I was fortunate to get invited back to the 61st Street Farmers Market to do another demo. I’m quite honored as the market attract some pretty heavy hitters in the Chicago culinary world. For this opportunity I decided to talk about canning and preserving the taste of summer . I spoke about two recipes I posted before, Giardiniera and Bread and Butter Pickles. Enjoy the videos. Each is about 10 minutes in length. Certain Someone was kind enough to film. The first frames sound is a little off but the majority of the clip is much better. My favorite part is naturally towards the end and the satisfaction and delight the people had tasting my Giardinirera and Pickles.
A few of you may know I volunteer at the 61st Street Farmers Market when my schedule permits. It’s been a few weeks since my last shift and I was so happy to see such an abundance. What a difference a few weeks make in the growing season. Naturally I loaded up and went to town preserving the taste of summer with my beautiful Weck jars.
I don’t particularly care for sweet pickles. Give me a big sour Kosher dill pickle and I’m happy. But I decided to do a sweet pickle because I purchased a combination of various cucumbers. One being a beautiful sweet white variety. I looked at some recipes and played around and I decided to use all white vinegar, as I don’t like the taste of apple cider vinegar when I’m pickling. Odd, but that’s me.
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Bread and Butter Pickles
makes 4 1/5 liter jars
8 or nine small cucumbers for pickles ( equivalent to 2 punnets in size) ( try to get a variety )
1/3 cup salt
1 onion sliced thinly in rings
1 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon whole all spice
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoon hot mustard seeds
1 teaspoon dried garlic
1 teaspoon dill
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Slice cucumbers into rings , preferably with a ripple cut. Slice onion thinly.
In a bowl, put the cucumbers and onions. Add salt and cover with cold water to cover. Cover with lid and let sit for about 3-4 hours.
Sterilize your jars and lids according to manufacturer instructions. Prepare your hot water bath.
Drain the sliced cucumbers and onions.
In a non reactive sauce pan, heat sugar, vinegar and spices.
Pack your cucumber and onions.
Pour hot vinegar/sugar solution with spices over the vegetables and seal according to manufacturer instructions.
Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Allow to cool on a rack and leave undisturbed t seal overnight.
Test/ check seals. Read how to see if sealed according to your jars manufacturer instructions.
I have a co worker who is a self described Giardiniera addict. We could go on and on about it. She’s one of the few kindred spirit’s I have found, that derives pure pleasure in salty acidic relishes. What is Giardiniera you ask? Well prior to coming to Chicago over ten years ago, I had never heard of it. I would get my heat and acid kick from the East Coats versions of crushed peppers on my submarines and cheese steaks, etc.
So naturally with the Mid West’s summer bounty upon us, and my refrigerator running over with heads of organic cauliflower, peppers, celery,carrots and such, it was time to attempt some Giardiniera. For my first attempt it was pretty good. The co-worker expert said it was “Freaking Good’“and wanted some more. The beauty of this recipe, is that you use whatever you have laying around. If you like your Giardiniera mild, add sweet peppers only. If you like some heat and spice go crazy with the Serrano’s and Jalapenos.After all Giardiniera means “Woman Gardener” in Italian.
To Process or Not?
I went ahead and processed mine in a water batch or my dishwasher method, as I was taught last year). There is some traditional debate on whether this is safe or not (dishwasher method).If you do a traditional water bath (the safest method), only do so for minimal time (like 3-5 minutes). At first I thought they didn’t seal, but they did the next day. The veg was still nice and crunchy. I still kept all my jars in the fridge to be safe, rather than sorry, and I’m just about out. If you don’t process, consume within 2-3 weeks and store in the refrigerator.
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Giardiniera
Makes 5-6 pint sizes
Total time 4 days to process
1 head cauliflower
1 bunch celery
4-5 large carrots
2-3 Red or hued sweet peppers
4 Jalapenos or more or less to taste. Not seeded!
4 Serrano’s . Not seeded!
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon dried minced garlic
1 tablespoon Italian Herbs mix (dried oregano, basil, etc)
1/2 to 3/4 cup Kosher Salt
1 part Vegetable or Canola oil (to cover)
1 part White Vinegar (to cover)
Preparation
Sterilized jars, and lids. 1 pint size
Clean and chop all your vegetables.Be sure to leave seeds from the heat peppers (Jalapenos and Serrano’s). In a non reactive container with lid, our salt on vegetables and cover with cold water. Cover and store 24 hours in the refrigerator.
Drain salt water. At this point you may rinse if you find the veg salty. I like salt, so didn’t. It was just fine. In another container mix your 1 part Vinegar to 1 part Oil with the remaining spices. Mix well and make sure its combined or emulsified.
Sterilize Jars and Lids. Pack the vegetables into clean sterilized jars and cover with the oil /vinegar mixture. Seal and either process in a water bath, or store in the refrigerator.
If you process, let rest after process for 12 hour until sealed. If not sealed, follow instructions from jar manufacturer to reprocess, or store immediately in the refrigerator to consume within 2-3 weeks.
Either way , once complete let, the jars rest for at least 2 days until consuming to allow the flavors to merge.
The past few weeks I have been in discussion with the 61st Street Farmers Market. At first we were discussing the possibility of me being a vendor of some kind, but after long thought and putting together a business plan, I had to pass. An offer was then made to volunteer this summer and perhaps do a few cooking demos. I naturally jumped on the chance. The 61st Street Farmers market is located in a food desert behind the University Of Chicago. Their mission is to make great , healthy locally sourced food available to people that have little means otherwise of obtaining this. To help this , they are local participants of the Wholesome Wave Program, which enables the Farmers Markets to accept Link Cards( a public aid) and provide great programs such as Double Value Coupons. All in all a fantastic organization in which I’m proud to volunteer for.
My first cooking demo will be Saturday May 22. In my excitement I’m brainstorming with what I can do that uses the great local products available and will be seasonal. At this time of year we are starting to see a lot rhubarb. So I was thinking Lamb Sliders with Rhubarb Onion Chutney as its easy for most home cooks, and accessible/affordable.I love Rhubarb myself, but its a tough sell to family and Certain Someone. I want to find ways to use it in savory applications , as opposed to a traditional Strawberry Rhubarb dessert. I had envisioned a chutney to go over a childhood favorite of mine, lamb burgers. However the Chutney morphed more into a sauce which was delicious, but not the original plan. Nevertheless its worth a post as I can see this on not only burgers, but chicken, pork , salmon or any other fatty type protein.
Lamb Burgers with Rhubarb Onion Sauce
3/4 to 1 lb Rhubarb
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 Cinnamon Stick
3 cloves
3/4 cup water
1 lb Ground Lamb
1tsp Cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste
In a saucepan heat the vegetable oil. Add the chopped onion. Turn down heat to medium and cook till translucent. and golden with minced garlic, Cinnamon stick, and cloves.Chop Rhubarb into small pieces and add . Add sugar and water and vinegar. Cook down on med/high heat until Rhubarb breaks down and mixture starts to bubble. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat.
This can be stored in the refrigerator in a sealed jar for 2 weeks or so.
Mix Cumin, salt and pepper with ground Lamb and form patties. In a hot skillet cook until med done.Serve with sauce on a bun.
This was one of the first cookies that caught my eye for We Bake Bon Appetite.The Tea Cake Sandwich Cookie looked so simple and perfect. I kept putting this recipe off as I was trying to knock out the easy, no chill cookies first. This recipe contains no eggs and at first seems dry, but comes together nicely as you blend.The process and chilling times in this recipe can be a little tedious, and I readily admit I skipped over some steps in the rolling out. If you are an experienced baker you know the key is to keep the dough well chilled.
I used a scalloped cutter for these. I am trying to avoid royal icing this year and just stick to sugar sprinkles. I embellished my cookies with various sugars I had laying around. I even made my own sanding sugar with some powdered food color and raw sugar. I plan to play around with that more and more. I found some red glittery edible dust and made a few dabs here and there. All in all a festive platter of cookies. The fillings are Goya’s Strawberry and Passion Fruit jams. The beauty of these is that you can dress them up or down. You can find the recipe here.
