Category Archives: Preserving

Serviceberry Liqueur

Every year I look forward to the arrival of serviceberries from mid-May to early June. These sweet purple / red berries have different names across the States so are also known as juneberries, sarvis, Saskatoon berries, shadbush and sugarplums amongst other names.

Serviceberry liqueur from britinthesouth.com

Over the years I’ve found a number of trees to forage not far from where I live. Occasionally I’ll bump into other folks also taking advantage of this free harvest but more often curious bypassers will stop and ask what I’m doing, not realising that this abundant fruit source is growing on their doorstep.

Serviceberry liqueur from britinthesouth.com

Over the years I’ve found many ways to enjoy and preserve this fruit, ranging from syrup and jelly to shrubs and even in cocktails. My latest idea was to turn it into an alcoholic drink itself by making a liqueur from it.

Making fruit liqueurs by infusion is a relatively simple but very satisfying way to use up fruit and enable you to enjoy it months after you picked it.

The process is relatively straighforward. Take a large jar and fill it with clean, dry fruit. Add sugar to the jar to approximately a third of the level of the fruit. Then fill the jar to the top with alcohol. For this liqueur I used vodka. Given its neutral flavour it will give you a liqueur which tastes primarily of the fruit you are using, but you can experiment with other alcohol to give you a different flavour profile in your final liqueur. Sloes and gin are the classic example but you can try whisky or brandy. This process also works well with strawberries and blackberries if you don’t have access to foraged serviceberries.

Serviceberry liqueur from britinthesouth.com

Leave the fruit, sugar and alcohol to infuse for at least 3 months, shaking occasionally to help dissolve the sugar. Then you simply strain the liqueur through muslin or a jelly bag, and put into sterilised bottles. I usually leave this serviceberry liqueur to infuse for around 6 months, bottling it a week or two before Christmas, just in time for gift giving or winter sipping.

Serviceberry Shrub Summer Cocktail

This year was a particularly good one for serviceberry foraging, with our harvest far larger than we’ve ever managed before. I made jelly, syrup, started off a batch of liqueur and made serviceberry shrub, and I still have a couple of bags stashed away in the freezer to play with at a later date.

Serviceberry Shrub Summer Cocktail from britinthesouth.comI’m a big fan of shrubs, or drinking vinegars, loving the blend of fruity sweetness and the tartness from the vinegar. I usually drink them diluted with sparkling water but this weekend I felt the urge to do some cocktail experimentation with my serviceberry shrub.

I was perfectly willing and quite prepared to try any number of concoctions to find something I liked but as luck would have it, my very first attempt resulted in a drink that was delicious, refreshing and well balanced. I would describe it as “dangerously drinkable”, so enjoy in moderation.

I may come back and tweak the recipe but as it stands I can see myself enjoying a few of these during the hot days of summer.

Serviceberry Shrub Summer Cocktail

2oz Serviceberry Shrub

1oz bourbon

4oz ginger ale

Pour the shrub and the bourbon over ice in a short tumbler. Add the ginger ale and enjoy.

 

Serviceberry Jelly

I have written before about the serviceberry season that we enjoy every year in Georgia from late May into June.

The fruit of the amelanchier tree, these bright red-purple berries are known by many names, so what we know as serviceberries are called such things as sarvisberries, juneberries or saskatoon berries in other parts of North America.

Serviceberry Jelly from britinthesouth.comThis year has seen a particularly abundant supply, with far more berries than last year. Couple that with the fact that I spotted a few more trees locally to pick from and we have ended up with a good supply of berries to play with.

Serviceberry Jelly from britinthesouth.comIn previous years I have made serviceberry syrup as well as a refreshing serviceberry shrub. Both of those are also on the agenda for this year but the plentiful supply means I can turn my hand to other things too, notably serviceberry jelly.

To make the jelly I had to extract the juice from the berries which is pretty easy to do. I followed the instructions in this handy serviceberry guide published by the co-op extension service at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It also includes some other interesting serviceberry recipe ideas.

Serviceberry Jelly from britinthesouth.comThe jelly was pretty easy to make and I now have quite a few jars of bright, sweet, delicious jelly to remind me of the fleeting serviceberry season for the rest of the year.

Serviceberry Jelly

3.5 cups serviceberry juice

2 tbsp lemon juice

6 tbsp pectin (I used Ball RealFruit Classic Pectin)

5 cups granulated sugar

 

Pour the serviceberry juice and lemon juice in a large stainless steel pan and stir to combine.

Add the pectin to the pan and stir until dissolved.

Bring the pan to a rolling boil over high heat.

Add the sugar, then return to a rolling boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute until sugar dissolves.

Remove from the heat and skim off any foam from the top.

Pour the jam into sterilised jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace and then process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. If you need to know more about water bath canning there is a good introductory guide on the Ball canning website.

 

Jam and Other Recipes for Strawberry Season

Strawberry season has arrived in Georgia. Here the season starts at least a month before it does back home in Britain so it is more of a spring than a summer fruit. When friends and family are enjoying berries at their peak across the pond it will already be too hot in the US South for this fragile fruit.

Strawberry recipes from britinthesouth.comSo we have to take advantage of the strawberry crop while it lasts, and we normally do, stocking up at local farmers markets and making a few trips to our favourite pick your own place where we invariably get carried away and fill far more buckets than we originally intended.

Strawberry recipes from britinthesouth.comLuckily, we have a range of strawberry related recipes up our sleeves to make the most of the fruit now and preserve some to enjoy all year round.

The obvious starting point is to enjoy some of the berries as soon as possible, usually with ice cream, whipped cream or with added meringue to make an Eton Mess.

Next our thoughts turn to jam. Our go-to strawberry jam recipe (details below) is based on one from the excellent “River Cottage Preserves Handbook” by Pam Corbin.

Once you’ve made your strawberry jam you can treat yourself to a cream tea, or even make some cream tea inspired chocolate truffles.

Strawberry recipes from britinthesouth.comOne great way to preserve the strawberry harvest is to turn it into a drink. Strawberries make a great dry, rosé wine for summer sipping. You can find the recipe here. Winemaking is relatively straightforward but does require a bit of equipment and some patience, but liqueurs and infusions are pretty simple, and you can infuse your harvest in something a little stronger to make strawberry liqueur or a strawberry bourbon.

Strawberry recipes from britinthesouth.comI don’t like anything to go to waste in my kitchen so I have even found a way to turn the leftover, strained strawberry pulp from making liqueur into chocolate truffles as well as a delicious dessert.

Strawberry recipes from britinthesouth.comStrawberries also make a great vinegar. You can use it in dressings or drizzle it on both sweet and savoury dishes but we usually drink it, diluted with sparkling water. Again, we use a Pam Corbin recipe.

I’m also a big fan of Marisa McClellan’s recipe for strawberry chutney at Food In Jars. It’s a wonderful accompaniment to an aged cheddar.

Strawberry recipes from britinthesouth.com

Strawberry Jam

2.25lb strawberries, hulled and quartered

2.5 cups granulated sugar

2.25 cups granulated sugar blended with 1 tsp pectin powder

0.66 cup lemon juice

Put 7oz the strawberries in a preserving pan with 1 cup of the plain granulated sugar. Crush with a potato masher.  Place over gentle heat and when the mixture is warm add the rest of the berries. Stir gently with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking. After bringing the berries to a gentle simmer, cook for about 5 minutes until the berries have softened.

Whilst it is cooking, place a couple of saucers or small plates in your freezer to enable you to test later for when the jam has set.

Add the remaining granulated sugar and the sugar and pectin blend. Stir gently to prevent sticking until the sugar has dissolved.

Add the lemon juice. Increase the heat and bring to a full rolling boil.  Boil rapidly for 8-9 minutes then test for the setting point.

Test for a set by putting a small spoonful of the jam onto one of the frozen plates. Return it to the freezer for a couple of minutes then test by pushing your finger through it. If it is thickening and the surface “crinkles” when you push it, it is set. If the consistency is still liquid carry on cooking for a little longer.

When the setting point has been reached, remove the pan  from the heat and stir gently to disperse any  foamy scum on the surface.

Pour the jam into sterilised jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace and then process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. If you need to know more about water bath canning there is a good introductory guide on the Ball canning website.

Hot Pepper Vinegar

Pepper vinegar is another food item to file under “things I’d never come across until I moved to the Deep South”.

Pepper Vinegar from britinthesouth.comAs the name suggests, it is simply vinegar infused with peppers and is a staple item on many a Southern table, but despite it being relatively easy to make it is a versatile condiment, adding a great hit of sour spicy flavour to anything you put it on. Collard greens are the classic partner for it but once you start using it you’ll be sprinkling it on all sort of dishes.

Pepper Vinegar from britinthesouth.comYou can vary the flavour profile by playing about with the vinegar you use as well as the quantity and spiciness of the peppers you choose. My personal preference is for apple cider vinegar and a pretty potent heat level, so I like to throw some habanero peppers into the mix. A little of the resulting vinegar goes a long way.

Pepper Vinegar from britinthesouth.comOnce made, the vinegar gets better as it gets older.

 

Hot Pepper Vinegar

12oz hot peppers (I used a mix of jalapeno, serrano, habanero and fresno peppers)

3 cups apple cider vinegar

1.5 tbs salt

Wash and drain the peppers, then make a small incision in each one.

Place the peppers in a sterilised quart jar. You can sterilise a jar in boiling water.

Put the vinegar and salt in a pan and bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring until the salt dissolves.

Pour the hot vinegar over the peppers in the jar. Seal the jar and leave for a couple of weeks for the peppers to infuse the vinegar.

I decant the vinegar into a smaller pourer to use at the table and top up the jar with more vinegar / salt mix as I deplete the original vinegar.

 

Lemon Ginger Marmalade with Ginger/Lemon Liqueur

Not for the first time this winter, the South has been hit by a blast of arctic weather. The temperature is well below freezing so the snow is not going to disappear any time soon, and with the roads slick with ice most of the city is hunkered down at home.

It’s the perfect day to retire to the kitchen and cook something cosy and warming to fill the house with delicious aromas. A perfect marmalade day.

Lemon ginger marmalade with ginger lemon liqueur from britinthesouth.com Back home in Britain it is the middle of the short lived Seville orange season and marmalade making will be in full swing. As Seville oranges are hard to come by in my neck of the woods, I opted for a lemon and ginger marmalade, with a splash of locally distilled lemon and ginger liqueur to dial the flavour up a notch.

The result is a delicious golden coloured marmalade with a great balance of sweetness and bitterness and the ginger and the liqueur providing some gentle warmth. The perfect way to bring a ray of golden sunshine into a dull winter day.

The recipe is loosely based on this one from Vivian Lloyd.

Lemon ginger marmalade with ginger lemon liqueur from britinthesouth.com

Lemon Ginger Marmalade with Ginger/Lemon Liqueur

12oz lemons

0.75oz peeled fresh ginger

2oz finely sliced crystallised ginger

30 fl.oz. water

1.5lb granulated sugar

2 tbs lemon ginger liqueur (I used “Lawn Dart” from Atlanta’s Old 4th Distillery)

Yield: about 36oz

Scrub the lemons, and then juice them, adding the juice to a large pan along with the water.

With a sharp knife, separate the lemon peel from the the membranes and pips inside the lemon. Put those to one side.

Slice the peel into thin strips and add them to the pan.

Finely chop the membranes from the lemons. Bruise the fresh ginger, then securely tie it in a piece of muslin along with the chopped membranes and the pips from the lemons. Add this little package to the pan.

Leave the fruit to soak for a few hours or even overnight to help extract the pectin. The following day, bring it to the boil and then turn down, partially cover and simmer for two hours until the peel is tender and the marmalade has reduced by about a third.

Whilst it is cooking, place a couple of saucers or small plates in your freezer to enable you to test later for when the marmalade has set.

Remove the muslin bag and add the slices crystallised ginger to the pan.

Add the sugar to the pan and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Bring to a rolling boil for 8-10 minutes. Towards the end of the cooking time add the liqueur. Test for a set by putting a small spoonful of the marmalade onto one of the frozen plates. Return it to the freezer for a couple of minutes then test by pushing your finger through it. If it is thickening and the surface “crinkles” when you push it, it is set. If the consistency is still liquid carry on cooking for a little longer.

Once the marmalade has reached its setting point, remove the pan from the heat.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes, removing any scum that has formed on the surface.

Pour the marmalade into sterilised jars. Apply lids and then process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. If you need to know more about water bath canning there is a good introductory guide on the Ball canning website.

Yield: 36oz

Apple Paste

The final challenge for the year in the highly enjoyable Food in Jars mastery challenge was fruit pastes.

Selecting a fruit to experiment with was a fairly simple choice: I had a glut of apples and I had gone slightly overboard buying a wide range of different cheeses for Christmas so I thought a thick, sliceable apple paste would make an ideal partner to many of those cheeses, something like the classic British “fruit cheese” or Spanish quince membrillo.

Apple Paste from britinthesouth.comThe technique is fairly simple and recipes abound online.

I went for the simplest approach I could find, using just fruit, sugar and a little lemon juice. The apples are coarsely chopped, skins and pips included, and then cooked until soft in a little water. They are then drained and passed through a food mill to produce a soft pulp to which sugar is added and then cooked low and slow until a dark, rich, thick paste is produced.

Apple Paste from britinthesouth.comI tried it with a number of cheeses. It worked particularly well with Thomasville Tomme, an aged raw cow’s milk cheese from the South of Georgia, but would also be great with a mature cheddar.

Apple Paste

2.5lbs apples

12oz granulated sugar

2 tbs lemon juice

Wash and roughly chop the apples. There is no need to peel, core or deseed them.

Put in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil over medium high heat and cook until soft, 12-15 minutes.

Pass through a food mill or sieve, leaving the skins and pips behind to yield a soft, mushy apple pulp. Return this to the pan, add the sugar and lemon juice, and cook over a low heat, stirring regularly, until the apple pulp darkens and solidifies to a thick, spreadable paste. This can take 2-3 hours so you need to be patient and regularly check and stir to ensure the apples don’t stick or burn.

Apple Paste from britinthesouth.comLine a suitable food container with parchment paper. This quantity will produce a paste approximately 6″ x 6″ x 1″.  I split mine between a couple of glass containers about 3″ x 4.5″ to produce an attractive looking small slab of paste for the Christmas cheeseboard.

Spread the paste in the container so it is even, then leave for at least 2-3 hours, preferably overnight, before using.

You can serve in simple slices but if your paste is solid enough you can use a cookie cutter to turn it into decorative shapes for your cheeseboard.

Apple Paste from britinthesouth.com

Curtido: Fermented Cabbage Relish

I’m no stranger to the art of fermentation, having been making beer and wine for over 30 years, but my adventures in fermenting food have been a little more limited.

My efforts have been largely limited to simple cabbage based ferments such as sauerkraut or kimchi, occasionally experimenting with other vegetables such as collard greens and tomatoes.

curtido - fermented cabbage relish from britinthesouth.comThe theme for the November Food in Jars Mastery Challenge was fermentation and although I went with a cabbage based recipe it included quite a few other goodies and was something completely new to me: curtido, a cabbage relish from El Salvador that typically also features onions and carrots and is seasoned with oregano and lime juice.

It was a good opportunity to use some of the glut of napa cabbage from my CSA box as well as some of the fragrant oregano I had dried from my own garden.

curtido - fermented cabbage relish from britinthesouth.comGoogle “curtido” and you’ll find wealth of recipes, all very similar with slight variations. I followed this one with a few tweaks.

The result was a tangy and tasty, like a fermented coleslaw and it makes an excellent side dish or is great on a burger.

Curtido: Fermented Cabbage Relish

1lb chopped napa cabbage

1 tbs pickling salt

5oz carrots, sliced thinly on a mandolin

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 jalapeno, thinly sliced

1 green apple, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tbs dried oregano

Juice of a lime

Put the cabbage and salt in glass or metal bowl, massage the salt into cabbage then leave for a couple of hours. The leaves should start to soften and yield some moisture.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well to combine. Spoon the mixture into a quart jar and press down well.

curtido - fermented cabbage relish from britinthesouth.comI used a fermentation kit from masonjarlifestyle.com which provides everything you need to start playing about with fermentation in wide mouth mason jars. It comes with a silicon fermenting lid, and airlock and a glass weight which fits neatly in the jar to press down the vegetables below the brine.

If you don’t have any of that gear just put some cloth or paper towel on top secured with an rubber band and place on a plate to catch any liquid that might overflow.

Keep the jar out on a counter top for 2-3 days, checking occasionally that the liquid is bubbling and the mix has a tangy smell and flavour.

After that you can transfer the jar to your fridge and enjoy within 3-4 weeks.

Dried Tomatoes: Feta and Tomato Dip

We invested in a dehydrator many years ago and have found it a very useful way to help deal with gluts from our garden and CSA box.

The most common items we dry are apples for snacking and cabbage to add to soups and stews in the winter. We have also found it great for drying herbs from the garden when they start growing out of control.

Dried Tomatoes: Feta and Tomato Dip from britinthesouth.comOurs is a 4 tray Excalibur brand dehydrator which are easy to find online. It is easy to use and has proved very reliable over many years of use.

One of the options for the Food in Jars mastery challenge for October was dehydrating so I thought I’d have a go at something I haven’t tried drying before: tomatoes. We preserve loads of tomatoes at the height of summer but most of them are turned into sauce, paste or jam.

Even though the end of October beckons there are still a few late season tomatoes around in my part of Georgia. Last week’s CSA box included some grape tomatoes which made ideal candidates for the dehydrator.

Prepping them was easy: I just washed them and halved them, before loading them onto the dehydrator trays. Some folks season them at this stage or marinate them before drying but I just left them as they were, preferring to season when I come to use them in the future.

Dried Tomatoes: Feta and Tomato Dip from britinthesouth.comHaving loaded the tomatoes into the dehydrator I set the temperature to 135 degrees F and turned it on. They took around 9 hours in total. Larger tomatoes would take a bit longer. The trick is to regularly check them to see if they have achieved the desired result where they are dry and slightly leathery.

Dried Tomatoes: Feta and Tomato Dip from britinthesouth.comOnce they have cooled store them in an airtight jar. I look forward to using them to get a burst of summer flavour in some of my winter cooking but I couldn’t resist putting some of them to use sooner than that. I softened some in oilve oil before whipping together with feta and yogurt to make a tangy and tasty dip.

Feta and Tomato Dip

0.25 cup dried grape tomatoes

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

0.5 cup plain yogurt (I used fat free)

2oz crumbled feta cheese (I used an excellent goats cheese feta from a local farm)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Dried Tomatoes: Feta and Tomato Dip from britinthesouth.comPut the dried tomatoes and the olive oil in a bowl and leave for 30-40 minutes for the tomatoes to soften a little.

Put both the oil and tomatoes in a food processor and blitz for a few seconds to start chopping the tomatoes.

Add the yogurt and feta and process until blended into a pink hued chunky dip.

Season to taste with salt and black pepper. As feta tends to be salty you may only need the black pepper.

Enjoy with crudites or on crackers.

 

Spicy Pickled Green Tomatoes

Summer in this part of the world has finally finished. The temperatures have dipped slightly and the stifling humidity of a few weeks ago has dissipated, making this one of my favourite times of year weather wise.

Spicy pickled green tomatoes from britinthesouth.comThe corn, cucumbers and peaches have disappeared from our CSA box, to be replaced by squashes, sweet potatoes and apples.

I am trying to make the most of the last remnants of this year’s tomato harvest before they too disappear until next summer. This weekend I oven roasted a big batch of cherry tomatoes with garlic and thyme and then passed it through a food mill to make a batch of deeply savoury sauce to freeze for the winter.

Both in the garden and at the market there is a sudden glut of green tomatoes as the hours of sunlight in the day begin to wane.

As a kid in England I remember my Mum struggling to come up with a use for the green tomatoes left in our garden at the end of summer. I recall that green tomato chutney seemed to be the only option anyone could think of and no one had much enthusiasm for either making or consuming it.

Here in the South, green tomatoes are much more of a staple, and I have come to love the classic Southern fried green tomatoes.

Spicy pickled green tomatoes from britinthesouth.comWhen faced with a small glut of green tomatoes I opted for pickling them. I used this recipe from Food In Jars for inspiration but tweaked the end result in a different direction by changing out the seasonings for something a bit spicier.

The result is great: a sharp, tart, spicy pickle that goes particularly well paired with a creamy goats cheese or a brie or camembert.

Spicy Pickled Green Tomatoes

1lb green tomatoes

1 cup water

1 cup white vinegar

1 tbs pickling salt

1 tsp black peppercorns

4 garlic cloves

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp red pepper flakes

Combine the water, vinegar and salt and bring to a boil.

Put the following into each sterilised 8oz jar:-

0.25 tsp black peppercorns

1 garlic clove

0.25 tsp mustard seeds

0.25 tsp red pepper flakes

Cut the tomatoes into wedges and pack as tightly as you can into the jars.

Pour the brine into the jars, leaving a headspace of half an inch. Use a chopstick to remove any air bubbles and top up with brine if necessary. Apply lids and then process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. If you need to know more about water bath canning there is a good introductory guide on the Ball canning website.

Yield: 4x 8oz jars

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