A further celebration of citrus. And a lot of mason jars.

The USDA dictates that home-preserved jams and jellies should be used within a year. I personally call a bit of BS, because well-canned stuff will last for a bit longer. Still, flavor begins to degrade within two years and really, why on earth would you want to eat preserves from two years ago when there is a fresh harvest in the present?

Which leads us to this:

I currently have a few jars of strawberry jam left, as well as blueberry, four-berry, and peach butter.

Andre’s father liked preserving. He made actual fig preserves, fig jam of various flavors, and Muscadine grape jellies. The whole fig preserves served over hot biscuits are absolutely divine.( I probably need to make some this year, when the figs come in.)

However, back to the picture above: that is representative of about 6 dozen mason jars filled with said preserves, jams, and jellies. I’m told they were light brown when first canned. Well, they were in fact not light brown when they were un-canned. Fifteen and a half years to six years later. Andre’s dad canned a lot of figs, as you can tell…………..and they needed to be gotten rid of. They were taking up space and cluttering up their house.

So, I was told I could have as many of the old jars as I wanted, as long as I cleaned them out. I figured this wouldn’t be too hard, right? Well, on top of the obvious expiration date, the jar rims hadn’t actually been wiped after the stuff was poured in, so there was ten-plus-year-old-sugar-gunk left under the rings. I had to soak the jars in really hot water for thirty minutes before the rims would even budge. Actually, some wouldn’t come apart after two hours of soaking, so the entire jar got recycled. (I’d like to apologize at the people working at the recycle plant.) Apart from being quite unsanitary, I’m also pretty sure I got carpal tunnel syndrome from having to unscrew all of the tops. Because that would be six dozen tops, people. Put this on top of the fact that they weren’t canned with a boiling-water canner (considerably more sanitary than the inversion method, to be frank. Hence why the USDA says to do it that way…..)I got some pretty cool fungal colonies off of these suckers.

What?! The smooth tops of the jelly made a beautiful growth surface for all of that gorgeous colony morphology.

If I hadn’t feared for my life, I would have smacked some of those suckers on some PDA and watched them grow.

Leave me alone.....

Anyway, I eventually got through this laborious task, and now I don’t have to buy jars this year! Yay!

So what was the first thing I canned this year? Well, a couple of things, actually. Sadly, I did not take pictures.

The first was strawberry marmalade. I had some Meyer lemons (see the Lemon Cake Pops!) and some navel oranges, so I went to town with this recipe. 

I use no-sugar needed pectin. You can add up to seven cups of sugar- the normal amount in most jam recipes. However, this pectin allows for greater control of the sweetness level. And why on earth would you cover up all that beautiful berry taste with too much sugar if it doesn’t need it?

Strawberry marmalade:

• Four cups strawberries

• One large navel orange or two smaller oranges
• One large lemon (I used a Meyer but regular lemons are fine) or two smaller lemons
• 3-5 cups of sugar, depending on the sweetness of your berries (Mine were very sweet, so I only needed 3.5 cups)
• 3 tablespoons no-sugar needed pectin (or one box no-sugar needed pectin)

Directions:

•     Prepare your boiling water canner, jars, lids, and other canning tools.
• Zest the citrus fruits, making sure to leave the white pith on the fruit. Chop the zests finely. Place them into a small saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Simmer for ten minutes. Drain, and reserve.
•  Chop your strawberries using a large knife. I find that it is easiest to halve or quart them, then chop about half to the point of basically being mashed. Place them in a bowl or big cup. You may notice that the juices will begin to get thick- this is the strawberries’ natural pectin coming out. 
• . Using a small paring knife, remove the pith and discard. Section the orange and lemon by cutting between the membranes, removing the juicy slices. Roughly chop these slices. Don't include the inner membranes of the fruit- these are too chewy and no amount of cooking will ever break them down. 
• Toss the sectioned fruit in with the strawberries.
• Combine your pectin with a few tablespoons of sugar. This stops the pectin from clumping together annoyingly.
• Place your strawberry-pulp mixture, drained zests, and pectin into a large pot. Bring to a hard boil that cannot be stirred down. Be careful not to burn your fruit. I find that strawberries burn pretty easily.
• Add your sugar, one cup at a time. Stir between additions. The mixture will stop boiling. Once the sugar is well-incorporated, bring back up to a hard boil that can’t be stirred down. Boil very hard for one minute, stirring constantly. Quickly remove from the heat.
• Ladle the hot marmalade into sterile jars. Screw the lid and ring tight on the top.
• Process in your canner for fifteen minutes. Remove from the water, and allow to cool and set before eating (obviously.)

I also had cranberries left over, plus some pears I froze back in the fall. So I made cranberry-pear chutney!  Cranberries have so much natural pectin, you don’t have to use additional stuff. It’s pretty substantially vinegary- so if you don’t like this much vinegar, you can always substitute some of the liquids for water. I would use at least 1/3 cup vinegar, though.

 Cranberry-pear chutney:

• ¾  cup apple cider vinegar
• Two 12-oz bags fresh or thawed frozen cranberries
• Two cups chopped pears (I used pineapple pears, as this was what my dad grows)
• One white or yellow onion, chopped medium
• ½ cup raisins
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh ginger (you can grate it if you want it to be very fine)
• Zest of a lemon or an orange (yes, I zest a lot of citrus.)
• 1 cup dark brown sugar (you can use more if you like it really sweet)
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon (preferably freshly ground) nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• Pinch of salt, optional

Directions:

• If you’re canning this, prepare your canner, jars, lids, etc.
• Combine all ingredients in a large pot, stirring the sugar and spices to coat all of the fruit. Bring the mixture to a boil. The cranberries will begin to pop. If several pop at once, it can make a rather loud and startling sound that scares the bejeezus out of you. Once it comes to a boil, stir over medium-low heat. It will seem that the fruit is just kind of floating around in the vinegar for a little while. That’s okay. Just keep stirring, and eventually the mixture will begin to turn deep red and thicken. This will take about twenty to thirty minutes.
• Ladle your chutney into jars. Process for twenty minutes in the boiling water canner.

Pear-ginger-orange marmalade:

• ½ cup fresh ginger, diced really fine
• 2 cups firm pears, peeled and chopped
• 2 large orange, zested
• 4 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons no-sugar-needed pectin

Directions:

• Prepare canner, jars, lids, etc.
• Place the zest into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, and simmer for ten minutes. Drain the zests.
• Using a small paring knife, remove the pith and discard. Section the orange by cutting between the membranes, removing the juicy slices. Roughly chop the slices.
•  In a large pot, combine the ginger, pears, orange sections, zest, and pectin. Bring up to a hard boil. Add the sugar, and bring to a hard boil again. Stir continuously for 1 minute. Ladle the hot marmalade into sterile jars. Process for fifteen minutes.

Of course, you don’t have to actually can stuff in mason jars. They make fantastic containers for home made salad dressings! 

Here are two dressings that further celebrate the beauty of citrus. I promise that lemons/oranges will not be in the next entry, ha ha ha ha.

These taste great over a salad with greens such as spinach or arugula. Or both. Preferably both.

Creamy orange-yogurt salad dressing:

Isn't this mason jar cool? It's an anniversary Liberty Bell edition.

• 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup Greek yogurt (nonfat is fine. American-style yogurt is also okay, but the dressing may be a touch thinner.)
• Zest of one orange
• 1/3 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 garlic clove
• ¼ cup chives (green onions work well, too.)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• A few grinds of black pepper
• A dash of hot sauce, optional

Directions:

• Put the mayo, Greek yogurt, zest, orange juice, honey, apple cider vinegar, garlic clove, chives, salt, and black pepper in the workbowl of a blender or food processor. Blend until everything is nicely combined. Allow to stand at room temperature for a little while for the flavors to marry. Taste, and adjust salt and pepper to your personal preferences. It will begin to thicken a bit after sitting. It will thicken more after refrigeration. Dressing will keep for a week or so in the fridge.

 

This delicious vinaigrette is probably one of my favorite dressings.

Orange-cane syrup vinaigrette:

This vinaigrette will make you feel liberated, needless to say....

• ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• Zest of the oranges you’ve juiced
• ¼ cup cane syrup or molasses
• 2 tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard OR 1 tablespoon Djion mustard
• ½ teaspoon salt
• A few grinds of black pepper
• 2/3 cup canola oil

Directions:

• In the work bowl of your processor, put the orange juice, zest, cane syrup, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper. Blend together until well combined. With the processor still running, slowly integrate the canola oil thru the feed tube. Allow to emulsify. Dressing will separate after sitting. Just shake to recombine.  Dressing keeps for a few weeks in the fridge.

 

Some tasty things that go well on a salad with these dressings: candied pecans or walnuts, bleu cheese, feta cheese, dried sour cherries, dried cranberries, dried blueberries.....

 And something nice to put into a ball jar (that doesn’t have orange zest ha ha):

Spiced candied pecans:

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grate if you can)
• Dash of mace or cloves
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 12 oz. pecan halves (about 4 cups)
• ½ cup cane syrup (yes, cane syrup is a running theme in my recipes…..) or real maple syrup (grade B is preferable, or dark amber)

 Directions:

•  Preheat the oven to 350⁰ F.
• Combine the cinnamon, nutmeg, mace or cloves, and salt in a small bowl. Add the butter.
• Toss in the pecans until very well coated. Scrape any stuff from the bottom of the bowl over the pecans.
• Toast the pecans for about ten minutes in the oven.
•  Drizzle the syrup over the pecans.
• Bake about ten minutes longer.
•  Allow the nuts to cool down, then break any big pieces apart.
• Serve in a salad, or just eat them on their own.