Dilly Beans

Dilly beans are pickled green beans. They’re a great way to preserve an abundance of summer beans. Plus don’t they look wonderful and slightly mysterious in their can? If put up properly, they’ll last for months, maintaining their crisp texture.

Their tart flavor and crunchiness are a great addition to any salad. You can add them to sandwiches, or eat them on their own. Some people serve them in martinis and Bloody Marys. Can them with garlic and dill, and spice them up with pepper and/or Tabasco.

This recipe is from Blue Ribbon Preserves, one of my favorite canning books. It contains a great basic how-to section on canning. Also included are recipes for every kind of fruit and vegetable.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds of straight, young tender green beans
2 1/2 cups distilled water
1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons kosher salt or pickling salt
4 garlic cloves, peeled
4 3-inch sprigs of fresh dill
12 whole black peppercorns

Gently rinse the beans 3 or 4 times in cool, clear water to remove any sand or dirt. Change the water between each rinsing. Drain well.

Cut off the stem end of the beans and trim the blossom end, cutting just below the base of the tail. Measure the beans to four inches in length and cut off the excess on the stem end.

Place the beans in an 8-quart pan and cover them with boiling water. Over medium-high heat, bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and drain. Immediately plunge the beans into a large bowl or pan of ice water for two minutes to stop the cooking process. Remove the beans from the ice water and drain well. Set aside.

Combine the distilled water, wine vinegar, white vinegar, and salt. Stir well to combine. Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and keep hot until needed.

Lay hot pint jars on their sides. Place one garlic clove along the inside bottom edge of each jar. Arrange one sprig of dill, stem side down, against the inside of each jar next to the garlic clove. Add three peppercorns to each jar. Pack the beans snugly into the jars, with the stem ends at the bottom. Stand the jars upright.

Ladle the hot liquid into the jars, covering the beans and leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Using a bubble freer or plastic knife, remove any air bubbles. If necessary, add more liquid to maintain the headspace. Wipe the jar rims and threads with a clean, damp cloth. Cover with hot lids and apply screw rings. Process pint jars in a 180 to 185F water bath for 30 minutes.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

It’s that time of year when a productive garden can get overwhelming. But the thought of opening a jar of flavorful tomato sauce in the middle of winter can provide inspiration. Whether you can or freeze this sauce, it will be a delight in January when grocery store tomatoes taste like, well, not much at all.

Nearly every product in this sauce comes from my sister’s garden: tomatoes, green pepper, garlic, basil and jalapeno. The onions (OK, and salt and pepper) are the sole ingredients that came from the grocery store. We literally filled a laundry basket full of tomatoes and peppers from the garden in one morning’s harvest (see photo below).

Ingredients:

12 tomatoes, blanched and peeled
2 jalapeno peppers, chopped fine
2 green peppers
4 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2 medium onions, chopped
Several leaves basil

I’m rather finicky about tomatoes: I don’t like to see skin or seeds floating in my sauce. So I remove them. If you’re less picky you can skip this step. Fill a saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Have a bowl filled with iced water to one side. Cut a small cross in the bottom of each tomato, about 1/2-inch each way. Blanch each tomato for 30 seconds, then shock it in the cold water. Peel off the skin of each tomato.

In a large saucepan or stockpot, saute onions until translucent, approximately five minutes. Chop green peppers and jalapenos into small chunks. Chop garlic fine. Add garlic, peppers and jalapenos. Let cook for five minutes, then add tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can cook this sauce for a long amount of time, or just enough to heat the ingredients through and let the flavors combine a bit. It’s up to you. The sauce will be thicker if it’s cooked a long time, and the flavors will have blended together more. A shorter cooking time will really retain the fresh tomato taste.

Just before removing from heat, add basil. Remove from heat. Can or store in refrigerator/freezer containers. Makes 2 quarts.

The Life Span of Berries

How long will berries last after picking? If stored in your refrigerator, here are some basic estimates:

Strawberries: Up to one week
Blueberries: Up to two weeks
Blackberries: Up to four days
Raspberries: Up to five days
Cranberries: Up to one month

There are a few things you can do to extend their life. Don’t wash the berries before storing them; the damp will make them soggy. Rinse them just before using them. Get rid of any berries that seem soggy or overripe. One bad berry can ruin the rest. Store the berries in the coldest part of your refrigerator. The idea temperature for most berries is just above freezing. In general, each hour that a berry sits at room temperature means one less day of shelf life. Store-bought berries will have a shorter life span, depending upon how long ago they were picked.

Blueberry Jam

This jam has a wonderfully direct, elegant flavor. It’s a great way to preserve fresh blueberries as the season comes to an end, so you can enjoy them all winter long.

Blueberries are what’s known as a “superfruit,” because they are high in nutrients (Vitamin C, Vitamin K, manganese, Vitamin B6) and in antioxidents. There’s some evidence that eating blueberries can lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

I picked these blueberries at a pick-your-own organic farm called Owl’s Head Blueberry Farm in Richmond, Vermont. I added sugar and lemon juice, then cooked the berries with the lemon rind in the mixture to add more flavor and pectin. No commercial pectin is necessary; the jam will thicken enough with the natural pectin in the berries and lemon.

Ingredients:

8 cups blueberries
2 cups sugar
Juice of one lemon

In a large saucepan, combine blueberries and sugar. Crush the blueberries with a potato masher. Add lemon juice and lemon rind. Bring to a boil. Skim any foam that forms from surface.

Cook at a boil until the jam thickens, approximately 30 minutes. Test by dropping some jam on a plate. Put the plate in the freezer for a few minutes. Remove the plate from the freezer. If the jam wrinkles when you push it with your finger, it is done. If not, continue cooking.

Canning Tips & Tricks

-Use fruits and vegetables when they are at their peak freshness.

-Get a jar lifter. This simple tool makes submerging and removing hot jars from boiling water much easier and much less dangerous.

-Once you’ve sterilized your jars by running them through the dishwasher or by boiling them in water for 10 minutes, store them in the oven at 250 degrees. It will keep them hot, sterile, and out of the way while you prepare your product.

-Sterilize the lids by soaking them in water that has boiled. Put on the lids while they’re hot. The heat softens the rubber around the edge of the lid, which helps ensure a vacuum seal.

-Fill the jars nearly to the top, leaving 1/4 inch of head space with jams and jellies, 1/2 inch of head space with acidic foods, such as fruits and tomatoes, and 1 inch of head space with starchier, low-acid foods, which may swell and need additional room.

-Remove any air bubbles by wiping a clean knife or spoon around the interior of the jar.

-After filling, wipe the tops of the jars with a clean cloth or sponge. A clean rim helps to ensure that the lid seals properly.

-Once you have processed the jars, check the seal after 12-24 hours by pressing the button in the center of the lid. If it pops back, the seal is not good. The food can be reprocessed and canned again or refrigerated and eaten. If it does not pop back, the seal is good and the food should be fine in your cupboard for up to a year.

Chicken & Edamame Salad

Edamame is a bean that delights. The crunch of the texture, the chewiness of the bean and its cool, earthy flavor are hard to resist. A young soybean, edamame is Japanese for “twig bean,” referring to the stem at the end of the bean pod. It’s high in protein, iron, and Omega-3 fatty acids.

A few weeks ago I bought a few bags of Cascadian Farms frozen edamame, shelled. They’d been sitting in my freezer until today, when inspiration struck. I pan-fried a chicken breast that I had on hand. As it cooled I boiled the edamame for about five minutes in salted water. I chopped a quarter of a small white onion, and a few stalks of celery. Then I cut the chicken into small pieces, drained and shocked the beans to stop them cooking, and combined it all in a bowl with some mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Delicious.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, pan-fried
3/4 cup edamame beans
1 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 small onion, chopped fine (about 2 tablespoons)
2 stalks celery, chopped
Salt & Pepper to taste

Serves two.

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

This is a wonderful pepper pesto, sweet, smoky and sharp. It’s a nice change from a basil-based pesto, and a bit more versatile. You can eat it as a dip, or use it as a sauce on pasta or chicken, or as a salad dressing. It’s delicious with goat cheese as well.

A side note: anytime you use pesto on pasta, it’s worth adding 3-4 tablespoons of the pasta water to the pesto. It helps distribute the thick pesto evenly throughout the pasta.

Ingredients:

3 red peppers, roasted
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
2 cloves garlic, cut in half
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt & pepper, to taste

Roast red peppers, either by placing directly on gas burner or by broiling on a cookie sheet in the oven. Turn frequently, until skin has blackened. Place peppers in plastic bag, tied loosely. Let rest for several minutes. The steam captured in the bag will help loosen the skin. Remove from bag and peel off blackened skin. Remove core of pepper and seeds. Cut remainder into strips. (You can also buy peppers already roasted.)

Puree pepper strips in food processor. Add bread crumbs, olive oil, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, salt, pepper and garlic. Process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning for flavor.

Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s

The UK Guardian has a short interview with Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s fame online. He says that he and Ben learned how to make ice cream by taking a $5 correspondence course. Also that he and Ben did not want to sell their business to Unilever (which took place in 2000), but because they were a publicly held company under obligation to their stockholders, they had no choice. He calls ice cream “an indulgent dessert that should be eaten in moderation.” His favorite flavor? Vanilla toffee crunch.

Blackberry Jam

On my recent trip to Vermont, I was thrilled to discover that blackberries were just coming into season. I picked six quarts over two days, fighting thorns, bees and spiders who felt I was invading their territory. The berries are tart and delicious. When making pies and jams with them I always add a bit more sugar than I might with other fruits, to counterbalance the tartness.

Blackberries contain Vitamin C, Vitamin K and folic acid, and are among the highest-ranking fruits in levels of antioxidents. Fun fact: there’s a superstition in the UK that blackberries should not be picked after September 29 (Michaelmas) as after that date the devil has claimed them by urinating on them. This superstition has some basis in scientific fact, as the more wet and cool weather after this date often results in the fruit being contaminated by molds. The molds give the fruit a nasty look and can be toxic.

This jam is a soft-set jam, made without addition of any commercial pectin. The lemon juice enhances the fruit’s flavor. Add the lemon rind into the jam until it boils, which will add further pectin to the jam beyond that which is in the berries themselves.

Ingredients

20 oz. blackberries
1 3/4 cups sugar
Juice of one lemon
Rind of one lemon

Combine blackberries, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan. Crush blackberries with potato masher. Add lemon rind. Heat to a boil, stirring periodically. Remove lemon rind. Continue boiling until mixture thickens and reaches about 101 degrees Celcius (about 214 degrees Fahrenheit). The jam will continue to thicken as it cools, so don’t worry if the set is still soft when you remove it from the heat.

Blueberry-Blackberry Cobbler

A cobbler is a sort of inverse tart, in which all the dough rests on top of the fruit, instead of below it. In my case, it’s a lazy person’s tart, as it’s what I made yesterday when I was too tired to roll out dough. Instead I gathered my fruit (which I picked myself, resulting in the subsequent laziness). I sprinkled it with sugar and heated it. I put together the dough, and crumbled it on top-resulting in a ‘cobbled’ look, hence the name-and baked.

We called it a ‘black and blue cobbler,’ as I used the blackberries and blueberries we picked over the weekend. You can use any combination of fruit, really: peaches and blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, apples and raisins.

Ingredients
4 cups fresh fruit
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter
1 eggs

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Butter an 8 x 8 inch baking dish. Add fruit and lemon zest, and sprinkle 2/3 cup of sugar on top. Bake the fruit and sugar for 10 minutes, then remove from oven.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut in butter and work it in until the dough has the texture of cornmeal. In a separate bowl, beat egg, then add to dough and mix until combined.

Crumble the dough over the fruit so that it is evenly distributed. Sprinkle the remaining sugar on top. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the cobbler is browned on top. Cool on a rack.