Summer Reading: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Above: Reinventing convenience food with homemade jars of condiments

I recently finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I’m still chewing on the thoughts sparked by her chronicle of eating very locally for an entire year. The book is part treatise on the benefits of eating local foods and part garden diary, with some recipes thrown in. Her tone is not scolding but rather inspiring, and days after finishing the book I asked my friend if she would be up for trying one of Kingsolver's canning recipes with me. We visited 3 grocery stores before finding one that carried glass jars and lids (for San Jose readers, it was Luckys in the El Paseo shopping center) and then picked up fresh produce from the Ferry Building farmer’s market. We spent the next couple of hours prepping the ingredients, sterilizing the jars in the dishwasher and “processing” the filled jars in a large pot of boiling water. Each time a cooling jar lid “pinged,” indicating that it had successfully sealed, we danced in the kitchen, giddy with the volume (22 jars!) of homemade condiments we created. The results so far have been super delicious- my family loves the chutney spread on wholegrain crackers with some cheddar cheese, and my friend and I recently used the sweet-and-sour sauce for a fresh take on a broccoli and tofu stir-fry. I encourage you to try the recipe and support the locavore movement!

Recipe: RELISH, SAUCE AND CHUTNEY – ALL IN ONE DAY

Thanks to Janet Chadwick,

The busy person’s guide to Preserving Food

If you don’t have a garden, you can stock up on tomatoes, peaches, apples and

onions at the end of summer, when your farmers’ market will have these at the

year’s best quality and price. Then, schedule a whole afternoon and a friend for

this interesting project that gives you three different, delicious products to eat all

winter.

Canning jars and lids: 14 pint jars, 7 half-pint jars

Start with a very large, heavy kettle. You will be adding different ingredients and

canning different sauces as you go.

4 quarts tomato puree

24 large apples

7 cups chopped onions

2 quarts cider vinegar

6 cups sugar

2/3 cup salt

3 tsp. ground cloves

3 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. red pepper

2 tsp. mustard

Puree tomatoes; core and coarsely chop apples; coarsely chop onions. Combine

in large pot along with the vinegar, sugar and seasonings. Bring to a boil and

simmer for about 2 hours or until thick. Meanwhile, preheat water in a canner

bath and sterilize jars and lids (in boiling water or dishwasher) and keep them hot

until use. Fill 7 pint jars with some of the thickened Barbecue Relish, leaving 1⁄2

inch headspace in each jar. Put filled jars in canner with lids screwed on tightly

and boil for ten minutes. Remove and cool.

2 quarts sliced peaches

6 cups sugar

1⁄2 cup water

2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. Tabasco sauce

In a separate pan, cook peaches and water for 10 minutes, until soft. Add sugar

and bring slowly to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until thick (15 min.),

stirring to prevent scorching.

Add peach mixture to the remaining tomato mixture in the kettle and bring back

up to a boil to make Sweet and Sour Sauce. Fill 7 pint jars leaving 1⁄2 inch

headspace, boil in canner for ten minutes. Remove and cool.

1 cup raisins

1 cup walnuts

Add these to the kettle, mix well and bring it back to a boil to make Chutney. Fill

7 1⁄2-pint jars leaving 1⁄2 inch headspace. Boil in canner for ten minutes.

Remove.

As all the jars cool, make sure the jar lids pop their seals by creating a vacuum

as contents cool. You’ll hear them go “ping.” To double check, after they’re

entirely cooled, push down on each lid’s center – it should feel firmly sucked

down, not loose. (If a jar didn’t seal, refrigerate and use the contents soon.) The

ring portion of the lid can be removed before storing; when processed properly,

the dome lids will stay securely sealed until you open the jar with a can opener.

Label each product before you forget what’s what, and share with the friend who

helped. The Barbeque Relish is great on broiled or grilled fish or chicken. The

Sweet and Sour Sauce gives an Asian flavor to rice dishes. Chutney can perk up

anything.

*From animalvegetablemiracle.com/Relish.pdf