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23
Jul 10

Tigress’ Can Jam | Linda’s Gingery Watermelon Pickles (July)

yeah… this has been a weird one…


As always, I was soooo excited to do this month’s canning.  When I first read that we were entering the cucurbit world, I got all goofy about it.  It wasn’t even hot enough in LA to fully enjoy the refreshing goodness of watermelons, but I was buying and eating.  And the canning of the rind was what I wanted to do.

I liked both Linda Ziedrich’s The Joy of Pickling and Bryant Terry’s Vegan Soul Kitchen recipes for the rind, but couldn’t decide between them.  Then, things got complicated.  Well, the discussion of race in the country and under my window took over.

I started avoiding my rind and avoiding this post.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever shied away from eating watermelon in diverse company, but I wasn’t finding the nuanced, fun way to talk about watermelon, race and my canning of the lovely rind.  The week started getting heavier than I expected.  Then, it just got away from me.

I’ll come back and update over the weekend with more.  I think I’ll be on the other side of this.

Gingery Watermelon Pickles
adapted from Linda Ziedrich’s The Joy of Pickling

1/8 cup pickling salt
2 cups of water
3 cups of rind

syrup
1/2 lemon, thinly sliced
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon whole cardamom seeds
1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger sliced
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of white wine vinegar
1 cup of sugar

Hellllllo! Eat your watermelon down to the rind.  Pink, be gone.  Removed the green skin.  I used a veg peeler.  Cut up your rind into bite size pieces.  In a bowl, dissolve the salt in 2cups of water.  Add the rind and let it soak for 6 to 12 hours.  I let it soak overnight.

Drain and rinse the rind a few times.  Then, in a non-reactive pot, cover the rind with cold water.  Bring the water to a boil, then let it simmer for 5 min.  Drain the rind and set it aside.

Make a goody pouch from cheesecloth.  Tie up the spices, ginger and lemon.  Add it, along with the water, vinegar and sugar to the pot.  Bring it to a boil, then lower the temp to let the syrup simmer for 5 minutes.  Now, don’t forget to stir, stir, stir.  When the syrup is ready, take it off the heat and add the rind.  Let it sit in the syrup for 12 to 24 hours at room temp.

Prep and sterilize 3 .25L or 1/2 pint jars.  Bring the rind and syrup to a boil.  Then, turn down the heat and simmer until the rind is translucent.  Remove the goody pouch.  Fill jars and water bath process for 10 minutes.

NikkiBits: Linda’s recipe calls for a whole lot more watermelon than I’ve got space for or will carry.  So I’ve tweaked it with my old math skills, but kept it a little heavy on the lemon.

What’s Next: I’m in love. That’s good, right?  Okay, I’m always in love, but whatever.  Next, I need to make Bryant’s Citrus & Spice Pickled Watermelon Rind.

So.  Right.  This weekend.  Let’s maybe revisit this thing.

Nikki♥

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19
Jul 10

Seen | Ehhhh… Tagged

yeah… the first kind of speaks for the rest…

I heard a bite in a graf doc a few years ago that stuck with me.  The guy said once you notice it, you’ll realize it’s everywhere.  Ummm, okay.  Can the good stuff be everywhere? Or can we not do the new school in the neighborhood?

I don’t know what I feel anymore.  I guess because I see a LOT of it.  We don’t really have pieces around here.  It’s a bunch of tagging, a bit of stencil and old post office stickers.  Some of it is really interesting.  Most of it… eh, not so much.

Nikki♥

The Doc? Bomb It

LosAngeles / The Politics of Being Me — No comments
18
Jul 10

The Shoulds | Hiding From The Sun

of course there are things I should do…

The older women in my neighborhood could give a master class in deflecting rays.  From umbrellas and visors to hats and shade stalking, they stay covered.  I should take notes, but I can’t seem to even remember my sunglasses.

Yeah, I’m still not that LA.

Nikki♥

I'm Hungry! / LosAngeles — No comments
17
Jul 10

Market.Watch | Golden Opportunities Missed

i miss going to the market…

I forgot to eat the beets...

Okay.  Let me be specific.  I miss going to the farmers’ market around the corner from my house on Friday afternoons.

I’m planning on going to Hollywood tomorrow morning.  But, well, that’s tomorrow.  And that’s always the plan.

Nikki♥

LosAngeles / Stuff? — No comments
15
Jul 10

Seen | The Morning Light

the light was amazing this morning.

After being awed by its glow, I captured what I could.  From bed.

Nikki♥

I'm Hungry! / The Politics of Being Me — No comments
12
Jul 10

Mmmm Hmmm | That Jerk Chicken

it’s been a week since we met…

I WANT MOOOOOORRREEEEEE!  Oh, and the watermelon soaked in soju.  Ummm, yeah.  Nice.

As you can see, I’m back on the bird.  Kinda scary cause I was on the bone, too.  I have never, evah, sucked on a chicken bone in my life.  Lawd, the jerk seasoning was kinda worth the awkward moments after.

Nikki♥

LosAngeles / Move / Uhhh — No comments
11
Jul 10

On The Walk

things i used to see on my midday walks

nikki♥

Cue:Music / I like you. I really do. / The Politics of Being Me — No comments
06
Jul 10

Hello, It’s Me…

I know.  I’ve been gone, again.  Popping in to quickly CanJam, then poof.  Only the randomness of my tweetstorm as evidence that I’m around, but only in 140 mode.

I have been writing.  Writing lots of different things.  Just not finishing.  I haven’t been able to put my head around the sentences and paragraphs that confound me.

I’ve been getting stuck on purpose.  Why am I writing what I’m writing?  Is outcome more important than getting it out?  I’m trying not to worry about what comes after.  Ehhh, I’m not there yet.

I’ve been big on the 4 Agreements this year.  I write them down everyday.  I’m working on keeping my word.  Being impeccable with it.  I just can’t seem to do it  with myself.  I’m the easiest and the first person to let down in a pinch, or hell, on the regular.

But this, R&C, is the place I can do whatever my heart and head desires.  They both need more attention paid.

So, I’m back.  If only to remind myself that I get joy from so many things and that Mommy taught me to share.

Nikki♥

I’m going to burn some incense now… Here’s Todd Rundgren & The Isley Brothers doing “Hello, It’s Me”

I'm Hungry! / The Politics of Being Me — 2 comments
25
Jun 10

Tigress’ Can Jam | Whole Churry Preserves (June)

ummm, that’s the way it’s supposed to be spelled.

Okay.  So I’ve been missing the Mid-Atlantic States a bit lately.  With Pressure Cooker out on dvd  and the new season of Top Chef in DC,  I was thinking about what makes the whole area from VA to PA feel like home.

In many ways, it’s just hearing people speak.  It amazes me how happy I get when I hear people with the super regional accents or the ones where the smallest thing will give them away.  I kind of even watch old episodes of Homicide and The Wire just to get a little taste of a place not far from where I grew up.

One of the mainstays of Go-Go, Little Benny, passed away recently.  Along with hip-hop, it was the music I heard in the halls and lunch rooms during school.  My eyes may have rolled a bit growing up, now it just makes me smile.

Watching old interviews and a Go-Go doc from the 80s made me cringe and wistful at the same time.  All these really super specific DC things come to the fore.  There is a way of saying words that end in -ry that is SOoooo home to me.  Really, it’s r and vowels, but whatever.   It’s like very becomes vuurry like in snow flurry, with a heavy emphasis on the urr.

So in honor of the DC Metro area (urrreeeuhhh), I made Whole Churry Preserves.

Whole Churry Preserves

Adapted  from Georgeanne Brennan’s The Glass Pantry

2 lbs of ripe sweet cherries

3/12 c of sugar

2 c water

Clean cherries.  Remove stems.  Pit by gently squeezing each cherry until the pit pops out.  {My fingers were stained such a lovely color last night.  Ahhh, but the red tint was all gone by morning.}  Add the sugar and water to a heavy bottomed non-reactive pot.   Stir occasionally for 5 or so minutes to allow sugar to dissolve.

Add cherries and bring to a boil.  Then, reduce to low heat and let simmer for 1 ¾ hours.  After 1 ½ hours, raise the temp to med-low.

Since cherries are low low low on the natural pectin totem pole, Georgeanne suggests a long slow cooking time to get them to the jell point.  She suggests starting to test after 45minutes.

Wash and sterilize jars.  When cherries are ready, remove from heat.  Skim and discard any foamy bits from the surface.  Ladle into jar.  Process for 10 minutes.

The NikkiBits: The recipe yields 4 pints.  I got ummm 2.  But that probably has more to do with my nibbling tendencies.  Mmmm, churries.  If I had any of that Amarretto from last month left, I’d have used a little of that, too.

What’sNext: You know I’ve been avoiding the pectin purchase.  That’s going to have to stop.  Hello.  What were my preserves like this morning?  Can you say loosey-goosey still sloshy?  Seriously, I’m heading to the store and we’ll tighten things up tonight.

It’s interesting to see my appreciation for fresh fruits and vegetables develop even more as our canning challenge continues.   It also makes me think more about growing up on the east coast and the obvious nature of eating seasonally.  I’ve got a fridge full of berries that I want to enjoy fresh and that I want to enjoy in different ways come fall.

Nikki♥

I'm Hungry! — 4 comments
21
May 10

Tigress’ Can Jam | Ashley’s Outstanding Rhubarb Chutney (May)

april & may tcj are fighting for my heart

What can I say, but thank you.  Ashley, thank you.  Loving this recipe.  Loving my Rhubarb & Amaretto Chutney.  I didn’t even do anything to it. (♥:Do I know you????)

I get all giddy when I learn a thing or five.  This month in canning has been really cool.  Hello, this is so not a late Friday night post.  Again.  Yay!  I planned, experimented and didn’t rush.  I might have to apply that to the rest of my…

Okay.  So, I still haven’t found a locally grown source for the barb.  I kinda stopped looking for it after I found it at the downtown Ralphs.  *Bad Nikki Shrug*  I’m keeping an eye out, though.

I wanted to try something different from last week’s tasty jam.  Since most of the other canning titles on the shelf went sweet, I was excitedly hoping that Canning & Preserving with Ashley English would surprise me with something I couldn’t pass up.  HELLOOOOOO, Rhubarb and Amaretto Chutney.  I mean, really.  HELLOOOO.

As I looked over the ingredients, I saw a long overdue trip in the making.  Coriander and cumin were already on my list to get from the South Asian grocery in the neighborhood.  I’d scouted out the place before, but hadn’t put the card on the counter to pay.

It’s like spice nirvana in there.  Freakish price and quantity difference from conventional stores.  I picked up a few other things that just might find their way into a new take on Market.Watch.

Can we talk about the big bottle of amaretto I’ve got in the cabinet now?  See, that’s what I get for not reading the entire recipe.  I was way too excited to grab the straw shopping basket Mom got me and go all euro with my multiple stops that I didn’t see that I could have just replaced the alcohol with orange juice.

It’s not that I don’t drink.  A bottle of wine usually won’t make it ’til morning.  I just don’t know what to do with the makings of a little bar.  Cute, I guess.  But it means I’ll need to get some friends to hang out with the soju and amaretto.  Right?

Rhubarb and Amaretto Chutney
barely, yet adoringly adapted from Canning & Preserving with Ashley English

cheesecloth or a muslin tea bag
3 cardamom pods
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seed
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon whole yellow mustard seed
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole coriander seed
1/2 cinnamon stick
2 1/2 c rhubarb, chopped
2 c brown sugar
1 1/4 c sweet onions, chopped
1/2 c seedless raisins
2 cloves garlic, mince
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger, minced
1 1/2 c apple cider vinegar
1/4 c amaretto
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard seed
3/4 teaspoon pickling or kosher salt

Make a spice pouch from a small the cheesecloth or muslin square.  Add the cardamom pods, whole cumin, coriander, cloves, mustard seeds, black peppercorns and cinnamon to the cheesecloth.  Secure the bundle with kitchen twine.

Add the spices, brown sugar, rhubarb, onions, raisins, garlic, ginger, and vinegar to sauce pan.  Bring to a gentle boil.  Cook over medium heat, uncovered for 30 min.  Add amaretto, lemon zest, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, mustard seeds and salt.  Simmer for 30 more minutes.  Stir, stir, stir.  Ashley suggests adding a bit more water to the chutney if it begins to stick to the pot.  1/8 cup to start.

Prep and sterilize jars and lids.  Fill jars and water bath process for 10 minutes.

NikkiBits: While this is pretty much halved, where it isn’t I chose over in the over/under debate in my head.  This yields 2 .25L or 1/2 pint jars with some extra for the fridge.   I had a bit with some fish and cous cous I threw together with a bit of curry, broccoli, coconut milk and Matouk’s.  OMFrigginG.

What’s Next: Awww, man.  I can’t wait to get more/better priced rhubarb.  This really kicks.  I so want to make it to give to friends and my fave librarian. (♥:Save LAPL!)

I think I might be glad that I didn’t really like the rhubarb pie I had that summer in Canada forever ago.  I wonder if I’d appreciate the journey to the savory and sweet.
Nikki♥

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