Category Archives: condiments

Cranberry Sauce with Rosemary & Juniper Berry

12 December 2009 by local kitchen

This is a beautiful sauce, a gorgeous cranberry color flecked with deep purple bits of juniper berry. The juniper gives a hint of piney bite to the sauce while the rosemary adds a mellow, savory note. And I got to use the oh-so-cute, short & squat Ball Elite jars that I found up in Maine (they are impossible to find near me). The recipe is an amalgamation of several cranberry sauce recipes I’ve tried in the last couple of years, but was mainly inspired by this […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, cranberries, fall, holiday, preserving, rosemary, sauces, wine, beer & liquor, winter • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, cranberry, food, local, preserving, recipes

Apple Pectin Stock

8 December 2009 by local kitchen

When you are busy making all of those holiday apple pies, butters and desserts, don’t throw out the apple peels! Make apple pectin stock instead, and next summer you’ll be able to make 100% local jam with your homemade pectin. Sweet. Adapted (barely) from Homemade Pectin at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial ————————————————————- Apple Pectin Stock INGREDIENTS apple “leavings” (peels, cores and leftover bits from pie, jam or apple butter making, frozen is fine) filtered water METHODS Put apple leavings […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, canning, jams, preserving, stock • Tags: canning, cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Dark Days: Rhubarb Rosemary Pork Cutlets with Onion & Beet Sauce

4 December 2009 by local kitchen

Some meals are a revelation. Strangely enough, I often find that when I’m not really thinking about it, throwing something together from the contents of my fridge on a busy weeknight, is when I make my most startling discoveries. This meal fits the bill. I had those pork cutlets, of the not-cutlets-but-scones fame. They were thawed a couple of days ago and really needed to be cooked. (Not only am I completely obsessive about not wasting food, there has got to […]

Categories: Dark Days Local, jellies, main course, pork, rhubarb, roasting, rosemary, sage, spring, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, pork, recipes

Mission Fig and Port Wine Mustard

3 December 2009 by local kitchen

Seems like it’s been All Mustard All the Time around here lately, but I have had all of these interesting mustard ideas floating around in my head and I want to try to them out before they disappear. And yes, I do realize that it’s more than a bit strange to be obsessing over mustard flavors when, a) I don’t like mustard and, b) I don’t eat mustard. But other people do, including my mustardophile husband, and a pretty little jar of […]

Categories: canning, condiments, fruit, mustard, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, figs, food, local, mustard, port wine, recipes

Fiery Habanero Mustard

28 November 2009 by local kitchen

At its simplest, prepared mustard is a basic mix of mustard seed and water, ground into a paste, and as such, could hardly be easier for the home cook. Mustard lovers may tell you, however, that the devil is in the details: which mustard seeds to use? which soaking liquid to use? Which vegetables, fruits, herbs or spices will flavor the mustard? This simple mustard gets its punch from fiery habanero chile peppers: yellow mustard seeds are soaked in habanero-infused […]

Categories: canning, condiments, hot chile peppers, mustard, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, recipes

Use It or Lose It! PB&J Cookies

22 November 2009 by local kitchen

I was rotating stock in the “pantry” the other day (aka “the garage“), separating 2008 home-canned goods from 2009 (Yes, my life is a thrill a minute! Don’t you want to be me?), when I realized that I had a couple of jars of homemade preserves leftover from May and June of ’08. As I try to use these up within about a year (and we’re well past that now) I decided it was high time these came upstairs to the fridge. […]

Categories: baking, dessert, jams, non-local luxuries, nuts, Use it or Lose it!, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, thumbprint cookies, using jam

Cranberry Apple Butter

19 November 2009 by local kitchen

Really, I promise this is the last apple butter recipe. At least for this year. (It’s possible, just possible, that 110 lbs of apples was a wee bit insane ludicrous ambitious.) But this is an apple butter recipe I can get behind. It’s really a cranberry butter recipe; very tangy cranberry flavor with the apples lending their pectin and texture and a hint of sweetness. Again I dispensed with the cinnamon (lest I have to buy stock in Penzey’s), but […]

Categories: apples, canning, citrus, cranberries, fall, preserving, spreads, winter • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Apple Rhubarb Chutney with Fennel & Cardamom

17 November 2009 by local kitchen

Yet another in the long line of apple recipes, I know, but this one is a definite keeper. This chutney is delicious, and that comes from someone who doesn’t like cooked apples. Not even apple pie, apple butter, applesauce or apple jam. Nope, I only seem to like apple chutney and I think I’ve found my new favorite: apple rhubarb chutney with fennel & cardamom. The sweetness of apples, the tang of rhubarb, the licoricey bite of fennel and the subtle, […]

Categories: apples, canning, cherries, chutneys, condiments, fall, preserving, rhubarb, spring, winter • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb

Winter Lager Mustard

16 November 2009 by local kitchen

I took a break from all sorts of apple recipes over the weekend to replenish Tai’s supply of my homemade mustard. We are down to one 4-oz jar of the last batch of cranberry habanero mustard, and the world knows no tragedy quite like the possibility of us running out of mustard, so a-mustard making I will go. Mustard is surprisingly easy to make. Although you need to soak the mustard seeds for a few hours, once that is done the whole process […]

Categories: condiments, mustard, non-local luxuries, wine, beer & liquor, winter, year round • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

(Virtually) No Stir Apple Butter

14 November 2009 by local kitchen

As I mentioned in the previous apple butter post, I was looking to try a “no-stir” oven version of apple butter. I’ve heard good things about Crock Pot (sorry, “slow cooker” would be the PC terminology of the day, but I prefer the old-fashioned Crock Pot) apple butter, but as I do not own one, I had to try it out in the oven. There are a few recipes out there on the Interwebs for apple butter reduced in the oven; oven […]

Categories: apples, canning, fall, preserving, spreads, winter • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

No Peel ‘Em Apple Butter

10 November 2009 by local kitchen

I’ve made apple butter each autumn for three years in a row now. It’s truly a labor of love, as I don’t really like cooked apples (with one notable exception) of any variety. I make applesauce, for my friend Christina, for the many, many babies in my life, and for baking. I make apple pies for friends, holidays and for Tai. Apple butter is definitely the most labor-intensive of all of my apple-preserving tricks, due to the seemingly endless stirring, […]

Categories: apples, breakfast, canning, condiments, dessert, fall, preserving, spreads, winter • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, recipes

Apple Ginger Jam

4 November 2009 by local kitchen

Tai and I managed to squeak in an afternoon of end-of-season apple picking last week at Fishkill Farms in Fishkill, NY. For the very end of October, they still had plenty of apples in the trees; Red Delicious, IdaRed, Rome, Macoun and Mutsu were all plentiful. With a little bit more effort, we collected a bushel of Stayman Winesap apples, even though the orchard said that they were “done.” It’s also a lovely orchard with organically grown apples at $20/half bushel […]

Categories: apples, canning, fall, jams, preserving, winter • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Apple Cider Vinegar

13 October 2009 by local kitchen

If you’re not on your honeymoon in the wilds of Canada, Fall is a great time to begin brewing up a batch of apple cider vinegar. Take advantage of inexpensive, freshly pressed apple cider available at orchards and farmer’s markets all through the Fall, and ferment it to make a delicious cider vinegar to use all year long. Adapted from instructions on the Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits website. Apple Cider Vinegar INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENT a 1 […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, vinegar • Tags: cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Tzatziki

21 September 2009 by local kitchen

I’ve had a massive craving for good Greek food lately. What happened was this: Tai & I stole a day out of our crazy schedules to go climbing last week. We spent a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon on the cliffs of the Gunks, up in New Paltz, NY. Before heading home, we decided to try a new Mediterranean restaraunt in town. Well, the most I can say is that is was disappointing. Not horrible food, per se, but totally tasteless; for […]

Categories: cucumber, dill, fall, sauces, side dish, summer • Tags: cooking, food, Greek, local, quick & easy, recipes, sauces, summer

Peach Cascabel BBQ Sauce

11 September 2009 by local kitchen

Cascabel peppers, also known as chile bola or rattle chiles, because of the way the seeds rattle around inside the small round dried pepper, grow wild on the Pacific coast of Central America and Mexico. In this country, you generally only find the dried peppers, or sometimes the ground powder. Last winter I bought a bag from Penzey’s, intent on making some recipe or other, which I apparently never made, so I had a mostly full bag of these little […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, hot chile peppers, peaches, preserving, sauces, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes