Final Four

It was another of those days where I was busy all day, but not in a way that encourages much picture-taking. My first task was to get cooking on the Spicy Plum Barbecue Sauce. This was made with the plums I picked from our tree. Before leaving home on our trip to Colorado, I picked and pitted the plums, and then froze them for future use. After thawing them in the refrigerator, they were added to the pot with the rest of the ingredients, and no one will be the wiser that the plums were first frozen.

It's really delicious. When I made this the first time, I used a recipe from the Food in Jars cookbook. It was too spicy for our taste, and so I've adapted the original recipe. Here's how I made it.

Spicy Plum Barbecue Sauce
adapted from Food in Jars
Yield: 8 half-pint jars

Ingredients:

4 pounds Italian prune plums
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup minced onion
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
1/4 teaspoon cayenne

Directions:

Cut plums in half. Remove stones.

Combine all ingredients in a wide pot with a tight-fitting lid and stir to combine. Place lidded pot on the stove over medium-high heat and cook for approximately 20 minutes, until the plums and onions have softened.

Using a potato masher, break down the plum pieces. Continue to cook, with the lid off, until the mixture has reduced by approximately half.

Remove pot from heat. Using an immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth (you may have to tip the pan a little in order to do this without splashing). If you don't have an immersion blender, scrape the mixture into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

If the sauce is nice and thick, it is done. If it's still a little watery, return it to the heat and cook a bit longer. At this point, taste it and add more salt or pepper, if necessary.

When finished, remove the pot from the stove and funnel the finished sauce into your washed and warm jars. Wipe rims, apply lids and bands, and place in a water bath canner. Repeat until all jars are filled. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes (add 5 minutes of processing time for every 1,000 feet of elevation).

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While I was waiting for the barbecue sauce to cook down, I used another of the vegetables from our CSA share...the Hakurei Turnips. I never know what to do with the Hakurei turnips. Some fellow CSA members have sauteed them, roasted them, and added them to salads raw. I've tried all those things, and none of them have excited me all that much. This way of pickling them is pretty good though, and so that's what I've been doing with them. They're a refrigerator pickle, and so no cooking or processing is required. 

I'm using a recipe from the Early Morning Farm blog, but I'll give you that link with this caveat: The original recipe calls for a full tablespoon of crushed red pepper. When I made this the first time, it made for some very spicy pickles, and it was difficult to eat them without getting a lot of crushed red pepper in every bite. For that reason, I think a better choice would be spicy jalapeno rings, but if you prefer less spice, leave out the seeds, or leave out the pepper altogether.

For yesterday's version, I added one of the cayenne peppers from our CSA share. I used only half the pepper, and I removed the ribs and seeds where the heat resides. It made them look pretty, and it added just a nice hint of heat without knocking our heads off. We tried them this morning, and they were yummy.

Once I had the day's canning finished, I went back to work on the Dresdens. Eight are finished now. Four more to go.

The kids are coming for dinner this evening, and so I'm going to be doing some cooking today. On the menu are pork loins that Mike will smoke on his Traeger grill. We'll use the plum barbecue sauce and the peach barbecue sauce I made before we left on our trip. Also, German potato salad, corn on the cob, and Dutch apple pie.

Also, I have a pile of CSA carrots. For the carrots, I'll be trying something new with a recipe for carrot relish. It's supposed to be good on sandwiches or as a condiment, or even as a side dish all on its own. We'll see. I'll be working on the carrots, the pie, and the potato salad this morning, and then I'm hoping I'll have time this afternoon to finish some more Dresdens. Probably I won't finish them all today, but maybe by tomorrow I'll be ready to start sewing the quilt together.