Doris and Jilly Cook » Freezing

Three Ways to Preserve Greens

dorisandjilly — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:24:00 +0000

Based on your recent Google searches, I gather that I am not the only one drowning in beet greens, turnip greens, collar greens, chard, and kale. Earlier this week I went out to my garden and cut about 5 pounds of kale, turnip greens, and beet greens. This seemed like a manageable project. That’s when my CSA showed up with about a pound each of collards, red beet greens, yellow beet greens, spinach, and frisée. We’ll eat the spinach and frisée in salads, but realistically there are only so many hearty greens that two people can eat in a week. My solution is procrastination: preserve them and figure out how to eat them in winter.

You’ve got three basic options: freezing, dehydrating, or canning. More ambitious folks can try fermenting, like I did with my bumper crop of bok choi last year. But let’s stick with the basics here.

Freezing Greens

This is the easiest, and probably the best, solution. It’s very, very easy to freeze greens. You just blanch them, cool them in an ice bath, and freeze. I’ve got step-by-step instructions and photos here. Assuming you’ve got a good freezer, these will keep very well for a year. We used ours all winter in soups, stews, pastas, dips, and even just sauteed with garlic. They shrink dramatically when blanched—plan on about a pound of fresh greens to make about two cups.

For most people, this is the way to go. If, however, you have limited freezer space, you live in an area that experiences frequent power outages, or are planning for a future without electricity, you need other options. Alas, they’re not great. But, you asked, so here goes.

Dehydrating Greens

Are you one of those people who likes to sprinkle seaweed flakes over your rice bowl at the local health food store? Then you might like this. Steam your greens just until they’re wilted. Transfer them to dehydrator trays and dry at a low temperature (say, 110ºF) just until they’re crispy. You’ll want to keep an eye on them—within two hours, mine looked like this:

Now what, you may ask, would you do with dehydrated turnip greens? That’s an excellent question. I rehydrated some with a little bit of room temperature water, and they looked pretty good. The problem was that they had no perceptible taste. In the end, I crumbled them up and stuck them in a spice jar:

I sprinkled an entire leaf’s worth of flakes over a bowl of roasted potatoes and couldn’t tell they were there. I suspect that they’re still fairly nutritious, though, so maybe this isn’t such a bad way to incorporate hearty greens into your diet. I guess.

Canning Greens

The things I do for science.

Yes, it is possible to can hearty greens. It requires a pressure cooker and a processing time of 1 hour, 10 minutes for pints and 1 hour, 30 minutes for quarts. Yes, you read that right. And after you’ve subjected these poor, innocent vegetables to 240ºF to more than an hour, you get this appetizing product:

(And that’s the glamor shot.)

The nutritional value of all of this is questionable. They taste about like you would expect them to. If, however, you have absolutely no other options and feel strongly about having a pantry full of shelf-stable vegetables, this technique will serve you well. But Lordy, do they smell bad. Here’s how you do it.

1) Bring about 3 quarts of water to a boil. You need 2 quarts for the pressure canner, plus some extra to pour over the greens.
2) Steam the greens until wilted. Cut them into manageable pieces.

3) Stuff the greens into canning jars. Add 1/2 t. salt per jar (optional) and cover with boiling water, leaving 1″ headspace. Don’t forget to remove the air bubbles. Adjust two-piece lids.
4) Transfer the jars to a rack on a pressure canner. Pour in 2 quarts of boiling water. Lock the lid into place, but do not place the regulator on the steam vent. Turn on the heat and exhaust steam from the vent for 10 minutes. Then place the regulator on the steam vent and bring the canner to 10 pounds of pressure. Start timing once the regulator starts rocking—70 minutes for pints, 90 minutes for quarts. (If this is confusing, see the step-by-step directions, with pictures, in this post.)
5) Turn off the heat and let the pressure drop of its own accord. When the pressure has dropped, remove the regulator. Now open all your windows. After waiting a few more minutes, open the lid away from your body. The pungent aroma of overcooked turnip greens will fill your house, and you’ll have all the shelf-stable greens you want. Plan on 2 to 5 pounds per pint, depending on the kind of greens involved. Um, yum?

Other ideas?

FRUIT: And so it begins.

dorisandjilly — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:55:32 +0000

Here in Philadelphia, summer seems to have come early. Most of my favorite New Jersey U-picks (which they insist on calling “Pick Your Own”) have opened, and the deluge of fruit has begun. Last weekend’s haul included 15 pounds of strawberries and about 20 pounds of sweet cherries. Sour cherries should be ready in a couple of weeks. So. Where do I go, and what do I do with this stuff?

My favorite strawberry farm, Gaventa’s, no longer offers U-pick. Waaaah. My next favorite strawberry farm, Mood’s, apparently isn’t offering strawberries this year, but plans to open for other fruit picking in mid-June. That left Johnson’s, a weirdly tourist-y place in Medford that I don’t particularly recommend as a “farm experience” (enforced hayrides = bad, in my book), but the price was right ($1.75/pound for more than 10 pounds) and the berries were DELICIOUS. But here’s the kicker: they wanted $4.95 for pick-your-own cherries. Um, no.

For that, we headed over to Rowand’s Farm in Glassboro. Now this is a U-pick I can live with. The proprietors sit in lawn chairs and hand you plastic buckets. Sweet cherries are $1.65/pound. They also have strawberries, but I can’t vouch for them, having already gorged myself at Johnson’s. But there’s a catch: they’re closed on Saturdays.

Once you bring all that fruit home, then you have to do something with it. Some options and recommendations from last year’s blog:

Freeze it, individually (not particularly recommended, but convenient) or in sugar
Make endless jars of jam, including my favorite, cherry raspberry
Can it with rhubarb
Combine it with lemons for a marmalade
Stash it in syrup
Dehydrate it

Julia over at What Julia Ate highly recommends drowning fruit in alcohol and straining the remains to make liqueur. This is a new one for me, so no results yet. But I’ll keep you posted.

Happy picking and preserving!

Canning on the Hudson

dorisandjilly — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:19:13 +0000

I’m baaaaack! Posts on gardening, cooking, and canning soon to follow—but first, an announcement.

This June I’ll be offering a three-day, four-course sustainable food preservation workshop on the beautiful grounds of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, June 4–6. We’ll do water-bath canning, pressure canning, picking, fermenting, dehydrating, and more, all with seasonal produce from farmers in the Hudson Valley. As with all my classes, you’ll leave with canned goods, recipes, and the confidence to try food preservation at home.

I’m especially excited that this workshop is happening at Omega, because course registrants (and me!) get to participate in the full Omega experience: besides the canning workshops, you’ll have access to yoga and meditation classes, spa services, canoeing and kayaking, swimming, or just lounging around the lovely property. This is the first time that Omega’s offered a food preservation workshop, and we’ll need your enthusiasm to make it a repeat event. Please help us spread the word by reposting, tweeting, or however you newfangled folks communicate these days.

Course tuition is $125, plus a $20 materials fee and accommodations at Omega. You can register here.

Questions? Concerns? E-mail me.

Basic Corn Pudding

dorisandjilly — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:19:39 +0000

Our CSA supplies us with a lot of eggs and cheese. Plus, we have a freezer full of corn. Hence, corn pudding.

This version is a slightly altered version of the standby “Corn Pudding with Poblano Peppers” in the 1990s version of Joy of Cooking. Among other things, their recipe omits an oven temperature. I find 350ºF makes the pudding a bit on the dry side—you’ll be happier with the results at 325ºF. It turns out that the amount of corn is flexible, as are the number of eggs and the amount of cheese. You can add roasted peppers if you want, or serve it with a sauce. It’s richer with cream, but perfectly fine without. In short, use this as a pallete to combine whatever you think would be nice with frozen corn.

Basic Corn Pudding

1 quart frozen corn (if using purchased corn, I guess a pound?)
1 onion, chopped
1 T. olive or canola oil
3/4 t. salt
4 eggs
About 1 cup of cheddar or jack cheese, shredded
Fresh chopped oregano or whatever herbs you have on hand (basil’s good in this)

1) Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

2) Saute the onion in a skillet with the oil for a few minutes, until translucent. Add the corn, herbs, and salt and cook a few minutes more.

3) Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the cheese and the corn mixture. Turn into a gratin pan or pie plate. Bake for about 30–40 minutes, until the center is set.

Roasted Cabbage and Brussel Sprouts

dorisandjilly — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:55:00 +0000

The more dedicated readers among you may remember that a few months ago I found myself the proud owner of a bumper crop of red cabbage. I turned most of them into spectacular pink sauerkraut, but I also tried an experiment. When I cut the heads, I left the bottom of the plant behind, much like you would when cut broccoli or turnip greens. Jilly’s husband assured me that, left to their own devices, the plants would eventually grow miniature cabbages, sort of like brussel sprouts. Sure enough, three months later, I cut another four pounds or so of cabbage. A few were almost the size of small regular cabbages, but most were more like large brussel sprouts. A photo for comparison:

I kept a few aside for tacos—each one is just about exactly what you’d need for enough garnish for two hungry people—and decided to co-mingle the rest of them in a roasting pan with the brussel sprouts. If you’ve already got the oven on, this couldn’t be easier. The high heat brings out the cabbages’ secret sweetness.

Roasted Cabbage and Brussel Sprouts

About 1 pound of small red cabbages
About 1/2 pound of brussel sprouts
Salt
Olive oil

1) Preheat the oven to 425°F or whatever temperature is convenient.

2) Cut the brussel sprouts and small cabbages in half. If your cabbages are significantly larger than the brussel sprouts, cut them into fourths so everything will cook evenly. Douse everything in olive oil and some salt and arrange in a roasting pan.

3) Roast for about 25 minutes, stirring a few times to make sure nothing’s burning.

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving! (and about that stock…)

dorisandjilly — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:04:52 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! When you’re done eating that turkey, be sure to make a stock. BUT—and this is a big but—unless you have a pressure canner, please don’t attempt to can it. Unlike fruits, tomatoes, and tomatillos, stock is a low acid food, which means that the temperature of boiling water is not enough to kill the bacteria. You need the higher temperatures of a pressure cooker. I’ve got step-by-step instructions, with pictures, on this post on chicken stock. Turkey stock is basically the same thing, just with a bigger bird.

And if you don’t have a pressure canner, don’t despair. Just freeze it.

Applesauce vs. Applesauce

dorisandjilly — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:55:57 +0000

Last year, you may recall, I made a lot of applesauce. When I had time, I canned it; when I was lazy, I just stuck it in the freezer. Nine months later, we’ve been eating lots of each. The results?

No contest.

The canned applesacue is sooooo much better than the frozen. It has excellent texture, a great taste, and you don’t have to remember to thaw it. The freezer applesauce is…well…gummy. It’s fine to bake with, but I’d only eat it in a pinch. I suppose it’s possible that all of the gummy apples ended up in the freezer batches, but that seems highly unlikely, no?

If you, too, want to can applesauce, you have some choices. The National Center for Home Food Preservation says 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts in a boiling water bath. If you’d rather use a pressure cooker, they recommend 8 minutes for pints, 10 minutes for quarts, both at 5 pounds of pressure. When I’ve done this, I’ve always used 10 pounds of pressure for 0 minutes, which seems to work pretty well, too, but note that you do so at your own risk.

Sustainable Seafood

dorisandjilly — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:26:20 +0000

This fall we’ll be trying a new approach to eating: community supported seafood. It’s like a CSA (community supported agriculture), but with fish. Working with sustainable fisheries in Alaska, the folks at Otolith supply their subscribers with a total of approximately 15 pounds of fish. In the summer, you get varieties of salmon; this fall, we’ll get halibut, rockfish, and Pacific cod. The fish arrives in three shipments of five 1-pound quick-frozen packages, staring in mid-November.

We love Keystone, our local CSA, but we’re sort of drowning in meat from the the two pounds of pork and beef we get every week. Between the canned goods, the freezer full of meat, and the fish, we’re hoping to get by with a half-share this winter (heresy!). Now back to the kitchen…

Peach Sorbet

dorisandjilly — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:55:56 +0000

A spectacularly easy peach sorbet, made from homemade canned peaches. Note that this will only work if you canned your peaches in syrup—if you canned them in water, you’ll need to add at least a cup of sugar.

Peach Sorbet from Homemade Canned Peaches

2 pints or 1 quart canned peaches in syrup
1 T rum, brandy, or vodka

1) Puree everything (including all the peach syrup) in a blender.

2) Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Seriously. That’s it.

Raspberry Plum Sorbet

dorisandjilly — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:49:15 +0000

My husband—a native New Englander—insists that the time to eat ice cream is winter, not summer. So, now that there’s a chill in the air, he’s craving frozen treats. Since this is an excuse to pull out yet another gadget from the pantry, I am happy to oblige.

Sorbets are basically a frozen purée of fruit in simple syrup, with optional flavors added. The catch is that, since they’re fat free, they tend to freeze into a solid mass of fruit ice. Commerical sorbets contain stabilizers and emulsifiers to solve this problem, but the home cook has a simpler solution: booze. Adding just a single tablespoon of alcohol to a quart of sorbet before you freeze it will keep the texture scoopable by lowering the freezing point. If alcohol is a problem for you, I encourage you to experiment with adding egg whites instead—I’ve never tried it myself, but I’ve seen the technique described in Italian cookbooks.

This recipe is basically the one in David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop, only re-written in a way that makes sense to me. It’s a great book for flavors, but for reasons that aren’t clear to me, I find his directions confusing (too much information, I think). Here’s a streamlined version:

Raspberry Plum Sorbet

1 pound plums
1 c. water
2/3 c. sugar (more or less, to taste)
3/4 c. raspberries (fresh or frozen; if frozen in sugar, add less sugar)
1 T agreeable alcohol (he recommends 1 t. kirsch; I used rum. Something flavorless, like vodka, will always work.)

1) Pit the plums, cut them in large pieces, and cook them in the water until tender. Add the sugar and raspberries; stir to dissolve the sugar.

2) Purée, then strain if the raspberry seeds or plum skims bother you.

3) Chill thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker.