Preservation Link Roundup 3/14/10

March Can Jam Update:

All Types of Cooking, and a Whole Lot of Canning Here! wanted to work with a more unusual allium and ramps weren't available, so she searched and found cipollines to pickle (Allium......Yum!). Cipollines are an Italian pearl onion with a saucer-like shape. They're small and sweet and add a distinctive look to any plate. I usually use them whole in braises and stews or roasted as part of mixed roasted vegetables, but they are very versatile - just keep them whole (or mostly whole) for their unique appearance. Pickling them is a great idea.

Kitchen Jam riffs on a red onion marmalade by adding blood orange juice and rhubarb (March CanJam: Red Onion & Rhubarb Jam).

Miss Can Jam herself, Tigress in Pickle, silences some red onions with extreme prejudice (Onionz Limone Chutney).

this little chutney packs a powerful punch, and definitely has an eastern flair. i would say skip the ubiquitous chutney & sharp cheese pairing with this one and go right for the curries, stir-frys and one dish indian and southeast asian inspired meals. or simply use it stirred into a rice or grain as the exotic flavoring agent.

Not every preserve is a success. Case in point: Hitchhiking to Heaven had to leave the room while cooking her entry in the Can Jam (Garlic and Green Chile: Never-Again Jelly).

Yielded only 3 half-pints of jelly and one slightly nauseated cook.

Yeah, I guess you'd have to be a garlic lover for that one.

Although the result wasn't exactly what they wanted, at least Three Clever Sisters wasn't nauseated by their onion-fennel-red pepper pickle (Can Jam March Challenge: Alliums). If they didn't like red pepper, they could have simply left it out.

As a Disneyland Resort cook, I was happy to hear that Put a Lid on It (a chef herself) was impressed with the food served at our sister park, Disney's Animal Kingdom, and decided to recreate a pickle (actually, more like a chutney, I think) that came with the bread service (Sweet Onion and Lime Pickle).

A couple of quick notes. Although this pickle is most likely safe for canning it hasn't been tested. Also, the processing time seems a bit short. And, if you are processing for only five minutes, the jars must be sterilized prior to use. Jars do not have to be sterilized (only clean and hot) if the processing time is ten minutes or longer.

Other notes. If you are ever at a Disney park and like the food, you don't have to reverse engineer the dish, unless you want to. Please feel free to ask for the recipe. You will get it. They might have to email or mail it to you later, but they'll get it to you.

Also, Disney's California Food & Wine Festival will be taking place April 16 - May 31. Not a bad way to spend the day. And I'm not just saying that because I work there.

The Atlantic's Food Channel publishes an ode to homemade fruit wines (In a Fruit Wine, Comfort and Validation).

I swear to God, if you blindfolded me I would not be able to tell it apart from a decent Amontillado. Smooth, a little caramel, but with a bright acidity I did not expect in a wine that looked like maple syrup. It is, for all intents and purposes, a fine sherry. Made from Costco raisins. In a plastic bucket.

Fruit wines may sound sort of weird, but you can actually make some darn fine stuff. Even from Costco raisins.

Rufus and Clementine really wasn't bothered too much by Slate's condescending take on the revival of canning (Market.Watch | 12Mar10 & The Slam Reax).

The Slate article got under my skin, primarily, because it hurt the feelings of people I’ve come to respect, who felt attacked for practicing the traditions they hold dear. I had less of a problem because I kind of knew who she was talking to and about. It didn’t bother me, personally, because I’ve come to really enjoy doing it. Period. Whatever.

Mahlzeit (a German salutation, often preceding a meal, especially lunch) isn't so sure that food preservation is part of the solution (Apostate).

Food preservation, also, struck me as naive in its economy of scale. Is it really better for a million local households to each have a dehydrator ($80) and a couple of freezers ($200 to $350 each), and a pressure canner ($200 to $600), and a vacuum sealer ($150)?

Investing in these devices doesn't make sense unless you're going to use them, sometimes for several years. So, yeah, if everyone used them and account for the cost over several years, I think it does make sense.

Last week I pickled and canned local asparagus for a demo at the Hollywood Farmers' Market. Now, fruit detective David Karp reports in the LA Times that California's asparagus growers are shrinking in the face of Mexican and Peruvian competition since asparagus is a labor-intensive crop (Market Watch: Hard Times for California Asparagus).

The New York Times Magazine runs an interesting article with a feminist take on locavorism, what one author calls Radical Homemakers (aka a manifesto for "tomato-canning feminists") (The Femivore’s Dilemma).

Local artisanal canner Valerie Confections gets some press from NBC Los Angeles Feast - not only are they making farmers' market sourced preserves, but they will be doing some classes in the near future (Canning with Valerie Confections). Very cool.

Finally, with Easter right around the corner, Within My Means makes a kumquat chutney that she has fond memories of serving for the holiday (Easter-y Kumquat Chutney). Although it isn't a canning recipe and should be refrigerated, it sounds good to me.

Preservation Supplement to LA Times Food Section 3/4/10

This week's LA Times Food Section is a veritable food preservation special issue.

First off, the cover story is dedicated to smoking food indoors (Slow-Smoking Ribs in the Great Indoors). Smoking is a very old method of food preservation. Although smoking alone will not preserve food (you need to use another method of preservation for that, such as dehydration), it does assist in preservation. More importantly, however, it adds flavor and color.

A little smoke flavor goes a long way towards supercharging flavor and taking standard recipes into a whole new realm. Add some smoked meat to a chili or stew and ... wow. Other ingredients can be smoked ... instead of regular baked potatoes ... why not try smoke roasted potatoes? Or smoke roasted potatoes in a potato salad.

Anyway, if you haven't tried smoking, then read this article. It demystifies smoking and shows how you can do it with very little equipment right inside your kitchen. The article is focused on stove top smoking, but you can also use similar equipment and methods to smoke in your oven. As for me, I'm going to give the Maple-Bourbon Hot-Smoked Pork Belly a try. Mmmmm ... bacon. I've made maple-cured bacon before ... bourbon sounds like a great addition.

Hmmm ... makes me think that some smoky Scotch would be another way to add smoke flavor in different recipes...

Anyway, moving my mind off the island of Islay, Russ Parsons discusses the increasingly popular trend of nose-to-tail cooking and eating. In this case, learning how to butcher and cook whole pigs (In SoCal Restaurants, a New Passion for the Whole Pig).

Learning how to cook nose-to-tail will inevitably lead to food preservation techniques, which were traditional ways of using the whole animal. Curing, drying, smoking, and pickling are all methods commonly used on the less commonly eaten (nowadays) parts of the animal. What's great about this is that not only are we rediscovering flavors and textures that have fallen by the wayside, but reconnecting with where our food comes from and gaining new respect for those who raise the animals and the animals themselves.

This is why I am passionate about food preservation.

In any case, Parsons references that modern classic Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing and provides a slightly modified version of Pork Belly Confited in Olive Oil. It must be confit week on this blog.

Aging beer gets some respect (Store Beer in a Wine-Like Cave? Southern California Gives it a Try). Although the article is focused on commercial bottles from smaller breweries, some of the most interesting aging that I know is taking place by home brewers who are aging their own brews. Heck, I've got a nice spiced stout (lots of clove and orange peel) I expect will be quite nice come the holidays nine or ten months from now (and almost a year-and-a-half after it was brewed).

"The Find" reviews a place I've been dying to try ever since I heard the words "kumquat chutney dogs" (The Slaw Dogs in Pasadena). I've got to go check them out ...

Preservation Supplement to LA Times Food Section 2/11/10

This week's LA Times Food Section is a bit all over the place with dumplings for Chinese New Year and Crack Pie (no, not that sort of crack). There are a couple of articles that touch on food preservation, however.

The first is on the difficulties that artisan spirit makers are facing (Sober Times for Artisan Spirit Makers).

The craft brew movement has resulted in a plethora of artisanal beers everywhere you go. It's virtually impossible to keep up with all the varieties, let alone the brewers. Still, without a thriving beer movement there are so many lambics, bocks, and rausch beers that we'd never have the opportunity to try. Similarly, in the last few years there has been a movement to create artisinal and craft hard liquors; whiskeys, rums, gins, etc. Unfortunately, though this sounds like a good idea, actually getting a business off the ground is a lot more difficult than it seems.

Although the article doesn't mention it, I think one of the problems is that it is illegal to distill spirits at home (no moonshine). Artisanal beer got a huge boost from homebrewers. I think it is safe to say that there wouldn't be much of an craft beer movement without the training and experience many artisans gained through homebrewing. Moreover, the existence of drinkers who learned to drink more sophisticated beers through homebrewing created a ready-made market for artisan beer. Because of the anti-moonshine laws, the same can't be said for spirits.

Repeal the prohibition on moonshine, I say ... give a boost to our artisanal spirit makers!

However, just because you can't distill your own vodka, doesn't make you can't make your own infusions and liqueurs. One suffering business talked to in the article makes saffron- and tarragon-infused vodka. Fruit liqueurs are also very easy to make - add fruit, sugar and vodka - let infuse for a few weeks, strain and bottle. Fantastic.

"The Find" visits a Lebanese restaurant this week (Middle Eastern Food to Dig into). Unsurprisingly, pickles are not mentioned. Yet, you will almost always find pickles with Lebanese food. Kabees el Lift, turnip pickles (colored red by beetroot), are the classic. Kabees el Qarnabeet, pickled cauliflower, is also very common.

Perhaps pickles weren't served, but chances were they were simply ignored by the reviewer. There are space constraints, of course, but pickles are too often ignored in restaurant reviews.

By the way, the "pungent, creamy garlic paste" the reviewer liked both with french fries and grilled chicken? It is most likely Toum. Absolutely fantastic stuff. I highly recommend giving it a try ... like aioli, it goes with many different things. Not really a food preservation thing, but this stuff is really, really good.

Finally, the reviewer was impressed with the hummus, one of my favorite condiments. Hummus is something that I throw together in ten minutes whenever I need a quick dip or spread. I'm able to do this because I've pressure canned the garbanzo beans already, so I just have to open the can, rinse and drain. Highly convenient ... and cheap, since you can often find that dried garbanzo beans are quite inexpensive in the right ethnic supermarkets.