Stone Fruit Hotchpotch

What did I do with all of those plums? A lot. There were a lot of plums.

I raw packed a few of the good ones.




And then whipped up a double batch of just plain plum jam using a 2 pounds of fruit to 3 cups of sugar ratio. It turned out pretty good, but I overcooked it a bit and now have a very firm jam. This is clearly a problem for me.

I moved on to some plum sauces. I did an Asian plum sauce based on this recipe from Oregon State University. I swapped the canned chiles for a fresh jalapeno and pasilla chile. The result was a standard plum sauce flavor that I am pleased with and am sure will go nicely with some pork or chicken.

I also decided to test out this chipotle plum sauce recipe. Oh good god is it good! I didn't use the chipotle seasoning that was called for, but instead substituted a freshly grated dried chipotle as that's what I had lying around. I also used regular garlic powder rather than roasted. The overall product is divine with just enough kick to make it interesting. I'm not a huge fan of super spicy so this suited me perfectly. I think I will be enjoying it on a cracker with some cream cheese.

Even after all that, I still had plums leftover. I also had some other stone fruits that were quickly becoming borderline edible. So I whipped up a jam with the mishmash of leftover fruits.

I cut up several apricots, peaches, and nectarines that had seen better days.




I then added a bunch of plum sauce. I don't pit my plums individually, but rather cook them down first, pull out the pits, and run them through a food mill to get rid of the skins. Works for me.

I know this picture looks ugly. The plum puree had oxidized a bit, but the brown color wouldn't affect the finished product with so many fruits.




Next came the cherries. That looks somewhat better.




I weighed out my fruit and then added 3/4 of that weight in sugar. Though many recipes recommend a 1 to 1 ratio, I find that really sweet fruit doesn't need that much sugar.




Next I cooked it down until it reached the jelling point. Again, I carmelized the sugars a bit and the jam turned out more firm than I would care for, but the taste is wonderful. Much like the mixed fruit jams you can buy at the store, but like way way better 'cause I made it myself with more flavorful fruits.




Winging it in jam making can be intimidating when you are first starting out. The key is getting the right ratio of fruit to sugar. So far with my one pound of fruit to 3/4 pound of sugar has served me well. Keep this in mind the next time you want to go out on a limb and experiment with a wacky fruit combo.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Friend in Cheese Is a Friend Indeed

This is my husband's rockin' childhood friend, Tabitha.

She is a master chef. Chef friends are the best 'cause they have impeccable taste in food and they know how to cook it. I get all my best kitchen tips from them.

Tabitha runs a jam company, Friend in Cheeses. She also makes cheese. Her business tag line reads "Dare to pair 'cause it pays to play." Hell yeah, it does, baby! With ambrosial flavors like Forbidden Fruit Marmalade, Lavender Plum Jelly, and Patzo (a strawberry, balsamic, and black pepper preserve given the Italian name (pazzo) for "insane"), a heaping spoonful of any of her creations on top of a chevre smothered cracker is divine, indeed.

Deep in the heart of the Santa Cruz mountains, Tabitha lives on a small vineyard

where she raises veggies and a flock of hens with names like Aunt Sponge, Aunt Spiker, and Oprah.

The chickens live in a converted plastic playhouse.

Tabitha has loads of cool stuff laying around. I'm super jealous of this collection of pots for the succulents.

Gotta love the juxtaposition of these objets d'art.

Tabitha even has a dinner bell.

I want a dinner bell!

Last week, Tabitha invited me to go gleaning with her. That's how she gets most of the fruit for her jams. I love how her product is made from stuff that would otherwise be wasted and left to rot. What a great business plan: get free goods that no one wants and make something delish out of it. 

Well last week we hit the mother load. A friend of a friend connected Tabitha to a woman whose golden plum tree had a major freak out this season. Honestly, I don't believe I've ever seen anything like it.

The limbs of the poor plumb were cracking under the immense weight. The fruit was gorgeous,

 dripping like grapes.

Photo courtesy of Tabitha

 Pure plum porn.

Photo courtesy of Tabitha

Between the two of us, we probably harvested around 100 pounds of fruit. And that was gathering only about a quarter to a third of the pickings.

This tree was so enorm that it had 9 foot suckers growing off of a tap root. I snagged one.

Photo courtesy of Tabitha

Then there was that figuring out how to get it home thing... in a convertible. This is when I found out Tabitha is as much of a MacGyver as I am. How could she not be? She scores free fruit! Tabitha suggested wrapping my baby in saran wrap. Voila!

We were ready to roll.

Then it was off to lunch at Tabitha's friends restaurant, Smoqe BBQ. If you find yourself in the area, you gotta go, if only for the beef brisket fries: sweet potato or regular fries coated in mac and cheese sauce and topped with barbecued beef brisket. Holy crap, that shit is good. We also had oysters.

And a bubbling tray of farm cheese. So good.

Told you. Chefs know where to find the best eats.

As a side note, I'm not sure if that sucker will survive. I don't think it is a grafted tree, which means the sucker will produce like the mother (on grafted trees, suckers don't taste like the host). In fact it was already bearing fruit when I ripped it from the ground. Right now it is marinating in a bucket of water seasoned with chicken crap and rooting hormone. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one 'cause them was some tasty plums.

Apricotastic

By far, apricot preserves are my absolute favorite. As I dip my spoon into each luscious jar, it's like eating silky globs of sunshine. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not much of a fan of the apricot in its raw state. Too mealy. But boy, oh boy, when it's cooked up and smushed up with heaps and heaps of sugar, heaven awaits on the tip of every bite.

Some folks use pectin in their apricot jam and I can't quite figure out why, unless they're looking for something more akin to Jello. One of the greatest attributes of the apricot is that it gets to the perfect consistency without any other ingredients aside from sugar. And the fact that the apricot is a breeze to pit makes this fruit all the more appealing for putting up.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am branching out into adventurous tongue-tickling territories. To mess with my most beloved took some bravery on my part. But I pressed forth, exploring worlds yet unknown to my palate. I am more than ecstatic with the results as I believe I may have perfected perfection with this round of jamming.

Apricot Tangelo Jam

This jam turned out much like my standard apricot jam in which I usually use an orange. I substituted a tangelo, because it was what I had on hand, without out any significant alteration to the flavor.

2.5 lbs. apricots
3 cups sugar
Juice and zest of 1 tangelo



Apricot Grapefruit Jam


This was it. This was the ultimate taste accentuation I have been looking for in an apricot jam, even though I had no idea that I was ever looking for it in the first place. I had a couple grapefruits on the counter that were starting to pucker up like the mouth of an old man who had lost his teeth. Maybe they weren't that bad, but they were certainly acquiring a few wrinkles. The slight revision with a more bitter, yet still sweet, citrus took this already perfect preserve into another stratosphere. From now on, this will be my standard apricot jam that I make each year.

2.5 lbs. apricots
3 cups sugar
Juice and zest of 1 ruby grapefruit

Apricot Ginger Jam

I hate to say it, but I think this one might be as good as the apricot grapefruit. I had my doubts, fearing that the ginger would be overwhelming. How wrong was I? Even the husband thought it was fantastic and he doesn't care that much for ginger. I can't wait to slather it on some homemade scones.

2.5 lbs. apricots
3 cups sugar
freshly grated ginger to taste (I think I used about 1-1.5 tablespoons)

Anyone else out there adore apricot jam as much as I do?

Cherrypalooza

I must be some kind of masochist to have taken on pitting 21 pounds of cherries. By hand. No pitters over here. No sirree, Bob. Just good old fashioned do-it-yourself lunacy. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. I sat in front of the boob tube ensconced in several layers of towels to prevent the deep red spray of these juicy suckers from staining the couch. Took me a few hours, but Jane Austen got me through the trials and tribulations. I should have thought to cover the computer as I'm having to look past the drips in order to type this post.

So what does one do with 21 pounds of cherries?




A lot. This year, I'm pushing past my tendencies to veer towards the safe, plain, tried and true preserves. New preserving territory will be explored. Flavors will be experimented with. I'm sure my cautious nature stems from the fact that jamming and preserving are a lot of work. Aside from the pitting, there is the several hours that you will spend hovering over a hot stove. Who wants to have put in all that time and effort producing something that might taste nasty?

So far, throwing caution to the wind has paid off. Four types of cherry preserves were put up and they all turned out scrumptious.




Here are the recipes and results.

Cherry Lisbon Lemon Jam

Lisbon lemons have a hint of lime flavor to them, which gave the jam a good citrus tang. The following is the list of ingredients I used. You can find general preserving instructions here.

7 cups cherries
5 1/4 cups sugar
zest and juice from 2 Lisbon lemons

Combine all ingredients and simmer until setting point. Be careful not to overcook. The above link tells you that you will need to use pectin in order to get cherries to set. I have not found that to be the case, however with berries and cherries that there is a fine line between jelling and carmelization. I have a tendency to cook these jams for too long and end up with a preserve that once refrigerated is so firm that moving a knife through it is harder than wading through setting cement. While cooking, put a dish in the freezer so that you can pull it out and test for jelling by pouring a glob on the frozen plate (turn off burner when testing so that you don't overcook). Once cooled, the jam should wrinkle when you push your finger into it. When jelled, process in water bath according to instructions in above link.

Cherry Kirsch Jam

Lucky me, I had a bottle of real kirsch sitting around.  It was brought to me several years ago by a friend who was visiting from Germany. Since I don't drink, it has sat on my shelf unopened for at least three years. I could think of no finer way to use it (except maybe in fondue) than with cherries. The kirsch made a fine sweet jam with an added kick.

7 cups cherries
5 1/4 cups sugar
a shot or more of kirsch, depending on taste

Unlike the cherry lemon jam, you don't want to add the flavoring ingredient until the end of cooking. Once the jam has reached its set, add the kirsch.

Cherry Olives

I found this recipe in one of the old Ortho Books (ironically owned by Chevron Chemical Company) on pickling.

2 pounds sweet cherries (either pitted or left whole and pricked with a pin)
salt
sugar
vinegar

Wash cherries and put in hot, sterilized jars. If using pint jars, add 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. sugar, and 1/2 cup of vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar) to each jar (for have pints use half of the measurements). Fill the rest of the jar with water. Process in water canning bath for 5 minutes. Refrigerate and let jars stand about 1 month before using so that the flavor can develop.

Five Spice Cherry Pickles

I got this awesome recipe over at Leena Eats blog. If you love cherries, you should try this one. They are seriously addictive. I used apple cider vinegar rather than the called for white vinegar and really like the flavor.




Are you doing anything interesting with cherries this year?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Summer Solstice Fruition

Fruit picking. What a wonderful way to honor the solstice by  reaping the bounty that comes from these long days. The three ladies that come by Itty Bitty once a week to learn homesteady stuff, Vanessa, Niki, and Erika,  took a little jaunt with me over to Brentwood for some cherry and apricot picking. It was a beautiful day, though a touch on the warm side for this San Franciscan. Up on the ladders, I could feel a tickle behind my knees as the sweat dripped down my legs in the 100 degree heat. You know it's hot if I'm perspiring. I don't sweat unless it's really freakin' toasty.

The cherries were plump. juicy, and full of flavor. Here's Vanessa gathering a handful.




Vanessa brought her four-year-old nephew, Kai, who had a great time picking off the low branches. We went to Enos Family Farms, the only certified organic u-pick in Brentwood, where they keep the trees pruned so that the branches are low enough for hand-picking. Keeps it engaging for the little ones.





We also picked up some Blenheim apricots, which were in the transitional stage of becoming organic (it takes three years of no chemical inputs to become certified).




These little babies were oh-so-sweet with an excellent texture. I even ate them raw. Not my preferred way to enjoy an apricot as they tend to be mealy in their uncooked state.




Not these guys.




My plan was for the four of us to come back from the picking for a jam party, but that was too much to tackle in one day. Especially since I came back with 21 pounds of cherries and 10 pounds of apricots. When my daughter caught a glimpse of the booty I brought home she said, "Mommy are you going to take the pits out of all those cherries tonight? I don't think you should do that. You'll be up all night and you need your rest."




I took her advice and only pitted half the cherries yesterday. Today I am all day in the kitchen whipping up cherry pickles, cherry olives, two kinds of cherry jam, and putting up the rest in the freezer. I'll post recipes this week.

What about the apricots, you ask? I'll be trying out some apricot tangelo butter, apricot ginger and apricot brandy jam. But I'll save that for tomorrow. A girl can only do so much in a day.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Goodbye Apples

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Kitchen Madness

It's that time of year when the oven is running full steam ahead and the sink is piled with a mound of dishes that no matter how much washing goes on, never seems to decrease in size. Yes, canning season is upon us and a lot of the things that are in season will only last a few weeks at best. With pots and jars ready at the front, the food marathon is on in our counter space challenged kitchen.

Fruity Goodness

Those precious peaches, nectarines, apricots, and cherries don't have a very long season around here, so we've been stocking up from our favorite farmers market fruit stand (cheapest organic fruit at the market) and making all kinds of jams, cobblers, pies, and ice cream with our hand cranked Donvier that we snagged at the thrift store for eight bucks. Whatever cherries didn't go into this gorgeous pie, the lattice topping compliments of my six year old (didn't she do a great job?),

or into the several pints of cherry, chocolate, pistachio ice cream that we've been non-stop churning out

2 cups cherries blended

2 eggs well beaten

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups half and half

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp. vanilla

* mix together and then add

1/2 cup pistachios

1/2 cup chocolate shavings

1 cup cherry chunks

* prepare according to ice cream maker instructions

I froze. They'll come in handy later when in season fruit is scarce.

I'm so bummed that I didn't get my flat of apricots that I ordered from my CSA this year. Their apricots really do make the best butter. But I did save enough from my weekly boxes that I was able to squeeze out four jars. Needless to say, I won't be sharing. Sorry.

This year I tried something a little different: peach jam with honey, which wasn't strictly peach or any one variety for that matter - I included both white and yellow peaches and nectarines. The cheap fruit is great, but it all tends to ripen at the same time, needing to be used up because it is attracting fruit flies, thus the mixed up jam. The flavor is fantastic and a bit more complex than my usual fare. I'll definitely make it again this way. Goes great on muffins made from a recipe that I got from one of my kitchen bibles, The Country Mothers Cookbook by Jane Watson Hopping, a.k.a. The Pioneer Lady. If you have a penchant for old, old school home cooking, this lady's recipes are for you. I haven't made any dish from her books that I didn't love.

Berrilicious

Berries have a longer season in our area than the stone fruits, so it wasn't crucial that I move into high gear on this one. But as I was on a roll, I figured "what the hey," let's just get it done while the iron's hot, as they say. The blueberry jam came out perfect, but I think I burned the sugar on the ollalieberry (a similar berry to blackberries, but bigger). I doubled the recipe without using pectin and had to cook it for too long to get it to sheet. Oh well. Live and learn. I still have strawberry jam from last year - it's not our favorite - so I won't need to make any this season. We are needing to replenish the frozen strawberries and strawberry syrup though. I use the syrup to flavor yogurt, since it's one of those foods that always seems to have unecessary ingredients added to it..

I would love to say that all this fruit comes from our backyard, but since our fruit trees are in their first year, the ollalieberry vines didn't make it, and the blueberry bushes are looking mighty sad, we buy our berries in bulk from either the farmers market or Swanton Berry Farm's u-pick.

Only Ute and I went to the u-pick this year and let me tell you, she was a real trooper. It took us about 3 hours to get all of our strawberries and ollalieberries that will see us through the year, a challenge for any young tyke. But Ute took it in stride, and when she got bored with berries, she made altars for the fairies and ran up and down the rows of tangled vines.

Living in a city, Ute just doesn't get enough running around outside time with limited supervision. At her age, I was roaming my small town neighborhood with barely a hint of the adult gaze upon me. I am saddened that she will never experience that kind of freedom, but trips to the farm give her the occasional taste.

Luscious Lemons

Last week I was at my friend Christine's house in Alameda when out of her second story bedroom window I spotted the most exquisite Meyer lemons. Their plump, juicy yellowness at the zenith of ripeness beckoned to me and as if in a dream, I floated towards the glass. The next thing I knew, I was hanging out the window, plucking the sweet scented spheres and chucking them onto the bed. I wrasseled that tree in full Crocodile Hunter style, with a ferocity that only a true champion of the Meyer lemon could exhibit. My friend found me draped over a tree limb with only my knees planted firmly against the edge of the sill to prevent a 15 plus foot fall. With slack-jawed bemusement, Christine admitted that she had been trying to figure out how to get those lemons for years. I felt like MacGyver.

The lemons were pretty darn ripe and needed to have something done with them and fast. I went with the Moroccan salt preservation method. They'll be great in a late summer tagineperfumey foods, though Ute and I thought it was delicious.

Flowerama

Speaking of flowers, I've been making syrups with the backyard lavender and roses. The lavender syrup is definitely a touch too heady, but I think it might work over a pound cake.

The neighbor's had a whole mess of roses that were getting eaten up by earwigs so I harvested the petals and made rose syrup. Tastes great in hot tea. With the way I consume the Queen's drink, however, I doubt that the jar will last two weeks!

Poultrypalooza

I've been preparing a lot of poultry lately and as most of you know, I'm not one to waste any bit of the bird. At a recent dinner party, I believe I actually screeched at my guests to not throw away the bones. Clearly I won't be winning any "hostess of the year" awards in the near future. In my book, nothing compares to the rich broth that comes from simmering the bones of a well spiced, roasted bird. The flavor of the broth reflects the way the the meat was prepared and the types of seasonings used, creating a stock that is always unique. At this point, I can't even bear to use canned stock, its flavor so inferior as to be nearly inedible. If you've never made your own broth, just try it. It's easier than you might think. I just throw the carcass or bones into a roasting pan, fill up with water, and simmer in a 350 oven for several hours, checking, of course, that the water doesn't completely evaporate.

At same said dinner party, while attempting to dazzle my companions with my special Moroccan chicken, I forgot to pull a roast duck out of the oven that was taking longer to cook than I had expected. Well I cooked the crap out of that duck, consequently feeling an utter failure with my first attempt to prepare this kind of bird. In the midst of me wailing on and on about the damn duck, one of my lovely guests turned to me and with a tone of seriousness that I can only liken to a military command said "I'll tell you how you are going to fix that duck." I snapped out of my little pity party. "How?" "You're going to make a confit by shredding the meat and marinating it in the fat from the pan." "Are you sure that will work? Won't it still be tough?" I queried. "No way," says my pragmatic friend, "It's going to be soooo succulent with all that duck fat." And then she did this lip smacking thing that was kind of gross. But she was right. It was scrumptious enough to make slightly disgusting gestures and sound effects with one's face.


Fermenting Fools


Did you hear that stores are pulling Kombucha from the shelves because they're worried about the alcohol content? Apparently, it might be more boozy than once thought. I'm thinking the whole thing is a bit overblown. I've had my fair share of experiences with alcohol and am no stranger to its effects, even if I no longer partake. Though I have felt a little "high" after drinking Kombucha, I certainly have never felt remotely drunk, even being the light weight that I am.

Frankly, I'm stunned that folks will lay down three plus bucks for a small bottle of the stuff from Whole Foods when you can make gallons of it for pennies. And the making is really not complicated. When I started my SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast), I had my panties all in a stir, worried that I was going to mess it up and poison myself with some unwanted mold, but it's really as simple as making a pot of tea. A POT OF TEA! Really. I'm totally not exaggerating.


Ute and I really like the stuff, so we've got two cultures going at the same time. Esteban says he'll just stick with his beer that he's been home brewing (details to come). Fine, more for us I say.

What have you all got going on in the kitchen right now?

Ingredient Based Cooking

The other day my friend Juan was elucidating on the two main methods of cooking: ingredient based verses recipe, he being a fan of the former. I find myself partial to using a combo of the two, demonstrated by today's latest concoction. So what does one actually do with slightly under ripe-ish sour apples, overripe plums, and perfectly mature peaches? Make a crisp, of course!


Here's my basic recipe:

• Fill a pie pan with fruit like strawberries, blueberries, any kind of berries really, peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, apples - whatever strikes your fancy. Feel free to make wild combinations. You really can't mess this up. Although I don't know if I would recommend melons or citrus.
• Make a crumble topping by combining 1 stick of softened butter, 1 cup of brown sugar, and 1 cup of flour. I usually use my hands to mix it really well and make it crumbly, but a fork or one of those pastry blenders that gets the butter and flour to stick together work well too. Sometimes I add oatmeal, cinnamon, or nuts. Pour crumble on top of fruit.
• Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or 1 hour if you've got apples in there.

It's so yummy, especially fresh out of the oven. Just ask Ute. Look at her, she can barely wait for it to cool.

Strawberry Madness

Ideally we would like to start growing our own food, however the state of our backyard has precluded us from establishing a decent garden this year. In between the piles of cinder blocks and a 5 foot high mound of dirt (remnants of the foundation work we did on the house over the past year), we've got some veggies growing in wine barrels. This is a great temporary solution while we finish the monumental task of landscaping the back acrelet, but won't quite cut the mustard as far as providing real sustenance for the table. In the meantime, we've decided to stock up on local produce while it's in season and preserve, preserve, preserve. This month is all about strawberries.

We headed down to Pescadero on Sunday to Swanton Berry Farms for some U-pick fun. It was a glorious sunny day, not too hot or cold, perfect for plucking loads of juicy red goodness. Ute did her best in an attempt to eat her weight in strawberries, Esteban dutifully filled his basket, and Mr. Tink made a racket about not being able to romp through the rows with his family. After collecting our 20 pound spoil, we ended the day at the beach with some sun and surf.