Cowboy Candy

A favorite of brother Don's fishing buddies, I have to make an entire batch for them to enjoy at the lake cabin and enough to take back home to Chicago. This is a hot/sweet treat, if you aren't a fan of jalapeno's heat, you may not like these.  If you are, they are a refreshing addition to potato and macaroni salad, hamburgers, and lunch meat sandwiches. Be creative!  Try them wherever a splash of heat might be good.

Ingredients:

3 lbs. sliced jalapenos (1/8"-1/4" depending on preference)

3 cups apple cider vinegar

6 cups white sugar

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

3 teaspoons granulated garlic

1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

 

Directions:

Get your water bath running and sterilize 8 pint jars. Put your lids in a separate shallow water bath to simmer. Prepare your work space for canning (trivets, funnel, metal ladle, clean towels). I leave the empty jars in the water bath while I prepare the rest.  The water should top your jars by at least 2". 

Wash jalapenos. Put on gloves. Remove the stem  and cut the jalapenos into 1/8" to 1/4" slices. Do not remove seeds or white membrane. Set aside.

Dissolve sugar, tumeric, celery seed, garlic, and cayenne pepper in the apple cider vinegar and in large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

While the syrup is heating, remove the sterilized jars from the water bath and make sure your work station is ready for loading.  

Add jalapenos to the pot and return to a boil. Boil for 4 minute
s. Remove from the heat and load peppers into sterilized canning jars.  I prefer pint jars. Really pack them in. 

Ladle hot syrup into the loaded jars to within 1/4" of the rim.  Using a metal chop stick or knife, push down on the peppers to remove any air bubbles. Wipe the rim of the jar with a slightly moistened paper towel to remove any syrup on the rim. 

Place a can sealing lid atop each jar and tighten the bands finger tight. 

Put them back in your water bath and bring to a boil.  Process at a full boil for 10 minutes. Remove from the water bath and place on either a thick towel or a cooling tray. Allow to "cure" for about a week.  They'll develop their best color and flavor in that time.  They are however, good to eat immediately.  They may just not be as hot. 

Homemade Apple Butter

Ahh, the apple tree did it again.  Not a mast year like the last one, but I got some nice eating apples and enough to make an apple cake and something new this year:  apple butter.

This recipe came from Allrecipes.com, and it's a good one.  I scaled it for 15 half pints with enough left over to put in the fridge and have some this week.

Ingredients: 

2 cans frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed

3 cups apple cider

8 lbs of apples, cored and chopped

1.5 cups dark brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

Directions:

Bring apple juice, apple cider and apples to a boil.  When soft, mash through a sieve, a chinois, or use a food processor or hand blender.   Return to heat and add sugar and spices.  Simmer on low for up to 2 hours. (I actually had to cook mine longer.)  You want to cook it until when you put a heaping teaspoon of the butter on a plate, no water separates from the pulp.  Another test is if you have a heaping teaspoon and let it cool for 2 minutes, it is still mounded on the spoon.

Put in sterilized half-pint jars with 1/4" head space and process for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool for several hours until you hear that magical "pop".

Great on everything from ice cream to cornbread.

Cowboy Kick in the Spurs

I don't know about your garden, but the weather has been awfully kind to my peppers this year.  I've got a bumper crop of banana peppers and jalapenos, which is to be expected, but I also have for the first time ever...plentiful bell peppers, pasillas, cayennes, Peter peppers, seranos and Thai red chilis.  The only peppers that aren't doing tremendously are the pepperocinis and I think that's because they get shaded for about 4 hours during the day.  Otherwise, it's been a super year for peppers. 

Just what do you do with all of them?  I put up 4 pints of pickled banana peppers, and I'm trading some, but I am still overrun with jalapenos.  So I decided to amke some of that delicious hot jalapeno jam that warms things up during the cold winter months ahead.  This jame will not set to a jelly-like consistency, but is meant to be pourable and served as a condiment.  If you want your mam more firmly set, add more pectin.  This is delicious over a brick of cream cheese and served with crackers or crudites.

Ingredients:

1 lb green or red bell peppers, washed and seeded

3/4 lb jalapenos, washed, stems removed

6 cups sugar

1 1/4 c apple cider vinegar

1/4 c lemon juice

1 t kosher salt

3 oz. liquid pectin

Directions:

Wash and remove seeds from bell peppers.  Wash and remove stems from jalapenos.  Put both in a food processor and pulse into a fine dice.  Place in a large, non-reactive pot and combine with sugar, vinegar, lemon juice and salt.   Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Return to a boil and add the liquid pectin.  Bring to a rolling boil for 1 minute.  Ladle into sterilized pint jars.  Wipe down the rims with a clean cloth dipped in boiling water.  Place prepared lids and bands on the jars and process in a boiling water bath 10 minutes.  Remove from water bath and allow to cool on the counter for 24 hours.  Turn jars periodically to ensure that peppers are distributed throughout the jam as it cools.  If, after 24 hours, any lids have not sealed, put them in the refrigerator and use them promptly.  

Amount of jam will depend on the water content of your peppers.  This recipe should make about 8 pints of jam.  Mine made 9.  I just put the ninth in a clean jar and straight into the fridge for immediate use.  Looking forward to this.