Rhubarb Chutney

 What to do with all that spring rhubarb?  I’ve made rhubarb-strawberry jam and rhubarb relish in the last few years.  Time to find something new- Rhubarb chutney.  This recipe is based on one from a New York Times Héritage Cookbook recipe.  It would be a great addition to a charcuterie board or served with a roast pork.

Rhubarb can be incredibly “brown”- lol.  To add more colour, I infused the vinegar with a handful of bright red hibiscus petals and replaced the raisins with dried cranberries -  the result was not bright red, but better than “boring” brown.  Here is the recipe.

Makes approximately 12 x 250 ml jars.

Ingredients

8 cups    sliced rhubarb

6 cups    sliced onions

2 cups    dried cranberries (or 2 cups raisins)

7 cups    light brown sugar.

1/4 cup    approx. dried hibiscus petals (optional, for better colour)

4 cups    apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp    salt

2 tsp      cinnamon

2 tsp      ground ginger

1 tsp      ground cloves

1/8 tsp    cayenne pepper (you can add more cayenne to add heat)

Directions:

Warm the apple cider vinegar and gently stir in the hibiscus petals.  Turn off the heat and allow to sit for about 15 minutes.  Strain out the petals.

Combine all the other ingredients (including the strained vinegar) in a heavy kettle.  Bring to a boil and simmer gently until slightly thickened- about 45 minutes- less if you want to maintain some of its texture.  Stir frequently to prevent sticking.  

When the texture pleases you, give it a taste.  Add more cayenne or other spices if you wish.

Pour into the cleaned canning jars and process in a steam canner for ten minutes.

Cooking Class - Thai - Fishcakes with Spicy Cucumber Relish

I love making fish cakes, shrimp cakes- all kings of tasty “cakes”.  These Thai fishcakes are quick and easy to make and they are so delicious.  Served with the spicy cucumber relish- Thai heaven!

This is a Gordon Ramsay recipe.  He recommends eating the fish cakes “freshly made” as they do not reheat well.

What Phil (learning to cook) and I (always learning new food “tricks” and happy to teach):

-    Read the recipe through before you prepare the mise en place; read it again.  We forgot to add the Thai red curry paste to the fish mixture. Our sample tasted great, but a little bland.  We double checked the recipe and sure enough had forgotten the curry paste.  Since we hadn’t yet made the fish cakes, it was easy to add to the mixture.

-    We simmered the cucumber relish dressing too long and ended up with very little liquid for a dressing.  It was worth making a new batch.

 To make approximately 10 cakes,

Ingredients

250 gr    skinless white fish fillets (I used haddock)

250 gr    large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tbsp    Thai red curry paste

1            Kaffir lime leaf, finely shredded (or finely grated zest of a lime)

1 tbsp    chopped cilantro

1 med.   egg

1 tsp      brown sugar

1 tsp      Fish Sauce

Pinch of sea salt

1/4 cup  fresh green beans, trimmed and thinly sliced

Vegetable oil for shallow frying

Spicy Cucumber Relish

1        cucumber

1/2     small red chile, seeded and thinly sliced

1         shallot, peeled and finely sliced

juice of 2 limes (or about 1 1/2 tbsp bottled lime juice)

2 tbsp   superfine sugar (I used regular sugar)

1/2 tsp   sea salt

2-3 tbsp water

Small handful of cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

Small handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped

Directions

Cucumber relish:

Peel the cucumber, then scoop out the seeds in the center with a teaspoon.  Thinly slice the cucumber diagonally and place in a bowl.  Add the chile and shallot, toss to mix and set aside.

Put the lime juice, sugar, salt and water into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.  Let simmer fora few minutes then set aside to cool completely.

Fshcakes;

Put all the ingredients for the fishcakes, except the green beans and oil, into a food processor and pulse to a finely chopped wet paste.  Do not over process, as you want to keep some of the texture to the fishcakes.

Scrape the mixture into a bowl and stir in the green beans.  To check the seasoning, cook a little ball of the mixture in an oiled pan and taste, then adjust the seasoning if needed- more sugar, more salt.   With wet hands, shape the mixture into small patties about two inches (2 tbsp of mixture).

Heat a one-inch depth of oil in a deep skillet or wok.  Shallow-fry the patties in batches for about 1-2 minutes per side, until golden brown.  Keep warm in the oven until ready to serve/

When the fishcakes are ready to serve, pour the dressing over the cucumber relish and stir in the chopped herbs.  Serve the fishcakes hot, with cucumber relish on the side.

Blood Orange Marmalade- so much easier this way!

 Thank you to Marissa McClellan for this wonderful new, less “fussy” but really delicious  marmalade.  After almost thirty years of canning, it was only last year that I made my first marmalade- Strawberry and lemon.  And it confirmed all the reasons for avoiding making marmalades- beginning with the removal of the “pith” and the  delicate cutting of fruit to remove membranes, yadda, yadda, yadda.  This was a delicious marmalade, a hit with my taste testers BUT too much work- lol.  And then came Marissa’s new method.  Check out this recipe…

To make about 3 x 250 ml jars.

Ingredients

1 lb    Blood oranges (about 4-5 oranges)

3 cups  Water

2.5 cups  Sugar

Directions

Wash the oranges well.  Trim away both ends and slice the oranges in half.  Using a sharp knife, trim away the core of the orange and pluck away the seeds, if any.  I made a V incision to remove the pith in the middle of the orange half.  Some blood oranges have no seeds.  Set the cores and the seeds aside.

Thinly slice each orange half, then in half again. You will have quarters.  Place the oranges in a bowl, add the three cups of water.  Place the cores and seeds in a cheesecloth and close tightly.  Add the cheesecloth bundle to the oranges and water, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.

To make the marmalade, place the soaked fruit and water (discard the cheesecloth bundle) in the preserving pan, add 2.5 cups of sugar and dissolve the sugar slowly on low heat.  When it is fully dissolved, bring the marmalade to a boil and simmer until it is reduced by more than half.  The thermometer should read 220 degrees F and should pass the plate test.  When it is finished cooking place in the prepared canning jars.  Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a steam canner for 10 minutes.

Notes:  be sure to cut the slices as thinly as possible.

Raspberry and Cacao Nibs Jam

 Raspberries and chocolate are a great combination. Cacao nibs add that hit of chocolate and a nice crunch to the jam.  I first tried this recipe at the Chocolate Museum in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  This is the place to go for everything you ever want to know about chocolate!

To make 5 x 250 ml jars.

Ingredients

1.9 kg     Raspberries, gently washed and any leaves picked out.

60 ml      Lemon juice

700 gr     Sugar

1/4 tsp    Vanilla extract

1 tbsp      Cacao nibs

Directions

Place the raspberries in a large stainless steel saucepan, add 50 ml water and the lemon juice.  Soften the fruit over a medium-high heat for about five minutes, stirring frequently to it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.  

Slowly pour in the sugar, stirring until it dissolves completely, then add the vanilla and cacao nibs.  Increase the heat and boil over a high heat for about 10-15 minutes, until it reaches 220 degrees on a thermometer.  

You can also take the jam off the heat and do the wrinkle test by putting a quarter teaspoon of jam on a pre-frozen place and put in the fridge for a few minutes.  Remove from the fridge and push the jam with your finger- it should have a slight wrinkle on the surface.  If there is no wrinkle, put the pan back on a high heat, keep cooking and testing every few minutes until the wrinkle is achieved.

When the jam is ready, skim off and discard any froth on the surface, ladle the jam into hot, sterilized jars.  Clean the rim of the jar and place / tighten the lids.  Process in a steam canner for ten minutes.  When it’s done, turn off the heat, remove the lid and let sit for five minutes before removing.

Strawberry Honey Butter - Heavenly

 Looking for something different and heavenly to slather on your toast, scone?  Try this fruit butter- Strawberry Honey Butter to be precise.  Thanks to my neighbours Jenn and Darrel for  taste testing my first batch!  And thank you to Ball for the recipe.

This recipe makes 4 x 250 ml jars

Ingredients

3 lbs    Strawberries, washed and hulled

3/4 cup Honey

3/4 cup. Sugar

1 tbsp    Bottled lemon juice

2 tsp      Vanilla

1/4 tsp    Salt

Directions

Purée strawberries n the bowl of your food processor until smooth.

Combine strawberry purée with the remaining ingredients in a deep pot set over medium heat.  Bring the mixture to a boil stirring frequently to prevent scorching.  Lower the heat and simmer until the mixture is very thick, about 60-90 minutes, stirring frequently.  Any foam produced by the strawberries will disappear with the cooking process.  Strawberry butter is finished cooking when it holds shape on a spoon.

Ladle the hot butter in hot canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Wipe the rim of the jar and center the lid on the jar, apply the band and adjust to finger tip tight.  Place the jar in the steam canner.  Repeat for all the jars.

Process 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat, remove the lid carefully to avoid hot steam and let the jars stand for about five minutes before removing.