Canning Asparagus

Late April and May is the time to can green or white asparagus. See Canning Green or White Asparagus. It is very nice served with grilled or broiled salmon and a hollandaise or Bearnaise sauce.

We eat a ton of asparagus when it is in season. Canned asparagus can be served as a starter with a red wine and shallot vinaigrette. Fresh asparagus is nice roasted and served with a horseradish dip as an hors d’oeuvre – see roasted asparagus. You may also serve roasted asparagus as a starter with a mustard vinaigrette topping it with roasted red bell peppers and/or caramelized onions or shallots.

To make asparagus soup with fresh asparagus, sauté asparagus cut into 1/2 inch pieces in olive oil until tender, add chicken stock, salt and pepper to taste, and then simmer for 30 minutes. To augment the color of the soup, you may add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of cream for each quart of soup before serving. If using canned asparagus do not sauté and add the canning liquid to the chicken stock.

An asparagus quiche may be made using canned asparagus by cutting the asparagus into 1/2 inch pieces and then substituting the canned asparagus for the roasted in our asparagus quiche recipe. You may do the same for an basic omelet.

Lasagna

I haven't been very diligent with this blog. I spent the winter working on the restoration of our house; refinishing floors, sanding plaster walls, cleaning up the dust, stripping wood, hauling trash to the dump, refinishing wood, getting my kitchen cabinets installed plus working in the garden. I've also been working on a concept for a new website, which I'll share later.

This evening, I am making lasagna. It's about the easiest thing to make, if you have the tomato sauce on hand. Tonight, I'm using Tomato Sauce with Mushrooms.

There are differing opinions about whether or not to cook the lasagna noodles before making lasagna. I have done it both ways, but can't tell the difference in the final product. However, I have found that precooking the noodles makes a tremendous difference in the preparation time so I don't do it. If not precooking the lasagna, you will want your tomato sauce to be a runny, so that the noodles have liquid to absorb while cooking.

When making lasagna for a family meal, I want clean-up to be as easy as possible. I line my baking dish with wax paper by cutting it larger than the baking dish and then folding the edges so that the wax paper comes up the sides.

To make lasagna, start with a bottom layer of lasagna noodles. Spoon over some cooked ground beef mixed with tomato sauce and then a little shredded cheese. If your tomato sauce already has salt and pepper, you may not want to add any additional. You may want to add some finely diced fresh sage, if you have it in the garden. Continue two to three layers of sauce and noodles, depending on the depth of your baking dish and finish off the top with additional tomato sauce, shredded cheese and a little shaved Parmesan.

To cook the lasagna, do so in a 350 degree oven (180 centigrade) for 45 – 50 minutes, until the cheese on top is lightly browned. Cooking time may be a little longer, if it’s a large lasagna.

Since there are already ample calories in the lasagna, I usually serve it with a simple green salad with balsamic vinaigrette. This should never be tossed until the last minute. Romaine lettuce goes very well with lasagna.

For company, I like to add Bechamel Sauce (low fat version). I layer this in after each layer of cheese and then over the top of the noodles (omitting the final layer of tomato sauce on top) before the final layer of cheese. If serving family style to company, you may not want to use the wax paper as it doesn't always make a nice presentation at the table.

Pumpkin Soup and Leeks

Pumpkins are in full season, so I canned pumpkin soup today. I can enough of it that I can serve it at a few dinner parties during the winter. My favorite way to serve it is with grilled scallops. I also like to bring it to a simmer and add mussels and steaming them in the soup on occasion.

Leeks are back in season too and they will remain in season until late winter or early spring. They are a vegetable that I don't think we eat enough of and are an excellent substitute for onions in many, many recipes. I substitute them for onions in stuffing and sauces as they produce such nice color and texture. Because they have a lot of dirt in them, I recommend cutting off any wilted darker green, slicing them lengthwise and then crosswise. They can then be easily washed in a salad spinner, but be careful not to overload the spinner as it won't remove all the water due to their heaviness.

Leeks can also be slowly sautéed in a little extra virgin olive oil, course salt and ground pepper and then served with any steak or beef patty. Or, the sautéed leeks can be added to Bechamel sauce and served with poultry. Or, if you are really decadent add a little sour cream and serve them with fish or on a cracker as an hors d'oeuvre. They also good in an omelet or with some beef or chicken broth as a soup.

Cast Iron

There is a very good interview focused on cast iron in last Saturday's Good Food podcast, 'Table Manners; Four Star Hospitality; Jitlada' with Chris Kimball of America's Test Kitchen. The interview begins 31 minutes and 35 seconds into the episode, if you want to skip the beginning.

I have spent a lot of time researching and testing different cookware. I have some All-Clad, Mauviel, Staub, Le Creuset and good ole cast iron. The expensive cookware can cost about $100 for a pan and $150 for a Dutch oven. I've paid up to $250 for a good, copper roasting pan, but now do most of my roasting in cast iron skillets - see our Video 2.

The bottom line is that I have found cast iron to be superior to most cookware. I specifically like the Lodge pre-seasoned cast iron and I especially like the price. They are available at under cast iron products at our canning store.

I'm putting in a new kitchen for entertaining and canning, keeping my family kitchen on a different floor. The new kitchen will require new pots and pans, the majority of which will be cast iron. I've purchased several cast iron skillets, two grill pans, a couple of cast iron Dutch ovens, a cast iron wok (by Staub) and three heavy (5mm) copper saucepans with stainless lining and a non-stick omelet pan.

My cast iron tips are:

1. Have a designated cast iron skillet(s) and/or grill pan for fish. The fish flavor will absorb into the seasoning of a cast iron pan and can leach into other meats and food - yuck.
2. Never use any products that may stick, such as milk products. Gravies should be made in a stainless lined pan.
3. Never use soap for cleaning. Lightly scour with a metal pad and warm water. If you see something has stuck to the skillet, run water in it immediately after removing the food, being careful not to scald yourself.
4. Season cast iron every time you use it. After cleaning, put cast iron onto the stove and heat until all water is evaporated. If there is a lid, place the lid on, slightly askew to allow steam to escape.
5. Rub a tablespoon of olive oil into the hot skillet (again being careful not to burn yourself,) using a paper towel.

For a perfect steak, hamburger, pork, lamb or veal chop; sprinkle coarse kosher salt into a cast iron skillet and heat until it begins to smoke. Place the meat in the skillet. If the meat sticks to the skillet, it isn't yet seared and ready to turn. Cook until desired. For cheesburgers, add the cheese after turning and cover - I turn the heat off 1 minute after adding the cheese and let it continue cooking until the cheese is completely melted.

For roasted red potatoes; heat oven to 400 degrees. Add unpeeled potatoes cut into 1-1/2" pieces to skillet, mixing with a little olive oil directly in the skillet. I mix with my clean hands. Sprinkle with desired amount of salt (I use coarse kosher) and pepper. May add dried rosemary and/or thyme. Roast about 45 minutes, or until golden brown, shaking the skillet every 15 minutes to turn the potatoes.

For chicken or turkey breasts; place a well seasoned skillet over high heat until it slightly smokes. Add the breast(s) and cook for 4 minutes (3 minutes for small breasts). Turn the breasts and cook for 3 more minutes, cover and turn off the heat. Leave the breasts to steam for 15 minutes.

For braising vegetables such as endives or fennel, preheat the oven to 180 degrees, bring a cast iron Dutch oven to a medium high heat on the stove top with a little olive oil. Add trimmed vegetable with a little salt and pepper and brown on one side for about 5 - 6 minutes. Turn the vegetable, place the cover onto the Dutch oven and put it into the oven. Do not open the oven or the lid and let braise for one hour. After braising, you may serve them as is, or chop the vegetables and add them to a Bechamel sauce for a delicious side dish. Do not add salt and pepper to the Bechamel, as the braised vegetables are already contain them.

Remember you may remove meat from the pan and make a brown gravy direct in the skillet. For a white gravy, I make a Bechamel in a stainless lined saucepan and then add the meat drippings.

Bread and Butter Pickles

A friend gave me a load of fresh onions Friday that are delicious! I bought some cucumbers at the market today and made bread and butter pickles. They are very easy to make and I love to snack on them.

Autumn has settled in and I'm beginning to see nice squash at the market. I will begin thinking about canning some squash soup, but need to wait until the season is in full swing and the prices drop. I did some work this week on a turkey pot pie filling recipe and hope to get it posted soon.

Waterbath Canner verses Pressure Canner

The most frequently asked questions from our readers are “Do I really need to use a pressure canner for this recipe?” or “Can’t I use a waterbath canner for this recipe?” So, let’s address the differences between the two.

A waterbath canner processes canned goods submersed in boiling water. Water boils at 212F or 100C at sea level. A pressure canner, at 11 pounds of pressure, processes foods at a higher pressure and reaches a temperature of 240F or 115C at sea level. This represents a 15 percent increase in the processing temperature!

Some foods are more acidic and some are less acidic or non-acidic. We can typically taste acidic foods on the sides of the tongue, not to be confused with bitter tastes on the back of the tongue. Sweets are tasted with the tip of the tongue. You can test this by tasting consecutive spoonfuls of lemon juice (acidic,) tonic water (bitter,) and a sugar cube (sweet,) and then noting the area of the tongue that becomes sensitive upon tasting each one.

Common acidic foods are citrus fruits, apples, berries tomatoes and peaches. At the opposite end of the spectrum, low-acid foods include meats and vegetables with the exception of some peppers. Although we can taste these on our tongue, a more accurate measurement of a food’s pH, or level of acidity can be made using pH strips or a pH meter. Both can be found at our canning supply store.

In canning, the magic number for determining high-acid verses low-acid foods is 4.6. Foods with a pH of 4.6 or below are considered high in acid and are generally safe for processing using a waterbath canner. Certain bacteria exist in low-acid foods, with a pH above 4.6, that cannot be eliminated at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Low-acid foods must be processed at the higher temperature of 240 degrees Fahrenheit. Please note there are certain dense foods that should never be processed at home such as pesto.

If you intend to process a lot of low-acid foods, we highly recommend an investment in a good pressure canner. We prefer the All-American pressure canners, which can be quite expensive. You might start making hints that one would make a great holiday or birthday gift! Waterbath canners and pressure canners may be found at our canning supply store.

More information about high-acid and low-acid foods can be found in our five dollar technical guide available at the CanningUSA.com.

More Figs and Zucchini

I picked five or six dozen more figs yesterday. It looks like the rest will be ripe within a week or so and I'll can them at that time.

I went to the farmers market which seemed to be overflowing with beautiful zucchini. Now is the time to can zucchini soup! I can mine using only salt and pepper and a little lemon juice, which helps keep the color. I decide what I'm going to do with zucchini soup upon opening. Sometimes, I add a hint of nutmeg or some shaved Parmesan cheese. I might add a little cream (or just milk) when serving it to company as a starter. You might also try poaching cod in it as we do in Video 4.

Along with the zucchini, eggplant is in season and it's about the end of the tomato season. With the three in season, it's the perfect time to can ratatouille, which is a traditional French sauté of onions, zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes. If you've never had it, I'd recommend making some for dinner and trying it on its own, or serving it with a pork or lamb chop. Feel free to change the quantity mix of the vegetables to suit your own taste. When serving with beef, I like to add Worcestershire!