  You'd take the roll out of it's package and peel that leather off the wax paper.  From there, it was a matter of art and personal expression.  Some would roll the fruit leather back up and eat it like a burrito.  Others would hold it flat like a tortilla and take bites off it.  Me?  I rolled it around my thumb and sucked it clean off.  Wait.  I didn't actually just share my technique to the public, did I?  Don't tell anyone.

Now on to more adult-ish talk.  Did you know some kinds of fruit roll ups don't even have any fruit?  And most of them contain high fructose corn syrup (probably GMO), partially hydrogenated soybean oil ( also probably GMO), artificial colors and flavors, and MSG (listed as "natural flavor")?!  What the what?
"Sign me up for eating every horrid ingredient on the planet disguised as a fruit snack!"
Said no one ever.
Fruit leathers are the simplest things to make and the only ingredient needed is -- get this -- fruit!  You may also add spices like cinnamon if you want to get wild and crazy.

I waited forever to make fruit leathers because I thought I needed official non-stick dehydrator sheets. (NOTE: Although they won't be raw, you can still make these in the oven at 170º.  Check on them after 6 hours.) Then I remembered how I used to peel the leathers off the wax and thought, why not dehydrate them right on the wax paper?  Uh, yeah.  So here's how it works.  I've found that filling the blender with fruit will make enough purée for three sheets on the ol' Excalibur.  Depending on how many trays your dehydrator has, make as many batches that you need to fill that thing up.  If you can purée a fruit, you can leather it.  Here's what we're making today:

Peach Cobbler Fruit Roll Ups
Makes about 15, prep: 10 minutes, dehydrate 6-8 hours

• 2 bananas
• 4 peaches
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Peel bananas.  Remove peach pits & cut out any bruises.

 

  

Purée all ingredients in a blender.  You'll get the best results in a high speed blender like a Vita-Mix.  You might need to use the agitator to push fruit down to the blades.

Cover 3 dehydrator trays with wax paper (I like to use this unbleached kind).  Pour 1/3 purée over each tray.  Spread it as evenly as possible over the paper so it will dry evenly.  I use my favorite spatula of all history for this job.

  Remember that the leathers will shrink to less than half their current sizes, so spread them to about this thickness (about 1/3 inch, but no need to get too perfectionistic):

Dehydrate at 105º for about 6-8 hours, depending on the thickness of the leather.  Check on them periodically.  If they are dried for too long, they will become chips.  Not long enough will leave them with soggy spots and unsafe to store at room temperature.  Once they are ready, they'll be firm enough to peel off but not at all brittle.

Roll the sheets up, one at a time, in a tight spiral.

Cut them evenly into fourths.  This will make a sizable roll up.

Now roll individual leathers in plastic wrap.  Store in the pantry.  If they are fully dehydrated with no soggy spots, they should be good at room temperature for six months to a year.

Pros:

• I love that the leathers have practically no contact with the toxic-leaching plastic wrap with this method.   
• These are fabulous snacks for on the go and something wonderful to slip into school lunches.  They have been tested on eight picky eaters who love the Trader Joe's fruit leathers and they said they liked these better!
• Many flavors can be made.  Our favorites are blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry.  We like berries.  And all you use are, well, the berries!  In the fall we look forward to apple roll ups.

Con:

• I struggle that there is waste involved.  Ya just can't reuse wax paper and plastic wrap, I'm afraid.  

Cost breakdown:
Because it's easiest to see the pricing using a 2-pound box of blueberries, I'm going to pull this from making two batches of blueberry leathers.  Banana leathers are probably the cheapest to make unless you're using homegrown produce, the next cheapest is fruit, then berries.  Two pounds organic blueberries made 2 batches (30 roll-ups), costing 17 cents each.  The fruit leathers we used to buy at Trader Joe's cost 49 cents.  If you are working with homegrown produce or some given to you, these babies are free outside of the wax paper and plastic wrap!

Do I think it's worth it?  Well, all my children enjoy them, it only takes about ten minutes of my time to blend, spread, cut, and wrap many of them at once, and they are super cheap.  I'm in love!  This is definitely one method of preserving we will continue to use.

Thrilled with the size of this fruit roll up.

I'm sharing this at Monday Mania, Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter.

Preserving ~ Canning Salsa Verde

We are in the thick of summer.  I'm learning that harvesting isn't what takes the majority of the time; it's preserving the harvest that fills our days.  Wanting it to count, I'm preserving things we eat a lot of.

My husband pretty much puts salsa verde on everything.  What I mean by everything is everything.  Well, besides sweets.  That's why part three of this preserving series is all about salsa verde.  We used to buy it at Trader Joe's, but it's not organic and it has "natural flavors" which is code for MSG.  We can't have that, can we?  I was delightfully surprised to find how easy it was to make it.  The most time-consuming part was unwrapping the tomatillos; a job my younger two happily helped with when I told them it's good practice for unwrapping Christmas and birthday presents.  Speaking of presents, having homemade goods on hand can be used as lovely gifts.  I made three batches of this recipe to last us for the year (and maybe share a jar or two, if Jeremy lets me).  This is a hotter recipe than the one at Trader's but I wouldn't classify it as hot.  It's more of a medium salsa.  If you want it hotter, add more chilies.  If you're interested in a fermented version of salsa verde, you might want to try this recipe.  It didn't go over well here and I wanted something to last thru the year so we stuck with canning.

Equipment needed:
Read about canning basics here.  There is an initial investment in canning.  The beauty of it is you get to use it over and over again and if canning is something you love, it's totally worth it.  If you have absolutely no canning equipment, I recommend getting this canning kit.  It has absolutely everything you need besides the jars and the ingredients.  You will also need canning jars; either one flat of 1-pint jars or two flats of half-pint jars.  If you are making this for yourself, I highly recommend also getting these reusable, BPA-free lids and using them instead of the ones that come with the jars.  You can use those later when you make a batch to give away or use as gifts.  You'll also want and immersion blender to purée the salsa.

Ingredients:
Prep. time: 1.5 hours, yields about 10 pints

• 5 pounds tomatillos
• 9 serrano chilies or jalepeños (we preferred serranos)
• 2 cups lemon or lime juice, or a mixture of the two
• 2 peaches
• 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 onions
• 16 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon Celtic sea salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin

This, my friends, is a bag of gorgeous, organic tomatillos, still wrapped in their husks.

First, remove the husks.  This is a happy job to do with others.

We had one bowl for the husks (that were given to the chickens) and one for the naked tomatillos.  They're sticky once the husks are removed.  Wash them well.  Mine were still a bit sticky even after I soaked them in this produce wash and thoroughly rinsed them.

Husking the tomatillos might take longer than you thought.  It's okay.  They keep really well.  I think mine waited on the countertop a coupe days after husking them before they became salsa.  Poor lil naked guys.  Waiting so long for their home in a jar.

Once you're ready to can, fill the canner to that line you see the water almost touching.

Place your clean jars, seven at a time, into the canner.  Heat on high and bring to a boil.  Drop your lids, seals, and rings (or if you're not using the reusable tops, you'll just have lids and rings) into a pot full of water, bring to a boil, then turn the heat to simmer and let them sit there until you're ready for them.

While you're waiting for the canner to come to a boil, cut the tips off the chilies.  You won't want to touch them.  Trust me on that one.  Unless you enjoy the feeling of throbbing fingers as you fall asleep that night.  I didn't have any gloves except for the ones I clean with (ew) so I used a plastic bag.

Put tomatillos and chilies in a large sauce or stock pot.  No need to seed the chilies.  Nice, right?

Now juice the lemons and/or limes.  It's important to use this much lemon/lime juice to keep the acidity levels safe enough to can the salsa.  Add it to the pot with the tomatillos and chillies and bring it to a boil.

While you're waiting for the mixture to boil, coarsely cut onions and peel garlic.  Peel, pit, and quarter peaches.  Remove cilantro leaves from stems.  If the tomatillos and chilies come to a boil before you're done, turn the heat to a simmer and finish preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Add cilantro, peaches, garlic, onions, salt, and cumin to hot mixture.  Use immersion blender until everything is puréed.

Turn heat to medium/high and bring to a boil while stirring constantly.  Boil for about one minute, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Skim off any foam.

Ladle the salsa into the jars using a funnel.  Leave one half inch head space (the space between the surface of the salsa and the top of the jar).

Wipe the rim with a damp towel to ensure proper sealing.

Place the seal on the jar.  Make sure it's centered so it seals properly.

Add the lid and screw on the band until it's snuggly sealed but not too tight.  Air bubbles need room to be let out.

Process in a hot water bath for 20 minutes.  To see my method for water baths and rotating empty and full jars, look through the strawberry jam post.

Set the jars in a draft-free area where they won't be disturbed.  If you're using Tattler lids, unscrew the bands the following day and check to see if they sealed.  Store them in a cool, dry, dark place until you're ready to enjoy.

Cost breakdown:

• 5 pounds organic tomatillos: $10
• 12 1-pint jars (mine were given to me so they were free) $9.55 (reusable!)
• 1 packet Tattler lids: (also given to me so they were free) $12 (don't forget they're reusable too!)
• Lemons & peaches (given to me from friends' trees): FREE
• Onions, salt, cumin, cilantro: $2.50
• Garlic (homegrown): FREE

My total cost: $1.25 per 1-pint jar

Cost to buy NON-organic salsa verde: $5.70

Once we grow our own tomatillos, onions, and cilantro this salsa will practically be free!

Did I think it was worth it?  Definitely.  Preserving salsa verde has been fit into our summer rhythm from here on out.

~ Browse more Riddlelove recipes here. ~

Preserving ~ Strawberry Jam the Real Food Way

Strawberry season is wrapping up here in our neck of the woods, but if you hurry you might be able to snatch a flat or two before it's too late.  Some folks actually prefer waiting for the end of the season to get their strawberries because they believe them to be sweetest, though they are a lot smaller than those big ones harvested at the beginning of the season.

The recipe I use is found in the Pamona's pectin box.  It's simple, amazing, and only uses half the sugar in normal jams.  You also have the option of using honey which allows those on the GAPS diet to enjoy jam so delicious it'll feel like you're cheating.  The honey option also makes it Paleo-friendly.  

I make double batches at once which is technically a no-no because this can make your jam more runny if you're not careful.  I'm not willing to take the time it does to make single batches and I haven't had much trouble with it being runny.  

If you haven't already, I started a preserving series last week where I talked about equipment needed and why I decided to return to my canning roots even after becoming a real foodie.  You can find that post here.  This is a continuation of that discussion in our journey of preserving this summer's harvest.  Let's bring this chat over to my kitchen and start jamming, shall we?

Strawberry jam is our favorite jam, hands-down.  Once you experience the homemade version, you'll never want to buy another jar of it again.  The taste and color absolutely does not compare.  We'll break it down to cost comparison and worth at the end of the post, but for now, let's fill the canner with water up to the indent you see there:

Now we move this beast to the stovetop, place seven clean, empty jars in it to sanitize, put the lid on it, and set it to boil.  Next, we put the lids, seals, and bands into a medium-sized sauce pan, cover it with water, and bring that to a boil.  Once it boils, I set it to simmer.  I am making some for us to keep and some to give away, so there is a mixture of BPA-free, reusable Tattler lids for us and the disposable kind that come with the jars we'll use for the gifts.

While the big canner continues to come up to a boil, we'll start getting the berries ready.  First, I soak them in some produce wash and rinse them off.  While the strawberries continue to drain in the colander, I start taking the stems off, toss the stems into the chicken scrap bowl, and chop the berries into thirds if they're small or sixths if they're large.  The chopped berries go into the eight-cup measuring cup.

We'll need eight cups of mashed berries.  I gave the potato masher to my four-year-old and she became the official strawberry smusher.

While she did that, I measured the organic evaporated cane juice.  I decided to use this sweetener because it's way cheaper than honey and a little of it goes a long way with this kind of pectin.  It's very important to thoroughly mix the pectin in with the sugar or the pectin will glop up and you'll end up with runny jam and globs of pectin.

Next, you mix calcium water (it comes with the pectin as well as instructions on how to use it) with the fruit and bring it to a boil.  Slowly pour in the sugar or honey/pectin mixture and bring to a boil for a minute.  I stir constantly through this whole process.  I highly recommend skimming off that foam.  I didn't and once the jam settled down in the jar, it left a bigger headspace (the space from the jam to the lid) than I wanted.

Your canner should be full of boiling water at this point, so use your jar lifter to take your first empty jar out.  Put the funnel on top of the empty jar and start ladling that strawberry goodness into the jar, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.  My funnel has a line on it to use as a reference on where to stop filling.

Now get a clean towel (paper or cloth), fold it, and dip it into the scalding water in the canner.  

Use it to wipe the rim clean.

Use tongs to first get a seal out (if you're using the lids that come with the jars, the seal is attached to the lid).

Carefully put the seal on the center of he jar's rim.  If it's off-center if won't seal properly and you'll have to throw the jam out which is a travesty of epic proportion.

Next, center the lid on...

and screw the band on until it's snug but not super tight.  Air bubbles need to be able to escape from the jar during the water bath that's coming up.

In goes the jar of jam to the water bath.  Repeat this until all jars are full.  Put the lid on the canner and allow to sterilize.  This jam is supposed to get a ten-minute water bath, so after the canner is full of filled jars, I set the timer for seven minutes and by the time I get each jar out, they'll have been in there for that long.  Just keep track of which jar goes in first.  I start at the top of the canner and go clock-wise.

Sometimes, you end up with some extra jam.  We call this Mommy's stash, er, cook's jam.  It goes straight in the fridge and is ready to be gobbled up.

While the jam is bathing (tehe), it's time to wash the equipment for round two.  I buy a flat of berries at a time which can make two double batches.

When the jam is ready to come out, I place it carefully on the counter under a dish towel.  You can also put them on cooling racks but I get nervous about them getting knocked off.  Take the jar out that you put in first and replace it with an empty jar for the next batch.  Continue until all the filled jars are out and empty jars have taken their place.  Now we get to do the process all over again!

One of my favorite parts about canning is hearing the rewarding ping! of the seals sealing.  Sadly, Tattler lids are anti-climactic in this way and you aren't able to tell if they have sealed  until the next day when it's safe to move the jars and you unscrew the bands to see if they're sealed shut.  

Now let's break it all down.

In a nutshell, did I think it was worth making strawberry jam?

Yes.  Yes I did.

Like I said, once you experience the superiority of homemade strawberry jam, it's hard to go back to store-bought.  It's downright heavenly.

Here's what it cost me:

• 1 flat of no-spray strawberries from down the road: $18 (strawberries will be free once we establish our big ol' patch)
• 1 packet pectin: $3.50
• 13 1-pint jars (mine were given to me so they were free) $9.55 (reusable!)
• 1 packet Tattler lids: (also given to me so they were free) $12 (don't forget they're reusable too!)
• 8 cups organic evaporated cane juice (I buy it in 25-pound bags and also use it for kombucha): $9.60

Total cost for me:  $2.39/1-pint jar.

If I grew my own berries (easy and someday!): $1.07/pint!

A 16-ounce jar of store-bought organic strawberry jam costs $4.00

All the prices referenced were found at Azure Standard.

Not only does it end up being cheaper, it's also about half the cost of store-bought jam and, again, you just can't compare the end result to what you find at a store.  SO GOOD!  It will really be worth it once we grow our own strawberries.  I think they're the easiest berries to grow and my kids love picking them with me; so there's no labor cost and we all get paid with a pantry full of strawberry jammed goodness.

Getting your feet wet is the hardest part of canning.  Once you do it, you might find yourself looking for things to can just to have an excuse to do it.  It's kinda addicting and very rewarding.  Now go get some strawberries before the season is over and let me know what you think!

I'm sharing this at Seasonal Roundup, Real Food Wednesday, Fight Back Friday.