Featured Food Blog - July 2015
Food in Jars
Meet Marisa:
Marisa McClellan is a writer, teacher, and blogger at Food in Jars. She is the author of Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round and Preserving by the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning for Small Spaces. She has written for Fine Cooking, Parents Magazine, Vegetarian Times, USA Today, the Food Network, Serious Eats, Food 52, The Kitchn, Saveur, Edible Philly, and more. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband. Find more of her jams, pickles, and preserves (all cooked up in her 80-square-foot kitchen) at www.foodinjars.com.
Tomato Jam
Yield: 3 to 4 pints, depending on variety of tomato used
5 lbs. Roma, San Marzano, or paste tomatoes, finely chopped
3½ cups Sugar
8 Tbsps Lime juice
2 tsps Freshly grated ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground cloves
1 Tbsp Salt
1 Tbsp Red chili flakes
Prepare a boiling water bath canner and enough half pint jars to hold 4 pints total product. Combine the tomatoes, sugar, lime juice, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and red chili flakes in a large, non-reactive pot. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Once the mixture has reached a hard boil, reduce temperature to medium high. Stirring regularly, cook the jam at a low boil until it reduces to a sticky, jammy mess. This will take between 1 and 1½ hours, depending on the width of your pot, the amount of water content in the tomatoes, and the temperature at which you are cooking.
When the jam has cooked down sufficiently and has the consistency of pizza sauce, remove the pot from heat. Funnel the finished jam into the prepared jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Wipe the rims, apply lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 20 minutes. When time is up, remove jars from water bath and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. When jars are cool enough to handle, test seals by removing the rings and gently picking up the jars by grasping the edges of the lids. Sealed jars can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to one year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.
"I've used this in place of ketchup with turkey burgers, as well as in places where ketchup wouldn't dare to tread. Try it with a soft, stinky cheese, it will change your life."
Time Saving Cooking Tip
Do not apologize when a batch of jam, chutney, or pickles doesn’t turn out as you had hoped. Devise a new name for it and tell people that it is exactly how you meant it to be.
Honey-Sweetened Peach Chutney
Yield: 4 pints, or 8 half pints
4 lbs Yellow peaches (about 8-9 cups once peeled and chopped)
1 medium Yellow onion, minced (about 1 cup)
2 cups Golden raisins
1¾ cups Red wine vinegar
1½ cups Honey
1 Tbsp Mustard seeds (any color is fine)
1 Tbsp Ginger, grated
1½ tsp Sea salt
½ tsp Red chili flakes
zest and juice of 1 Lemon
Cut peaches into quarters and remove pits. Pile peaches into a large, heatproof bowl. Bring a kettle of water to a boil. Once it boils, pour the water over the peach quarters. Let them sit for 2-3 minutes, until the skins wrinkle and pull away from the fruit. Peel the skins away and chop the peaches.
In a large, non-reactive pot, combine the peaches, onion, raisins, vinegar, honey, mustard seeds, ginger, salt, red chili flakes, and lemon zest and juice. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring regularly, at a brisk simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, until the chutney thickens, darkens, and the flavors start to marry. While the chutney cooks, prepare a boiling water bath canner and enough jars to hold 4 pints of chutney (I like to use half pint jars for a product like this one).
When the chutney is finished cooking, funnel it into prepared jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Wipe rims, apply lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. When time is up, remove jars from canner and place them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. Once jars are cool enough to handle, remove rings and test seals. Sealed jars can be stored on the pantry shelf for up to a year. Unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.
"Every summer and fall, I try to make at least two or three batches of chutney. It’s a handy thing to have to tuck into gift bags and it makes for a very easy potluck contribution, just combine one log of goat cheese, a jar of chutney and baguette rounds "
Follow Tina:
Pinterest: pinterest.com/foodinjars@foodinjars
Facebook: facebook.com/foodinjars@foodinjars
Tumbler: foodinjars.tumbler.com
Instagram: @foodinjars
Twitter: @foodinjars
www.foodinjars.com