This afternoon our herb harvest and processing continued. We cut bunches of oregano and hung it up in the kitchen to dry. This should be done in time for spaghetti sauce making. Also harvested some of our mint and tried a new recipe:
Orange Peppermint Jelly
Place mint leaves in medium bowl. Using a large stainless steel pot, bring the orange juice to a boil, and then pour juice over mint leaves. Let this steep for about 30 minutes, then drain through a fine mesh sieve, squeezing out remaining juice from the mint leaves. Discard leaves and return liquid to large pot. Add sugar and lemon juice and bring to boil, making sure all sugar is dissolved. Stir in pectin and bring to a full rolling boil. Boil for one minute – mixture will foam a lot! (hence the large pot). Skim off foam and ladle jelly in to prepared jars. (Jars need to be washed and hot – inserts need to have been placed in simmering water to soften the rubber). Wipe jar rims, adjust lids and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.
I let Lars taste the skimmed off foam – which had set nicely before the water bath even came to a boil. His reaction was that the jelly tasted just like cough drops! While this is true, it is not at all a bad taste, rather sweet, with a lot of citrus and mint, just like the ingredients. Almost like a minty lemon curd. We’ll see how this tastes in the middle of winter – we’ll be sure to put it on Lars’s toast whenever he gets a cold.
Started off this morning by cutting our basil plants back until I had 2 bowls of leaves for pesto. Here is the recipe I used (3 times!):
Put all ingredients into large food processor and pulse first, then run on low until mixture is nearly smooth. We used our vacuum sealer, made small bags, and scooped about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of pesto into each prepared bag and then sealed and froze them.
For lunch we made a quick pasta dish with pesto: Boil 12 oz of noodles (Fuseli or Bow Ties work nice). In the meantime, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add 1/2 cup of cream or half&half until hot. Add about 1/4 or more of the prepared pesto and heat through. Dice up fresh tomatoes. Drain pasta and make individual bowls – scoop in pasta, add some chopped tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese and cover with pesto cream sauce, mix together and enjoy!
Years ago neighbors gave us a pint of “blackberry shrub”, and told us to mix it with ginger ale for a refreshing drink (which it was). We never got a recipe, or thought much about it, but last month I went to a booksigning for a canning book and they served “rhubarb shrub” with Proseccu and I decided to check out some recipes. Basically, a shrub is made up of fruit juice, sugar and vinegar and before refrigeration it was a handy way to preserve your fruit. But it seems that this staple of colonial times is gaining in popularity again. Actually creating and drinking fancy vinegars seems to be happening worldwide and vinegar sommeliers can be found as far away as Japan and Korea. But close to home, Pennsylvania’s Tait Farms offers an assortment of shrub concoctions as well.
First thing I found was a New York Times Magazine article titled “Dropping Acid“, which caught my attention and provides a nice history of this ancient beverage. Also included was a basic recipe for any kind of fruit shrub.
Turns out that the real connoisseurs of shrub recipes are the “cocktail geeks” and I came across an interesting and funny article called Cocktail 101: How to Make Shrub Syrups. This also included a recipe as well as links to other resources.
So far we picked about 12 quarts blueberries off our bushes. (For half of our bushes this is the first year bearing, and we only let some of the berries ripen – the other half of our bushes were completely stripped, as this is their first full growing season and we want them to develop roots rather than berries).
We’ve been experimenting with different recipes, and here is a favorite cobbler, which we found on allrecipes.com and slightly modified:
Ingredients Needed:
– Preheat oven to 375 degree F
– Using a 7 x 11 inch glass baking dish, mix blueberries, 4 tablespoons of sugar and orange juice
– In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt – set aside
– Cream the 1/2 cup sugar and softened butter until fluffy – scraping bowl occasionally. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Gradually add the flour mixture – just until all ingredients are combined
– Drop batter by spoonfulls over blueberry mixture, covering as much as possible (a bit tricky, but it definitely works)
– Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes until golden brown, and the filling bubbles up.
