A couple of weeks ago, I was scouring the farmers market looking for inspiration. My spring canning class was coming up and I wanted to show the class something a little bit different in the pickle category – something that might inspire them to think of vegetable pickles “outside the jar”.  Something that would lend itself to use beyond a sandwich garnish.  My eyes landed on some beautiful, stripey, baby eggplant, and I knew immediately what I would do.

Two years ago, while participating in the Can Jam, I created a recipe for pickling spring onions and green garlic in balsamic vinegar and red wine that was so versatile, I used it as part of an antipasto plate, on cheese sandwiches, and even used the pickling liquid as a dressing for salads and caprese picks.  That recipe was even chosen to be included in Sarah B. Hood’s book, We Sure Can!

I thought that something similar would work for this beautiful baby eggplant, so I gave it a try.  And yes, it was worth it! The eggplant became tender and smooth – almost unctuous – contrasting in texture with the still firm onion, and the sweet/tart balsamic brine works beautifully as a dressing, alone or mixed with melted butter and/or olive oil.

One of my serving suggestions in class:  Melt 2 Tbs butter, add 2 Tbs olive oil, then add a one pint jar of this pickle, including the liquid.  Heat gently for just a couple of minutes and toss with hot pasta, long or short, of your choice. Instant supper! If you use short pasta, toss the hot pasta with olive oil and this pickle, and you can also serve it as a cold pasta salad – refreshing on a hot summer day. The possibilities go on and this recipe is easily doubled if your eggplant crop starts getting out of control, this summer.

Melanzana Balsamica
(Balsamic Eggplant)
(Makes about 3 pints)

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ lbs  baby eggplant
• 1 large red spring onion
• 3 large cloves garlic
• 1 cup red wine (preferably Italian)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp canning salt (or 1 ½ tsp kosher salt)
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
• ¾ cup balsamic vinegar (5% acidity or higher)

Preparation:

Fill the canning pot with water and bring to a boil.  Place 3 pint canning jars and their lids into the pot and sterilize for 10 minutes.  While this is happening:

Wash and dry the eggplant, cut off the stem caps, and slice lengthwise into quarters.  If using a less-tender-skinned variety of eggplant, you may wish to peel it first.  Peel the onion, cut off the ends, cut in half lengthwise and cut into thick slices, also lengthwise.  Peel garlic cloves and smash with the broad part of the knife blade.

Put the vegetables into a medium non-reactive pot, add the wine, water, and salt, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to medium-high, and allow to cook for 5 minutes.

Add the balsamic vinegar and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Canning:

Divide the hot vegetables equally between the 3 hot jars, pressing down firmly.  Add the hot liquid to each jar. Release trapped air bubbles with a chopstick or any thin, non-metallic tool (such as a plastic knife), allowing the liquid to fill the space.  Leave ½” headroom at the top of each jar, removing any excess liquid with a spoon.

Clean the jar rims well with a wet paper towel, place lids on the jars, screw on the rings finger-tight, and return to the canning pot. Bring back to a rolling boil and process for 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and allow the jars to remain in the water for an additional 5 minutes before removing them to a covered surface to cool. Listen for the ping!

Allow to meld for a minimum 1 ½ – 2 weeks before using.  Of course, it gets better with age.

I’ve said it so many times, I’m surprised y’all can’t read my mind at this point: Winter is the best reason to live in South Florida. Putting the exclamation point on that, is Strawberry Season. For the next couple of months, we will be awash in the sweetest, juiciest strawberries ever. And the prices are starting to come down as the crops increase. Just in time for Valentines Day.  They even look like little hearts, don’t they?

Tonight I’m teaching a strawberry jam class at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. I’m not just teaching these fine folks how to make a basic strawberry jam – oh, no! I’m showing them different things you can do with it, too. Now, for those of you not inclined to make your own, of course, you can buy it. In which case I would highly recommend one of Freakin’ Flamingo‘s excellent strawberry varieties, such as Strawberry Daiquiri or even Strawberry Joe. Oh, what? I shouldn’t get a plug in here? Please.

Anyway, one of the items on the menu tonight is Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes.  How many different ways can I adulterate adapt Abby Dodge’s delightful base recipe from Desserts 4 Today? Well, so far, I’ve done it 3 or 4 times. And I’ll do it again!  Abby doesn’t seem to mind.

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes
(makes 6 mini cheesecakes) (Recipe adapted from Desserts 4 Today by Abigail Johnson Dodge)

 Ingredients:

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened at room temperature
3 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
4 Tbs. strawberry jam

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 300º F.

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric hand-mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until incorporated. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl between each step.

Add the vanilla and the egg, beat thoroughly. Add the strawberry jam and mix completely.

Take a regular-sized muffin tin and place foil liners into 6 of the cups, then spray lightly with no-stick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can use reusable silicone cupcake liners without the cooking spray.

Bake for 15-18 minutes. The centers should barely jiggle when you nudge the pan. Set the muffin tin on a rack to cool completely, and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

Unmold onto serving dishes and garnish with a fresh strawberry and/or additional jam and/or whipped cream, as desired.

These uncomplicated little cheesecakes are light and creamy, and portioned to be the perfect ending to that special, romantic Valentines Day dinner. Or anytime you want a sweet bite at the end of a meal.

I can’t get over that this is the 11th Can Jam! This year, with all of its ups and downs, has been really inspiring to me on so many levels.

I’m on a ginger kick, lately. I have to put it in just about everything! So, when I found this recipe for Apple Ginger Jam, and the Cosmic Cowgirl announced that the Can Jam theme this month would be Apples, Pears, and Quinces, the stars aligned once again!

Apple Ginger Jam (makes 8 half-pints)

(adapted from Clearly Delicious – An Illustrated Guide to Preserving, Pickling & Bottling by Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz)

Ingredients:

2-1/2 lbs. cooking apples (I used the venerable Granny Smith)
2 large lemons
2 tsp. ground ginger
3 cups water
5 cups sugar
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger (or more to taste)

Preparation:

Place a couple of small dishes in the freezer.

Peel, core, and coarsely chop the apples, reserving the peels and cores. Put the peels and cores in some cheesecloth or another clean cloth and set aside, then put the fruit into a large saucepan.

Finely grate the zest of the lemons, using a Microplane or similar grater, then juice the lemons and add the zest and juice to the pot (I added the juiced lemon “shells” to the cloth, too), along with the ground ginger and water. Now tie up the cloth “bag” and add that to the pot, as well. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Remove the cloth “bag”, squeezing as much of the juices out of it as you can, add the sugar to the pot, and stir till completely dissolved. Bring back to a rapid boil and continue to cook without stirring for an additional 10 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and do a gel test by putting a little of the liquid on one of the frozen plates and return to the freezer for 2 minutes. If the liquid wrinkles when you push it with your fingernail or the tip of a spoon, you’re ready to jar up. If the liquid remains runny, return the pot to the heat, bring back up to a boil and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Repeat the test and then repeat cooking/testing if necessary.

After removing from the heat finally, stir in the chopped crystallized ginger.

Fill sterilized jars with the hot jam, cover with appropriately prepared lids and rings, tightened finger-tight, and process in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes (adjusted for altitude).

You know the rest of the drill by now: Remove the hot jars to a towel or newspaper-covered surface, listen for the pinging of your seals, and check the seals in 24 hours to make sure everything is kosher.

*Notes:

It’s a bit tricky to get that bag of stuff out of that boiling hot pot and then squeeze the juices out, and do it safely. I have a colander that fits perfectly over the rim of the pot I used. When I lifted the bag out of the pot with a pair of tongs, I slipped the colander under it and put it in there. Then I took a sturdy wooden spoon and smooshed the bejeebers out of it, so everything went directly back into the pot, and Look, Ma! No burns! If you have a pair of those silicone waterproof oven mitts, you could probably just squeeze it with your hands. But the colander method worked for me.

Oh. Em. Gee. I can’t believe how good this stuff turned out! I want to eat it on toast, I want to eat it with cheese, I even wanted to figure out how to put it in other stuff! In fact, I did mix it with softened cream cheese, slapped it between two squares of puff pastry, and drizzled some dulce de leche over it to make one darned decadent dessert: Apple Cream Napoleons with Dulce de Leche. Talk about over the top! I am so glad there are seven more jars of this stuff waiting for me… I might just make another batch!

Okay – what’s next?

This month’s contribution to the Can Jam, a Peach Vanilla Marmalade, kind of evolved in the pot as I went along. Once again, I found myself seasonally-challenged by the choice of “stone fruit” by Kate of The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking. To my knowledge, we don’t have much in the way of stone fruit in South Florida (unless you count mangoes – should I have counted mangoes?) this time of year, so I settled for the bounty of California peaches that are apparently in-season and flooding our markets right now. (I should note here that the computer file I created for the photos I took for this episode, is titled “Sept 2010_Stoned Fruit”. Should say a little about where my head was at.)

When we get them, the peaches start out rock-hard, then ripen in an instant, so I virtually stared them down, giving the occasional poke, until they were ready. All the while, I longingly recalled the gorgeous fresh peaches I’d seen and tasted in the Granville Island Market, while visiting Vancouver a couple of weeks ago. Wish I could’ve brought them home with me… sigh.

The ones I was stuck with were so-so, so I added a couple of nectarines, a lot of lemons, and a tablespoon of good clear vanilla extract to the pot and it worked!

Peach Vanilla Marmalade
(makes about 5 1/2 pints)

Ingredients:

4 lbs. ripe peaches
1 lb. ripe nectarines
7 average lemons
2 cups water
8 cups sugar
1 Tbs. clear vanilla extract

Stash a couple of small plates in the freezer for gel-testing.

Peel, stone, and chop the peaches and nectarines into rather small pieces (about 1/4-1/2 inch) and place them in a bowl of cold, acidulated water (add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice to the bowl of water to acidulate it).

Shred the lemons finely with a mandoline, being careful to remove the seeds as you go along. Place them in a large (roughly 6 or 7 quart) non-reactive pot. Add the water, cover, and boil on medium-high heat for 25 minutes.

Drain the peaches/nectarines. Add the fruit and sugar to the pot and stir well. Bring back to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium. Cook uncovered for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and do a gel test by putting a small spoonful of the liquid on one of the frozen plates, return the plate to the freezer for about a minute, then remove. With the tip of a spoon or your fingernail, push the liquid on the plate. If it wrinkles – even a little bit – you’re ready to can. If it stays completely liquid, return the pot to the heat and cook for an additional 5 minutes, then try again.

Add the tablespoon of vanilla to the pot when you get a successful gel-test and stir well.

Ladle the hot marmalade into sterilized, prepared jars, wipe the rims with a very damp paper towel to clean them, cover with new, heated lids, and screw on the bands finger-tight. Boiling water process for 5 minutes. Wait 24 hours to test your seals (they should have all gone ping! and the lids should have no flex when pushed on).

Label and store your golden treasures against the cold, dark winter months ahead, so you can dream about summer once again. Of course, it’ll be sunny and pleasant here, and I’ll be outside gardening & basking while y’all are inside, hiding from the cold and shivering. Bwahahahaha! Oops! Did I say that out loud?

Cucurbits. You’d be right in thinking “cucumbers,” because they are a major part of this family of gourds. I’m betting you’ll see a bunch of pickled cucumbers in this month’s Can Jam, and honestly? I probably would have made some myself if they weren’t out of season down here. We’re a little out of sync with the rest of y’all.

But what we are getting, are melons! Cantaloupe (and their brothers and sisters of the musk melon sub-family) and Honeydews. And thanks to the USDA Canning Guide, I actually found a method of preserving them, using our required hot-water bath method. So, for this month’s Can Jam, I bring you something (I think) weird and wonderful.

I bring you:

CANTALOUPE PICKLES (makes about 4 pints)

Ingredients:

5 lbs of 1-inch cantaloupe cubes (about 2 medium underripe* cantaloupe)
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 one-inch cinnamon sticks
2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
4-1/2 cups cider vinegar (5%)
2 cups water
1-1/2 cups white sugar
1-1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

Select cantaloupe that are full size but almost fully green and firm to the touch in all areas including the stem area.

Preparation:

Day One: Wash cantaloupe and cut into halves; remove seeds. Cut into 1 inch slices and peel. Cut strips of flesh into 1 inch cubes. Weigh out 5 pounds of pieces and place in large glass bowl. Place red pepper flakes, cinnamon sticks, cloves and ginger in a spice bag and tie the ends firmly. Combine vinegar and water in a 4-quart stockpot. Bring to a boil, then turn heat off. Add spice bag to the vinegar-water mixture, and let steep for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour hot vinegar solution and spice bag over melon pieces in the bowl. Cover with a food-grade plastic lid or wrap and let stand overnight in the refrigerator (about 18 hours).

Day Two: Carefully pour off vinegar solution into a large 8- to 10-quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Add sugar; stir to dissolve.

Add cantaloupe and bring back to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until cantaloupe pieces turn translucent (about 1 to 1-1/4 hours). Remove cantaloupe pieces into a medium-sized stockpot, cover and set aside.

Bring remaining liquid to a boil and boil an additional 5 minutes. Return cantaloupe to the liquid syrup, and bring back to a boil.

With a slotted spoon, fill hot cantaloupe pieces into hot pint jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Cover with boiling hot syrup, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel. Adjust lids and process 15 minutes.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like Pickled Cantaloupe, and was glad to see that I was able to perfectly halve this recipe and made two pints. But you know, what? They’re pretty good! Chilled and served as a side-dish, they compliment barbecued chicken, really well.

Surprised? I was!

This is the third and final installment of my Blueberry Trilogy prepared for Tigress’ Can Jam. It’s a tribute to Miami and the Latin vibe that’s such a big part of what the area is today. And of course, my summer blueberry fixation!

The lime and mint (can’t get any more local than my backyard!) in this jam is gently refreshing – not overpowering – and the subtle hint of rum gives it a bit of that tropical quality. A Caribbean vacation on toast! Oh, okay, maybe not a whole vacation, but you just might hear a palm tree rustling in the breeze as you take a bite…

Blueberry Mojito Jam (makes about 10 half-pint jars)

Ingredients:

3 limes
3-3/4 cups water (divided)
3 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/8 tsp. baking soda
3 dry pints (about 6 cups) blueberries, washed and de-stemmed
1 pkg. pectin
1/2 cup rum
10 4″-5″ sprigs of fresh mint

Preparation:

Wash and dry the limes and slice a thin strip off of each end.

With a mandoline or hand slicer (don’t forget your cut-glove!), shred the limes finely and place into a large, non-reactive saucepan. Add 3 cups of the water and bring to a boil. Continue to cook at a boil for 10 minutes.

Add the sugar and lemon juice, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the baking soda. The mixture will foam up suddenly, but will subside.

Add the blueberries, cover the pan, lower the heat to medium and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

In the meantime, wash and dry the mint sprigs, and cut or pinch off the top 1-1/2″-2″ of each sprig. Reserve those tips you just cut off.

Add the large mint sprigs and the rum to the jam, stir, and return to a boil on medium, for another 5 minutes.

In a small saucepan, dissolve the pectin in 3/4 cup cold water, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Stir the hot pectin liquid into the still-boiling jam for one minute. Remove from the heat while you perform the “freezer wrinkle test”. Place a small amount of the jam on small dish and put it in the freezer for 5 minutes, after which you push the mixture with the tip of a spoon or your fingernail. If the jam wrinkles up, you’re ready to jar. If it’s runny, put the pan back on the heat and cook at a boil on medium for another 5 minutes. Repeat the wrinkle test.

Remove the large mint sprigs before ladling the hot jam into the hot, sterilized jars. Push one of the reserved mint sprig tips into each jar of jam. Seal each jar with appropriately prepared new lids, screw on the rings finger-tight, and process in a boiling-water canner for 10 minutes.

Remove the jars from the boiling water, allow to cool, and wait 24 hours to test your seals.

Go ahead – take a bite!

Have you checked out Part One: Blueberry Marmalade and Part Two: Grand Marnier Blueberry Peach Sauce?

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This is the second in my Blueberry Series for Tigress’ Can Jam, and today I bring you Grand Marnier Blueberry Peach Sauce! Sounds delectable, doesn’t it?

Strawberry season is over for us in South Florida. In fact, the farmers markets and local vegetable/fruit stands all pretty much closed by the end of April. Remember, the bulk of our fresh and local produce comes in the winter and early-mid spring. With our growing season kind of topsy-turvy to most of the rest of the country, finding “local” produce is going to present a bit of a challenge for future Can Jams.

I mention this, because we in the South tend to think pretty much of the whole South as “local.” If it came from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, or anywhere in Florida, well darlin’, that’s as good as our own backyard. Otherwise, we’d be pretty much fruit-less… at least until the mangoes come in. And our local mango season is running a bit late this year because of all the strange weather we had this winter. But I digress…

During the month of June, aside from the Florida blueberries, there is nothing quite like a Georgia peach. They just don’t come any sweeter and juicier – and they are coming into our markets right now. So, why not combine the two?

This dessert sauce is kind of a riff on, and adapted from, a hazelnut mango blueberry sauce I spotted in Small Batch Preserving by Topp and Howard. And I’d have made it with mangoes, too, except for the fact that, as I said earlier, the only mangoes available right now are those small, hard, stringy things from Mexico. Also? I don’t have any hazelnut liqueur.

But what I did have, were peaches. And mmm…. Grand Marnier. The result was something my husband said is so good, I could sell it. And it may come to that.

Grand Marnier Blueberry Peach Sauce
(makes about 6 half-pints)

Ingredients:

7-8 peaches
2 dry pints (approx. 4 cups) blueberries (washed and stemmed)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 Tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
1/4 cup Grand Marnier (or other orange liqueur)

Preparation:

Cut an “X” through the skin of the bottom of each peach and drop them into a pot of boiling water. Allow them to blanch for 3 minutes, then remove them to a bowl of ice water for a minute. The skins should slip right off. Remove the pits and dice the peaches about the size of your blueberries. Slightly larger is okay.

Place all ingredients, except the liqueur, in a large, non-reactive saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the fruit has softened and the liquid has thickened.

Add the liqueur and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, seal with new lids and rings (prepared appropriately), and process in a boiling water canner. Ten minutes for half-pints, 15 minutes for pints.

Remove from canner and allow to cool. Wait 24 hours and check your seals.

This sauce is fantastic served over cheesecake, pound cake, or ice cream. Here, I’ve served it over some One-Ingredient Banana “Ice Cream” (2 banana recipe, to which I added 1/2 tsp. vanilla and a tiny pinch of salt). The combination of the cold, creamy banana with the blueberries, peaches, and hint of liqueur, is like a match made in heaven!

Stay tuned for Blueberry Mojito Jam!

And did you see the Blueberry Marmalade?

In a bit of epic timing, when Joel and Dana over at Well Preserved announced that this month’s Can Jam theme would be Berries, I was thrilled! Florida blueberries are in all the markets right now, and I’ve never seen them bigger and plumper – and less expensive!

So, of course I got a little carried away, and this is the first of three blueberry posts I’ve prepared for the Can Jam.

The first, is a Blueberry Marmalade, combining the best Florida has to offer right this minute – its blueberries and citrus. It’s a twist on the classic citrus marmalade and blueberry jam, and man! Is it tasty! The recipe I’m going to give you is adapted and modified a bit from Preserving the Taste by Edon Waycott.

Blueberry Marmalade (makes about 5 half-pint jars)

Ingredients:

1 large orange (preferably a juice orange, not navel)
1 large lemon
2-1/2 cups water
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 cups blueberries (washed & de-stemmed)
2 cups sugar

Preparation:

Cut a thin slice from each end of both the orange and the lemon.

With a mandoline or hand slicer (don’t forget your cut-glove!), shred the orange and lemon very thinly. Be careful to remove seeds as they appear. Place the shredded fruit into a large shallow pan with the water. Cover the pan and bring to a boil over high heat.

Cook on high for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Add the blueberries and sugar. Return the marmalade to a boil, and continue cooking for an additional 20 minutes. Most of the blueberries will burst during cooking, turning the mixture that pretty, dark purple color.

Remove from the heat while you perform the “freezer wrinkle test”. Place a small amount of the marmalade on small dish and put it in the freezer for 5 minutes, after which you push the mixture with the tip of a spoon or your fingernail. If it wrinkles up as a whole, you’re ready to jar it up. If it’s runny, put the pan back on the heat and cook at a boil on medium for another 5 minutes. Repeat the wrinkle test. The marmalade will thicken further as it cools, so try to avoid overcooking it.

Ladle the marmalade into hot, sterilized jars. Wipe the rims with a damp paper towel, seal with new lids and rings (prepared appropriately), and process in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes. Remove the jars and allow to cool.

Notes:

Shredding the citrus whole on a mandoline or hand-slicer is my now-preferred way to prepare it for marmalades. No more onerous zesting for me. Juicing oranges (such as Valencias), lemons, and limes, all have naturally thinner skins and zests, so you get the benefits of the whole citrus with very little waste and all the benefits.

Waycott’s original recipe calls for 1-1/2 cups of water, which I discovered boiled nearly completely away during the first 15 minutes of cook time. The original recipe also calls for 1/8 tsp. of cinnamon and a “dash” of freshly grated nutmeg. I omitted the spices simply because I don’t find those flavors consistent with the fresh fruit of summer.

Use this marmalade as you would any marm or jam – on toast, bagels, muffins, whatever! You see it pictured here on a toasted sesame bagel, along with my new favorite: Basted eggs. Yum!

(That’s pepper on the eggs)

Next up: Grand Marnier Blueberry Peach Sauce!

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For the May Can Jam, we were given the choice of either asparagus or rhubarb. Rhubarb being one of my absolutely least favorite vegetables – right up there with fennel (I wanna know who decided these things are vogue. Sour and licoricey. Bleah.) – and asparagus being one of my all-time faves, the choice was a no-brainer.

Now, what to do with it.  Since the rules say we must use the boiling water canning method – and I don’t know nuthin’ ’bout pressure canning (yet), pickling is the default position.

I love pickled asparagus. In fact, I served Oxford Falls Asparago Conservuto as part of the antipasto at my mom’s birthday party a couple of months ago. Best I’ve ever had!  So I turned to my Twitter buddy Jim (@oxfordfalls), and asked if he would share his recipe with me.  He’s such a sweetie, he said yes! And dutifully e-mailed it to me.

What he didn’t tell me, was that it was literally his usual recipe.  Any recipe that starts with “Two 11# boxes of asparagus” and uses a gallon each of water and cider vinegar, is a bit beyond my current resources.

So, after consulting with various canning books to get something less than commercial proportions, and a bit of weeping when I realized that my pint jars are not really tall enough to get the long, graceful spears I was after, here’s what I came up with (recipe used with permission):

Pickled Asparagus (makes one pint)

Ingredients:

1 lb. thin asparagus, trimmed to fit 1/2″ below the rim of a pint jar (reserve bottoms for other use)
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 Tbs. pickling salt
1/4 tsp. coriander seed
1 dried red chili pepper
1 large clove garlic, peeled
1 sprig fresh dill

Method:

In a medium saucepan, bring the vinegar, water and salt to a boil, stirring to dissolve the salt.

Sterilize the jar and lid appropriately, and arrange the raw asparagus spears “heads” down in the hot jar.  Insert the chili pepper, garlic clove, and dill sprig. Add the coriander seed.  Fill the jar with the hot brine, leaving 1/4″ head space.  Cover with the lid and jar ring, and boil for 15 minutes.

Allow to meld for a week or two before use.

Note:  I love this recipe for its simplicity and the great little zing you get from the chili pepper and garlic. This pickled asparagus makes a perfect little stirrer / garnish for bloody marys, or as a side with meat, or a snack with cheese.

As a side-note, I actually made a double-recipe of the brine, intending to pickle some jalapeño peppers and some Central American long peppers my husband bought.  The jalapeños were fine, but this is what happened to the Ball jar the other peppers were in:

Yup, the bottom fell out.  Literally.  I still don’t know why, but after consulting with some canning mavens on Twitter, determined that it wasn’t me. Just something that happens sometimes.  I’m just grateful that it wasn’t the asparagus!

Yes, indeedy! Alliums. According to Webster’s: any of a large genus (Allium) of bulbous herbs of the lily family including the onion, garlic, chive, leek, and shallot. Another low-acid food was assigned to us for this month’s Tigress’ Can Jam. But I love every member of this family, so I was pretty excited. And had absolutely no idea what I was going to do.

And then I went to the local farmers’ market and found

Colorful local spring onions, green garlic, and its big brothers! Who knew you could grow garlic in South Florida? In the same trip, I also scored some incredible balsamic vinegar and fig balsamic. Now what?

I read a lot of recipes, got my proportions straight, and created:

Pickled Onions & Green Garlic al Balsamico

You know I made that up, right?

Ingredients:

6 spring onions + 4 green garlics, washed well & sliced thinly (white & light green parts only)
(totaling about 5 cups)

1 cup red wine (I used a Montepulciano)

1 cup water

1 tsp. salt

3/4 cup good balsamic vinegar

Method:

Put the onions and green garlic in a 4 quart saucepan with the red wine, water and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower to a simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the vegetables soften slightly. Add the balsamic vinegar and return to a simmer for another 5 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare 2 pint jars and their lids for boiling water canning and get your canning pot up to a boil.

Divide the hot, cooked vegetables between the two prepared jars and fill with the hot balsamic/wine liquid, leaving 1/2 inch head space. You might have some liquid left over.

Clean the rims of the jars with a wet cloth or paper towel, put lids on the jars, finger-tighten the lid rings and process in boiling water for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow to sit in the hot water for another 5 minutes before removing the jars to cool.

Allow to sit for at least a week before eating, and of course, refrigerate after opening.

I made 2 batches of this – one with the regular aged balsamic vinegar, and the other with the fig balsamic. We served the fig balsamic version with other pickled vegetables (including last month’s Baby Carrots in Honey, Vinegar & Dill) as part of the antipasto at my mother’s birthday party, last weekend, and it was simply delish with my homemade Italian bread & parmesan breadsticks. It goes well as a pickle side dish for chicken, too.

The pickling liquid was so good, I drizzled some of it over the Mini-Caprese Picks I made for the party, instead of the balsamic dressing I usually use. The crowd went wild (insert roaring stadium noise in the background, here)!

For the Mini-Caprese Picks, just skewer a grape tomato, a folded basil leaf and a cherry-sized mozzarella ball onto plastic party picks or even wooden toothpicks (which I did when I ran out of the plastic ones!). Much easier to handle in a party situation than the traditional caprese salad. Not to mention adorable!

Oh, and the tops of the green garlic? They’re perfectly edible and pack a pretty good garlic punch, too. For breakfast one morning, I quartered some leftover boiled new red potatoes, and rough chopped a medium onion and sauteed them in a large pan with a little olive oil, stirred in 4 beaten eggs and then about 3 tablespoons of the chopped green tops of the green garlic. Really tasty “Farmer’s Scramble”!

This one was fun and I can’t wait to see what everyone else in “The Jam” cooked up!

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