Sweet Green Tomato Pickles
I still have a glut of green tomatoes that are not only from my garden but also a friends. Surprisingly, if you take the time to scour the recipe books you will find a number of interesting recipes calling for green tomatoes. I guess, like me, nobody wants to waste something that is perfectly good to go into your mouth. Again, this recipe comes from CANNING for a New Generation and the taste of these little guys is addictive. It reminds me of a bread and butter pickle.
RECIPE FOR SWEET GREEN TOMATO PICKLES (slightly modified~ used pickle crisp instead of pickling lime):
- 4 pounds green tomatoes (unripe)
- 3/4 tsp Bernardin Pickle Crisp
- 6 cups distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)
- 2 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoons pure kosher salt
- 1/2 cup minced celery (about 2 ribs)
- 2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
- 1/2 small sweet onion, very thinly sliced into rounds (optional)
- Prepare for water bath canning. Sterilize jars in oven at 250F for 20-30 minutes.
- Wash tomatoes well and slice into 1/4 inch rounds. Remove the hard core from the end pieces.
- In a stainless steel saucepan, combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, celery seeds, celery, and ginger. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the tomato slices. Return to a boil and cook for 5-7 minutes or until tomatoes become semi-translucent but still intact. As they cook, use a spoon to press down on the slices to keep them submerged.
- Remove from heat and working quickly using a slotted spoon transfer the hot tomatoes into hot sterilized jars. Insert a round of onion in between tomato slices (optional).
- Follow instructions on Bernardin Pickle Crisp. Pack vegetables into jars. Add pickle crisp granules (rounded 1/4 tsp per 1L and 1/8 tsp per 500mL jar).
- Ladle the hot brine into each jar leaving 1/2″ headspace.
- Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot liquid. Wipe rim with a damp paper towel. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
- Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a full rolling boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid and wait 5 minutes before removing jars. Leave undisturbed to cool. Check seals, label, and store. Refrigerate any unsealed jars.
Put up total:
- 6 x 500mL wide mouth jars
NOTE: I had approximately 1.5 Litres of liquid left over which I put into a clean mason jar in the fridge. I will reheat it to use again with some more green tomatoes which I plan to quarter.
Preserved Jalapenos with Honey
I am a little bit behind on what I’ve been up to in the kitchen…in fact, I haven’t finished Tuesday’s recipes. Trying to juggle work and my time spent canning has left me with little time to post what I’ve been cooking. But, now that I’ve got a few minutes I’m going to try to catch up.
This is the second recipe I’ve tried from the book CANNING for a New Generation. Matt loves anything with a little extra heat so I thought it would be a nice treat for him to be able to crack open a can of preserved jalapeños in a little bit of spiced honey on those cold winter days. MmmMMM…I know he’s going to like them!
RECIPE FOR WHOLE JALAPEÑOS WITH HONEY:
- 2 1/2 pounds jalapeno chilies
- 6 cups cider vinegar (5% acidity)
- 2 tablespoons pure kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons honey (I used orange blossom honey from Florida)
- 5 cloves garlic
- 5 small bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon whole allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
- Prepare for water bath canning. Sterilize jars in oven at 250F for 20-30 minutes.
- Using a sharp knife cut the chiles from the stem to bottom but not all the way through. You want to leave them intact but open them up so they can absorb the brine.
- In a stainless steel saucepan, combine the vinegar, 2 cups water, the salt, and honey. Bring just to a boil, stirring to dissolve the salt and honey.
- Meanwhile, remove the hot sterilize jars from the oven and using an oven mitt to hold the jars quickly pack the chiles tightly into each jar. Divide equally and add garlic, bay leaves, and spices to each jar.
- Ladle the hot brine into the jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace.
- Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by topping with hot liquid. Wipe rim with a damp paper towel. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
- Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a full rolling boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid and wait 5 minutes before removing the jars. Leave to cool, check seals, label and store. Refrigerate any unsealed jars.
I am sure you could substitute the jalapeños with any type of peppers you want, depending on how much or how little heat you desire. I had a little bit of left over liquid so I did an extra jar (for me) with yellow waxed peppers which are not nearly as hot. We will wait at least 1 month before cracking open a jar of these bad boys. With so many of these pickled veggies, the longer they sit on the shelf, the more the flavours blend and marinate. But, I admit I am keen to try one of these hot ones myself ! I think the Florida orange blossom honey should sweeten and mellow out the heat of this pepper which is already on the milder side.
Put up total:
- 4 x 500mL wide mouth jars (jalapeno peppers)
- 1 x 500mL wide mouth jar (yellow wax pepper)
- And, for the first time I had a brand new jar break in the water bath…I think it must have been damaged en route because the jar cracked in the middle.
CANNING for a new generation?
Someone recently told me that canning is up 40% this year. Although, I haven’t confirmed this, I do know of a lot of first year canners flexing their new canning muscles. Are we all becoming more concerned with what’s going in our mouths? Or, are we tried of wasting our evenings in front of the boob tube? Whatever the reason I am all for the change. I feel more thankful for the food that I eat knowing where it has come from, being involved in the growing and harvesting process and nothing beats popping open a lid on that jar of preserves you made with your own two hands. Am I right?
CANNING for a new generation…It’s a new book of interesting recipes by Liana Krissoff. Some of the recipes are fresh takes on old classics but there are a lot of interesting things going on in this book. I’m excited!! Plus, she breaks it down by season (which I like) and provides you with great recipes to par with your delicious preserves. Does it get better than that?
I still have several tomatillos and green tomatoes that are calling out for their jars. It is time to put these guys to bed and finish them off once and for all.
RECIPE FOR SALSA VERDE from Canning for a New Generation:
- 3 1/2 pounds, tomatillos, papery husks and stems removed, rinsed
- 1 medium white onion (4 ounces), peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
- 5 large cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 firmly packed cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
- 2/3 cup fresh lime juice
- 1 tablespoon pure kosher salt, or to taste
- Preheat oven to 500F.
- Place all the vegetables on rimmed cooking sheets or spread out in a baking dish. Broil for 20 to 35 minutes, occasionally flipping the veggies until the tomatillos are soft, oozing, and black in spots.
- Working in batches, puree the vegetables and their juices (all of their juices), along with the cilantro, in a blender. Be careful as this mixture is very hot.
- Put the puree in a large stainless steel preserving pan and stir in the lime juice and salt.
- Bring to a boil. At this point, you can choose to reduce, if the consistency is still too liquidy or jar as is.
- Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot salsa. Wipe rim with a damp paper towel. Place snaps and rings on jars, screwing bands down until they are finger-tip tight.
- Place jars in hot water bath and bring to a full rolling boil. Process both 250mL and 500mL jars for 15 minutes. When the time is up, turn off the heat, remove canner lid and wait 5 minutes before removing jars to a folded towel on the counter.
- Check seals, label, and store. Refrigerate any unsealed jars.
Put up Total:
- 5 x 500mL wide mouth mason jars
- 1 x 250mL regular mouth mason jar
NOTE: I did a double batch and did not get the expected yield (short by 1.25L for the double)…however, I think this was because I did not add all of the vegetable juice when I pureed the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic. And, there was a lot of juice on the baking sheet. Plus, the lime flavour is very strong; however,would not recommend adjusting the lime juice in this recipe because it is needed to maintain the correct Ph level but I am hopeful that it will mellow with time. I will update this post in a month or two when I give it a whirl. The nice thing is the next recipe in Liana’s book is for Enchiladas Verde…you better believe that’s what we’ll be trying our sauce with.
Update: this sauce is excellent and better after it has been left for a couple of weeks. The flavours do mellow and combine well in the jar.
Green Tomatoes~Olive Style
I’ve finished off the rest of the carrots. Twenty-five pounds in total. I did two jars of little carrot parts…the weirdos. One jar for me and one for my friend who gifted me all of these little pretties.
Some have two legs, some have three, all of them shout out pickle me! The one in the middle looks like he’s doing the splits and he actually seems to have some expression on his orange carrot face.
Put up Total:
- 1.5L and 1L carrot parts – regular mason jar
- 2 x 500mL wide mouth mason jars
- 1L regular mouth mason jar
- 7 x 500mL pickled carrots with jalapenos – wide mouth mason jars
I also accomplished the stemming, washing, jarring, and processing of 12 pounds of tiny green tomatoes. Just a hint…the smaller the better. It seems that the tiny baby tomato skins don’t burst as badly as the next size up (that being about the size of a loonie). And, they are also fine when quartered. Talk about easy. It doesn’t get much easier than a little vinegar salt water poured into a jar and processed for 15 minutes.
RECIPE FOR GREEN TINY TOMATOES:
- 3 1/2 cups white vinegar
- 3 1/2 cups water
- 1/4 cup pickling or canning salt
- 5 lbs small, firm green tomatoes, halved or quartered, or green cherry tomatoes
- 6-7 cloves garlic
- 6-7 heads fresh dill (or 1-2 tsp dill seeds or 2 tsp dried dill weed)
- 6-7 bay leaves
- In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine vinegar, water and pickling salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve salt. Remove from heat.
- Pack tomatoes into hot jars to within a generous 1/2″ of top of jar. Add 1 clove garlic, 1 head dill (or 1-2 tsp dill seeds or 2 tsp dried dill weed) and 1 bay leaf to each jar. Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover tomatoes, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot pickling liquid. Wipe rim. Centre lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to finger-tip tight.
- Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool, label and store.
NOTE: It is important to leave the processed jars in the water bath for 5 minutes to prevent siphoning. Simply turn the element off, remove lid and wait. This way you will not lose your precious liquid.
I like the look of both the tiny green tomatoes and the wedges because the skins did not burst. Don’t worry if the skins pop on your fruit; this is normal when processing jars in a hot water bath. This happened to both our plums and pickled crab apples despite poking them several times with a fork.
Put up Total:
- 9 x 1L regular mason jars (2 Magic and 1 Dominican)
- 2 x 500mL wide mouth mason jars
Dilled Carrots
The canning marathon continues as I try to put up an abundance of veggies from my friends garden. This morning I decided to abandon the tomatillos for the day so that I could do the carrots. Our cold room is not so cold after a sudden short-lived heat wave just sufficient enough to heat up my storage room. So, putting up the carrots before they go limp is crucial. Carrots it is!
I’ve spent the better part of 12 hours washing, trimming, and packing these little gems lovingly into their jars. I’m tired but the thought of enjoying a bowl of these during Dexter in the months to come kept me going. I still have at least 2 more batches to go but I’ve done 4 rounds today. And, with the bulk of it behind me I am convinced I can quit for the night.
RECIPE FOR DILLED CARROTS (from Bernardin):
- 6 cups white vinegar
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 cup pickling or canning salt
- 7 cloves of garlic
- 14 heads of fresh dill or 1/2 tsp of dill seed per jar
- 3 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes (optional)
- 5 lbs carrots, ends removed and peeled (I use fresh garden carrots and scrub them well rather than peeling)
- In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine vinegar, water and salt. Stir well and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve salt.
- Place 1/2 to 1 clove of garlic, 1 head of dill and 1/2 tsp of hot pepper flakes, if using, in each hot jar. Pack carrots into hot jars to within a generous 1/2″ of top of jar. top with second head of dill. Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover carrots, leaving 1/2″ headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot pickling liquid. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
- Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool, label and store.
Put up Total:
- 27 x 500mL wide mouth mason jars
Tomatillo Salsa
By the time I am finished with these 3 boxes of tomatillos I am going to be a salsa verde expert. Two recipes down a few more to go and lots of tomatillos to husk.
This recipe comes from the Bernardin Big Book. I’m not really sure whether or not I like this one…I’m on the fence. Apparently, the salsa flavors will mellow and mix together over time and it is recommended that you wait 3-4 weeks before cracking the seal. Right now, the vinegar flavour seems to over power the tomatillos…maybe, it’s because I used a few mild banana peppers instead of all the jalapeno peppers and I also mixed in a small red pepper. I don’t like extremely HOT foods so I chose to reduce the jalapeno pepper quantity. I think the consistency is a little more like a sauce than a salsa but my experience with using tomatillos is limited (at this point).
RECIPE FOR TOMATILLO SALSA:
- 5 1/2 cups chopped cored husked tomatillos
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped seeded green chili peppers (jalapeno and long green chili peppers work well but you can substitute milder poblano or Anaheim peppers)
- 1/2 cup vinegar
- 4 tbsp lime juice
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
- In a large stainless steel saucepan combine all the ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.
- Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot salsa. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
- Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. bring to a boil and process both 250mL and 500mL jars for 15 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool, label and store.
Put up Total:
- 8 x 250mL regular mason jars
Putting Up With The Turnbulls 