Cold Packed Canning Tomatoes

I thought I was done canning tomatoes a month ago, especially with my tomato crop failure and having to buy tomatoes for my tomato sauce.  But I got a particularly good price at the Parkdale Market last weekend and couldn’t help myself (is it really a good deal when you buy something that you didn’t need in the first place?!).  

This is the first time I’ve tried the cold packed method.  I’ve always felt it was safer when the ingredients were very hot before placing into the hot sterilized jars.  But I really wanted to have whole tomatoes that were still firm.  Cooking the tomatoes even just long enough to heat them through still breaks them down a bit.  So I gave cold packing a try.  Of course, there is still a hot liquid that gets poured over top … in the one recipe I saw, I was surprised that it called for boiling water to be poured over the tomatoes in the jars.  I did not want to dilute the flavour of the tomatoes, so I cooked some of the tomatoes and pureed them to make a hot tomato sauce for this step.

As always, if you are a beginner, I highly recommend you check with someone who has more experience in this – there can be health hazards if safe canning techniques are not followed.  When I open a jar months from now for some recipe, I'll be sure to give them a good smell first to make sure something didn’t go wrong (out of hundreds of jars over the years, I’ve only had 3 or 4 that were bad and it was pretty obvious!).

Technique:

Sterilize jars.  I wash them with hot soapy water, rinse, then keep them in a warm oven (170 degrees F) for at least a half hour before filling them.

Tomatoes:

Remove the skins first.  Take out the core with a paring knife and remove any obvious blemishes.  Slice an X into the bottom of the tomato.  This will help the peel pull away.  In batches, dunk the tomatoes into boiling water for about 60 seconds.  Remove immediately and run under cold water or plunge into an ice bath.  When cooled, the skins should easily peel off.

In the meantime, prepare your hot tomato sauce (assuming you equally do not want to use water).  I just cooked a pot full of tomatoes for about a half hour to allow them to break down naturally, then pureed with an immersion blender (I didn’t bother removing the skins from these ones since they are being pureed).

Place peeled tomatoes into sterilized jars and follow with a ladle of hot tomato puree. Add about 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. Use the end of a wooden spoon to give a quick stir and remove air bubbles.  Top up the rest of the jar with tomato puree leaving about 1” headspace.

Quickly wipe around opening of jar to ensure it is clean and allow for a tight seal.  Then apply a heated lid (heated in simmering water) and screw on the band keeping it a bit loose.  Process in a hot water bath for approximately 30 minutes.

And then the waiting … do not fiddle with the lids until the jars are completely cooled.  Then poke the top.  If the centre of the lid is already down, then it should be fine.  But if the centre pops down when you push on it, then it was not sealed properly (in that case, contents should be refrigerated until used or process again if you have another batch going).   Tighten all of the bands before storing in a cool, dry location.

Broccoli Soup with Blue Cheese Toasts

 

I decided that I would make a small pot of soup each week to keep on hand for lunches or a healthy snack; this is officially week two following last week's Ginger Carrot Soup with Coconut and Miso.  I wish I could say this was made with broccoli from my own garden but I had a failure earlier in the year and my fall crop is still struggling along after an early bout of worms.

I'll be the first to say how much I love a gooey, cheesy broccoli soup.  But it can be a little heavy.  This soup is made without any cheese, but gets a huge flavour boost from a small amount of blue cheese on toast to go with the soup.

When chopping up the broccoli, don't waste the stems ... they might need to have the tough outer skin shaved down a bit but are tender underneath.






Ingredients:
1 large white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6-7 cups broccoli florets and stems
1/2 - 3/4 cup potato, diced small
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
Evaporated milk
Nutmeg

In a large saucepan, heat a small amount of olive oil and saute the onion and garlic.  After about 8-10 minutes, the onion will be softened (but don't allow it to brown).  Add broccoli, potato and stock.  Bring to boil, then simmer (covered) for about 10 minutes until broccoli and potato are tender (make sure potatoes are diced small so they cook as quickly as the broccoli).  Whiz with an immersion blender to puree.  Add evaporated milk for a bit of creaminess - I used less than a full can, probably about 1 cup.  Add S&P to taste and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg.

For the toast, use thinly sliced pieces of any bread (I used a buttermilk round).  Spread a small amount of butter on top and toast lightly (or just toast dry if you prefer).  Then spread a thin layer of blue cheese on each piece and toast a second time to melt the cheese and crisp the toast.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie with Ginger-Pecan Crust

 

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

I may have mentioned how much I love cheesecake ... hmm, once or twice, maybe.  When a friend invited me to celebrate Thanksgiving with her and other friends, she also asked me to bring dessert (I so love being asked to bring dessert!).  But she also suggested pumpkin cheesecake which I've made variations of in the past.  Of course I'll make pumpkin cheesecake pie for dessert!!

Rather than using a springform pan, I baked this in the traditional style of a pumpkin pie.  I had intended to make a crust from crushed gingersnaps, but they proved too difficult to find in my local stores.  So I bought some Peak Freans bran crunch cookies that were on sale and added fresh ginger and pecans to have something a bit more interesting than the regular graham cracker crust.


Crust:
Fresh ginger
1/2 cup pecans pieces
1 cup broken pieces of bran crunch cookies
1/4 cup melted butter






In a food processor, process about 1 Tbsp worth of fresh ginger.  Once it is minced, add pecans and process.  Then add the cookies.  Pour the crumbs into a 9 inch deep dish pie plate and pour the melted butter over.  Stir in butter then press the mixture on the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate.



Filling:
400 grams (about 1 1/2 packages) cream cheese
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup fresh pumpkin, baked and pureed
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4  tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Cream together cream cheese and brown sugar.  Beat in the two eggs.  Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.  Pour over crust.  Did I mention "deep dish" pie plate?   Yes, I did.  This is too much filling for a regular pie plate.  Cheesecake has a way of puffing up when cooking, then settling in during cooling (partly why it often has cracks on the top).  So it might overflow a regular pie plate.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes until set.  Chill for at least two hours before serving.  Garnish with half pecans (I had also wanted to garnish with pieces of candied ginger but I didn't have any).