Mmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm The cupboard is filling up fast but apparently our tastes are a little exotic based on questions we recently received while in Lexington, KY. Since maybe our good friend Baskethilt isn't the only person mystified by our list of preserves, I'll clarify what some of this stuff is.
Boozy Cherries are sweet cherries preserved in port --- a French recipe
Bottled Cherries are sweet cherries, mashed and canned without cooking --- also a French recipe. They have to be kept in the fridge until our cellar is dug.
Clover blossoms are a good tea for cough season. Mr. Fuzzy picked the red clover flowers and I air dried them.
Lilac jelly is made from lilac flowers. It's heartier than you might think and unlike many other flower jellies it doesn't taste like perfume.
Patipan is a kind of yellow fluted summer squash. Apparently there are parts of the country that don't grow them!
Ramp butter is an herb butter made with wild onions.
Rose petal jam is something I fell in love with when I traveled to the Republic of Georgia for music camp. It's best over museli with tart yogurt and lots of nuts and seeds... a winter favorite of mine. The syrup is really just the batch of jam that didn't set up properly.
Dried tomato paste is a wee experiment suggested my my new favorite kitchen book, Food Drying with an Attitude by Mary T. Bell. Although I love tomato dishes I rarely use even a tiny can of tomato paste before it starts to grow mold in the fridge so I just refrain from all those wonderful beefy,tomatoey, slow braised things I know I'd love. This book shows how to dry tomato sauces for backpacking but I thought.... "hey! Why not dry paste by the tablespoon???" The first drying is complete after a full day and it basically looks like miniature cow turds... but they smell nice.
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4 comments:
I shall never look at a cow pile the same again!!!
baskethilt
the trick to tomato paste is to keep a layer of olive oil on top of the paste so that none is exposed to air. It'll keep indefinitely and the oil can be poured off to be used in cooking.
All this yummy stuff! Congratulations, you two, on the fruits of your hard labor. By the way, if you all can grow or do grow tart/sour cherries, let me know and I'll get the recipe for Turkish cherry jam -- Vişne reçel -- for you. It is deeeelicious. =)
Davie- No boozy cherries for you... it's the live port that preserves them!
Wench- We intend to plant two morello cherry trees. E-mail that recipe!
Anon- Thanks for the tip. Never thought of that!
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