Pickled Carrots

This Vietnamese inspired pickle is adapted from a recipe seen here at Tea's Blog, Tea and Cookies. I love the fresh rice rolls from Salad King which I featured in this post. I have used fresh carrots, but these pickled ones are better. I used daikon and carrots, but don't really care for the taste of daikon and will use carrots only in the future.

Method:

Thinly slice carrots (/daikon with a sharp knife or mandoline. Do not use a grater. Pack carrots in a 500 ml jar. I used two carrots for this quantity.

Mix 1/2 cup vinegar, rice or white
2 tbsp sugar or sweetener
1/2 tsp salt

Pour over the carrots. Add water to cover the vegetables.

Let it marinate for at least 24 hours before adding to salads or fresh rice rolls.

Peach Raisin Chutney

I found this recipe in a Canadian Living magazine a few years ago and have made it a couple of times. Becka asked me to make it again as it is a favourite of hers. Thank goodness Canadian Living has an excellent recipe collection on the web. If I had only one magazine subscription, it would be for this one. The recipes are not too fancy, but are trendy and tasty. I have copied and pasted from the site.

Chutneys add the spice of life to cold meats, and their sweet and sour edges are rounded off nicely with cheese, especially a cream cheese or a buttery Jarlsberg.

Ingredients

• 8 cups (2 L) Sliced peeled peaches (3-1/2 lb/1.75 kg) • 2 cups (500 mL) Packed brown sugar • 2 cups (500 mL) Chopped onions • 2 cups (500 mL) Raisins • 2 cups (500 mL) Cider vinegar • 1/2 cup (125 mL) Diced sweet red pepper • 2 tsp (10 mL) Mustard seeds • 1 tsp (5 mL) Salt • 1/2 tsp (2 mL) Each turmeric, cinnamon, curry powder, ground cumin and coriander • Pinch cayenne pepper

Preparation

In large heavy nonaluminum pot, combine peaches, sugar, onions, raisins, vinegar, red pepper, mustard seeds, salt, turmeric, cinnamon, curry powder, cumin, coriander and cayenne; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer, stirring often, for 1 hour or until thickened and toffee-brown in colour. Remove from heat. Pour into eight 1-cup (250 mL) canning jars, leaving 1/2-inch (1 cm) headspace. Seal with prepared discs and bands. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Nutritional information

Per tbsp (15 mL): about 30 calories; trace protein; 0 g fat; 7 g carbohydrate.

Wild Grape Jelly

Wild grapes grow abundantly along the Grand River's trails and the fruit is ripe now. RuthieJ posted a link to a recipe from Canadian Living magazine for wild grape jelly. I did not have liquid pectin, so had to modify the recipe a little. Powdered pectin is added to the mixture earlier in the process than liquid pectin. Here is the method I used.

3 pounds wild grapes

I did not take the grapes off the stems, but I trimmed the stems as much as possible.
Put in a large pot with

3 cups water

Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes until grapes are soft. I mashed them with a potato masher at this point.
Place cooked grapes in a colander lined with a double thickness of cheesecloth and drain overnight. I got 3-1/2 cups of grape juice and added 1/2 cup water to make 4 cups liquid.

Put 4 cups juice in a sauce pan and add 1 package of Certo powder. Bring to a boil and add 5 cups sugar. Bring to a boil again and boil hard for 1 minute. Skim off foam and place in sterilized jars with 2 piece lids. Process in a canner for 5 minutes if using 1 cup jars.

Makes 8 cups grape jelly that is really, really good!

Grandma's Chili Sauce

6 cups chopped, peeled tomatoes
2 cups finely chopped onions
2 cups each chopped apples, pears, peaches
1 cup diced celery
2 sweet green peppers, diced
1 red pepper, sweet or hot seeded and diced
1-1/2 cup white or cider vinegar
1 tbsp pickling spice placed in a tea ball, or tied in a cheesecloth bag
2 tsp pickling salt
2 cups granulated sugar

Combine all ingredients except sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours. Add sugar and simmer for another 1/2 hour until desired thickness is obtained. Stir occasionally. Watch that the sauce does not stick, especially toward the end of cooking.

Place in hot canning jars. Process for 20 minutes in canner.

Makes 8 cups. ( I got just under 12 cups of sauce today after 2 hours and 15 minutes of cooking. I could have simmered it more with the lid off to make it thicker, but last year I scorched the pan and had to throw out some of the batch. Today's sauce is really good and is thick enough for me)

From the book Small Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard (a great book!)

Dandelion Jelly

This jelly was sold at the New Hamburg Mennonite Relief Sale. Mary Martin and her volunteers from the Elmira Mennonite Church make 400 jars of jams and jellies to sell at the sale including this recipe.


1 quart dandelion flowers, washed

Pour boiling water over flowers and let stand overnight. In the morning, put through a fine strainer and add enough water to make 8 cups

Put in a large kettle, add 2 packages of Certo, bring to a boil.

Add 12 cups sugar, 1 cup lemon juice and boil hard for 3 minutes. Put in jars and seal.

(Makes 25 half cup jars)