t’s Spring break and the snow has returned to remind us winter is not yet over. If you are out enjoying winter activities, there’s nothing like coming home to a cup of hot cocoa topped with marshmallows. Making your own marshmallows is not difficult, and it’s fun and yummy. Also, you can make them without additives found in the commercial variety.

It is fascinating that both marshmallows and hot cocoa drinks have their origins 2000 years ago but in different parts of the world. Drinking chocolate was an important part of Mayan culture where it was generally served cold. On the other side of the world, in Egypt, marshmallows were created by extracting sap from the mallow plants which grew in marshes. The mallow sap was used for medicinal purposes during the 15^th and 16^th centuries before it found its way into the fluffy form in the candy shops of France during the 18^th century. It wasn’t until the mid 1900s when commercial marshmallows were created thanks to the invention of the extrusion apparatus. It seems that cultures around the world have enjoyed cocoa and marshmallows for millennia.

Making marshmallows at home requires a little equipment and a touch of patience but it is worth the effort!

Join the centuries long tradition of hot cocoa and marshmallows. Top a mug of hot chocolate with a homemade marshmallow or stoke the bonfire and have a s’mores party to celebrate the holiday.

Warning: I gave a bag of marshmallows to a friend to take home to her family. She ate the whole lot before getting home! Really, they are that good!

preservingwithmartha@gmail.com

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Marshmallows

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Ingredients

• 1 cup cold water divided                               
• 3 packages gelatin
• 1.5 cups sugar                                                
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• ¼ tsp salt                                                        
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ¼ cup icing sugar                                           
• vegetable spray

Instructions

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1. Pour ½ cup cold water in bottom of a stand mixer with whisk attachment. Sprinkle gelatin on top and allow it to soften for 15 minutes.

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2. Prepare a 9 x 13-inch pan: Lightly spray with vegetable spray. Mix icing sugar and corn starch and dust the pan heavily with half of the mixture.

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3. In a pot, place sugar, remaining ½ cup water, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil. Swirl the pan but don’t stir. This syrup needs to reach exactly 240 degrees.

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4. On low speed, mix the gelatin mixture and gradually add in the hot syrup.

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5. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 13 minutes. Add vanilla.

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6. Spray a spatula with vegetable oil and quickly dump the marshmallow mix into the pan. Smooth the top. Sprinkle the top with the remaining icing sugar-cornstarch mix. Cover with a tea towel and let rest to dry for 24 hours.

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7. Turn the marshmallows onto a large cutting board and cut large or small cubes using either a chef’s knife or pizza cutter sprayed with vegetable oil. Make sure the cubes are well covered with the icing sugar-cornstarch mixture to prevent sticking. The marshmallows will last 2-3 weeks but they won’t because they are just too darn good!

Although I love summer salads, winter is a great opportunity to be a bit creative. Some people continue to grow greens indoors through the winter but many of us depend on market or grocery store produce. Hardy greens like kale, spinach, arugula mixed with radicchio, or a touch of endive add some bitterness that can be balanced by adding fruit or a citrus vinaigrette. Shaved or grated root vegetables with or without cabbage or bok choy can provide a colourful salad. Apple, celery, and fennel with a cider vinaigrette is a favourite topped with toasted walnuts. Adding nuts and cheese to the salad or roasted vegetables like squash or sweet potato can be a nourishing and satisfying dinner.  In winter, I think we appreciate great colour, texture, sweet-tart balance, and variety in our salads more than at any other time of year.

 In late summer, I made this “Winter Salad Pickle” from garden vegetables. It was so good, and, in such demand, I have since made five more batches including one last week. I happened to find a two-for-one sale on cauliflower and couldn’t resist making one more batch. This pickle is good on its own, as an accompaniment or on top of a salad of winter greens. Even folks who aren’t keen on vegetables (aka my husband) like this pickle. The recipe was created by Canadians Top and Howard, authors of the Small-Batch Preserving books. It can be doubled if you have the produce and the space in your canner.

 Whatever salads you are enjoying this winter, try adding this “Winter Salad Pickle” to your repertoire. The colour combination and nice crunch add some sunshine to the winter meal. Bon Appetit.

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Winter Salad Pickle

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Ingredients

• 2 cups cauliflower florets
• 1 cup pearl onions or small onions quartered
• 1 cup thickly sliced celery
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup thickly sliced zucchini (remove seedy centres)
• 1 cup yellow or green beans trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 cup red peppers cut into 1-inch squares
• (a total of 8 cups of vegetables)
• 3 cups white wine or herb vinegar (at least 5% acid)
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 2 tsp pickling salt
• 1/8 tsp paprika

Instructions

1

In a bowl place cauliflower, onions, celery, and carrots. In a second bowl place zucchini, beans, and peppers. Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and paprika in a large pot and bring to a full rolling boil. Add the cauliflower, onions, celery, and carrots. Bring back to a boil. Turn off heat and add remaining vegetables. With a slotted spoon fill hot canning jars to ½ inch headspace. Ladle in the brine. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace. Clean the jar tops, affix lids and rings to finger-tip tight. Process jars in a water-bath canner or atmospheric steam canner ten minutes for 250 or 500ml jars and 15minutes for liter jars. As always, adjust for altitude and follow reputable canning instructions to ensure safe processing.

Tomatoes in Winter

If you’re a preserver, this is a great time of year to crack out the tomatoes in whatever form you have them. Like many of you, I can, dry, freeze, or turn them into a pesto-like format after roasting with garlic and olive oil. My motto is “never waste a tomato” regardless of season.

Being over-loaded with frozen roasted tomato sauce I made deliveries to friends and my daughter-in-law. Of course, the tomato sauce is delicious with pasta, but my daughter-in-law asked about ideas for using the sauce without pasta (New Year’s resolution!). So, here is what I shared.

Tomato Sauce

Use your own tomato sauce or begin with canned or frozen tomatoes, seasoned, and reduced to a thick sauce. Add fresh or dried herbs such as parsley, basil, oregano. The recipes below are for two, but you can double or triple the size depending on the number of mouths you are feeding.

Tomato Poached Halibut or Cod

Place one cup tomato sauce in a skillet. If too thick to simmer without burning, add a couple of TBSP of water. Cut the fish into 3-4 oz pieces. Season them with salt and pepper. Put them in the simmering sauce and cook for about 8 minutes with the lid on. Spoon sauce over top.

Mediterranean Shrimp

Prepare sauce as above. Add ½ tsp of oregano. Once simmering, place cleaned and deveined large shrimp into the pan in a single layer. Cook for 3 min and flip. When you flip the shrimp add crumbled feta cheese (about 1 oz per person). Cook for another 3 min. The feta will melt making a creamy sauce. Serve fish or shrimp with salad, bread or atop of rice.

Quick Baked Parmesan

Slice zucchini and eggplant in long strips. Salt the eggplant for 15 minutes. Put veggies on parchment paper and bake at 400 until they are cooked with crispy edges. Put the sauce under and over the veggies in layers like lasagna. Top with fresh mozzarella and a hefty sprinkle of parmesan. Bake 20 min or until the cheese is melted. 

Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce

Many cuisines around the world have a recipe for poached eggs in tomato sauce. In Mexico, you will find the delicious dish called “divorced eggs” using both tomato and tomatillo sauces. In Africa and Israel, the Shakshuka is a dish of poached eggs in spicy tomato sauce often with chopped vegetables, cumin, hot peppers and feta cheese. The dish is served in the cast iron or other frying pan with sour dough bread to mop up all the yummy sauce and eggs. You can create your own version of poached eggs in tomato sauce and serve for breakfast or dinner.

Tomatoes are most wonderful in the summer and early fall but having them in the pantry or freezer through the winter months is not only handy, but cost-effective and healthy. This is the season to celebrate the versatility of this fruit. Enjoy.

Share your ideas for tomato sauce without pasta! Send them along to me at:

preservingwithmartha@gmail.com

We’ve certainly had some remarkable weather ups and downs, but we know the New Year will bring cold temperatures, snow and a desire hunker down. How better to enjoy winter than with a steaming hot bowl of soup and some homemade bread?

According to culinary history, the word soup dates to post-classical Latin “suppare” or soak. The term later appeared in the French language as “soupe”. In the Middle Ages cooks spoke of soup as any liquid that was poured over bread. The word supper is also derived from this term. In general terms, “soup” applies to any liquid, savoury dish. All cultures have soup as a culinary foundation.

If you’re going to the effort of making a big batch of soup, why not make extra for later use? To preserve soup, there are basically three methods: Freezing, dehydrating or pressure canning.

Freezing

The easiest, least time-consuming method is to freeze. Freeze soups in a wide-mouth Mason jar or food grade plastic freezer container. Leave an inch headspace to allow for expansion. To prevent ice crystal formation, crinkle up some parchment paper and place it on top of the soup. Always cool the soup, then refrigerate before freezing. Label and date the frozen soup. Thaw in the fridge and heat to 165 degrees before serving.

Dehydrating

Most of us have bought a “Cup of Soup” or Lipton package of soup. These are examples of dehydrated soups, and this can be done at home. One approach is to dehydrate vegetables, cooked rice or potatoes, and seasoning. Rehydrate in boiling water. Broth and soups can also be dehydrated after reducing to a condensed or pureed form and then laying out on a Silpat sheet or parchment lined rack in the dehydrator as you would do when making fruit leathers. The dehydrated broth can be ground into a powder or simple broken up into pieces and stored in a cool, dark, dry place. The dehydrated soup puree can be stored as you would a fruit leather.

Pressure Canning

Because soup is made with low acid foods like vegetables, meat, poultry, and fish, pressure canning is necessary for safe long-term storage. Pressure canning raises the internal temperature to 240 degrees which is required to kill heat resistant bacteria such as those that cause botulism. Always follow reputable recipes and proper methods (see Bernardin, National Center for Home Food Preservation or refer to “So Easy to Preserve”). There are many soups suitable for pressure canning making instant meals easily accessible from the pantry in a matter of minutes. Do not pressure can soups made with pasta, rice, flour, cream, milk, or any thickening agents as these agents interfere with heat penetration and therefore safety. You can add them just before serving if you wish.

Winter is the time for hot soup and crusty bread. Home-made stocks and broths, hearty chowders, simple garden vegetables or instant soup mixes ready for winter camping can all be available for quick suppers, lunches, or picnics. Call the family: “Soups on”.

This is the season for special treats. Whether it’s Christmas day, a holiday party or bringing in the New Year, there are many reasons to celebrate. My recent preserving adventures have led to some wonderful new recipes.

Raspberry-Rhubarb Juice with Prosecco

My daughter-in-law created this special cocktail using the raspberry-rhubarb juice I made in the spring and summer. Think of this a pink Mimosa; pretty, festive, and delicious.  You can always use POM or raspberry juice as well. For a non-alcoholic version, replace Prosecco with sparkling water. For extra panache, drop in a fresh raspberry.

Cranberry Port Conserve with Walnuts

I recently made this recipe created by Topp & Howard. A conserve almost always includes nuts and often citrus. This is outstanding and would be a great accompaniment to turkey, chicken, or capon but also with ham, duck or beef.

4 cups cranberries 2 cups sugar

¼ cup Port ½ cup finely chopped orange peel

1/3 cup raisins ¼ cup chopped walnuts

Combine cranberries, sugar, and Port in a large pot. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered until cranberries pop. Add orange peel and raisins. Reduce heat and cook for about 15 minutes until a light gel point is reached. Remove from heat and stir in nuts. For long-term storage, process in a water bath or atmospheric steam canner for 10 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before removing from canner.

However you celebrate, enjoy the season. All the best for the holidays and Happy New Year.

preservingwithmartha@gmail.com

For more information:

Preservingwithmartha@gmail.com

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Tarts: The Finishing Touch

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I love making small French-style tarts using my preserves. A couple of weeks ago I made tarts using my preserved pears, maple roasted rhubarb, apple sauce, and, of course, pear mincemeat (pictured here). In a recent Jamie Oliver show, he used ready-made tart shells and lined them with raspberry jam and topped them with a light meringue baked to golden colour. Tarts are easy, flexible and are part of any celebratory meal. I usually use a pate brisee for the crust but for the gluten free in my family, I searched for a recipe that would work. I adapted this pastry recipe from by Claire Tansey’s in her book called “Uncomplicated”. She calls this forgiving pastry and it is. It can be rolled out many times without getting tough. It also lasts well and is flavourful. The gluten-free version is very good.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (or regular flour)
• 1/8 tsp salt ½ cup cream cheese cold and cubed
• ½ cup butter cold and cubed

Instructions

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Combine flour and salt in food processor. Pulse to combine. Add cream cheese and butter and process until the dough comes together in a ball.  Wrap in plastic and chill for at least ½ an hour. Roll out or freeze this pastry for future use. Be creative using your own preserves from the panty.

With the first big snow under our belts, the motivation to plan for the Holidays is kicked into high gear. I find that one of the most wonderful things about preserving is using my skills and preserves for creative gifts. I thought I would focus a couple of articles on creating warm, delicious, and satisfying gifts and treats for the season.

Last week I dehydrated oranges and lemons for several purposes, one of which was to make mulling spice mix for gifts. The bonus is that the house smells divine as the citrus releases its aroma while drying. The dried fruit can be used to brighten up garlands or centre pieces, added to tea, used to embellish a cake, or simmered in a pot of water before guests arrive.

I was fascinated to read that mulled wine in particular dates to the Roman Empire where honey and spices were added to wine in winter. Many consider mulled wine or the wassail to be distinctly Victorian where it was considered a holiday drink celebrating health, happiness and warmth infused by spices and citrus. Mulled cider was and is considered a British winter celebration drink. The cider carries the apple taste which makes for a lighter beverage. Mulling was eagerly embraced by North Americans. Whether using wine or cider, adding mulling spices produces a flavourful warm winter drink perfect for snuggling up in front of the winter.

For more information:

Preservingwithmartha@gmail.com

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Mulling Spice Mix

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Ingredients

• ½ cup dried orange slices broken into small pieces
• ½ cup dried lemon slices broken into small pieces
• 6 sticks of 4-inch cinnamon broken into small pieces
• 4 TBSP ground nutmeg
• 12 whole cloves
• 2 tsp cardamon pods
• 2 TBSP allspice berries
• 1 TBSP whole black peppercorns
• 4 – 6 star anise

Instructions

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Dry citrus using a dehydrator (125 for 10 hours) or in the oven on the lowest setting. Slices should be thin with seeds removed.

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Mix the mulling spice mix together. Add 2 TBSP mix to 4 cups of cider or red wine and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain and serve with a cinnamon stick and/or the addition of a slice of fresh orange. This recipe produces about 3 cups. Store in airtight containers. This is a super hostess gift to give with the recipe attached.

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If you are out-and-about, I will be at the Kimber Valley Farm Christmas Market on November 26th. Check out their website and drop by.