Can Jam May - Rhubarb

Update 5-25-10 -Pictures! Yay! Posts are so much better with pictures!

Also, if you have extra rhubarb leaves I made a rhubarb stepping stone post here.

You may notice that there aren't any pictures in this post. That's because I am an idiot and I dropped and broke my camera. Argh! I had the worst week for canning. First of all I broke my camera, then I was about to start canning and I'd borrowed my Dad's camera, but then the whole town lost power for 4 hours. Then my Dad went on vacation and took his camera with him. I also had to get Tansy neutered - yes that's right my sweet little girl turned out to be a BOY! Let's just say Tansy is not pleased with me right now - the snip snip wasn't so much fun. I also had a really busy exhausting week at work. There were also a million things I had to plant in the garden. Plants don't exactly wait very well to get planted. Soooooooo a long difficult week.

~

This month for the Can Jam we had the choice of either rhubarb or asparagus. I HATE(d) both!

My hate for the green spears stems from my childhood. When you grow up in a family that grows asparagus for sale, you eat a lot of asparagus, and in my case develop a hatred of it. This is also why I am not a huge fan of red raspberries. I imagine the same thing happens to children of candy makers. *just kidding!*

~

So rhubarb. Well, my Mom never cooked with rhubarb when I was growing up, because she hated it. She hated all the sugar that people add to it. However, I turned her into a rhubarb lover with my Savory Rhubarb Soup recipe. I thought about making a rhubarb-cherry jam, but after experiencing the citric acid power of rhubarb in the soup recipe, I decided to try a savory recipe. My Mom was rooting for a chutney recipe, but I have lots of Pear Chutney in my pantry. I decided on a salsa recipe and so Rhubarb Salsa was born, er canned.

~

Spicy Rhubarb Salsa

3 cups chopped tomatoes

2 cups chopped rhubarb

1 cup chopped tomatillos

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1/2 cup chopped chile peppers (I used a combination of habenero, yellow spicy and anaheim)

1 Tbs garlic paste

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tbs cilantro

2 Tbs cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup lime juice ( I used key limes)

Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pot. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 mins. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust 2 piece caps. Process 15 mins. in a boiling water bath canner.

This is HOT!!!

It has a sweet and smokey flavor too.

It's yummy. I think it would make a good barbecue sauce.

Filled jars before canning.

Onions.

Peppers.



I thought the tomatillo husks looked like flowers.

Chopped peppers.

Rhubarb and tomatillo.

Tomato.

Cooking.

Cooking.

Canning.

Done!

Rhubarb salsa!

Can Mania!

This last week, I have been canning like crazy in preparation for the county fair (and just 'cause I like to can - the fair's a good excuse).

I had one failure: my black raspberry/guava jelly didn't set up, so now it's raspberry/guava juice. It still tastes good!

So far this last week I have made: the jelly/juice mistake, gooseberry jam, raspberry jam, raspberry/current jam, squash pickles, banana butter and peach salsa.

(Banana butter recipe below)

My canning from last night: 6 pints/4 half pints banana butter

11 pints/8 half pints peach salsa

The bananas were 99 cents for a huge bag. I bought both bags AND they were organic! Score!

Walmart had peaches on sale for 78 cents a pound, so that will be my next adventure.

Because I have a LOT of peaches in my kitchen.

I couldn't resist! Yummy peaches.......

Banana Butter

For every pound of bananas add 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup bottled lemon juice.

Put bananas and sugar in a large pot; mash with a potato masher.

Cook over low heat until paste rounds up on a spoon.

Optional: add cinnamon and cloves to taste.

Ladle into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.

Remove air bubbles.

Adjust 2 piece caps.

Process in a boiling water canner for 10 mins.

This is soooooo good! It is like banana bread in a jar.

Watch out - Very addictive - I warned you!