Strawberry Jam

 Early summer is strawberry time and this year I decided to tackle Strawberry Jam.We went picking at a near by farm with some friends.

I have been a little nervous about this because I LOVE strawberry Jam, particularly my grandmother's. She makes a spiced jam with cinnamon and things in it.

 So this is what I wanted to make but I also wanted to make something that did not require an added pectin which I think hers does so I went looking for different recipes and in the end made my own. I have been really really nervous that I would mess it up. but I think it turned out pretty well.

You will need:
1 cup apple butter
0.5 cup apple juice or cider
0.5 cup apple vinegar

If you are not like me and don't have tons of homemade apple butter laying around you can do what Mother's kitchen recommends

"5 tart apples, stems and blossom ends removed and chopped coarsely, cores intact
1 lemons or limes, unpeeled and chopped fine

Boil apples and citrus in enough water to prevent sticking for 20 minutes until soft. Force through a fine sieve with the back of a spoon to make 2 cups puree, or use a food mill if you have one. Now don't go out and buy a food mill - they are expensive and I have never found one worth the money. I snagged the 2 I have at garage sales. A sieve and a spoon works just as well." 

If do this though you will want to add more spices.

8 cups of halved strawberries
4 cups sugar
1.5 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon all spice
0.5 teaspoon cloves

If you are adding more spices I would go heavier on the cinnamon and lighter on the cloves.
Combine everything in a large tall pot and bring to a boil. cook it stiring frequently for about 20 min. want it so that when you put a small spoonful on a plate it cools to a jam like sold within 5 min and when you run you finger over it it wrinkles and sticks together.

Ladle the hot Jam into hot (boiled and sterilized) canning jars and place on lids and submerge in boiling water for about 10 min remove carefully and let cool. If they are sealed you will not be able to depress the lids, if you can push the center of the lid down it did not sell well and you will want to put it in the fridge not the pantry. 

Let me know if you try it.

More on Mousse

Now that you have a wonderful Chocolate Mousse recipe, here is something you can do with it. This is a neapolitan cake and was my reason for coming up with the Mousse recipe to begin with. You see my mother's birthday is in April and she loves ice cream cakes and I was trying to come up with a good cake to make her. And this idea struck me so I just needed to find a good mousse and cake recipe to make it work.

This is a great cake recipe for freezing. Moist Yellow Cake Recipe from Bakerella
Or if you are the boxed Cake mix sort you can just use the pudding trick

For the middle layer Ice cream of course as this was an ice cream cake and the top My Chocolate Mousse.

First things first make your cake and plate it. I made mine an 8x8 square. When its cool put the whole thing in the freezer.
Line the pan you used to make the cake with wax paper, then fill with your ice cream and put into the freezer also so it can set up in its new shape.

Now make the mousse.


I found when I did this that it helped to let the mousse set up in the fridge a little before attempting to combine it all, so while your mousse is doing that take out the cake and ice cream.

Set the cake (upside down) on the ice cream while its still in the pan and flip the whole thing over so that its now sitting plate side down with the pan of ice cream on top. Squish it down to help conform the ice cream to the top of the cake then unmold. This maybe a bit tricky but if the wax paper did its job you should be able to remove the pan and then the wax paper with little problems.
 You will now have your ice cream in the same shape as your cake happily stacked. return it to the freezer for another 15-20 min to let the ice cream refreese some and the mousse to set up a little more before the final step.

Finally take out the cake and ice cream and the mousse and spoon the mousse on pile it up and spread it gently around until the cake is evenly covered and freeze. Bring it out to sit some before serving to let it all soften up a bit.

Now Imagine with me here the possibilities for this cake:
Chocolate cake, coffee ice cream, Chocolate mousse
White cake, orange sherbet, Chocolate orange mousse
Almond cake, Cherry Garcia ice cream, Chocolate Cherry mousse
White cake (heavy on the vanilla), Strawberry Ice cream, Chocolate peach mousse
Carrot cake, ginger bread ice cream, Chocolate Mousse with a spiced rum and cinnamon extract.

I mean YUM!

How to pick Steamed Blue Crabs like a Maryland Native

Or alternative title. "How My Dad Taught Me to Pick Crabs"

So you are invited to a crab fest and you are presented with a pile of bug eyed clawed critters with tiny legs, that are covered in seasoning. Then are handed a squat little knife and no nut cracker. What do you do? Well you can take "panic" off your list of options as I will now explain how to bluff your way through this like pulling apart an entire crustacean is something you have done since you could walk.

Dad has these rules or techniques for how to pick crabs, and according to him, this is how "REAL Marylanders" pick their crabs but as that falls into the "REAL men sleep on rocks and eat live fire ants for breakfast" line of thinking I am not sure how common this is to all of Maryland or if its just his family. None the less this is the general idea of how you should pick Blue crabs

First you will need:
Steamed Blue Crabs
Newspaper
short straight (not serrated) thick handled knife

Cover the table with newspaper this will protect the table and make clean up easier.
So here is your crab we will call him Chadwick. Now lets get to know him some.

From the front you have eyes mouth and claws, as far as picking and eating are concerned we only really care about the claws. From the underside you can see his legs and swim legs or back fin. This is also how we know he is a he. That Washington Monument shaped part of the shell is call the apron and if it looks like that then it is male, if it is more rounded, then its female. (A real Marylander does not eat females. This is because females lay eggs, and eggs make new crabs you eat the females and it hurts the over all population of blue crab, which is Bad with a capital B) Sorry about the picture quality its hard to photograph yourself picking crabs.

So to begin with you will pull off Chadwick's claws and his legs including the back fin. The legs don't really have a ton of meat in them, and its hard to get at and is often dry or tough, so most people don't bother if they are picking to eat or to make crab cakes, if you are picking for soup, or a sauce then it may be worth while as it is still flavorful, its up to you. (Just grab it by the joint, twist slightly and its should break and you can slide the meat out if it is eatable)

The next step is actually getting into Chadwick. What you will want to do is take your knife and slide it under the apron. Slide the knife down separating it from the body then press it to the table to break it off from the body.

This will basically "unlock" the top shell (the red part) from the bottom (the white) you will then pull them apart. Grab one of the sockets that you pulled a back fin out of and rest your hand on the body. Then with your other hand grab the point of the top shell that is on the same side of the body that you grab the back fin on and pull.

You will now have a full view of the inner workings of Chadwick here. Just about all of what you now see you do not want to eat. You will take your knife and scrap the stuff (digestive tract, heart, other organs) from the center of the white section into the top shell and then take your knife and use it to scrap off the stuff (gills/lungs) on the outside of the white section. (the yellow or gray goop is fat and on some crabs is tasty on some is more bitter)

You will want to at this point use the knife to pin the mouth and things in the front to the table and pull the crab back to break them off cleanly. You now have the part of Chadwick that you will be getting meat from the rest of him can be put into the bowl of the top shell and put onto the discard pile. Take your knife and cut that part in half.

You will now take one half and cut it in half again resulting in having a half and two quarters. You know have access to the crab meat! Yay success!

The generally recognized "best meat" is the back fin meat which you will find in a nice big chunk near where the back fin was. the rest of the meat is in little compartments separated off with thin shell dividers (see image below). Take your time and get all the meat its too good, too much work and too expensive to throw away some becuase you were a little careless when picking.

 And repeat with the other half.

Now about those claws you set aside earlier. There are two ways to get at the meat in them. First take Chadwicks claw and lay it down so that the joint bends up. Position your knife just below the pincher part of the claw itself making sure the sharp part is down. With the base of your palm hit the back of your blade until it just cracks the shell twist the knife to enlarge and extend the crack. Then wiggle the two parts until the pincher separates with the meat (if your lucky) if it did then you will scrape the meat off the inner tendon with your teeth (like artichoke petals if you have ever enten those) or with your fingers if picking to cook with. If the meat does not come out for some reason, you can simply use the knife to scrape it out. 

Repeat the process with the second part of the claw placing your knife near the elbow joint. This portion does not have the center tendon so you don't need to worry about that. I almost hesitate to mention the second way to do claws as this is outside of the way "REAL Marylanders" do it. You can take a small wooden crab mallet (I may be disowned for mentioning this) and then lightly tap the shell where you would place the knife this should, if done correctly, crack the shell but not break it allowing you to get the meat out. If done incorrectly this will shatter the shell and crush the meat giving you the job of picking the shell out of the meat.

 Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Recipes for all this crab meat to follow at some point.

My garden 2010

This year we have branched out a little more in our vegetable garden, unfortunately not everything had grown. But I am still learning and am super excited about what did grow. So here you go.
We are growing:
Pumpkins
Tomatoes (a few different types)
Green Peppers
Cucumbers
Lettus
Onions
Potatoes (already harvested)
Beets
French Radishes (already harvested)
Beans
Carrots
Dill
Parsley
Chives

 And another view.

PUMPKINS!!!

I am really excited and nervous about these they are growing really well so far so we will see how they go throughout the summer. But I think my favorite plant this year are our beans

becuase they look like this! I mean how cool is that! Though they turn green when you cook them I am told, we have not had enough come in to test this yet though.

 

Hands like Lady Macbeth

I bought a large amount (for our family) of cherries because The Girl wanted them, but they were not being eaten quickly and I needed to find a use for them before they went bad. So I decided to try a fruit coffee cake and went to find the recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake a friend of mine posted to facebook. I did not have enough cherries for the filling so I added a can of cranberries what turned out much better than I expected and it added that tartness that the rhubarb would have in the original recipe.

The thing with cherries is that they have pits and stems which need to be removed, and cherry juice stains.

CHERRY CRANBERRY COFFEE CAKE

Filling: 1 cup sliced cherries 1/2 cup pureed cherries or berry baby food 1 can cranberry sauce 1 teaspoon cinnamon mix ingredients well. heat over medium heat until it begins to boil then reduce heat to low and allow to simmer until thickened. (alternatively add a little water and 2T of cornstarch to thicken more quickly) Cake: 1 1/2 cups of flour 3/4 cup of brown sugar (If you like cake a little less sweet, just use 1/2 a cup of sugar) 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. nutmeg and/or 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 butter or shortening, softened but not melted 1 egg 1/2 cup buttermilk (or substitute 1 T lemon juice plus enough regular milk to equal 1/2 cup) 1/2 tsp. vanilla (or more to taste) Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Use a pastry blender or a fork to cut in the butter to a crumbly texture. Next, combine the egg, milk and vanilla in a separate bowl and then add to the dry ingredients. Mix gently, and only to combine the dry and liquid ingredients--the batter should still be lumpy. Grease an 8x8 in. pan or a round pan of similar diameter. Spread half of the batter in the pan, then cover with the fruit mixture. Next, spoon the remaining batter over the fruit, in mounds like you would for a cobbler. Topping: 1/4 cup flour 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 T butter 1/2 cup crushed nuts (optional) Use a fork or pastry blender to cut in the butter to a crumbly texture. Mix quickly with nuts if including. Sprinkle evenly over pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden and sugar topping is mostly melted. Serve warm at nap time with coffee and a good book. (with significant credit to my friend Julie Binnie who gave significant credit to Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook)

Thanks for visiting!

Onigiri

Onigiri are rice balls they are a common packed food option in Japan and depending upon a lot of factors can serve for any meal. Like sushi they are hand packed rice that are wonderful plain but can be dressed up with nori (the sheets of toasted seaweed that wraps sushi) or sesame seeds.

They can also be filled with all sorts of yummy additions. A traditional filling is pickled plums called umeboshi. But just about anything works. Mini meatballs, well drained western style pickles, canned tuna fish with a little mayo to bond and salt to flavor.

The onigiri I made today were filled with chicken teriyaki, crab with a little mayo for bonding and a little Old Bay and rosemary for flavor, omelet with sauteed onions, and azuki which is a sweet red been paste and used most frequently in Japanese deserts.


1) Prepare sushi rice, any short grain rice CAN be used but sushi rice is your best bet. You will want to wash the rice until the water runs clear and follow cooking instruction on package. A rice cooker makes this flawless.

2) Heat some rice vinegar and dissolve sugar into it, add a very little bit of soy sauce. The proportions to this is basically done to taste, this is then pored over and gently mixed into the hot rice. Start by adding very little at a time. This is just to add some flavor too much can water down the needed stickiness of the rice.

3) In a bowl mix cold water and rice vinegar use this to keep your hand wet while handling the rice or else it will stick to you and not itself.

4) take a small mound of rice and shape it into whatever shape you like a ball as is implied by the name is the simplest to do.

You can find a good alternative to this method at www.justhungry.com They recommend using salt and water rather than vinegar and water. This is an common alternative but one that I don't particularly like.

This is a traditional plain onigiri shaped into a triangle, with nori wrapped around the bottom. This one is the simplest to do as there is not need to worry about the filling causing the rice to break apart, but the flavor of the rice is the only thing here so this is where the vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce mix really shines the most.

This one I filled with the azuki and was probably my favorite. I love azuki and make my own from kidney beans. As this was the first of the filled that I tried today I simply made it round as it was easy to manage while I got the feel for the rice. The nori is shaped like flowers, as nori comes in stiff sheets like paper and so can be cut with scrap booking paper punches to dress up the onigiri.

This is made with the omelet. The omelet is made very thick by western standards then cut into cubes or rectangular prisms. I wanted the omelet to be visible from the out side so it was shaped in a flattish circle rather a full sphere. This technique is really lovely when the filling has a bright color as well a red or green really pops against the rice.

These were filled with a crab mix, this was a big deviation from the japanese flavores but appeals to the Maryland palet. The really nice thing about the crab I used also is that it was a white and sitcky filling so I could over fill and risk having the filling mix with the rice with out it showing through the rice or causeing the onigiri to crumble. The nori is cut with a scrap booking paper punch just as the flowers for the azuki onigiri were.


The chicken teriyaki onigiri showed its filling the way the omlete did however it was shaped into a triangle. It also has sesame seeds. I would have much prefered black sesame seeds for the visial contrast. If I had more time or forethought I would have toasted the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan, this would serve to both bring out the flavor as well as to darken there color.

I really hope you decide to give this a try it is a great picnic food and really very tasty.

Thanks for visiting!