And then I remembered my deep (and deeply repressed) longing for Laundry Etc.’s Lemon, Fig, & Lavender Marmalade. Somewhat ironically, the recipe was posted for the January canjam (citrus)…but since it stars lavender, it counts! An Americanized, simplified version, complete with the Doris and Jilly Lazy Approach To Marmalade Making™ follows. It’s really, really, really good.

And, dear ones, this time I remembered to make a 4-oz jar just for you. Leave a comment by May 1 to enter. As always, the winner will be selected by random number generator.

Lemon Lavender Fig Jam

7 unwaxed lemons
About a pound of dried figs
1/3 c. dried lavender flowers (from last year’s garden, of course)
3 c. sugar

1) The night before you plan to make the jam, slice the lemons thinly and remove the seeds. Chop them. Throw them into a pot with water to cover. Simmer for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. Meanwhile, chop up the figs and toss them into the pot. Wrap the lavender up tightly in cheesecloth and toss that in, too. Let everything sit overnight.

2) Remove the cheesecloth from the pot squeezing to remove the extra liquid. Discard. Stir in the sugar and turn up the heat. (Meanwhile, start your boiling water bath and sterilize your jars. I needed 4 half-pint jars and 2 4-oz jars.) Stir frequently until you reach the gelling point.

3) Transfer the hot jam to the hot jars and adjust two piece lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes (or not, if you’re British).

A note on reaching the gelling point: I had a hard time find finding it, and I think I may have sailed just past it. Fortunately, it’s a pleasing texture, more like membrillo than gooseberry glue. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go buy some Manchego to eat this with.

Here’s my logic. Onions are a low-acid food. To make them safe for water-bath canning, you have to add sufficient vinegar to drive the pH below 4.6. The question is whether there is enough vinegar in this recipe. If you have pH strips handy, then you could just find out, and proceed accordingly. If you don’t, however, you have to do some sleuthing.

Two things made me nervous. First, while Joy of Cooking includes a similar recipe for what they call “red onion marmalade,” it’s not included in their list of condiments safe for canning. But it was what I found in the Ball Blue Book that really convinced me. The Blue Book includes two different recipes for preserved onions: one for water-bath canning, and one for pressure canning. Their red onion marmalade, safe for water-bath canning, has a ratio of 1 1/2 c. onions to 1/4 c. vinegar, plus some orange peel and a whole lot (4 cups!) of sugar. The red onions with honey recipe, on the other hand, has 2 1/2 quarts onions, 1/2 c. wine, and 1 c. honey, and must be pressure cooked. Serious Eats’ confiturra has about 10 cups of onions, 3/4 c. vinegar, and 1/2 c. wine, but by the Blue Book logic, you would need 1 2/3 c. vinegar for 10 cups of onions. Given that the Blue Book is known to be conservative, it strikes me as within the realm of the possible for 3/4 c. of vinegar to be enough, but since I’m giving these as gifts, I wanted to play it safe. Fortunately, since this is a heavily cooked product anyway, there’s no harm in pressure canning the jars.

All of which is a long way of saying: if you want to preserve a low- to moderate-acid onion confit, pressure can the jars at 10 pounds for 15 minutes. If you don’t have a pressure canner, they’ll keep in the refrigerator for at least a month. As a reminder, I’ve got step-by-step pressure canning instructions here.

Cherry Raspberry Jam

1 quart fresh raspberries, cleaned
Approximately 1 quart frozen cherries—less if you froze them without the pits
3 cups sugar—more if you used cherries that were frozen without sugar
1 T fresh lemon juice

1) Gently mix the raspberries and the sugar in a big pot and bring them to a boil. Meanwhile, pit the cherries, if necessary. Add them to the pot with the lemon juice.

2) Boil the mixture to the gelling point, stirring constantly. Forget what I said earlier this summer about 218°F—cook it to 214°F for the perfect spreadable texture.

3) Meanwhile, prepare a boiling water bath, 5 half-pint jars, and 5 lids. (You’ll probably only need 4, but better to have an extra than to come up short.) When the jam’s ready, transfer the hot jam into the hot jars and adjust the lids. Process for 10 minutes.

Hot Corn Relish

2 quarts cut raw corn (somewhere between 10 and 18 ears)
1 quart chopped cabbage
1 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped sweet peppers (some combination of green, red, purple, and yellow is nice)
Up to 1/2 c. hot peppers (I used 3 serrarnos with seeds and 2 habanero without and thought that was plenty)
1 c. sugar
2 T. black mustard seed
1 T. salt
1 quart cider vinegar, at least 5%
1 c. water

1) Combine everything in a large pot and bring to a boil. (Time-saving tip: start cooking it once you’ve chopped/sliced about half the vegetables.) Simmer for 20 minutes.

2) Meanwhile, start a boiling-water bath for canning, sterilize your jars (this made 7 pints), and warm your lids. Pack the hot relish into the hot jars, leaving 1/4″ headspace. Don’t be afraid to pack it tightly—the more tightly it’s packed, the less mushy it will get while cooked. Run a spatula around the edges to remove air bubbles, then top with the cooking liquid. Adjust the lids.

3) Process pint jars 15 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

Faced with enough tomatoes to take a chance on, I decided to try a sweet pepper salsa. (I realize that this flies in the face of yesterday’s post pooh-poohing “raw” canned salsas, but since I don’t like green peppers to start with, I figured what’s to lose?) This version started with the Ball Blue Book’s “Zesty Salsa,” but I just couldn’t bring myself to use the 7 1/2 c. of peppers that they recommend. Also, since Jilly and I often find that homemade salsa has a weirdly vegetable-ish quality, I ran this through the food processor. The end result is not unlike a thick gazpacho without the cucumbers. Not bad, actually.

Tomato and Sweet Pepper Salsa

About 6 pounds of tomatoes, skins removed (~ 10 c.)
About 2 pounds of sweet peppers, seeds removed (~5 c.)
About 1 c. mildly hot peppers, like jalapenos or hot wax peppers, seeds removed
2 large onions, cut into large pieces
3 cloves garlic
1 c. cilantro, thick stems removed
1 T. salt
1 1/4 c. cider vinegar (5% acidity)

1) Throw all the vegetables in a food processes and whir them briefly. Don’t let them go too long or it will become a paste or puree.

2) Transfer the vegetables to a large pan and add the salt and vinegar. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes.

3) Meanwhile, bring a large pot filled with water to boil for a canning bath, sterilize your jars, and heat some lids (this made 5 pints for me). Pack hot salsa into hot jars. Run a spatula around the edges to remove air bubbles and add more if necessary, leaving 1/4″ headspace. Adjust lids.

4) Process 15 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

Roasted Tomato Salsa (for canning)

About 8 pounds of tomatoes (18 medium)
3 small onions or 1 large onion, hacked into large pieces
1 cup cilantro, thick stems removed
Several dried peppers: I used 3 dried bird peppers and 1 dried ancho pepper
6 cloves garlic, peeled
Salt
1/2 cup lime juice

1) Cut the tomatoes in half and arrange them in a roasting pan. Broil for 3–5 minutes, until the skins are charred. If your broiler is unpredictable, you can also roast them for about 30 minutes at 450°F.

2) Meanwhile, soak your dried peppers in boiling water to cover. When they’re pliable, cut them open and remove the seeds. If you want a hotter salsa, leave them in.

3) Also meanwhile, bring a water bath to boil for canning. Sterilize your jars and warm the lids (this made 6 half pints and 1 pint for me, but you might want to have some other pint jars ready in case yours makes more….or just eat the extra).

4) When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, throw them in a food processor with the onions, the garlic, the cilantro, and the peppers. You may have to work in batches. Transfer the chopped vegetable mixture to a stockpot with the lime juice and 1 T salt (more or less to taste). Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

5) Transfer the hot salsa to the hot jars, leaving 1/4″ headspace. Run a spatula around the edge to remove air bubbles and add more salsa if necessary. Wipe the rims and adjust the lids.  As seems to be the case for most salsas, processing time recommendations vary somewhat, but based on the National Center for Home Food Preservation‘s guidelines for other salsas, you should be fine with 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. After all, this is basically a recipe for roasted tomatoes, garnished with onions, drowned in lime juice.

For those readers not familiar with it, kimchi is kind of Korean pickle subject to neary infinite variations. Traditionally it was made by groups of women and stored through the winter (sometimes underground) in clay pots. The kind that you’re most likely to find at your local Asian grocery or Korean restaurant will have some kind of Asian cabbage, garlic, some kind of hot pepper seasoning, and lots of salt. Like most traditional pickles, however, there are as many kinds of kimchi as people who make it. Sometimes it has daikon radish; sometimes it has anchovies. Some people use fish sauce; others use pine nuts.  As luck would have it, bok choy, with its big white stems and leafy greens, makes excellent kimchi.

I’m offering a recipe below loosely adapted from one in Linda Ziedrich’s wonderful Joy of Pickling, but I encourage you to experiment. Don’t mess with the proportion of salt, as you need a certain level of salinity to encourage the right kind of fermentation. Everything else, though, from the ingredients to the length of fermentation, is flexible. After six days my first batch was almost too pickle-y for my tastes, but the second batch came out absolutely perfect after only four days. Enjoy!

Bok Choy Kimchi

About  1 1/2 pounds bok choy (stems and leaves), cut into 2 inch squares
1 or 2 turnips, peeled and thinly sliced
1 to 2 T ginger, minced
1 to 2 T garlic, minced
6 scallions, cut into 2 inch pieces, then cut in half lengthwise
2 T hot or mild paprika (your choice: I liked it better hot)
6 cups water
4 1/2 T kosher salt (or 3 T pickling salt, if you have it)

1) Make your brine by dissolving the salt in water. Put the bok choy and the turnips in a large bowl and cover with brine. Weight the vegetables so that they stay submerged (see picture) and let sit for 12 to 24 hours.

2) Drain the vegetables, reserving the brine. Mix the remaining ingredients by hand, then stuff them into a large jar. I was able to make this batch fit into a regular-mouth quart mason jar, but you may need to use a bigger one, or use two, if you have more vegetables. Pour the brine over vegetables. Run a knife alongside the inside of the jar to release air bubbles and add more brine if needed. If you’re using a regular mouth jar and everything’s submerged up to the lid, just put the lid on. If you’re using a large jar and are having problems with things floating to the top, put a ziplock bag within the jar and fill it with brine. The goal is to prevent air from touching the vegetables.

3) Move the jar to a cool, dark place (ideally 68º: I used the basement) and let it sit for 3–6 days. After a day or two you should see bubbles rising to the surface. Taste it after a few days to see if it’s sour enough. When you’re happy with the pucker factor, stash it in your fridge, where it will keep for months (assuming you don’t eat it first).