Category Archives: condiments

Mustard in Jars

17 August 2011 by local kitchen

I’m honored to be a guest blogger on Food in Jars this week while Marisa enjoys a well-deserved vacation with her husband Scott. My post is up today on FiJ, and is a basic mustard tutorial, with recipes for Classic Dijon and Bourbon Brown Sugar mustards. If you haven’t yet taken the mustard plunge, this post has everything you need to get started – surf on over and check it out. If you are already rocking the homemade mustard, scope out this mustard […]

Categories: mustard • Tags: canning, food in jars, homemade, mustard, preserving

Marinated Green Bell Peppers

13 August 2011 by local kitchen

Yes, you read that correctly: marinated green bell peppers. Because you know what comes before red bell peppers? Green bell peppers. All peppers start out green: it takes time (and sunshine, love, devotion and a near-pathological desire to fend off every bug in creation) for the peppers to turn red. A lot of time. Like we are lucky if we see local red bell peppers before September. The one (1!) I managed to grow two years ago was still out […]

Categories: bell pepper, canning, condiments, preserving, summer • Tags: berries, canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Happy National Mustard Day!

6 August 2011 by local kitchen

I know: it’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Yes, folks, raise up your smartphones and sway with me: mustard is in the hizzouse. Today is National Mustard Day, celebrated (apparently) on the first Saturday of August each year. (Who said that August doesn’t have any holidays?) There is even a mustard museum, in Wisconsin, where National Mustard Day (the kids call it NMD, yo) is obviously big doins. Big enough for live accordion music from the Poupon U band, free hot dogs, something called […]

Categories: mustard • Tags: canning, condiments, mustard, national mustard day

10-Minute Sour Cherry Bam!

31 July 2011 by local kitchen

You would think I would learn. (You would be wrong.) After my last run-in with shriveled fingertip sour cherries, I decided to make another attempt at cherry jam, this time just a straight-up sour cherry (a little bit of lemon, a little bit of sugar) and a minimal maceration, overnight, banking on the fact that it was the week-long maceration that caused the color-leach in my last sour cherry preserving attempt. Well, don’t take that piece of preserving wisdom to […]

Categories: 100% local, cherries, jams, preserves, preserving, quick & easy, summer • Tags: cherries, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Use It or Lose It! Jam + Cream Cheese Frosting

27 July 2011 by local kitchen

Nearly every year, I make at least two birthday cakes: one is for my friend Kami, a practically-grown-up girl of seven this April, and one is for Kami’s mother Nadine, who as of last weekend was old enough to have a seven year-old daughter but young enough to squeal with glee at the thought of birthday cake. I’ve had my trials (who can forget the Great Kami’s Birthday Cake Debacle of ’09) and my successes (the orange mousseline buttercream cake turned out particularly lovely) […]

Categories: baking, cake, cheese, dessert, jams, Use it or Lose it!, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, frosting, local, quick & easy, recipes

Strawberry Jam with Mint, Basil & Habanero

10 July 2011 by local kitchen

It’s cruel to do this to you, I know, since strawberries are long gone in most parts of America. But I still have some fresh, local strawberries in the fridge (albeit they are starting to look a little peaky), and they are just coming into full season for our friends in the North. If you are one of the lucky ones that still has fresh strawberries in your neighborhood, or one of the industrious ones who put-up a few pounds in […]

Categories: basil, berries, canning, hot chile peppers, jams, mint, preserving • Tags: berries, canning, chiles, food, local, preserving, recipes, strawberries

Strawberry: Whole Berry Preserves

4 July 2011 by local kitchen

I know that most of you are beyond strawberry season and are thinking about blueberries, raspberries and even peaches; however, life got in the way of my strawberry ambitions this year and I just managed to squeak some picking into the tail end of the New York season. Because we were at the very end of the season, we ended up picking a lot of teeny, tiny strawberries: larger ones were already picked, or had rotted on the ground, but […]

Categories: berries, canning, preserves, preserving, spring, summer • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, pasta, preserving, recipes, strawberries

Chinese Noodles with Peanut Sauce

2 June 2011 by local kitchen

I’m going away for the weekend and have about 1,000,000,000 things to get done before I leave: so wouldn’t you know that we lost power for the entire afternoon? Ah, NYSEG. Frustrating New Yorkers since 1852. So, a quick one. It’s been hot: sticky hot, super humid, super hazy. Instant summer, coming on the heels of 50 degrees and raining. Down goes the space heater to the garage, up comes the fan. Exit braised meats and roasted root vegetables, enter crisp […]

Categories: Asian greens, cabbage, celery, cilantro, cucumber, hot chile peppers, main course, nuts, pasta, sauces, side dish, summer, vegetarian • Tags: chinese, cooking, food, local, noodles, peanuts, recipes, summer, vegetarian

Rhubarb & Black Currant Jam

30 May 2011 by local kitchen

I feel like some tout in a seedy doorway, at once bored and alert, tossing out my banter with practiced skill, repetitious yet intriguing, tacky yet titillating. Except, instead of GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!, the neon sign over my head blinks RHUBARB! RHUBARB! RHUBARB! “Come on and get your rhubarb heAH, just one taste my lovlies, just one taste, it’s sweet, it’s sour, it’s tangy and tingly, step right up now, step right up!” Maybe I should just throw in the towel on […]

Categories: canning, currants, jams, preserving, rhubarb, spring, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, currants, food, jam, local, preserving, quince, recipes, rhubarb

Rhubarbaritas

27 May 2011 by local kitchen

From me to you: an easy-peasy preserving recipe, a fancy cocktail for holiday-weekend fun, and a way to enjoy rhubarb long after it has disappeared from the market and the garden. It’s been a busy, busy time here in the last few weeks. Tai has been working overtime, trying to make up for all the lost outdoor time during our incredibly rainy April, and I’ve been drowning in a particularly knotty data analysis with a deadline of earlier this week. Yesterday, […]

Categories: canning, condiments, preserving, rhubarb, spring, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cocktails, cooking, drinks, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb

Strawberry Pinot Noir Preserves

16 May 2011 by local kitchen

The Great Freezer Clean-Out 2011 continues: this time with a Ferber-esque strawberry preserve, made with Pennsylvania pinot noir from Sand Castle Winery. I unearthed a giant bag full of strawberries from last June in my freezer assessment of last week. Half the bag went to one of my favorite strawberry recipes, strawberry rhubarb & caramelized onion jam; for the remaining 2 pounds, I wanted to do something new. I poked through Mes Confitures to see what she may have in […]

Categories: berries, canning, preserves, preserving, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: canning, cooking, dessert, food, jam, local, preserving, recipes, spring, strawberries

Chutney Rice Cake FAIL

22 March 2011 by local kitchen

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks: I’ve been working 12 – 15 hour days, I made a last-minute, whirlwind trip to Toronto for business, I caught a cold after a 9-hour airport odyssey trying to get home from Toronto; let’s just say that I haven’t had a lot of time to cook, and even less time to blog about it. Tai has been a trooper though: in order to prevent us living solely on popcorn and orange juice, he […]

Categories: chutneys, disaster, grains & legumes, rice, Use it or Lose it!, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, disaster, FAIL, food, local, recipes, rice cakes, vegetarian

1-2-3-4 Citrus Jam

14 March 2011 by local kitchen

I’ve been sick since Wednesday’s epic 9-hour air travel adventure coming home from Toronto. (Yes, Toronto to New York. Nine hours. Did I mention there was curling and bad airport beer involved? Sigh.) Nothing major, just a cold I’m sure, but since I’m almost never sick, I’m completely impatient with the whole process. Like I figure a 2-hour nap and a tall glass of OJ ought to fix me right up. And when it doesn’t, I’m totally cranky: What? You’re […]

Categories: breakfast, canning, citrus, jams, preserves, preserving, winter • Tags: canning, citrus, cooking, food, local, marmalade, preserving, recipes

Strawberry Chipotle Preserves

4 March 2011 by local kitchen

Can you believe that I don’t have a single jar of strawberry jam left in the garage pantry? I feel like I spent half of last summer preserving strawberries, but in reality, I guess not: there was this Ferberesque strawberry rhubarb jam, but I made it in San Francisco and left it with my friend Christina; there was this Can Jam strawberry rhubarb & caramelized onion jam, but I made that way back in March with frozen berries (sensing a trend, here?); there was a […]

Categories: berries, canning, dessert, hot chile peppers, preserves, preserving, spring • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, dessert, ferber, food, local, preserving, recipes, spring, strawberry

Texas Grapefruit & Tahitian Vanilla Bean Marmalade

21 February 2011 by local kitchen

I had such high hopes for this marmalade: the flavor of the Rio Red grapefruit from G & S Groves was nothing short of amazing; the aroma of the fruit, simmering on the stovetop with Tahitian vanilla bean, was glorious; I was determined to add enough water this time, and enough sugar, to achieve the perfect trifecta of taste, appearance and texture. Well, as they say: 2 outta 3 ain’t bad. Marmalade set is notoriously tricky: even experienced jammers have difficulties. The […]

Categories: canning, citrus, preserves, preserving, winter • Tags: breakfast, canning, condiments, cooking, food, grapefruit, local, marmalade, preserving, recipes