Run, don't walk, down to Wholesale Club. Fresh figs just arrived today. They are wonderful! And less than $2.50 for a little basket.
They are deliciously sweet and I love them simply with goat cheese and honey. Thyme is a natural pairing. All you do is quarter and eat. I smear a little goat cheese and honey on the fig or I might use a raincoast crisp and top it with the goat cheese, honey and fig.
I have mixed some bread for the farmers' market tomorrow using figs and thyme. I can hardly wait to try it. I will be making some Drunken Fig Jam with a touch of brandy and also Fig and Thyme Jam for serving with cheese or meat.
After juicing all my pomegranates I am ready to work with the beautiful, deep red, richly flavoured juice. After the labour of love to extract the juice, I wanted to be sure I had a tried and true recipe and I found it on the Bernardin website. I was not disappointed. It is crystal clear, richly flavoured and set very well. Not one to waste any good food, I used the foam that I skimmed off the boiling jelly in a barbecue sauce for pulled pork. It added that 'je ne sais quoi' to take it to the next level. Yummy!
Pomegranates are the highest in antioxidants of any fruit or berry. Nutrition and flavour in one package. I know we all think of them as too much work but watch this You Tube video with Martha Stewart. I tried her method to extract the arils and it works! No need to go under water any more.
Pomegranate Jelly
Pomegranates are an excellent fruit for making jelly.
Makes about 6 x 250 ml jars.
5 lbs (2.3 kg) pomegranates
1 pkg (57 g) BERNARDIN® Original Fruit Pectin
5 cups (1250 ml) granulated sugar
• Place 6 clean 250 ml mason jars on a rack in a boiling water canner; cover jars with water and heat to a simmer (180°F/82°C). Set screw bands aside. Heat SNAP LID® sealing discs in hot water, not boiling (180°F/82°C). Keep jars and sealing discs hot until ready to use.
• Measure sugar; set aside.
• Measure 3-1/2 (875 ml) cups juice into a large deep stainless steel saucepan. Whisk in BERNARDIN® Original Pectin until dissolved and add 1/2 tsp (2 ml) butter or margarine to reduce foaming, if desired.
• Over high heat, bring mixture to a full rolling boil. Add all the sugar. Stirring constantly, return mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil hard 1 minute. Remove from heat; skim foam if necessary.
• Quickly ladle hot jelly into a hot jar to within 1/4 inch (.5 cm) of top rim (headspace). Using nonmetallic utensil, remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rim removing any stickiness. Centre hot sealing disc on clean jar rim. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight. Return filled jar to rack in canner ensuring jars are covered by water. Repeat for remaining jelly.
• When canner is filled, ensure that all jars are covered by at least one inch (2.5 cm) of water. Cover canner and bring water to full rolling boil before starting to count processing time. At altitudes up to 1000 ft (305 m), process – boil filled jars – 10 minutes.
• When processing time is complete, turn stove off, remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes, then remove jars without tilting and place them upright on a protected work surface. Cool upright, undisturbed 24 hours; DO NOT RETIGHTEN screw bands.
• After cooling check jar seals. Sealed discs curve downward and do not move when pressed. Remove screw bands; wipe and dry bands and jars. Store screw bands separately or replace loosely on jars, as desired. Label and store jars in a cool, dark place. For best quality, use home canned foods within one year.
Boxing Day is the day after Christmas. I am not sure where in the world it is observed outside Canada and Great Britain. It is the biggest shopping day of the year. It is the Canadian equivalent of Black Friday.
I spent my day juicing pomegranates. It was a quiet day in my kitchen with 32 pomegranates. I was prepared for the splatters of red.
Thanks to Deana at lostpastremembered I used a citrus juicer to extract the rich sweet and delicious juice.
It took about an hour and I had 15 cups of fresh pomegranate juice. I have been letting it settle in the refrigerator. Some solids settle to the bottom leaving a clear juice on top. My imagination is running wild right now. What will I do with all this gorgeous ruby liquid.
I will make jelly with the clear juice. I will freeze some of the juice to make granita in a few weeks. And I will luxuriate with fresh juice for breakfast for a few days.
It is that time of the year again! I have been doing a lot of canning and will be sharing more recipes. Today it was Concord Grape Jam. I could have made beautiful clear jelly but I wanted a change. This was a little fussy to make. First, peeling grapes! I eventually just squeezed and the innards popped out. It was still a tad tedious though.
But the results are wonderful. The jam has somewhat of a floral flavour and aroma that you do not achieve when making the jelly. I will be looking for some ideas on serving this. Do you have any?
Concord Grape Jam
Gourmet Magazine, October 2005
5 lb Concord grapes, stemmed
5 cups sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Sterilize jars: Wash jars, lids, and screw bands in hot, soapy water, then rinse well. Dry screw bands. Put jars on a rack in canner or deep pot and add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, covered, then boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, leaving jars in water. Heat lids in water to cover by 2 inches in a small saucepan until thermometer registers 180°F (do not let boil). Remove from heat, leaving lids in water. Keep the jars and lids submerged in hot water, covered, until ready to use.
Cook jam: Chill 2 small plates (for testing jam).
Slip skins from grapes and purée skins with 1 cup sugar in a food processor, then transfer to a 4- to 6-quart wide heavy pot. Stir in lemon juice, peeled grapes, and remaining 4 cups sugar and boil over moderate heat, stirring frequently and skimming foam, until pulp is broken down, about 20 minutes. Force jam through food mill set over a large bowl. Discard remaining solids. Return jam to pot and cook at a slow boil, skimming foam occasionally and stirring frequently as mixture thickens to prevent scorching, 35 minutes, then test for doneness.
To test jam, remove from heat, then drop a teaspoonful on a chilled plate and chill 1 minute. Tilt plate: Jam should remain in a mound and not run. If jam runs, continue cooking at a slow boil, testing every 5 minutes, until done, up to 25 minutes more.
Seal, process, and store jars: Drain jars upside down on a clean kitchen towel 1 minute, then invert. Ladle jam into jars, leaving 1/4 inch of space at top. Wipe off rims of filled jars with a clean damp kitchen towel, then top with lids and firmly screw on screw bands. Put sealed jars on rack in canner or pot and add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, covered, then boil 10 minutes. With tongs, transfer jars to a towel-lined surface to cool.
Jars will seal; if you hear a ping, it signals that vacuum formed at the top of cooling preserves has made lid concave. Remember that you may or may not be around to hear that ping (some jars make the sound after you remove them from water, and others in same batch may take a few hours); the important thing is for jars to eventually have concave lids. Preserves will thicken as they cool.
After jars have cooled 12 to 24 hours, press center of each lid to check that it's concave, then remove screw band and try to lift off lid with your fingertips. If you can't, lid has a good seal. Replace screw band. Put any jars that haven't sealed properly in the refrigerator and use them first.
Muscadines are a type of grape that grow wild in southeastern USA. The climate is ideal in this part of the country. I found the fruit to be very tart, the skin tough and a lot of seeds. In short, it was too much effort. I would rather eat other grapes.
I bought them at the farmer’s market. To avoid letting them rot in the fridge until I threw them out, I thought perhaps they would make a nice jelly.
Grapes naturally have enough pectin to allow the juice to gel when boiled with sugar. I found a simple recipe online that consisted simply of juice and sugar - 3 parts juice to 2 parts sugar. Boil until you reach the gel stage.
It worked very well. I boiled the muscadines in water to cover. When they were soft and split open, I mashed them and boiled until very soft. I strained the pulp through coffee filters. Then I boiled the syrup with sugar, skimming off scum as it formed. When the syrup came off a spoon in two drops rather than one thin stream, it was ready.
The result was a perfectly clear and robust jelly.
It is very important to allow the juice to drain from the pulp without squeezing. Otherwise a cloudy jelly will be produced. If it is clouded with pulp, then it should not be labeled jelly.
