Sorrel is one of the very first plants to come up in the spring in my front yard, and after only a few weeks it’s so prolific I have plenty to make soup with, as well as to enjoy in salads. So, last weekend I made my first batch of sorrel soup, based on Julia Child’s recipe.

First, you pick the leaves (or buy them from the farmer’s market), and chop them fairly small. Admire the lively green color of the fresh leaves – as soon as you start to cook them they turn a very drab green (but don’t worry, they still retain their intense lemon taste!).

Whole sorrel leaves

The sorrel rinsed, dried, and chopped.

Then you chop up your scallions or ramps or other mild onion, and cook gently for 10 minutes in a covered pot.

Chopped scallions

Cooking the scallions slowly

Add the chopped sorrel to the pot, and cook gently for another 10 minutes or so. Then stir in a bit of flour (I used a gluten-free rice flour.)

Sorrel added to the scallions

Adding the flour and stirring

While the sorrel leaves are cooking, bring broth to a simmer in another small pot. And, whisk together the egg yolks and cream in a small bowl.

Bringing the homemade chicken broth to a simmer

Egg yolks and cream whisked together

Whisk the hot broth in to the soup, stirring constantly. When this has come to a simmer, ladle a little soup into the bowl of egg yolk and cream, whisking constantly so it does not curdle, and repeat this two more times.

The broth added in to the soup and brought to a simmer

Whisking a little of the hot broth into the egg-cream mixture

Then you can slowly add the egg-cream mixture in to the soup, whisking the whole time. Let it cook at the lowest heat for a few minutes; don’t let it come up to a simmer or boil. Serve at once; I like to sprinkle it with a little bit of fresh chopped sorrel. And I enjoyed it with a dry rosé, preferably dining al fresco! Ah, spring. Recipe follows.

Slowly adding the tempered cream and egg yolks to the soup

Time to eat!

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup green onions, ramps, or other mild onion, chopped
4-6 packed cups green sorrel, chopped, and keep a couple tablespoons to the side for serving
salt
3 tablespoons flour
1 quart chicken stock
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup cream

DIRECTIONS

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the green onions or ramps and turn the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot and cook gently for 10 minutes.

While the onions are cooking, pour the stock into another pot and bring to a simmer.

Turn the heat up in the pot with the green onions, add the sorrel leaves and a healthy pinch of salt to the green onions and stir well. When the sorrel is mostly wilted, turn the heat back to medium-low, cover and cook 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Mix in the flour and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.

Whisk in the hot stock, stirring constantly. Bring this to a simmer.

To finish the soup, whisk together the egg yolks and cream. Temper the mixture by ladling a little soup into it with one hand, while you whisk the egg-cream mix with the other. Repeat this three times. (You are doing this to prevent the eggs from scrambling) Now start whisking the soup. Pour the hot egg-cream-soup mixture into the pot with the soup, whisking all the way. Let this cook — below a simmer — for 5 minutes. Do not let it boil or the soup will break. Serve at once. I like to garnish with a little shredded sorrel, and ideally a little drizzle of a fantastic olive oil on top.

Every once in a while in winter time, I crave Pasta Carbonara – a simple dish that relies heavily on the use of high-quality ingredients.

Courtesy of Zingerman’s Mail Order, I had some excellent guanciale just waiting in my freezer, from La Quercia, an artisanal meat-curing company in Iowa. As well as some Parmigiano Reggiano from Zingerman’s Deli. (On our Tuscany food tour, we visit the tiny cheese maker who makes this Parm Reg that Zingerman’s Deli carries!) And, local free-range eggs from the farmer’s market. With some sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and our favorite brand of dried pasta, I was ready to roll. Recipe follows the photos. Enjoy!

Browning the guanciale

Adding the onion and browning

Parmigiano Reggiano with free-range eggs

Adding salt and pepper and then whisking

Stirring it quickly in to the cooked pasta and guanciale mixture

And eating immediately! A large serving of a good salad helps balance out the richness.

Pasta Carbonara
(recipe modified from Epicurious.com)

INGREDIENTS:
5 ounces guanciale (unsmoked cured hog jowl), or pancetta
1 medium onion, finely chopped (note, some recipes skip onion and only use garlic)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (note, some recipes skip garlic and use only onion)
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 large eggs
3/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, finely grated
1/3 cup Pecorino Romano cheese (or use all Parm Reg)
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, optional garnish

DIRECTIONS:
Cut guanciale or pancetta into 1/3-inch dice, then cook in a deep 12-inch heavy
skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until fat begins to render, 1 to 2 minutes. Add
onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is golden, about 10 minutes. Add wine
and boil until reduced by half, 1 to 2 minutes.

Cook spaghetti in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente.
While pasta is cooking, whisk together eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecorino Romano
(if using), 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small
bowl.

Drain spaghetti in a colander and add to onion mixture, then toss with tongs over
moderate heat until coated. Remove from heat and add egg mixture, tossing to
combine. Serve immediately on warm plates.

Part of my family is Sri Lankan, and I’ve learned how much I love Sri Lankan food! I keep meaning to make a roadtrip to Toronto, the nearest city with a large Sri Lankan population, to enjoy the Sri Lankan restaurants, but haven’t done so yet… In the meantime, I have a repertoire of a few recipes that have been passed around the family, and this chicken curry is one. The full recipe follows the photos.

The karapincha, also called curry leaf and curry tree. You can also buy the fresh leaves at Indian groceries.

My prepped ingredients – the jalapeno was quite hot this time so I skipped the cayenne pepper.

Browning the chicken parts.

The spices with the onions and jalapeno.

First you brown the chicken – make sure the oil is hot before you put the chicken in, skin-side down, and then don’t move it for the first 8 minutes, just let it get nice and golden brown, and flip it over and brown on the other side. Then you remove the chicken, and cook the onions, garlic, and ginger with the wonderful spices – this smells so good!

Chicken with all ingredients except coconut milk, and cooking until done.

Stirring in the coconut milk. Or you can actually use regular milk if you don’t have coconut milk!

Adding the chicken back in, and the tomatoes, and then cooking the chicken until done.

Final dish over rice, and chard with pecans and currants, and clementines on the side.

At the end you add the coconut milk, and serve over rice. So good.

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 to 6 pieces chicken parts with bones (I’ve used 4 large chicken thighs)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, minced (if the jalapeno is very hot, we’ve used less than this)
3 teaspoons curry powder, or more
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional – I’ve usually skipped this
1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced
1 large fresh tomato, roughly chopped (I’ve also used canned tomatoes, chopped,
with their juice, instead of water)
10 Karapincha (curry) leaves, minced. These are optional but do add a lot of flavor, you can find them fresh at Indian grocery stores, or, keep a pot on your windowsill.
1 to 2 cups water (OR use tomato water instead)
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced, optional garnish
cooked rice, for serving

DIRECTIONS

Salt and pepper the chicken. Heat oil over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed pot that you have a lid for; I used an enameled cast-iron pot with deep sides. Brown chicken in oil on all sides – about 8 minutes on the first side, then 5 minutes on the other, then remove from pan and put in a bowl or deep plate to catch any juices. I poured off a little of the oil from the pot, since I had quite a bit. Grind ginger and garlic in mortar and pestle. Add more oil if needed (I did not need to add any – in fact I poured off a bit), and add jalapeno, onion, curry powder, turmeric, cayenne (if using), salt, black pepper, Karapincha leaves (if using), and vinegar, and cook until onion softens, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Then add garlic and ginger paste, and cook just a minute. Add chicken back in, along with any juices that have collected, and add tomato and 1 to 2 cups of water. (I used 2 cups of chopped canned tomatoes with their juice, instead of adding water.) Cover and cook at medium heat until the juices just come to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, an additional 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Add coconut milk and cook a minute more until hot. Serve over rice, with optional fresh cilantro garnish.

One of my neighbors recently had a baby, and a mutual friend cooked up an amazing celebratory lunch for the family and invited a half-dozen more of us to join in. He explained that you can’t make Ceebu Jen for a small number of people. It was a dish the village he lived in in Senegal, would make for special occasions. It was delicious, and I asked my friend how to make it. His recipe follows, albeit in text form rather than “ingredients and directions”. Enjoy! -Jillian

Ceebu Jen, Senegalese rice and fish

The dish is “Ceebu Jen” in the non-official Wolof orthography. The name means “rice and fish” or more literally “the rice’s fish” if you care to translate directly from Wolof to English.

Usually made with ocean fish (the preferred fish is a kind of grouper) but I made mine with catfish. Meaty filets such as swordfish also work well, but in my opinion catfish is more flavorful.

In a deep soup pot, fry the fish in several lots (careful not to crowd the pot) in more hot oil than you’d later care to own up to when asked (I used canola but in Senegal they’d use peanut oil). Feel free to liberally sprinkle the frying fish with black pepper. Remove fish and keep covered.

Have water pre-measured and standing nearby (two cups of water per one cup of rice to be cooked). Before adding the water, throw a whole lotta minced garlic into the hot oil and stir quickly. Allow to brown slightly but not burn (should only take a few seconds). Stop the garlic carnage by pouring all the water into the pot at once – carefully! Don’t get burned by splashing up hot oil!

Add two Maggi cubes per cup of water to the pot (or twice the recommended amount of any good, beef-flavored soup base).

Splash in about one-eighth cup of cider vinegar. Add tomato paste in the following (wildly approximate) proportion: about one tablespoon per cup of water. Stir as it heats, until the Maggi/soup base and tomato paste are dissolved. Allow to come to a rolling boil.

Into the boiling pot of broth, I usually put in some combination of the following vegetables: carrots, eggplant, cabbage, sweet potato, manioc/cassava/yucca. Cut the vegetables into pieces of a size that each type of vegetable will cook in about the same amount of time (e.g. – bigger pieces of softer veggies, smaller pieces of harder vegetables). Always make sure the chunks of cabbage have some stem attached so it doesn’t simply break into individual leaves; if using large eggplants, choose the smallest you can find and cut in half only (no more) otherwise the smaller pieces will just cook away into nothing. Remove vegetables when cooked and keep covered.

To the pot, return any broth that has accumulated inside the containers where the fish and veggies are being kept. Add more tomato paste (in about the same proportions as before). Allow to return to a rolling boil and stir to dissolve the tomato paste.

Add the rice to the pot (remember: one cup of rice to two cups of pre-measured water). Return just to the boil, stir briefly to break up clumps of rice, turn to low/simmer and cover. Leave the rice undisturbed to cook, about twenty minutes for 2-4 cups of rice, about thirty to forty minutes for larger quantities. Check the rice after about half an hour. Once the rice along the edge of the pot is cooked, stir any remaining broth into the rice and allow it to be absorbed. Turn off the heat and allow the covered pot to sit for ten minutes.

Turn the cooked rice into a large bowl (at least 24 inch diameter). If you’re lucky, there will be some burned and crunchy rice stuck to the bottom of the pot. Allow that yummy stuff to cool a bit, then scrape it out with the edge of a spoon and save in a separate bowl – to be served like croutons on top of the finished product.

Now, arrange some of the fish in the center of the plain bowl of rice, flanked by a variety of cooked vegetables. Serve with lime wedges and habanero hot sauce. Sprinkle burnt rice ‘croutons’ over everything if you got ‘em. Tastes best when eaten by hand out of the one large central bowl.

I just finished reading A Year in the Village of Eternity: The Lifestyle of Longevity in Campodimele, Italy, by Tracey Lawson. The author decides to visit the village when she hears that a disproportionate number of residents in Campodimele live into their 90s and 100s – she wants to learn about their food and their lifestyle to gain insight into why they live longer.

I enjoyed it, and found it to be engagingly written with a light, cheerful tone. She narrates short vignettes of her experiences learning from the residents about daily life in the mountain village, month by month through the year. Each month is a separate section and has multiple pages of recipes, tied in to its in-season ingredients and festival dishes.

The individual stories within each section are very short, which makes for good bedtime reading. There are a couple of color-photo-sections too, which are fun to look through after you’ve read most of the book and been introduced to the personalities shown in the photos.

I haven’t tried cooking from the book yet, but plan to. The recipes range from simple-looking one-pagers, such as the Fresh Beans with Oil, Garlic, and Parsley, to four-pagers or more, such as the Lasagna with Minced Veal. One challenge may be getting some of the ingredients called for, but I plan to swap in where necessary. This book might just inspire me to make more of my own ricotta!

The author also gives recipes for traditional foods that are unlikely to be made by your average cook, but an adventuresome few will find it intriguing – such as her recipe for Air-Dried Spicy Sausage, where the chopped meat is to be piped in to fresh, rinsed, pig intestine.

I look forward to some winter cooking fun with this one, and since the recipes are so seasonal I expect I’ll be pulling it out in spring, summer, and fall as well.

The nights are getting cool again, which inspires me to think about cooking in my tagine. (You could also use a heavy ceramic-coated cast iron baking dish with a lid, if you don’t have a tagine.) I have Paula Wolfert’s beautiful cookbook, The Food of Morocco (2011), and this recipe, “Chicken Tagine with Prune and Almonds in the Style of the Rif Mountains,” jumped out at me as straightforward, gluten-free, and calling for ingredients I mostly had on hand already.

Here’s the ingredients list first, and then the recipe method with my comments and photos.

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 3-1/4 pound chicken, preferably organic and air-chilled. (I used 4 chicken thighs)
- coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin, preferably Moroccan, or more to taste
- 12 ounces moist prunes, pitted
- 2-3 teaspoons ground Ceylon cinnamon (I used 2 teaspoons)
- 2 large yellow onions, halved and sliced lengthwise (I used 1 very large onion, since I used less chicken than it called for)
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup blanched whole almonds (I used blanched slivered almonds, skinless)
- vegetable oil for frying
- teff, for serving (traditionally would probably be couscous, but I needed a gluten-free option)
(and I made a kale and garlic side dish)

METHOD:

1. Rinse the chicken and pat dry, trim away excess fat. Cut off the wings and legs, leaving the breast in one piece. (Again, I just used thighs.) Rub all the pieces with the salt, pepper, and the cumin. (I used a very coarse sea salt, and rubbed it under the skin as well as on top of the skin.) Let stand 1 hour. (I didn’t let it stand quite the full hour, more like 35 minutes, still tasted wonderful.)

The chicken rubbed with spices

Onions ready to go

2. Meanwhile, cover the prunes with cold water in a small saucepan and add the cinnamon. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside.

3. Place the onions in a wide, shallow casserole dish (I used my tagine), with the turmeric, ginger, salt and pepper to taste, and 1/4 cup water, cover, and steam for 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, brown the almonds in 4 or 5 T oil in a large skillet. (I used slivered almonds. Stir constantly over medium heat until they turn a very light brown color.) Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Boiling the prunes with cinnamon

Toasting the almonds

5. Brown the chicken on all sides in the same oil (about 5 minutes per side) and then transfer to the steamed onions. Cover with a sheet of parchment paper (this keeps the liquid from escaping as steam out the hole in the lid of the tagine) and cook over low heat for 1-1/4 hours. (Note, my onions were starting to get dry so I added another almost 1/4 cup of water with the chicken, but in hindsight I would not add water – the parchment paper kept it moist. I ended up taking out the parchment paper for the last 20 minutes to let some of the sauce evaporate. I also turned the chicken pieces over once, about an hour in to the cooking.)

The onions post-steaming

Browning the chicken

6. Discard the parchment paper. Add the cooked prunes to the casserole and bring to a boil. (I note that the recipe did not specify, if I was to add the cinnamon water along with the cooked prunes. I assumed yes, but did not add quite all the cinnamon water since my tagine was already a bit over-juicy. But next time I think I would add it all. It was about 1/2 cup of liquid, and thick with cinnamon.)

Chicken on top of the onions, ready to add the prunes and then start steaming

The boiled prunes, with some of the cinnamon water

Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Then the recipe said to remove the chicken to a serving platter, breast in the middle, and arrange the legs and wings all around, and then cover with the sauce and sprinkle with the almonds and serve at one. I just sprinkled the almonds into the tagine and served that way.

7. I cooked up 1/2 cup teff (in 2 cups lightly salted boiling water), for half an hour, is a very good accompaniment to dishes like this with delicious sauces, and is gluten-free. Very small grained, light flavor, creamy texture. I also stir fried some kale on the side – I cooked garlic in oil, added the already-boiled kale, stirred for a few minutes, and then topped with sea salt and some red pepper flakes.

The tagine ready for serving

Final plate, with teff and kale

The four thighs could serve 4 people if you have hearty servings of the grain to go under it, and a vegetable on the side. There was just the two of us eating so we had some leftovers for lunch the next day.

My cousin made this delicious, gluten-free cake for her birthday party last weekend, and provided the recipe to the many of us who asked for it! (Via a cook book called Homemade, by Yvetter Van Boven. Recipe below.) In the ingredients it has hints of both Piedmont (polenta) and Sicily (almonds and oranges).

The raspberries on top made it especially festive.

For the cake:
2 whole oranges
juice of one lemon
half cup polenta
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp vanilla sugar (I just used half tsp vanilla)
1 cup almonds finely ground
6 eggs
One and a quarter cups sugar

To garnish
2-3 oranges
half cup apricot jam
raspberries – optional

Cook the 2 oranges whole (unpeeled) for 1 hour in plenty of water. When nearly done, preheat oven to 350. Leave oranges to cool fully, then roughly chop, removing the seeds. Place in food processor, and blitz with lemon juice. Stir in polenta, baking powder, and vanilla, then the ground almonds. In another bowl, beat the eggs with sugar into fine white foam. Carefully fold the polenta mixture into the airy egg foam and pour into a throughly greased 10 inch cake pan. Bake for 45 mins to 1 hour. Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto cooling rack to cool fully.

Peel the additional 2-3 oranges for the garnish, removing pith, and slice into thin rounds. Cover top of cake with oranges. Heat jam and pour over cake (there was something about adding gelatin too, but I skipped this), and then I added raspberries to make it look even prettier! Enjoy!

Fresh sweet corn, and blueberries, are still at my local farmer’s market. I wanted to make something easy for Sunday brunch that included both ingredients, and this sweet corn “pancake” recipe was perfect.

I don’t make pancakes often, but this seemed so much easier – I just poured the batter into my preheated casserole dish, put the berries in another pot with a little sugar, and ta-da, in less than half an hour I had a very festive and delicious brunch dish.

The hot “pancake” just out of the oven. Bake it until the middle is solid, and it’s best eaten right away.

A slice with the blueberry sauce on top, and Broadbent sausage patties with a little maple syrup drizzled on them.

The recipe follows, enjoy! -Jillian

Puffy Corn Pancake with Blueberry Sauce
(modified from a recent NY Times recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour (I used gluten-free sorghum flour)
- 1/4 cup fine cornmeal
- 5 large eggs
- 1/3 cup milk (original recipe said whole milk, I used 2%)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 3/4 cup fresh corn kernels (from 1 to 2 ears – usually from one large ear you can get 3/4 cup)
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 3 tablespoons sugar

METHOD:

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place the butter in the bottom of a 2-quart gratin dish. Place in the oven and cook until butter begins to bubble, 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together flour and cornmeal. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Whisk in honey, salt and pepper. Stir in the corn. Remove the heated dish from the oven and pour in the batter evenly. Return to the oven and bake until the pancake rises and is dark brown around the edges. The center of the pancake should also be golden brown. The original recipe said 20 to 25 minutes, but mine took another 8 to 10 minutes, so just keep testing it.

3. While the pancake cooks, make the sauce. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine blueberries and sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook until berries are soft and syrupy. Remove from heat and serve warm, spooned over slices of the pancake.

Serves 4.

I have not eaten at a molecular gastronomy restaurant, but last Friday my friend Tammy, who has a business called Tammy’s Tastings, came over and gave a group of us a mini cooking class, demonstrating some of the techniques that molecular gastronomy chefs use. It was a lot of fun, if somewhat odd! What is molecular gastronomy? The way I see it, it’s cooking techniques that involve some kind of modern technology, or, just a new, creative use of very old techniques (such as smoking). And the desire to be playful and defy expectation, while providing delicious food and an experience for all 5 senses.

First, we made an amuse-bouche, using an anti-griddle! This is a cookie sheet sitting on top of a piece of dry ice (wrapped in a towl). The liquid cream and sour cream froze on contact, and then we added the fresh chive, grated some smoked salmon over, and garnished with pink peppercorn skins and a whole peppercorn. Eaten in one bite – it was super-flavorful.

The cream froze instantly on the dry ice anti-griddle.

The salmon amuse-bouche garnished and ready to eat.

Next was a clear, liquid, caprese salad! The base was the clear juice from ripe tomatoes. We sphereified fresh mozzarella-cream liquid, and sphereified fresh liquid basil, to go in it. The flavors were as intense as eating the salad in its normal, solid form, but fun to eat in this unusual way.

Making fresh basil spheres, a few dozen at a time.

Liquid caprese salad. One of the mozzarella spheres had burst, but still tasted wonderful.

We followed that with a very different salad – fresh kale with a sherry vinagrette – as a granita! Several of us took turns shaving the pure liquid kale ice, and then carefully shaved a bit of the frozen sherry vinaigrette on top. And sat down to eat it immediately, before it melted.

Shaving the frozen liquid kale for the granita.

The kale salad with sherry vinaigrette granita ready to eat.

The main course, was steak with “eggs 3 ways” – mostly made using a sous vide. A sous vide keeps water at a constant low temperature that you set, so you can bring food up to its ideal cooked temperature and then leave it there with no danger of overcooking. You can have perfect soft-boiled eggs, and steak at the perfect level of doneness all the way through. In the case of steak, chefs usually just pan-sear it afterwards to get the tasty brown outside, with the insides done exactly how they want, without the layer of gray overcooked meat that you usually see.

Eggs in the sous vide

Our main course of sous-vide-cooked steak, and three different egg preparations.

And not to forget the hickory-smoked potato pancakes – Tammy had a little black device that directed smoke from hickory chips, into a container with shredded potato, which we then molded and fried. These were delicious, and went very fast!

Infusing the shredded potatoes with hickory smoke, from a tiny cache of fresh hickory chips that you light on fire in one end of the device.

Molding the smoked potato shreds, which we then fried them on a regular hot griddle, as opposed to a freezing one.

The last two courses were both very fun. The first involved puffs made from pure beet juice, which were amazing. Light as air, and they dissolved on our tongues with the taste of pure beet. We hollowed out little holes in the bottoms with chopsticks, and stuffed them with soft goat cheese. And served them along with celery infused with apple cider and stuffed with blue cheese, and garnished with pine nuts.

Beet juice puffs

Goat cheese stuffed beet puffs, with stuffed celery

And our last course was a dry sundae in a shot glass – freshly-powdered peanut butter, banana, and nutella – the peanut butter was especially intense, the other flavors a bit milder, but intriguing to eat dessert in one dry bite!

Freshly powdered peanut butter

Dessert! A powder sundae.

All in all it was a very entertaining and flavorful evening. Definitely not my personal style of cooking, but great to know more about how it’s done, and fun to enjoy the playfulness of it and how it engages one’s senses.

It’s the pickle-making time of year here in Michigan! I love sour pickles, and my family does too, so I always make a point of boiling-water-canning a big batch, to keep us in pickles year-round. I found a simple recipe with no sugar in it and have been using it for years.

Hot brine recipe/ratio: 3 cups white vinegar, 3 cups water, 1/3 cup canning salt. You combine this and bring it to a boil. The amount of brine you need depends a lot on how tightly your jars are packed with produce – you need enough brine to cover the produce in the jars and go up to within 1/4 inch of the top of the jar. I usually multiply this ratio by three or more times.

Before I dive in here to all the nuts and bolts, let me say if you have not canned before, you MUST go read the Ball’s canning guide, called Ball’s Blue Book. The book is super-cheap, not very long, and has ALL the info you need. Most any place that sells canning jars and lids, sells this guide. It has all the safety and how-to info, as well as tons of recipes.

Fill your pots first!

Put the lids on for a faster boil.

The very first thing I do when I walk in to the kitchen to start canning, is put the pots on to boil – bringing large pots of liquid to a boil always takes a lot longer than you think it will! The depth you need to fill your canner depends on if you are doing pints or quarts – the water needs to cover your jars by at least an inch if not more. If I’m canning quarts and so need to get the water right near the top of my canner, I put an additional pot of water on to boil, so I can top off the boiling water in the canner after I add my jars. (If you fill your canner too full of water to start, when you add your jars it will overflow. Been there, done that.) In this case, I was only canning pints so I did not need to fill my canner all the way or have the extra pot of water.

The blue pot is the brine solution, which I like to do in a ceramic-coated pot.

Pickling gear

Sterilizing the jars, lids, and equipment

What gear do you need? You need a very large pot of course, potentially another for extra boiling water, and a smaller pot for the brine. And, you may need two additional pots, if you don’t have access to a professional-kitchen Hobart like I do – one small pot to simmer lids in, and another to boil the jars in. Other pieces of gear, as shown in the photo: the rack for the bottom of the canner, and the rack to put the jars in, a funnel to use to pour the hot brine into the jars, a jar lifter, a magnetic lid lifter, a ladle for the brine, a non-sharp knife (or other thin flat object) to remove air bubbles from the jar, and a damp cloth to wipe the glass tops of the jars with after you’ve filled them.

As I mentioned, I have it easy re sterilizing the jars and lids since I have access to a kitchen with a 3-minute-cycle professional Hobart… If you don’t have this, you need to simmer the lids (don’t boil them or the rubber bits may melt) and keep the jars immersed in boiling water too. (See the Ball’s Blue Book for more specifics on sterilizing.)

Pickling salt and white vinegar for the brine

Ingredients for packing into the jars

So, once I have all my various water pots and pot of brine on to boil, then it’s time to prep the ingredients. I scrub the cucumbers and cut off about 1/16″ off the blossom end. (I read that it helps keep the cucumbers crisper, who knows…) I peel garlic, enough for 1 clove per jar. (Garlic can turn blue however, in your jar – fair warning, if your pickles are gifts you might want to skip the garlic. Harmless apparently, but the blue color is a bit off-putting!) I pick and rinse fresh young grape leaves from the arbor outside the kitchen door, one per jar. Another thing that I’ve read can help keep pickles crisper, but again, who knows. If my dill heads in my garden have seeds on them by now, I pick one dill head for each jar, and buy enough dill seed for one additional tablespoon per jar. If not, I buy enough dill seed for 2 tablespoons per jar. I also buy mustard seeds, and peppercorns.

Packing the jars

Pour in the boiling brine

Once the ingredients are prepped, I check to make sure my brine and my pots of water are boiling. Then I start packing my jars, usually two at a time. I put in a grape leaf, a clove of garlic, a dill head and 1 additional tablespoon of dill seed (or 2 tablespoons dill seed if I don’t have any dill heads), 1 teaspoon of mustard seed, and six peppercorns. Then I pack in my cucumbers. Lately I’ve been leaving the cucumbers whole, I find they are crisper that way, but, it means I need a lot more brine, since there’s a lot more air space in the jar. I’ve also made spears, and horizontal slices for burgers – all work fine. There needs to be air space at the top. Once your produce is in, then carefully pour in hot brine using your funnel and ladle, until there’s about 1/4 inch of space from the brine to the top of the jar. Then use your butter knife to slide around the edges of the jar, to get out air bubbles. Then wipe the top edge of the glass jar with a damp cloth to get off any residual brine or any seeds (so the lid will adhere well). Use your magnetic wand to lift a lid and put it down on the top of the jar (or just lift by the edges with your fingers if you don’t have a magnetic wand), and then screw on the metal band. Turn the metal band until it is only just fully on – do NOT tighten it tightly. Then put the jar in your canning rack on the counter, and continue with more jars until your canning rack is full or you are out of cucumbers.

The rack of jars lowered in to the canner

Steam of a rolling boil

Carefully lift up your full canning rack, and lower it in to your canner, which should be at a full rolling boil. If the boiling water does not cover your jars by more than an inch, add more boiling water from your extra pot. Put the lid back on, and watch carefully until the canner comes back to a full rolling boil (this can take up to 15 minutes I’ve found, depending on how full the canner is). The steam coming out from under the lid will be a good clue as to when it’s come back to boil, but of course lift the lid to make sure. Once you’ve reached boil with the jars in, you can start timing your canning. My recipe book says, 15 minutes after rolling boil (if you are above sea level any significant amount you’ll need to look up your local information about how much time you need to add). I know some canners (like myself) only do 10 minutes more, some only 15 minutes total from the moment the jars get lowered in – this is all personal choice. If you read the canning guide, which is written for maximum safety, they will say 15 minutes after boil.

Lifting the hot jars

The jars cooling

Once the canning time is done, I use a wooden spoon to lift up the two handles of the rack in the boiling water, so I can grab them with hot pads. Then lift the rack straight up out of the canner and place it on the counter. I spread out a towel on the counter, and use the jar lifter to carefully place each jar on the towel. Leave a few inches space between the jars to help them cool. You’ll hear the lids start to pop, this is good! Leave them there without touching them for at least 12 hours or more.

When they are fully cool, you can unscrew the bands, and test to make sure each lid has sealed – if you can lift the jar up by the lid, without the band on, you know it’s sealed. Store them on a shelf out of the sun or heat for 6 weeks, to give them time to get more flavorful. Then enjoy! And they keep for years, if for some reason they last that long. If a jar or two does not seal (which happens, and is often hard to know why), just put it in the fridge, and eat them first. Every once in a while a jar will come apart in the canner – the glass bottom breaks off, which is the weakest point in the jar. Again it’s hard to say why it happens, maybe the jar had been bumped too hard or was weak for some reason, or maybe was filled too near the top, but the rest of the jars will be fine. You just have a bit of a mess to clean up when the batch is done cooking. Happy canning!