Strawberry Jam

Dad has been bringing me strawberries ever since they've had then at the Denham farmer's market. I've thoroughly enjoyed them - eating them raw; making sorbet; cooking them into random dishes and this week making jam. It's been a while since I made strawberry jam since I wasn't thrilled with my last foray into making strawberry jam. However circumstances - only having half a jar of homemade blueberry jam left and having six pints of fresh strawberries - compelled me to try my hand again at making strawberry jam.

I've leveled up some in jam-making since my last attempt - the last strawberry jam being my first jam ever. I was amazed at how much easier it was to make the strawberry jam, now that I have some vague idea of how to make jam. I had six pints of berries so I knew I needed one box of pectin and that one cup of the sugar seems to get used up with the jam making process. The extra sugar for the jam making process is where I went wrong previously. The "trick" is that you have to get the jam as sweet as you want and then add another cup of sugar for each box of pectin you use.

Strawberry Jam

6 pints raw strawberries, halved or chopped
3 cups sugar
1 box pectin

Pour sugar over the cut berries, stir and let them alone for an hour or so; stirring occasionally if you like. Once some juice has been drawn from the strawberries by the sugar, simmer the berries until the they are translucent. Let the berry mixture cool until it is room temperature (you can stick it in the fridge overnight). Now, this is the tricky part you want to add a little bit of berry mixture to the pectin to make a paste and then slowly dilute the paste with more berry mixture until you've added ~2 cups of the berry mixture. By doing this, you're trying to avoid getting lumps of pectin in your jam. Add the pectin mixture to your berry mixture and stir to combine. Boil for one minute and then can if you wish.

Add butter and it kinda of tastes like popeyes...

I'm incapable of making the same thing twice.

Red Beans

3 c dried red beans, soaked overnight
3 serranos
2 heads of garlic (about 20 cloves)
1 onion
2 slices of bacon fat
olive oil
2 qts stock


Mince serranos, garlic, onion and bacon fat in the food processer. Heat oil over medium-high heat, add mixture from food processor and cook for a few minutes. Add red bean and stock, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 1h-1.5h or until softened. Puree 1/3 of the bean mixture.

Testing Pot

I've been looking for an excuse to use the big pot my brother got me for Christmas. So I made some chili to test my new pot.

Chili
2 onions, chopped
4 serrano peppers, chopped
1 Ancho Chile, chopped
20 garlic cloves, chopped
1 lb ground chuck
3 28oz cans of fire roasted tomatoes
4c dried kidney beans, soaked overnight and drained
2-6c stock or water
1/4c Fresh Oregano, chopped
2T cumin, ground
Salt to taste


Saute onions, garlic, serrano, ancho, and ground meat until the ground meat stays separated into crumb sized clumps. Add tomatoes, kidney beans, and stock. Add just enough stock or water to cover the beans with an inch of liquid. Simmer chili covered for 1h. Add oregano, cumin, and salt. Boil chili uncovered for 30m. Add salt to taste again (the beans will have absorbed some of the salt).

Teff Experiment

I bought some teff flour a while back and have been trying to decide what to test it on.

Spinach Pie with Teff Crust

4 Tbs Butter
1.5 c Teff Flour or All-Purpose Flour
Ice Water

8 Garlic, cloves
1/4lb Tofu
1/2 c Feta, crumbled
1/2 c Parmesan, grated
8 c Spinach, cooked and chopped
Salt
Pepper


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut butter, with pastry cutter, into Flour until the butter becomes crumb-sized. Stir in water, teaspoons at a time, until dough comes together. Roll to desired thickness and place in a greased pie plate.
Puree Garlic, Tofu, and Feta. Stir Garlic Mixture with spinach and half of the Parmesan cheese until combined. Plop Spinach Mixture into pie shell and even out in the shell. Sprinkle remaining Parmesan on top of the pie. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

I promise you can do this!

This is the easiest recipe on this site (So far anyway). I promise you can do this. I did it without my mixer, which means that it was more trouble to pick my mixer up than to stir for the one minute I needed to make the shaggy dough. After I made my dough, I ate supper and watched a movie before adding my 1/4 cup of flour. After that, I went to bed and shopping with Vi. I came back dumped out my dough onto 1/2 cup of flour and watched another movie. I turned on the oven and stuck my CorningWare inside. I played on the internet for 30 minutes and dumped the dough into the preheated CorningWare to bake for 30 minutes. After I removed the lid I came to write this blog entry for the next 30 minutes of baking.

Whole Wheat Bread in 24 hours
Adapted from Jim Lahey's Recipe

Ingredients
1.5 teaspoons yeast
1.5 teaspoons Kosher salt
3 cups White Whole Wheat Flour (you can get this at Whole Foods or Calandro's)
1.5 cups water
1/4 cup White Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup White Whole Wheat Flour

Equipment
3-qt mixing bowl that fits in your microwave
Measuring cups and spoons
Stirring Spoon or Spatula
Saran Wrap
Microwave (you're looking for a non-drafty spot)
Cookie Sheet
2.5-qt oven safe dish with lid (CorningWare or enameled cast iron are great)
Cooling rack

24h:
Mix yeast, salt and 3 cups of the flour in a 3-qt bowl. Add water and stir until dough becomes a shaggy ball. Cover tightly with Saran and place bowl in the microwave.
21h:
Remove bowl from microwave. Remove the saran, don't throw it away you're going to put it right back on the bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup of flour. Replace the saran on the bowl. Place in microwave.
4h:
Place 1/2 cup of flour on cookie sheet and scoop/roll the dough out of the bowl and onto the cookie sheet.
2.5h:
Turn the oven on to 450 degrees with the oven safe dish and lid inside the oven.
2h:
Brush the extra flour on the cookie sheet into the sink. If there is some or lots of flour on the bread, that's fine. Being careful not to burn yourself, remove oven safe dish and lid from the oven, remove lid and slide/roll dough into the dish. (The dish is never oiled/Pam-sprayed) Cover with lid and return to oven.
1.5h:
Remove lid and bake for 10-30 minutes, probably all 30.
1h:
Remove oven safe dish from oven.
50min:
Remove bread from oven safe dish and place on cooling rack.
0min:
Slice or tear and eat.

While it's not the best bread I've ever had in my life, it's still better than anything you can buy. You can also do this for a white version with all-purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon of yeast instead of the 1.5 teaspoons of yeast. All the other directions remain the same, so it would be:

White Bread in 24 hours
Adapted from Jim Lahey's Recipe

Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1.5 teaspoons Kosher salt
3 cups All-purpose Flour
1.5 cups water
1/4 cup All-purpose Flour
1/2 cup All-purpose Flour

Equipment
3-qt mixing bowl that fits in your microwave
Measuring cups and spoons
Stirring Spoon or Spatula
Saran Wrap
Microwave (you're looking for a non-drafty spot)
Cookie Sheet
2.5-qt oven safe dish with lid (CorningWare or enameled cast iron are great)
Cooling rack

24h:
Mix yeast, salt and 3 cups of the flour in a 3-qt bowl. Add water and stir until dough becomes a shaggy ball. Cover tightly with Saran and place bowl in the microwave.
21h:
Remove bowl from microwave. Remove the saran, don't throw it away you're going to put it right back on the bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup of flour. Replace the saran on the bowl. Place in microwave.
4h:
Place 1/2 cup of flour on cookie sheet and scoop/roll the dough out of the bowl and onto the cookie sheet.
2.5h:
Turn the oven on to 450 degrees with the oven safe dish and lid inside the oven.
2h:
Brush the extra flour on the cookie sheet into the sink. If there is some or lots of flour on the bread, that's fine. Being careful not to burn yourself, remove oven safe dish and lid from the oven, remove lid and slide/roll dough into the dish. (The dish is never oiled/Pam-sprayed) Cover with lid and return to oven.
1.5h:
Remove lid and bake for 10-30 minutes, probably all 30.
1h:
Remove oven safe dish from oven.
50min:
Remove bread from oven safe dish and place on cooling rack.
0min:
Slice or tear and eat.