Apricot Jam

My husband is a big fan of apricots, I think he might get more excited about them than he does about the peaches!  We missed out on the apricots last year and so this year he was eager to get some apricot jam for the winter.  I tried a no pectin added jam this year to maximize the amount of flavour and the amount of fruit I would use!  I found this recipe for “French” apricot jam on the recipe of the day section of guardian UK and decided to give it a try.  I ended up not cooking and adding in the stones, that will have to wait for next year.


Ingredients:
1.5kg fresh apricots
800g sugar
1 vanilla pod
¼ cup of lemon juice

Directions:
1. Half and remove stones from the apricots.
2. Cut the vanilla pod in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.
3. In a large heavy bottomed saucepan combine the fruit, vanilla pod, seeds, sugar and lemon juice.
4. Let the mixture sit until the fruit has softened (several hours).
5. Bring the mixture to a boil  Continue boiling for 20 to 25 minutes and the mixture has thickened.  (Jam sets at about 220F if you have thermometer or use a chilled plate and a small amount of jam to see if it sets).
6. Transfer the jam into sterilized jars and seal.  Process for 10 minutes. Ensure the seal before storing.

Note: I removed the vanilla pods before distributing the jam into the jars.

Reviews:
I had 3.5 jars of jam.  The half a jar is already finished and I believe Owen has opened another jar as well - guess this batch will be the first gone!

Kiwi Daquari Jam

A few weeks ago Kiwi’s had gone on sale and I had picked up a bag of them.  However, life got busy and BC fruit (Cherries, yum) starting coming in and the poor Kiwis were forgotten behind something in the fridge.  I discovered them and decided I would not be able to eat all of them before they needed to be used, and as it was already canning season jam seemed like a good use for the rest of them.  

I found an intriguing looking recipe on the Bernardin canning site and decided to give it a try.  I found a few of the instructions a little confusing (it calls for rum in the ingredients but never tells  you to add it), so I improvised a little.  Here is what I ended up with.



Ingredients:
5 kiwifruit, peeled
3 cups (750 ml) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (150 ml) unsweetened pineapple juice (I used a Dole in a tetra pack)
1/3 cup 75 ml) fresh squeezed lime juice
1 pouch (85 ml) Liquid Pectin  (I used the certo brand and it worked fine)
4 tbsp (60 ml) rum (I used a spiced rum as that was all I had in the house)

Directions:
1. Clean and sterilize 4 or 5 250ml jars. ( I keep them  in the oven at 275F while working so they are sterile when I want to fill them).
2. Mash or blend the fruit (I put mine in a blender and pulsed a couple times.  I found this worked better than my potato masher as I like fewer large chunks in my jam).
3. In a large saucepan mix together the fruit, sugar, pineapple and lime juice.
4. Stirring constantly bring the mixture to a full rolling boil and boil for 2 minutes.  Note: once the sugar is fully dissolved I stop stirring constantly, but still every 30s to 1 minute.
5. Remove the jam from the head and immediately stir in the pectin (skim the foam off if there is any.  
6.  Stir in the rum, mixing well.
7. Fill jars, leaving ¼ inch head space and place on the lids and rings.
8. Process jars for 10 minutes, let cool to seal.


Reviews:
I love this jam - it is something very different from the normal berry or peach jams that I normally make.  I gave a jar to a friend of mine and she liked it so much she was eating it with a spoon!  This will be great for a cheer up treat in the middle of our long winters!

Weekend update

So this weekend my family and I dealt with nearly 300lbs of fruit, crazy right? There were five of us on Saturday working on the fruit. The count for the weekend was:
17 cups pear jam
16 cups peach jam
7 pints of apple sauce
30lbs of apples became apple chips
28 quarts of pressed apple juice
1 apple caramel pie
1 batch peach ice cream
1 batch caramel apple pie
15 lbs of peaches sliced and frozen
6 pie crusts

Oh, and my brother and Dad made 25lbs of pepperoni sausage for pizzas! I am so excited to eat that this week.

Earlier in the week my mother had made 28 pints of canned pears as well.

It was a busy weekend for everyone, but we managed to get most of the fruit done. There is a few more pears to get canned (Mom wanted to try a recipe of ginger pears), a few peaches for a pie, apples for pies, and about 15lbs more apples to be dried.

I am working on getting some yummy fruit recipes up, so keep looking - hopefully I will get one or two tonight!

Apple Butter

One of the suggestions I got from a few people when I asked what to do with apples was apple butter. I had never heard of nor tried apple butter before so this was a little interesting. I took out the Bernardin preserves book and got to work.

Ingredients:
3 lb apples cored, peeled and chuncked(I used a mix of 3 or more varieties)
1 ½ cup water
¾ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
1 ½ cups sugar

Directions:
1. Put the 3lbs of apples and water into a pot. Simmer until the apples are softened.
2. Transfer the apples to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
3. Combine the puree, cinnamon, sugar and cloves together in a pot and bring to a boil then turn down the heat (trust me, you do not want this boiling once it starts to thicken!)
4. Let simmer on the stove until thick and brown. It should be smooth and spreadable. This took me about 5 hours.

Reviews:
This is basically a thickened and reduced apple sauce. My jars are packed away in the pantry awaiting some pork later this fall. My mother got the pot scrapings which she ate on toast, and is now planning on making her own with some of her apples (we delivered over 40lbs to her).

Peach Salsa

Every year I get a few pound of peaches (alright, it is a bit more than a few, whatever my mother in law feels like sending at the time, and that is usually 40 or more lbs) and I am always looking at ways to deal with them. This year I stumbled upon Peach Salsa on the kraft Canada website while looking for something completely unrelated. I thought it was an interesting idea, and upon talking to people who have tried some before, I decided it would be fun to make.

I have made some changes to the original (which can be viewed here) to suit my tastes a little better.

Ingredients:

4 cups finely chopped peeled peaches
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped red peppers
2 medium to large jalapeño peppers, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
1/4 cup white vinegar
3-3/4 cups sugar, divided (1/4 and 3 ½)
1 box CERTO Light Pectin Crystals
8 1 cup (1/2 pint) jars with lids, sterilized.
Directions:
1.Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large saucepan, and set aside.
2.Combine ¼ cup of sugar and the box of pectin crystals. Add this to the peach mixture.
3.Make sure the mixture is well blended and bring to a full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly.
4.Add the remaining 3 ½ cups sugar, bring back to a full roiling boil (the boiling doesn’t stop when stirred) and boil for 1 minute. Remembering to stir constantly.
5.Remove from the heat and skim off any foam that may have formed. Let sit for 5 minutes to cool slightly (this will help prevent the fruit from floating to the top of the jar).
6.Pour into sterile jars (put them in the dishwasher/ boiling water), filling to 1/4” of the top. Seal with sterile 2 piece lids and let sit to come to room temperature.

Reviews:
This was delicious! It is sweet with a little bit of a kick. I haven’t tried eating it plain, but we tried it on grilled chicken and it was awesome. I am so happy that have a few jars of this, it will be like eating a little bit of summer this winter.

Busy Weekend

This weekend I went to my parent's house, accompanied by my Friend Iza and about 60lbs of fruit. Iza and I spent a few days making jam and various other fruit products resulting in a cooler full of various forms of frozen fruit and over 40 jars.


Somehow in there we also found time to eat some of what we had made along with some fantastic food on the BBQ, much of it straight from my parent's large garden. There was also some time for play, Iza had fun photographing the dogs and cows.



The final products from the weekend are:
Peach Jam
Apricot Jam
Black Forest Preserves
Peach Salsa
Peach Chiptole BBQ sauce
Frozen Peach Pie Filling
Frozen Apricot Pie Filling
Frozen Cherries
Frozen Blueberries
Frozen Pre-measured shredded Zucchini
Frozen Rhubarb

The rest of the canning from the days before leaving was Cherry Jelly and Blueberry Jelly.

I will be posting recipes and reviews over the next few days as I get time to photograph, type and try all the creations.