Root Beer Jelly

This root beer jelly makes a nice glaze for pork tenderloin or try a PB and RBJ (peanut butter and root beer jelly) sandwich! It's also great on your morning toast! 

Ingredients:

1 - 900g pkg Lantic & Rogers Jam and Jelly mix

750 ml (3 cups) root beer

50 ml (3 1/2 tbsps) lemon juice (you can use bottled)

First sterilize the jars and tops that you will be using.

Then add all the ingredients to a large pot. Make sure the pot is large enough. I started out with a medium to large pot and had to transfer the mix out to a large pot as the mixture expands when heated. 

Bring everything to a boil and keep boiling for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat then stir and skim off foam for 5 minutes to achieve a nice clear jelly.

Ladle into sterilized jars leaving 1/4" head space, clean the rims if needed, then seal.

Finally, process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Check after 24 hours to make sure all the jars are properly sealed. The center of the lid should be indented. If it pops up the seal didn't take. You can try processing again or just refrigerate any jars that didn't seal.

Makes 10 - 118ml (4 oz) jars

Who knew jelly could be made from soft drinks (soda, pop)! Maybe I'll give cream soda or cherry cola a try.

A little "candy for your toast"!

Follow hotandcoldrunningmom on Pinterest. You can scan the pincode seen here with your phone if you're on a desktop. If you're on a phone just screenshot it, go to the Pinterest app, click camera. Then instead of taking a pic use the option to use one of your photos. Click on the screenshot you just took and go right to my Pinterest profile where you can follow me 🙂

Crockpot Apple Butter

This caramelized fruit spread tastes like Fall in a jar! I like mine on buttered white bread, but go ahead and have it on toast, a bowl of oatmeal or spooned over vanilla ice cream!

Ingredients:

4 lbs apples, peeled and chopped

1 cup sugar

2 tbsps cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

2 dashes of salt

Weigh your apples, then peel and core. Some peel left on the apples is ok. You can save the peels and check out the Scrap Apple Jelly recipe linked at the end of this post. Or dump in your composter.

Add all the ingredients to the crockpot, cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Then reduce the heat to low and cook for 4-5 hours.

After that time the apples will be nicely browned and mushed. (That's a culinary term, right?)

Spoon the browned and mushed apples in batches into a food processor and blend to purée. If you would like your butter thicker return the purée to the pot and cook, uncovered, on high for an additional 1 hour. 

Then spoon butter into sterilized jars and close tops just finger tip tight. Using tongs, place jars in boiling water, enough to go 1" over the top of the jars, and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the pot from heat and let the jars sit 5 minutes. Then carefully remove the jars from the water. Leave the jars on the counter for 12-24 hours. After that time the center of the lid should be dimpled in.. a sign that the seal has been made and the jars may be stored on the shelf until opened. If the seal is not good you can re-do the whole thing. Heat the butter, sterilize the jars/lids, fill and process in hot water bath. Or simply keep refrigerated.

 

Makes 3 1/2 - 4 cups

Great for gift-giving!

Scrap Apple Jelly:

https://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2016/11/scrap-apple-jelly.html

Green Tomato Chutney

There are many ways to serve chutney ... the more common being with cooked pork, chicken or beef. It can be served with cold deli meats and cheese on a charcuterie board. Or use your imaginations and mix it with plain Greek yogurt for a dip, top a hamburger, glaze your butternut squash, eat it with a spoon !!!

Ingredients:

6 cups chopped green tomatoes

6 cups chopped red onions

1 cup raisins

3 minced garlic cloves

1/4 tsp cayenne powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 tsps sea salt

2 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 cups malt vinegar

Put all the ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil.

Then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 1-3 hours until reduced down, thickened and browned.

Spoon into sterilized jars and process 10 minutes in a hot water bath. Or if you don't want to process them just keep them in the fridge but remember to use them in a month or two.

While ready to eat right away the chutney will mature and mellow (like some men do😉) after a month or so on the shelf. Once opened keep refrigerated and use within about a month.

Makes 3 1/2 cups

Orange, Lemon and Green Tomato Marmalade

Running out of ways to use your green tomatoes up? Well then this delicious marmalade recipe is just what you're looking for!

Ingredients:

4 lbs green tomatoes, diced about 9 cups

2 oranges

1 lemon

1 cup water

5 cups sugar

1" fresh ginger, minced

Using a vegetable peeler remove the top layer of rind from the oranges and lemon and cut into thin strips. Place the strips in a saucepan with 1 cup of water and boil for 5 minutes, then drain.

Remove the white pith from the fruit and cut into pieces also removing the membrane from each segment.

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces (the size you want to find in your marmalade) removing any blemishes.

In a large pot combine the citrus rind, orange and lemon pieces, green tomatoes, sugar and ginger. 

 

Bring to a boil, then keep on boiling uncovered until the marmalade reaches a temperature of 121°F or passes the cold plate test. That is when you take a spoonful of jam and sit it on a plate that has been in the freezer. Let it sit for 30 seconds then push it with your finger. If it wrinkles it is at the setting point.

Pour into sterilized jars and seal. Then process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Any jars who's lid has not sealed can be re-processed using a new lid or simply kept in the refrigerator. 

This recipe made 8 - 4 oz (125 ml) jars

Adapted from: themessybaker.com

Green Tomato Bread and Butter Pickles

This is the last green tomato recipe this year, I swear.
But I saved the best for last!

Ingredients:
2  1/2 lbs green tomatoes, sliced 1/4" 
1 medium onion, sliced 1/4"
1 small red pepper, diced
3 tbsps pickling salt
1  1/2 cups vinegar
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp celery seed
2 tsp pickling spice

I halved the tomatoes, then cut into 1/4" slices, then cut those slices in half again to get 1/4" quarter slices of tomato. Toss them with the onions, peppers and pickling salt.

Refrigerate overnight.

The next day drain and only lightly rinse.
In a large pot, combine vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed and pickling spice. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the veggies and return to boil, then simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Pack the pickles into sterilized jars and fill with the liquid.
Seal with sterilized lids and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Wait 2 weeks before eating. (I could only wait 1 week before trying them and they're great!)

Small batch...just these 2 jars. Next year I plan on making more!

Adapted from: www.thespruceeats.com/sweet-and-tangy-green-tomato-pickles

Fermented Hot Sauce

Last week I participated in a fermentation workshop with my daughter about food preservation through fermentation. Here's what we did...

At the workshop we were given sterilized jars and a variety of peppers to choose from. I used jalapeños, scotch bonnet and yellow bell peppers. Oh, and when handling hot peppers don't forget to wear gloves or you'll have hot hands for days!

Ingredients:

Hot peppers of your choice, ideally organic
garlic cloves
spices of your choice

cold filtered water (or boiled and cooled tap water)
2% table salt
2% sugar


Fill mason jars 3/4 full with roughly chopped hot peppers and crushed garlic to taste. I used one clove per jar.

Interesting fact I learned...it's the white membrane that holds the seeds and not the seeds themselves that is the hottest part of the pepper! 

They had the brine prepared for us but here's how to do it. 
Weigh the pepper-filled jar, then add the water until peppers are covered and weigh the jar again and subtract the weight of the jar without water. That is your mass of water.
Drain the water out of the jar into another container. To calculate the amount of salt and sugar needed multiply 0.02 by the water mass. So for example if you have 500g of water 0.02 X 500g = 10g salt, 10g sugar. Dissolve the salt and sugar well in the water. (PS: I hate math!)

Add brine back to the jar. Now this part was interesting as well! Because you don't want mold to form on the top of the peppers they must be completely submerged but sometimes they like to float up. If you have a small jar that will fit inside, sterilize it and sit it on top of the peppers (make sure you can close the pepper jar). Or you could fill a ziplock bag with some water, seal it and place it on top of the peppers. 
But once I got home with my jars of peppers from the workshop I used a piece of plastic wrap and pressed it down over the surface of the water to keep the peppers from being exposed to air.

Lids on, but not too tight. Keep in a dark place at room temperature for 1-2 weeks. I kept them on the kitchen counter with a dish towel over them. Some recipes say to not open the jars for the entire fermenting period, others say open a little each day. I loosened the top every morning to let any excess gas out. Didn't want to take a chance of the jars exploding all over the kitchen!

After 1 week the brine became cloudy and had an acidic smell, that's good . I didn't want to wait the second week so I processed the peppers after 1 week.

Again have sterilized jars and lids ready. I pour boiling hot water into the jars, that does the trick.

Here's where you can get creative. Use spices you like. I made 4 different sauces. Strain the brine into a bowl.

With one jar of green jalapeño and garlic I added
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
about 1/2 inch fresh ginger

Process the peppers and garlic in a food processor with your seasonings adding some brine until you get the consistency you want.

What a messy production!

For one of my jars (the round one in the finished picture)
I strained the processed peppers out keeping only the liquid something like a tabasco sauce.

For the other jar of jalapeños and garlic (with a little scotch bonnet) I added
1 tsp pickling spice
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

For the yellow bell pepper/scotch bonnets and garlic
pinch red pepper flakes (which could also be fermented)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

For the yellow bell pepper/scotch bonnets and garlic
pinch black pepper corns
pinch anise
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

The apple cider vinegar is not necessary I just happened to use it in each. And the amount of spices I used was small because these were very small batches of peppers.

Fill the sterilized jars, seal and refrigerate for up to 6 months.

The presenters at the Spice Up Your Life - Season Jars workshop peaked my interest in fermentation. I may try cabbage or cauliflower sometime! 

Homemade Salsa

These baskets of tomatoes were only $4.99!!!
And I made 11 quart and 4 pint jars of salsa from one of them! That's a good deal!

Ingredients for 4 cups of salsa:
(I made 8 times this amount)

3 lbs. peeled and chopped round tomatoes
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced sweet green pepper
2 tbsp. minced jalapeño, banana or chili pepper
1/3 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
1  1/2 tsp. pickling salt
1/2 tsp. each ground cumin and dried oregano

To peel tomatoes, simply put them in boiling water for 1 minute, then right into cold water.  The skin will peel right off (mostly)

Combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered for 15-20 minutes or to desired thickness, stirring frequently.

After sterilizing jars and lids, ladle salsa into hot canning jars, filling to 1/2 inch below rim.  Wipe rims and place metal canning lids on jars.  Apply bands to fingertip tight.  Place jars in canner (large, deep pot) of boiling water, covered by one inch.  Cover canner and return to boil.  Process 20 minutes. Remove and let cool 24 hours.  Check seals.  If some have not popped down, store these in fridge or redo process with new lids.

Yield: about 4 cups

Easy Small Batch Dill Pickles

When you have a little pickle craving...
This recipe makes just 1 pint and 2 quart jars.

2 lbs small pickling cucumbers
8 cups water
1/4 cup (+ 2 tbsps pickling salt)
1/4 cup and 1/8 cup vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
2 cups water
2 tsps pickling spice 
1/2 tsp mustard seed (per jar)
1/2 tsp dill seed (per jar)

Day one - wash and trim off stems and blossom ends of cucumbers.  Dissolve 1/4 cup salt in 8 cups water.  Submerge cucumbers in salt water for 12 hours. I used a shallow bowl that fit inside my large bowl to hold the cucs down in the water.

Day two - after 12 hours drain but do not rinse the cucumbers.

Using a coffee filter or small piece of cheesecloth, tie up the pickling spice. Mix 2 tbsps salt, vinegar, sugar, 2 cups water and the pickling spice pack and heat to boiling. 

Fill sterilized jars with cucs, fitting in as many as you can, and add the mustard seed and dill to each jar.

Fill jars with the hot brine leaving a 1/4 - 1/2" head space. You may find that you'll need to make more vinegar mix if your jars aren't tightly packed with cucs. Place the lids on top, just finger tight.

Bring a large half-filled pot of water to boil, then add the jars. Top off with boiled kettle water to cover the tops of the jars. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.  

Then carefully remove from water and cool on the counter. Make sure lids have sealed.

If you choose not to process the jars then just keep them in the fridge. They do lose a little crunchiness when processed.