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Archive for the ‘Canning’ Category

While doing my shopping at WalMart on Friday (which is my most favorite place in America) I found the jalapeno peppers, and they were just calling my name. I’ve been thinking that we would need about two more batches of jalapeno jelly this year. So far I’ve made about 6 batches all together, two of which were sold to a friend and I know that the family will be expecting their fair share too. Jalapeno jelly is one of those things that once you start, you just don’t want to stop……it’s like your taste buds just keep wanting more for some reason. This is generally served at most of our holiday get togethers and then I also take some in to work from time to time. It is always a big hit, no matter who your crowd is.

You’ll need about 4 jalapeno peppers, and one medium red bell pepper, some apple cider vinegar, sugar and liquid pectin. This batch makes about 7 half pints, so don’t forget your jars and lids along with a fairly good sized stock pot and a good spoon.

Start by mincing the peppers in the food processor, don’t puree as you’ll want the little pieces of color to show through your jelly. I included all the seeds and veins from the jalapenos, but they could just as easily be removed – just depending upon your tastes.

All minced up and ready for the cooking.

Add the vinegar, peppers, and sugar to the stock pot – add 1/4 tsp butter to prevent alot of foam from forming.

Because my stove is a flat top, I put my burner on high and leave it there until the jelly is finished. You’ll need to keep a very close eye on this though, because with all that sugar in the mix, it would certainly be easy to burn this. Once it comes to a full rolling boil (can’t be stirred down) stir constantly and time 3 minutes of boiling time. Quickly add the liquid pectin and boil for 1 minute longer.

The jars are still hot from the dishwasher, so I use a large mouthed funnel and a ladel to pour the hot jelly in the jars, filling them up to about 1/2 inch from the top rim. Carefully wipe the rims with a clean wet rag and tighten warm lids. Allow to cool completely before storing.

This is what it looks like when it’s done, the color is kind of festive and the flavor is most delightful too. Serve with cream cheese and butter type crackers.

Jalapeno Jelly
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped jalapeno pepper
5 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 (6 fluid ounce) container liquid pectin

Directions:
Remove stems, veins and most of the seeds of the bell and jalapeno peppers. Mince peppers in a food processor (do not puree). In a 5-quart pot over high heat, combine bell peppers, jalapenos, sugar and vinegar. Bring to a rolling boil; boil for 3 minutes. Add pectin and return to a rolling boil for one minute more. Pour into hot, sterilized jars and top with sterilized lids. Secure lids with bands and allow jars to cool slowly, creating a vacuum seal.

I’m still in the mode for canning and preserving, let’s face it….I just love to do it and I love to write about it afterward. We’ve been getting a lot of really great tomatoes off of our vines, it’s amazing what 4 little plants can produce. Who would have thought?

I wanted to shake things up a little bit this time because I’ve discovered that wonderful smokey flavor that the chipotle peppers offer, combine that will the flavors of salsa and wow, it’s good!

The part that I think takes the longest is chopping all those nice veggies up, it does take a bit to do it all, but in the end it’s certainly worth it.

To remove the skins off the tomatoes, they need to go into boiling water for just a minute or two. This allows the skin to loosen and peel right off. Then as soon as they’re finished in the boiling water, place them in a sink of really cool water to cool off before handling them.

Then cut up all those onions, peppers, garlic and add everything else to the pot.

Then when it starts to boil, turn the heat down so that it can sit in the pot and simmer, and make the entire kitchen smell wonderful, and make me want some chips to go with it.

Once it simmers in the pot and has to chance to really smell wonderful for and hour and a half, go ahead and ladle it into warm jars. I try to time the dishwasher and the end of the cooking time so that the jars are still hot. Once the hot salsa is in the jars, I use jar lids that have simmered on the stove in some water just to keep them warm as well. Hand tighten and process in the hot water bath.

Just a little tip: After the salsa has been processed, it is important to make sure the jars aren’t sitting too closely to one another while they are cooling. Having the jars touching or too close can slow the cooling process down and can affect the quality of your product. This holds true with any type of canning.

Chipotle Chili Salsa

Ingredients:
10 C tomatoes, skins removed and chopped
2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 C red wine vinegar
5 large onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
5 tsp pickling salt
2 large cans tomato paste
2 – 4 jalapeno peppers, chopped
1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
5 tbsp sugar

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot, simmer on medium heat 1 1/2 hours. Ladel hot salsa into warm pint jars, use warm jar lids. Process in a hot water bath 35 minutes for pints, 45 minutes for quarts. Makes 10 pints

It’s getting to be that time of the year where I’m getting the itch to can things like salsa and such and low and behold, the tomatoes are turning red and just begging to be made into salsa….or anything else I can think of.

I discovered this recipe a couple of years ago and it’s seriously been a hit with the entire family, including the parents, nieces and nephews and the like. I end up making about 3 batches of this stuff every year because I can’t keep it in stock if I don’t. This makes about 13 pint jars of salsa.

 The most time consuming part of this whole canning process is cutting the vegetables up, but once that’s done you’re well on your way to some pretty tasty stuff.

 First the tomatoes need to take a nice warm bath in a pot of boiling water for just a couple of minutes to loosen the skins.

 Then a nice cold bath to cool off a bit.

 And then the chopping of the onions and peppers. The spices, sugar and vinegar go in too.

 Then finally peel the tomatoes and cut them up as well as you can, they don’t need to be perfect, just cut them up and they will do their magic in the pot, then add the tomato paste and simmer for about an hour and a half. Mmmm, that smells wonderful! When the salsa is at the end of it’s cooking time, 1/2 bunch of cilantro can be added is desired.

 Use a wide mouthed funnel and a ladel to pour the hot salsa in warm jars. Wipe the tops of the jars and quickly tighten the lids on top. Process in a hot water bath, 35 minutes for pint jars and 45 minutes for quart jars.

 Slightly Sweet Canned Salsa

 Ingredients:

30 tomatoes peeled and chopped

2 green bell peppers, chopped

2 red bell peppers, chopped

10 C onions, chopped

10 cloves garlic, chopped

4 – 5 banana pepper or 1 Cup chopped jalapenos, chopped

1/2 C sugar

2 cups vinegar

8 tsp pickling salt

2 tsp black ground pepper

2 large cans tomato paste

 Directions;

Chop onions, peppers, tomatoes and garlic, add remaining ingredients and simmer for 1 1/2 hrs, stirring often. At the end of the cooking time add 1/2 bunch of cilantro if desired.

 Process in a hot water bath 35 minutes for pint jars and 45 minutes for quart jars. Makes 13 pints.

The closer we come to fall, the more I get the itch to start my canning. I love to make fruit jellies and jams, especially when I can find huckle berries, I think that they are my all time favorite! Anyway, on Saturday I decided that it was time to officially get this thing started. Whew, there all kinds of things happening all over the place and my kitchen was a really huge mess afterward.

When I was a kid, one of the things that was made each year was Dilly Beans, and I remember I just couldn’t wait until we could eat some. The only problem with Dilly Beans is that they never lasted as long as we wanted, because everyone else thought they were fantastic too.

At this point, the entire kitchen and the front room, smell really good!
This year, I wanted to experiment a little so I added asparagus in some of the jars.

Dill Beans


Ingredients:
2 lb. fresh breen beans, with the ends snapped off
1 quart apple cider vinegar
2 quarts water
1/2 C kosher or canning salt
1 C sugar
1/2 tsp. alum
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Dried dill


Directions:
Bring all of the above ingredients (with the exception of the beans and the dill) to a boil. While you’re waiting for that to happen, using pint jars, first place a couple of sprigs of dill in the bottom of each jar, then stand the beans up inside the jars – don’t be afraid to pack those beans in there fairly tight because the hot liquid causes a little shrinking. Once you have the dill and the beans in each of the jars, and the liquid mixture has come to a boil, ladle the hot liquid into each jar, leaving about 1/2 inch from the top. Tighten a lid on each jar and place into a water bath for 45 minutes. Allow to sit for 2 weeks before eating, that’s when the flavor will be the very best.


Note: Make sure the water in the bath has come to a boil again before beginning the timing.
Makes about 10 pints of beans.