Summer Sky: Learning as I go

Experiments in jam.

We finally made "real" strawberry jam this weekend--and I don't know why we didn't try it sooner. I guess I had visions of a big giant gooey strawberry mess, with broken glass punctuating it all. 

Needless to say--that didn't happen.

Over a year ago, I was all geared up to make my first batch of jam.  I checked out a highly recommended book on preserving food from the library and sat down one day to wrap my brain around this "canning" business.  I read the entire first chapter very earnestly. 

What I recall (and I freely admit my memory may be skewed) was a disturbingly large number of sentences in bold, italicized all caps, practically screeching from the page about all the terrible things that can happen if you don't do things just so.  I'm pretty sure I was supposed to dip the entire kitchen in bleach, but since we don't keep it on hand I shut the book and decided that 2009 was not going to be the year of making jam.

 Thank you, Amy Karol, for introducing this masher to us. It is far and away my favorite kitchen utensil and I've said goodbye to my useless plastic masher.

Strawberry season rolled around again and this year I was determined.  Lots and lots of people make jam all the time; how hard could it be?  Plus, my real goal isn't strawberry jam; it's raspberry preserves, and pickles, and our own jarred tomato sauce that I can grab off the shelves when I wait too long to start dinner (again) some night this fall.

So, with renewed determination, I borrowed a canner and rack from my friend Sarah (they were her grandma's).  Two hours later, success!  By which I mean, I managed to go from strawberries to properly sealed jam jars in fairly short order.

Was the jam any good?  Sadly, no.  We like to taste the fruit, and not the sugar, in our jam. I had tried a recipe from the Ball Blue Book that didn't call for pectin, because, I suppose, I thought no pectin was better.  Although I'd heard good things about low-sugar jam with Pomona pectin, I was confused and thought "low sugar" meant artificial sweeteners.  Obviously, I was wrong; low sugar Pomona pectin just meant less sugar, as in a lot less.  Lesson learned.

Fortunately, someone in this house is a huge fan of strawberry jam, even it's sickly sweet.

And friends, breath easy, I won't be giving any of this stuff away.  I like you too much for that.  But look out, raspberry season!!

Homemade graham crackers, and making do.

We're getting a little stir-crazy over here, snowed in as we are. I think most of my friends and neighbors have ventured forth, because we're supposed to get more snow tonight. In fact, as I type this, I spy some flakes coming down.

 
We brought the snow inside today, thanks to a suggestion on our wonderful mom's group listserv. Yes, that's a jigger that you see. And the floor needed mopping, but it was worth it.

Before the snow hit, I bought the usual staples (like eggs), but I also made sure to get a few other ingredients that would make being indoors more bearable.  So, that would explain the quart of buttermilk* I had in the fridge. 

Last night I made buttermilk dumplings (and drop biscuits with the leftover dough) for this chicken & dumplings recipe recommended by Molly via her friend Sarah.  The herbes de provence** really make it tasty.   E loved this, so it's my new go-to recipe for that dish.

The buttermilk was not just for biscuits; I've been planning, for some time, to try this homemade graham cracker recipe by a local pastry chef.  Now, I'm fully aware that Smitten Kitchen has closed the book on graham cracker recipes (and I mean that as a big fan).  However, the recipe I wanted to try calls for whole wheat flour, and I'm always trying to find recipes that use little to no white flour.

 

We made the graham crackers this afternoon, and as it turns out, it's a great recipe for cookie cutters, as long as you chill the dough first.  We also sprinkled the cookies liberally with cinnamon and sugar (although I need to get my friend Marissa experimenting with toppings--she's so good at that stuff!). It's all we can do to save some for D (who has managed to take the subway into work).

I'm thinking homemade oreos are up next (using this cookie and one of these fillings--oooh, and these sound good too).  If you're cooped up this week, how are you passing the time?

* I should note again that you don't need to keep buttermilk on hand. You can always make your own with a tablespoon of vinegar added to a cup of milk (fat free is fine); let it stand for 5 minutes before using.

** I don't keep herbes de provence around--I should, but I don't--so I generally make this instead because I have all the individual herbs.  (I also discovered that there's no "traditional" herbes de provence--it was invented in the 1970's!)  We also didn't have canned cream of chicken soup, but I did have chicken stock (or you could use broth), so I made this "substitute" for canned soup, and now I can never go back. It takes all of 3 minutes. Plus, I doctored the recipe with 1/4 cup of sherry (the real stuff)--it adds a certain 'something' to many a sauce or soup.  Last thing: I cut the butter in the biscuits down from 1/2 a cup to 5 T--you won't miss it.

 

Fun with pasta.

N had two little guests over today. They're all four years old, and they've known each other since they were babies. They didn't see much of each other this summer, so it was fun to eavesdrop on their play together--all the negotiations, compromises, and questions that are exchanged. It's amazing to me that (most of the time) they're able to work out their disagreements without my saying a word. 

That kind of harmony tends to wear off as lunchtime approaches, but I had a (nutty) idea for heading it off at the pass. A couple of weeks ago, I was quite surprised at how easy, and tasty, homemade whole wheat pasta turned out to be. Not to mention, fun to make.

I have no plans for making pasta for family dinners on a regular basis, and if I (ever) have a supper party for friends, they won't have to worry that this pasta will show up on the menu. But lunch for small children? Right up my alley.  Especially if the kids do most of the pasta making.

If you feel like playing along at home, you'll need:

• 1 cup of flour per child (I used whole wheat flour, but you can use regular unbleached white flour) 

• 1/8 teaspoon (a dash) of salt per child

• 1 egg per child*

• 1 to 4 tablespoons of water per child (the exact amount varies each time you make the dough)

(Just one kid's batch of dough made enough for four small children--E ate some after school--so if you don't plan on cooking it all at once and saving the leftovers, or freezing uncooked pasta for boiling later, you can just make one batch and let the kids take turns mixing, kneading, and shaping the pasta.)

Place the flour in a bowl in front of each child. Help the kids measure and sprinkle the salt into the flour. Let them stir the flour and salt together. (It helps if the bowl is a bit deep, so the flour can't escape.)

Help each child crack their egg into the flour. Next, ask them to stir their eggs into the flour. You want the mixture at this point to be a bit lumpy.

Then, add a tablespoon of water to each bowl. Let the kids work the water and egg into the flour at this point with their hands. Show them how to press the dough down so that the flour gets absorbed into the dough. Continue to add water, a tablespoon (or less) at a time. Make sure the liquid is worked into the dough before adding more. If you add too much water, it will be too stiff to roll easily. Stop adding water as soon as the dough comes together well.

When the dough is smooth, turn it out onto a floured surface. Roll out the dough--four-year-olds can handle a big rolling pin, if you show them how. Now here's the important part: stop rolling and wait a minute or two--or more--if the dough bounces back and resists rolling.

When you've rolled as much as you can, help each child lift their flattened dough up, flour the surface a little more, and flip the dough over. Tell the kids to take a short break. I had the kids all go and wash their hands at this point, and then asked them to help me get out a large pot and fill it with water for cooking the noodles. (I started heating it up, too, so that we didn't have to wait for the water to boil.)

When five to ten minutes have passed, have the kids continue to roll their dough out. When you think the dough is thin enough, they can use a dull butter knife to cut the dough into strips (as narrow, or as wide, as you like). Or, if you have tiny cookie cutters or a thimble, you can press out pasta shapes. You can stop right here and move on to cooking the noodles, if you want.

We used our wavy veggie tool (a favorite kid kitchen item) to cut the noodles into small rectangles. Then we twisted each rectangle to form a bow-tie.

Once you have enough for the kids to eat, and the water is at a rolling boil, throw the pasta noodles into the pot. Usually, fresh pasta takes only about five minutes to cook, but whole wheat pasta can take twice as long (even fresh), especially if the pasta is kid-made and on the thicker side. You will want to take a piece out and check for doneness before serving. Our pasta took about 15 to 20 minutes to cook; our noodles were pretty thick.

The kids ate their homemade bow-tie pasta noodles with butter and a little salt. I'll admit I could hardly believe that they gobbled them up and asked for seconds. Yes, it probably helped that they were pretty hungry.

 

Again, this recipe makes a lot of pasta, more than enough for three adults, so if you'd rather not waste it, just use one egg, one cup of flour, etc., and let the kids share making the noodles together.

 

*Most pasta recipes require raw eggs, and this one is no different. Larger grocery store chains carry eggs that are pasteurized in the shell, in case you feel strongly about that sort of thing. Salmonella poisoning from eggs, while rare in the U.S., is no joke for adults, and downright dangerous for kids. If you choose to use regular eggs, like I did, you want to make sure the kids involved can be trusted to follow directions and not put their hands, or anything else, in their mouths for a decent period of time.

Cheating, with jam.

I have every intention of doing some "real" pickling and canning this summer. Truly I do. I even have the canning jars to prove it.  But I figured I'd start off easy by making freezer jam.

Anyone can make freezer jam, which is why it's also called cheater's jam, and it's a great option for those of us with young children and only, say, 30 minutes on our hands instead of several hours.

Now, for those of you who know "all about" freezer jam, my mom found me this Good Housekeeping recipe which uses waaaay less sugar than traditional freezer jam. Which is pretty darn wonderful, considering that other freezer jam recipes call for more sugar than fruit. Yes, you read that right!

 

The last (?) of the strawberries.

 

So here is the freezer jam recipe I used, which calls for only about 1/4 of the sugar of the usual recipe. And, because I tend to be impulsive about starting projects, I used what I had on hand--lime juice--rather than lemon (I figured, it works with margaritas, why not jam)?

 

Low(er) Sugar Strawberry Freezer Jam (Adapted from June 2009 Good Housekeeping)

1 pound of strawberries:  when hulled and sliced, should equal 3 cups

2 T fresh lime juice (or lemon juice, if you're more organized)

2 T powdered fruit pectin* like Sure Jell (in the yellow box, the regular kind, baker's aisle)

1/2 tsp (a sliver) of butter or margarine

1 1/4 cups sugar

three 1 cup jars with good lids (although GH didn't call for this, you can pour some boiling water over them to clean them a little more, per the old Sure Jell recipe).

 

Place the strawberries in a large skillet.  Add pectin, lime juice, and butter--hold off on the sugar for now. Heat to boiling, then mash with a potato masher or a fork. Boil for one minute.

 

Now add the sugar; boil for two minutes more, stirring now and then. Remove from heat and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Ladle into the jars, leaving one inch of head space.  Cool in the fridge for 8 hours.  It will last 3 weeks in the fridge, or place in the freezer to thaw and eat later, for up to one year.

*I doubled this recipe so that I could use almost the whole package of Sure Jell. It is just as easy as making one batch and you might as well while you're going to all the trouble laughing all the way to the freezer.

 

N "helped out" with prepping the strawberries. He actually did put some strawberries into the bowl.

 

 

 

 

I don't think our jam will stay in the freezer for very long. This particular jar will never make it.