Ketchup and relish - why not?

If pickling cucumbers, might as well make ketchup and relish too. I’ll be ready for a gourmet barbecue when the pickles are finally ready!

I happened upon an interesting relish recipe in this month’s Food and Wine and decided to give it a try along with Ball’s classic ketchup recipe. The former required a lot of chopping but was otherwise simple. I made quick work of the latter by using Pomi chopped tomatoes instead of peeling and chopping my own, an effort I don’t think pays off since canned tomatoes are often more flavorful and consistent than ones that can be found in the grocery on an average day (and let’s face it – boiling and peeling tomatoes is a pain).

Both recipes require aging in jars once canned but thankfully not as long as the pickles so I’ve been able to enjoy them already. The relish is sweet, crisp and flavorful. The ketchup is a classic tomato ketchup that’s more complex and caramel-y than our friend Heinz.

I’m planning on making some barbecue gift bags with the pickles, relish and ketchup and found some adorable tomato squeeze bottles to put the ketchup in once opened. Truth be told, finding the squeeze bottles was the inspiration behind making the ketchup. They were just too cute to pass up!

Chow chow (as printed in Food and Wine magazine)
(makes 6 quarts)

4 pounds green bell peppers, cut into 1/4-inch dice
4 pounds red bell peppers, cut into 1/4-inch dice
3 pounds green tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch dice
4 pounds sweet onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice
One 3 1/4-pound head of green cabbage, cored and finely chopped
1/2 cup kosher salt
6 cups sugar
4 cups cider vinegar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon celery seeds
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric

In a very large bowl, toss the bell peppers, tomatoes, onions and cabbage with the salt; cover and refrigerate overnight.

Drain the vegetables, discarding the liquid. In a large, heavy pot, bring the sugar, vinegar and water to a boil. Add the mustard seeds, dry mustard, crushed red pepper, celery seeds, ginger and turmeric and stir well. Add the drained vegetables and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the relish is thick and saucy, about 1 hour. Pack the chow chow into 6 hot 1-quart canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top, and close with the lids and rings.

To process, simmer the jars at 180° for 30 minutes and monitor the water temperature with a thermometer. Store the jars in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks before serving, to allow the flavors to meld; store unopened for up to 1 year. Refrigerate after opening.

Tomato ketchup (Ball Blue Book of Preserving)
(yield: about 3 pints)

4 quarts chopped, peeled, cored tomatoes (about 24 large)
1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium)
½ cup chopped sweet red pepper (about ½ medium)
1 ½ teaspoons celery seed
1 teaspoon whole allspice
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 stick cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1 ½ cups vinegar

Combine tomatoes, onion, and pepper in a large saucepot. Cook until tomatoes are tender. Purée using a food processor or food mill. Cook purée rapidly until thick and reduced by one-half. Tie whole spices in a spice bag. Add spice bag, sugar, salt and paprika to tomato mixture. Simmer 25 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Remove spice bag. Ladle hot ketchup into hot jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Pickle palooza!

Some time ago I got it into my head that I wanted to try making and canning pickles. It may have been the canning class I took last year or the fact that my sister tried once and ended up with horrible tasting pickles – both of which made me determined to figure out the best process and the best recipe to accomplish the task at hand.

I’ve been searching the Internet and asking around, collecting recipes to try out while waiting for cucumber season. Technically, pickling cucumbers should peak in August, but they’ve been making a limited appearance at farmers’ markets lately, and I couldn’t wait to buy some and give pickling a go. What’s more, I figured I’d prepare some in time for a July 4th cookout which seemed like optimal timing for a pickle tasting.

After understanding the basic processes and main ingredients for dill pickles, I decided that there were three main variables to fiddle with to get to the best sense for the optimal recipe: 1) type of vinegar (apple cider or white), 2) whether “pickling spices” (a highly variable concoction of spices) are included and 3) whether the pickles are “fresh packed” or fermented. There are some other finer variables at play as well: whether whole bay leaf is added; whether a dried, hot, red chile pepper is added; and whether a clove of garlic is included. But these seemed secondary to the three main considerations that I felt would have the most significant impact on taste.

There are probably as many tweaks to the dill pickle recipe out there as there are cucumbers. Some dill recipes struck me as not strictly compliant with the USDA’s most recently recommended canning procedures. To be safe, I decided to use the Ball Blue Book of Preserving recipe for dill pickles (calling for pickling spices) as my base case for half the cucumbers. In the brine, I swapped cider vinegar for white vinegar in half the jars. I varied Ball’s “hamburger pickle” recipe for the other half of the cucumbers (again, half with white vinegar, half with apple cider vinegar). Ball’s hamburger pickle recipe called for the same dill weed and mustard seed to be added to each jar – and added peppercorns – but did not call for garlic, bay leaf or a dried red pepper which I decided to add back (the red pepper might addition may have been a mistake, but I wanted to hold most of the spices constant across recipes).

In terms of pickling spices, my sister blamed her disaster on McCormack blend pickling spices which added a sweet, somewhat cinnamon-y flavor – an insult to the classic dill pickle. Having trouble finding a commercial alternative, I asked a chef at a Dean and Deluca store for a small quantity of their pickling spices which they graciously allowed me to purchase.

Last, I did a lot of research on fermenting and determined that the safest, cleanest way for me to ferment pickles was to buy a special fermenting crock pot which would assure that the pickles remain submerged during the process and remove any concerns about the food safety of other containers. I found a mail order source for a nifty looking crock pot and am expecting the delivery shortly. In the meantime, I commenced with “fresh pack” recipes. Fermenting is a slow (3 to 4 weeks) and high maintenance process (“scum” must be removed from the surface daily and a temperature between 70˚F and 75˚F must be maintained): I’m very curious to see whether the effort produces superior flavor or just more work.

Much to my dismay, upon reading the fine print, even though the pickles are “fresh pack”, they must remain in the processed jars for 4-6 weeks to develop optimal flavor. What started out as an idea for the Fourth of July will have to wait for a Labor Day barbecue!

I also learned something else which I only caught mid-stream: apparently for pickles (and unlike all other vegetables), processing time is measured from the time the jars hit the boiling water canner vs. when the water in the canner begins to boil; meaning that they are in the canner for less time than the instructions would typically imply. This is in an effort to prevent loss of crunchiness. Ugh! Why was this in the beginning of the chapter and not noted in the recipe itself? The result of this late discovery is the first couple batches of pickles are a little shriveled and probably not as crunchy as they could be. We’ll have to discount the crunch factor in the recipe judging.

Stay tuned for an update in 4-6 weeks of which method and which recipe produce the best results!

Dill pickles (from Ball Blue Book of Preserving)
(Yield: about 7 pints or 3 quarts)

8 pounds 4-6 inch cucumbers, cut length-wise into halves
¾ cup sugar
½ cup canning salt
1 quart vinegar (white or cider vinegar, 5% acidity)
1 quart water
3 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
Green or dry dill (1 head per jar)

Wash cucumbers; drain. Combine sugar, salt, vinegar and water in a large saucepot. Tie spices in a spice bag; add spice bag to vinegar mixture; simmer 15 minutes. Pack cucumbers into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace; put one head of dill in each jar. Ladle hot liquid over cucumbers, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Price pints and quarts 15 minutes in a boiling water canner. (note: start counting from the minute jars hit the boiling water canner).

Recipe variation: For Kosher-style dill Pickles add 1 bay leaf, 1 clove garlic, 1 piece hot red pepper and ½ teaspoon mustard seed to each jar. Process as recommended.

Hamburger dills (adapted from Ball Blue Book of Preserving’s Hamburger Dill recipe)
(Yield: about 7 pints)

4 pounds 4 inch cucumbers
6 tablespoons canning salt
4 ½ cups water
4 cups vinegar (white or apple cider, 5% acidity)
14 heads fresh dill
3 ½ teaspoons mustard seed
14 peppercorns
1 clove garlic for each jar
1 small dried red pepper for each jar
Optional: 1 bay leaf for each jar

Wash cucumbers; drain. Cut cucumbers into ¼ inch crosswise or lengthwise slices, discarding blossom ends (I just sliced once lengthwise). Combine salt, water, vinegar in a large saucepot; bring to boil. Pack cucumbers into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Add 2 heads of dill, ½ teaspoon mustard seed, 2 peppercorns, 1 cove garlic, 1 dried red chile, and 1 bay leaf (if using) to each jar. Ladle hot liquid over cucumbers, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2 piece caps. Process 15 minutes in boiling water canner. (note: start counting from the minute jars hit the boiling water canner).

Note: all fresh pack pickles should stand for 4 to 6 weeks after processing to cure and develop satisfactory flavor.

Dog food that’s food

I used to think that people who feed their dogs special diets, or gasp, go as far as to cook for their dogs were crazy. Now I’m on the other side. Even before the recent pet food recall insanity we started exploring alternatives to kibble. Our dog was having unexplained gastrointestinal problems, and we weren’t happy with the somewhat unintelligible ingredient list on the back of most kibble packages. When the Hill’s diet and medication regime prescribed by our vet failed, we started to educate ourselves on dog nutrition and researched new ways to think about feeding that connect better to what a dog might naturally eat, yet are not too difficult to keep up with.

At the extreme end of the alternative spectrum are those that believe in the “prey model” of feeding: a diet which consists entirely of raw, meaty bones. Interesting but not very practical in a Manhattan apartment. We settled on a raw diet of meats (cooked at low temperature to remove bacteria hazards), vegetables and fruits and found a company that makes a dehydrated version that can stand alone or be supplemented with additional foods. The company’s products are human-grade, free of common allergens (including a grain-free version), preservative and additive free, and consist only of ingredients that one can pronounce. It's more expensive (and takes an extra five minutes to prepare) but we figure it's less expensive than long-term medical problems and let's face it: we're willing to do anything for our dog. Some might argue that vegetables and fruits are not naturally present in a dog’s diet but we do like the idea of a more balanced approach to nutrition.

The more we thought about it, the less sense a kibble-based diet made to us and the more frustrated we got with the big business mantra of feeding a single “balanced” kibble diet for life with no variety to “prevent stomach upset”. As soon as we started feeding a more natural diet rich in enzymes present in unprocessed foods, our gastrointestinal woes went away. For a while, we fed just the re-hydrated mix, and then we slowly started adding in other foods to supplement: turkey, chicken, salmon, sardines, yogurt, egg, etc. We stopped feeding all processed snack foods and are sticking to carrots, dehydrated fish skins and pieces of apple as treats. We plan to rotate among the different varieties of dehydrated foods offered and explore other companies that offer similar alternatives. It makes more sense to us to keep rotating sources and composition of nutrients provided the base nutrients are covered. After all, wouldn’t a dog naturally make his meal from a variety of sources?

We are now devotees of this small start-up and get a periodic newsletter update with new “recipes” to add to the food. I tried one for the first time this week and it was a tremendous hit and only took a second to put together. I thought I’d share this with you and your furry friends:

Sardine salad

1 can sardines in water
¼ cup green beans (lightly cooked or canned)
¼ cup melon (we used Cantaloupe)
¼ cup plain yogurt
A dash of Cayenne Pepper

Mix it up, toss it in with their Honest Kitchen food and feed.

Recipe from The Honest Kitchen

Fresh frozen yogurt

I’ve had my eye on the new KitchenAid ice cream making attachment for a while and have been curious to try it. I had an opportunity to borrow one this weekend and give it a whirl. Coincidentally, 101cookbook’s post last week was a frozen yogurt recipe billed as even better than Pinkberry frozen yogurt that is right down the street and that I love. Pinkberry’s frozen yogurt tastes like yogurt: it is sour and tart and totally unlike some of the overly sweet competition trying to pretend to be soft serve ice cream.

The KitchenAid must be frozen for 15 hours prior to use which is not inconvenient if you just keep it in the freezer until it is needed. I used a plain organic yogurt for the mix and took 101cookbook’s suggestion to use less sugar. Amazingly, in 20 minutes, with no fuss, I had a great frozen yogurt which lived up to its billing!

Making frozen desserts is much easier than I imagined and a lot of fun. The result was a much fresher tasting yogurt than any of the commercial varieties – and now I have a stockpile in the freezer for late night cravings.

I’m sure the more expensive ice cream makers are more convenient and offer other advantages but I have no complaints with KitchenAid’s small, <$100 version. Time for an investment!