Category Archives: preserving

Tomato Sauce with Fresh Basil

9 September 2009 by local kitchen

Tomatoes have been scarce this year in the Northeast, so cheap, local tomatoes have been a bit of a pipe dream. But after a long holiday weekend of climbing with friends at the Gunks, Tai & I moseyed our way home on backroads to beat the traffic. In addition to a much more pleasant ride home, we got to stop at Dressel Farms in New Paltz and pick up some of their tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, Bartlett pears, Honeycrisp apples, and […]

Categories: 100% local, basil, canning, preserving, sauces, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Pickled Peppers

4 September 2009 by local kitchen

Peppers seem to take forever to appear: like dreaming of strawberries in March, I start thinking of peppers when the first hot day comes around in June; then I wait, and wait and wait. My pepper plants were started way back in February. I’ve been harvesting jalapenos for a while now, but the red chile peppers are only just turning red, and the red bell peppers are still smaller than a tennis ball and dark green. All I can say […]

Categories: canning, condiments, hot chile peppers, preserving, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Preserving Herbs

30 August 2009 by local kitchen

Don’t let those overflowing garden herbs go to waste – with some easy preserving ideas, you can enjoy flavorful herbs all winter long. ————————————————————- Preserving Herbs FREEZE Basics: Follow the instructions for freezing vegetables, namely a quick blanche in boiling water followed by a ice-water bath. Dry thoroughly, then freeze, either on the stem, loose leaves, or chopped, spooned into ice cube trays, and covered with filtered water or olive oil. Also see a recipe for Chile Verde Base, which […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, drying, fall, freezing, herbs, preserving, summer • Tags: cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Flaming Wing Sauce

28 August 2009 by local kitchen

Yet another great way to preserve tomatoes, especially when you are not in the mood for the usual suspects. This recipe has the benefit of limited prep time; no peeling or food milling of the tomatoes required, not nearly as much chopping as a pasta sauce or salsa, and can be easily doubled or tripled if you have a lot of tomatoes on hand. There is a long list of ingredients, but most of them are spices and the measuring […]

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

Peach Salsa

24 August 2009 by local kitchen

Note: Make sure to check out the updated version of this recipe, with tasting notes on the effects of shelf storage and mellowing. ————————————– I went out to Fishkill Farms the other day, to pick blackberries, and came home not only with 11 pounds of berries, but a big bag of peaches and some early Paula Red apples. Since the berries freeze well, while peaches do not, I decided to freeze most of the berries (the ones we didn’t eat!) […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, peaches, preserving, salsa • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Canning Carrots

22 August 2009 by local kitchen

For the past week or two, I’ve noticed in the “search engine terms” section, where I get to see the sometimes wacky ways that people surf their way to my blog, multiple searches for “canning carrots hot water bath.” This concerns me, because, if people wanted to pickle carrots, I would think they would search for “pickled carrots” and other than pickling (and other high-acid jams/chutneys/preserves), there is no safe way to can carrots in a boiling water bath. Carrots, […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, carrot, dill, fall, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Cantaloupe-Wineberry Granita

18 August 2009 by local kitchen

It’s hot. Really hot. Summer has come, at long last, obviously determined to make up for lost time. And although I’m happy for those who’ve been missing summer’s hot temps, and happy to get the sunshine to my sad looking garden, my Irish-Scottish-Finnish background just does not agree with 90 degrees and 90% humidity, especially in a house without air conditioning. Normally, in weather like this, I live on popsicles. In fact, I’ve been known to have nothing but popsicles […]

Categories: berries, dessert, freezing, fruit, melon, summer • Tags: berries, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Fire Roasted Tomatoes

17 August 2009 by local kitchen

Although farm-fresh tomatoes are pretty scarce in the Northeast this summer, there are still some out there and they are as delicious as ever. While inexpensive, local, heirloom tomatoes are probably a pipe dream this year, now more than ever it is important to support your local farmers as they battle with the devastation of tomato, and possibly potato, crops ruined by late blight. With that in mind, I’ve bought a couple of 10-lb batches of tomatoes, in addition to what we […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, preserving, roasting, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, summer, tomatoes

Freezing Vegetables

7 August 2009 by local kitchen

Summer has finally arrived and with it the farmer’s markets are exploding with the best of the season’s produce: kale, chard and other leafy greens have been around for months, but now we have sweet corn, green beans, zucchini, pattypan and other summer squashes, broccoli, cauliflower and even a few tomatoes. While canning, pickling and root cellaring are all good options for many vegetables, some are best stored frozen, and if you have the space, this is the time to […]

Categories: freezing, preserving, summer, techniques, vegetable • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Basil-Sage Pesto

6 August 2009 by local kitchen

I love me a good basil pesto. It is one of those recipes in which the sum is so much greater than the parts, as if somehow basil becomes that much more basily in the presence of oil, garlic and spices. It’s also one of those handy condiments that are endlessly versatile, handling a simple crostini or a gourmet pizza with equal ease. To top it all off, it freezes really well and nothing brings back summer in February like […]

Categories: condiments, freezing, garlic, preserving, sage, spreads, summer • Tags: condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Spicy Plum Sauce

4 August 2009 by local kitchen

I went over my friend Nadine’s last week; in addition to her birthday celebration, it was her turn to volunteer at her weekly CSA pick-up, and I had a play-date with her daughter Kami. When she returned from finishing up the CSA, she was nice enough to bring me lots of leftovers; chard, basil, scallions, anise, plums and peaches. I made a version of this plum sauce two years ago, using Damson plums from Jenkins-Luekens Orchards in New Paltz, NY. It […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, condiments, fruit, peaches, plums, preserving, sauces, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Wild Wineberry Preserves

2 August 2009 by local kitchen

Rain, rain and more rain. What is it about rainy Sundays that makes me just want to curl up with a good book? Luckily, yesterday was a gorgeous day here in Westchester County; bright sunshine, cool breeze, 75 degrees. Tai & I took advantage and went to a nearby neighborhood street where wild red raspberries grow all along the sides of the road – thousands of crystal-red, delicious berries, ripe for the picking. The particular berries that line this Westchester backroad are […]

Categories: berries, canning, foraging, jams, preserving, summer • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Locavirgin: Currant Sour Cherry Compote

21 July 2009 by local kitchen

My friend Nadine has been in Newfoundland for a few weeks and she kindly offered to let me pick up her CSA last week. She gets a fruit share in addtion to her weekly veggies, so I got sour cherries, red currants and black currants. This is one of the things that I love about getting a CSA: none of these fruits are something that I will typically buy; I like the taste, but not the texture of sour cherries, red currants, […]

Categories: 100% local, cherries, condiments, currants, Locavirgin, preserving, sauces, summer • Tags: cherries, condiments, cooking, food, local, recipes

Deli Dill Pickles

14 July 2009 by local kitchen

Have I mentioned that Tai loves pickles? I mean Loves them, with a capital L. I think making pickles last year may have been the best thing I’ve ever done for him. So, even though I despise pickles with a white-hot passion, when I saw Kirby cucumbers at the farmer’s market on Saturday, I simply had to pick up a bunch and start a batch o’ pickles brewing. Because, really, when it’s this easy to make someone happy, how can […]

Categories: canning, condiments, cucumber, dill, fermenting, pickles, preserving, summer • Tags: cooking, fermenting, food, local, preserving, recipes

Cherry Walnut Conserve

10 July 2009 by local kitchen

The sweet cherry recipes just keep rolling off the presses here at Local Kitchen. This jam is tangy, even a bit sour, from the addition of oranges and lemons, but it is sweet on the finish with a subtle hint of amaretto and a nice crunch from the walnuts. Nicely complex on toast and I’ll bet it will make an excellent quick marinade for chicken, pork or duck. So what is “conserve” anyway? Near as I can tell, it is […]

Categories: canning, cherries, citrus, jams, nuts, preserving, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

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