Catching up with Ketchup (And Other Tomatoey Goods)

Did you know that the idea of ketchup started off as a salty, vinegary fish paste? At least according to the book Salt: A World History. Thank goodness for New World Tomatoes, huh? Not that I have anything against fish or paste made from them after they're dried and salted, but it's not what I want on top of my burger.

As you might suspect by now, I got a lot of tomatoes and processed them into a bunch of interesting forms; ketchup, salsa, sauce, paste, diced and quartered. Let me tell you, it was a lot of blanching and peeling. Fortunately, that gets quicker with only a bit of experience. The thing to keep in mind, of course, is that you want both the boiling pot and the blanching pot to be big, and if you have to choose, make the blanching pot the bigger of the two. After all, waiting for the stove to heat your water is a bit quicker than freezing enough ice to blanch with (unless you go buy some from the store...cheater).

The latter three on the list above (paste, diced and quartered tomatoes) are extremely easy. The paste is helped by having a blender, but dicing quite fine and mashing as they boil work equally well. And the diced and quartered need to be just covered with water, heated for five minutes and have 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon lemon juice added per pint when you go to can them. The processing is as all other tomato products--bubble the jars, and 35 minutes in a boiling water bath for pints (45 for quarts, 25 for half-pints).

Salsa is equally worry-free. As long as you top everything up with enough vinegar, you can put nearly anything in there. I forget our exact proportions, but I know we added garlic, onion, tomato, hot pepper, cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper. If you're canning properly, you'll want the vinegar to be hot when you add it to the jars so that you can put everything in the hot jars that have just been sterilized. Otherwise, you do run the risk of either the jars be contaminated as they cool or cracking under the thermal shock. Don't worry too much, though, as long as everything is at least room-temp when adding it the jars, there shouldn't be any of that thermal shock, but definitely don't add anything that's just been in the fridge!

So, now to the stuff that needs a recipe: ketchup and sauce. As these two products usually have many more ingredients and/or are less based on an acid, the proportions must be kept fairly close. Most spices can be done to taste, though garlic should be kept decently close as it has a bit of a different ratio of bulk to taste. Unless of course you want to use the ground dehydrated stuff. But that's up to you. Anyway, the recipes I used are as follows.

Ketchup

adapted from a lot of different recipes

3 pounds tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 large (or 2 small) clove garlic, diced
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt

Spices:
cloves, a small pinch
nutmeg, a pinch
cayenne pepper, pinch or so
peppercorns, some (to be strained out of vinegar after infusion)

Bring the vinegar to a boil, then take off heat, add the spices, cover and let steep for at least 10 minutes. (Alternately, you could put the spices in the vinegar to infuse a few days before at room temperature.)

Strain the vinegar, then add it and all other ingredients to a pot or slow-cooker and cook down until you reach your desired consistency. If you don't like chunky ketchup, you can blend this either at the beginning or end of the process.

Process as any other tomato product.

Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce

Adapted from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
via Just the Right Size
Yield: 8 cups

8 cups (2 L) coarsely chopped, peeled tomatoes (about 9-12 tomatoes)
1 cup chopped onion
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup red wine
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
6 ounces (~3/4 cup) tomato paste

Add everything to a pot and cook down to the desired consistency.

This ends up being almost completely chunky, so if you want something that has a decent base of smooth sauce, but still with chunks, I found that pureeing about 2/3 to 3/4 of the tomatoes works beautifully. Also, the yield for me was dramatically lower when I did this the first two times (once when I didn't blend any of the tomatoes, once when I blended 3/4 of them). The third time, though, I let the mixture (with 3/4 of the tomatoes blended) sit in the fridge for a couple days (though I had only intended to let it sit overnight), and I got a much better yield. I don't know exactly why this happened, but that was my experience.

Sausage, Potato, and Pepper Bake

Chris and I have had this dish a few times, and every time it is amazing. As with any casserole, the exact proportions are forgiving, as long as you keep it mostly right. As it happened, I had some delicious sourdough of which I had baked up two loaves, and the second loaf was going stale. Knowing that, and having plenty of bell peppers and potatoes, I went and picked up some hot italian sausage to make this casserole.

I really only have a word or two of caution for this dish. Make sure your potatoes are browned, as this is essential for the right texture and taste for the 'taters. And, less importantly, if your bread is very crusty, either let it soak or remove the crust before cubing it (the pieces on top will get a new crust when baking, and this prevents burning and chewiness). I did the latter this time, and it turned out wonderfully.

Sausage, Potato, and Pepper Bake
adapted from King Arthur Flour
yields 10 servings

1 pound sausage, crumbled
1 cup diced onions
1 cup diced red bell or green peppers
3 to 4 medium Red Bliss or Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled, wedged
6 cups sourdough bread, cubed
2 cups milk
6 medium eggs
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Brown the crumbled sausage in a cast-iron pan, remove from the pan, and set aside.

3. In the same pan (with the sausage fat) sauté the onions and peppers until just tender; remove from the pan and mix with the sausage.

4. Place the potatoes in the pan and fry until browned and tender (even with the sausage fat, I find this still takes an extra tablespoon of butter so that the potatoes don't stick badly).

5. Mix the sausage, vegetables and bread back into the pan with the potatoes.

6. Mix the milk, eggs, cheese, salt and pepper; pour over the ingredients in the cast-iron pan. (At this point, the dish may be refrigerated for several hours, or up to overnight.)

7. Bake the casserole for 40 to 50 minutes, until golden brown and puffy. Remove from the oven, and let sit for 10 minutes or so before serving.

Venison Curry

It sounds a bit untraditional to me, since I've not heard of too many deer in India (though I'm sure there are), however I adore venison. Luckily for me, I was recently organizing my freezer and happened across some small venison steak strips. I recalled that this batch was a little on the chewy side, and what better way to tenderize some meat than stewing it in a curry?

For those of you who are still skeptical, let me wax a bit poetic. Venison is gamey and thus laced with the flavor of the land, it has the delightful mouth-feel of well worked muscle (think beef shank or goat or what-have-you), it's delightfully lean, and (and!) I get it free from my dad or one of his friends. Really, what more could I ask for in a curry meat?

As for the curry itself, I keep it pretty simple. Onions, spices, meat, yogurt. With a side of rice. And some naan. Delightful.

Venison Curry
serves 3-4

1/2 to 1 lb venison strips (depending on how much meat you like in your curry)
1 tablespoon of oil
1-1/2 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ginger
extra chili powder (or fresh spicy pepper) to taste
salt to taste
2 to 2-1/2 cups yogurt

(0. If you so desire, you can marinate your meat. I do this in one cup of the yogurt and some of the spices)

1. Sear the meat, then reserve.

2. Add the oil to the pot, then sauté the onions.

3. Add your spices and stir until the onion is well coated with the mixture.

4. Add the meat back in, as well as the yogurt (or the yogurt and marinade).

5. Let simmer partially covered until the yogurt sauce has reduced to a pleasant consistency, stirring occasionally. I know this is vague, but it really does have more to do with personal preference than anything else. I let it simmer for about 45 minutes.

Notes:

--You always want plenty of carbohydrates with curry. This could be a side of rice (white or brown), or you could put in potatoes, or some mostly cooked chickpeas. Really, curries are quite flexible. You just have to push the envelope and experiment.

--Another delightful thing to add to curries is fruit. Mango, especially. In this case, you want to divide the cut up fruit into two batches. Add one batch at the beginning. This will quite likely dissolve into the curry. Then, at the end add the second batch and cook until just soft (as in, not at all for mango, but longer for things like apple).

Naan

Flatbreads are fun. I really quite like a bit of a sour bite in mine, though, as you can tell from my previous Sourdough Pita. So really, aren't naan and I destined to be together? Well, perhaps not, but I am a fan. And it's quite simple.

What's not quite as simple is cooking it in the bottom of an oven, right next to the element, and keeping things going so that the oven isn't on any longer than necessary. Fortunately, that's easily solvable by having two sets of hands. One person rolls and brushes on the butter while the other keeps the one in the oven from burning. Then one rebutters and folds while the other is putting the next naan in the oven. Rinse and repeat. Very nice.

But don't let me keep you waiting.

Naan
makes 4

2 cups ap flour (I've found that I like to use about 10 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/8 teaspoon yeast
4 tablespoons melted butter, divided
3/4 cup yogurt

1. Mix together flour, salt, yeast

2. Pour in 2 tablespoons butter and yogurt

3. Mix until it comes together in a ball

4. Knead for 10 minutes on a floured surface, adding flour as necessary (don't shortchange the kneading)

5. Let rise for an hour and a half in a lightly greased bowl, covered

5.5. Put a baking stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat to 500°F

6. Divide into 4 balls and let rest and plump for 20 minutes

7. Roll out the naan one by one into 8" ovals

8. Brush with melted butter (side note, you can put herbs or garlic into the butter, yum!)

9. Bake for ~3 minutes, give or take, until beginning to brown

10. Brush with a titch more butter, fold and put in a towel lined basket

Limoncello

So...there are a lot of recipes out there for limoncello. A lot. Not to mention, I'm only doing a small batch to test my method, as it were, so which one do I choose? So far, I'm not really going with any of them, but some amalgamation. I say so far, because I've only done the first couple of steps and now it has to sit. Some say that it only has to sit 10 days per waiting period, but closer to 45 days each supposedly produces a better, smoother flavor. I lasted 28 days for the first wait, and am now on the second.

Anyway, here's the mini-batch recipe that I've worked out.

3 large lemons, zested
250 mL (1/3 of a fifth) 80 proof vodka (and yes, that's a bit low, but I decrease the water in the simple syrup to make up for it)
7 ounces sugar (a bit less than a cup)
3/4 cup water

Once you've zested your washed lemons, stick the zest in a glass jar large enough to hold all your liquid, such as a pint-jar. Add to that the 250 mL vodka (I am using Svedka--relatively cheap but decently smooth). Then put it in a dark cabinet and let it sit. And sit. And sit. For hopefully 45 days. If you can. Certainly no less than 10, but the longer the more lemon-y it gets. And some people recommend shaking it every 2 or 3 days for the first week to week and a half.

For the second part, you put the water and sugar in a pan on the stove, bring to a boil (not too hot, lest you caramelize your sugar), and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. While this is cooling, strain the zest from the liquor. When the syrup is mostly chilled, add it to the liquor and put it back in the dark and let it sit again for just as long. Again, the longer the better, because it's supposed to produce a smoother flavor.

Honestly, our vessel of choice for the limoncello wasn't large enough for the whole amount of syrup. Instead of choosing a bigger bottle, we chose to do half the syrup into the lemon vodka and let the other half steep with the strained out lemon zest in the fridge (note that! unless you want to seal the jar, the syrup must be kept in the fridge!). As it happens, I used the syrup was used for other things (aka, lemon ginger cookies). The end result is certainly more similar to limoncello than lemon vodka, and it isn't ridiculously sweet, so that's nice.

At this point, you will filter the limoncello...or at least that's what they say. We actually didn't, and it doesn't taste like bath water as everyone seemed to be saying. It's a little rough, but that could be just because we didn't leave it alone in the closet long enough. I don't know why everyone seemed to be so against this, but some of the options that come to mind are that they didn't let the sugar dissolve properly in the syrup, or using all the syrup makes a significant difference, or even perhaps they let the syrup sit long enough to be contaminated and things tried growing and/or fermenting in their limoncello.

That said, there is another property that filtering might effect--ability to store in the freezer. Ours froze. Like I said, this may be because of not filtering, or it might be that we didn't choose a vodka with a high enough proof, or it may have been the recipe we followed. Regardless, it seems to be just fine chilling in the fridge.

Nöckereln

Chris and I have been back from visiting family for all of two days now, and neither one of us has gone to get groceries. So I was thumbing through the cookbook to see if there was something pancake-y/soufflé-y like that I could make with just eggs, flour, and very little else. (I don't like griddle cakes with no milk, or else those would have been just the ticket.) Soon enough, I came across Nöckereln, which just sounded like souffléd  eggs in pancake format.

Wrong! Pure dessert, I assure you.

So, while I was surprised at the outcome (and it didn't make a great meal), it was still pretty tasty. It has the sweet aroma that's all dessert, but with an egginess that I never really do expect...which probably means I need to make soufflés more often...hehehe...

Nöckereln
Adapted from Joy of Cooking
Serves 1

1 large egg, separated
1 tablespoon + 3/4 teaspoon sugar, divided
1/16 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon flour (I used pastry)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Separate the egg, putting the yolk in one bowl and the white in another.

Beat the white 'til almost stiff, then slowly beat in 1 tablespoon of sugar 'til very stiff and shiny. Add the vanilla extract, and beat that in.

In the bowl containing the yolk, add 3/4 teaspoon of sugar, as well as the almond extract. Beat until light and smooth.

Sift the flour over the whites and fold in, then gently fold in the yolk mixture as well.

Over a low burner, heat a small, oven-safe skillet with just enough butter to coat the bottom. When the butter becomes fragrant and begins to brown, pour the batter into the pan.

When the bottom of the Nöckerel begins to brown (it said three minutes, I found it to be 1-1/2), place in the oven. Leave there until the top browns lightly, 5-10 minutes. It should still be soft inside.

Serve immediately, and with warmed preserves (preferably a stone-fruit jam, i.e., cherry, brandied apricot, or ginger peach).

Strawberry and Rhubarb in Many Ways

Oh goodness! Strawberries! Strawberries! Strawberries! We picked nine quarts of strawberries on Wednesday. Nine! And thus there was Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, Rhubarb Jam (well, sort of, it was supposed to be butter, but the rhubarb was too fresh for butter making--but the week old rhubarb was perfect for that application), Strawberry Jam, and for good measure some Orange Rhubarb Butter with fruit in the fridge that hadn't been eaten before we picked. And we have at least five cups of strawberries frozen. Oh, and might I say, the food processor that Chris's mother has was key in making this go quickly.

So let's get right to the onslaught of recipes.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Yields: 6 to 6-1/2 cups

2 cups thinly sliced rhubarb (~6 stalks)
2 cups thinly sliced strawberries
(optional) 1/4 cup lemon juice
5-1/2 cups of sugar
1 box pectin

General jamming directions apply (and will follow).

Strawberry Jam

Yields: 8 cups

5 cups thinly sliced strawberries
7 cups sugar
1 box pectin

General jamming directions apply (and will follow).

Rhubarb Jam/Butter

Yields: 3 cups for jam, 2 cups for butter

4 cups thinly sliced rhubarb
2 cups sugar

For this recipe, you mix the sugar into the rhubarb and macerate overnight in the fridge.

Dump it all in the pot, bring to a full rolling boil for at least one minute (until it reaches the jamming point [222°F]) or, if doing a butter, until it reaches an appropriate consistency.

Then you jar as normal.

What makes this a jam versus a butter is the variety and freshness of the rhubarb. For instance, the rhubarb that I had picked only the day before (processed that same day, macerated overnight, and did up) turned into a jam.  The same variety of rhubarb, picked the week before (and buried in the fridge) turned into butter.

Orange Rhubarb Butter

Yields: 1 cup
Adapted from FoodinJars

2 cups thinly sliced rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup (fresh-squeezed) orange juice

Mix everything together, bring to a simmer, and let butter. Or, if you're impatient and like a darker butter, turn up the heat and stir constantly 'til it reduces into a butter. This is particularly pretty if the rhubarb is more red than green or if you have some honey tangerines to squeeze in there (if you didn't know, these are nearly fluorescent orange).

And, of course, jar as normal.

General Jamming Directions

1. Wash and rinse the jars, rings and lids

2. Place the jars and accessories into your water bath canner (aka, a really big pot), make sure the water comes to about 1 inch above the top of the jars and bring the pot to a boil

3. While that is coming to a boil, measure the fruit into your jamming pot (I use a 1.5 or a 2 gallon pot) and your sugar into a separate bowl

4. Stir the pectin into the fruit

5. Bring the fruit to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly

6. Dump the sugar into the boiling fruit all at once and stir quickly until it is all incorporated

7. Bring back to a rolling boil, stirring constantly, and hold it there for one full minute

8. Pull off the heat, and take a spoon to skim the foam off the top (to eat with ice cream later)

9. Pull the jars from the boiling water, pour the hot jam into them, cap tightly, and place back into the boiling water canner (be careful not to overflow it if you poured the water from the jars back into the pot like I do) for 10 minutes (assuming you're using half-pint or pint-sized jars)

10. After that, pull them out onto a towel covered counter and leave them alone for 24 hours