Can Jam June: Cherry Spice Jelly

I'm too late for the Can Jam round-up, but I wanted to share my creation for the Can Jam challenge. It was inspired by my recent trip to the Spice Market in Seattle.

Cherry Spice Jelly

64 oz cherry juice

4 Tbs "Market Spice" loose tea

tea bag

1 pkg no sugar needed pectin

1 cup sugar

In a large saucepan bring cherry juice and tea to a boil. Remove tea bag, add pectin and return to a boil. Add sugar and return to a hard boil that can not be stirred down. Pour into prepared jars and process for 10 mins. in a boiling water bath canner.

What do you do when you have a 5 gallon bucket of frozen cherries?

Pit them.....

...................... and make jam!

In the pic above you can see a couple of my souvenirs from our trip to Washington. I like to buy milk in glass bottles while I'm on vacation and then bring the glass bottle home as a souvenir. They come in handy, holding homemade juices, broths and iced tea.

You can also see the tea I bought at the Public Market in Seattle at the Spice Market. It has cinnamon oil in it, which adds a sweet, but not sugary flavor to the jelly.

Putting the tea in a tea bag.

Cherry juice and tea bag.

Finished jelly.

It is very tart, but has a sweet cinnamon aftertaste. It tastes like the perfect essence of cherries.

Can Jam April - Herbs: Blueberry-Mint Jam

When the April CanJam was announced as herbs, I wasn't very excited.

Herbs?

I want to start using things from my garden for the CanJams, but chives are the only herb growing out there right now. Sure I have a tsp. of a few other herbs that are starting to sprout up, but I didn't want to chop off their little baby heads.

I just did garlic-onion jam last CanJam, so I also didn't want to use the chives.

I still have a freezer full of blueberries from our berry picking vacation, so I knew that I wanted to use blueberries, but what herb goes with blueberries?

At first, I thought about Lavender. This Lavender? No the herb lavender!

I've heard of Blueberry-lavender jam, but my Mom suggested mint (Thanks Mom!).

Mint?

Really?

That's so weird - it just might work!
I just happened to have homemade mint extract in my freezer too. I made it last summer from the huge mint plant (bush) in my backyard. Sorry there aren't any pics of the mint extract process, I made it before I started taking pictures of everything.

So here it is:

Blueberry-Mint Jam

4 cups blueberries

2 cups mint extract (directions below)

1 Tbs bottled lemon juice

1 tsp butter

4 cups sugar

1 pkg no sugar needed pectin

Bring blueberries, mint extract, lemon juice and butter to a rolling boil. Boil for 10 mins and then add sugar. Return to a boil. Boil for 10 mins. Add pectin and return to a boil. Boil at a rolling boil for 1 min. Transfer to prepared jars and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 mins.

To make mint extract: Take fresh mint leaves, remove the stems and measure the mint leaves. Put mint leaves in a bowl. Add boiling water to the bowl - if you have 2 cups mint leaves add one cup boiling water, if you have 1 cup mint leaves add 1/2 cup boiling water - you get the idea. Let mint leaves steep until cool or overnight in the fridge. Strain mint leaves from liquid and pour mint extract into ice cube trays. Freeze mint extract or skip the freezing and use in the recipe above.

Blueberries and mint extract

Boil!

Spoony likes the taste - yum!

With sugar and pectin.

In the jar.

Glossy

Spoony! Did you eat it all?!?

Nope. He saved a few jars.

Jars fresh from the canner.

I found a few mint sprigs in the garden and sacrificed them for this picture.

Poor plant babies.

So.................what does it taste like?!?

Yummy!

Fresh, clean, very blueberry-ish with a nice minty aftertaste, but not overpoweringly mint. In fact, if you didn't know there was mint in this jam I don't think you could pick out the flavor. It has an intriguing flavor, but like the Carrot Jam, no one would ever think blueberry-mint jam.

Oh, also this jam took me exactly 1 hour to make from start to cans sealing on the counter.

Can Jam March - Allium

The third Can Jam challenge of the year was allium.

I was happy, because I have lots of garlic left over from last year's garden .

I also had 2 Copra onions from last year's garden that I was saving for something special.

Something special like Onion Garlic Jam!

This is seriously good stuff.

When I'm cooking something and I really like it, this is what I say to myself, "Mmmm, oh yeah. This is some seriously good stuff. I'll just try a little more."

Onion Garlic Jam

4 cups cooked garlic/onion puree -For texture if desired, reserve 1 cup onions cooked, but unpureed
4 cups brown sugar

3 cups vinegar

2 Tbs salt

1 pkg no sugar needed pectin

Variety of home grown garlic.

Garlic bulbs ready for roasting in a 400F degree oven, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt.



My 2 normal large sized onions and a JUMBO onion from the grocery store.
It was huge!

Slicing up a Copra onion. It is amazing how well these onions store through the winter. This onion is over 6 months old.

More onion slicing.

Cooking the onion slices with a little butter and salt.

The salt breaks the cell walls in the onions and helps them release more water.

Less water = more onion flavored jam.

Roasted garlic ready for pureeing.

All the ingredients in the pot ready to be boiled up.

Bring everything to a boil and then add pectin.

Return to a boil and continue cooking for 1 min at a rolling boil that can't be stirred down.

I cooked mine for about 5 mins at a rolling boil, because I wanted a very firm jam.

Pectin added - reboiling.

Pour into sterilized jars and adjust 2 piece tops.

Process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 mins.

This post to me a ridiculously long time to write, because I have a new fur baby distraction.

Tansy!

I also worked 7 out of the last 8 days..........my one day off? I made jam! LOL

Can Jam Feb - Carrots

It's time for another Can Jam!

Huh - That month went by fast.

This month the challenge item was carrots.

At first, I was nonplussed. Carrots? Hmmmm. I like carrots, but I'm not crazy for canned carrots. Plus there was the addition of safety concerns. We can only use boiling water bath canning not pressure canning, so the recipes would be limited to pickles, relishes or what?

Well, while I was researching the Daring Cook's Feb. challenge, a Mezze dinner, I discovered rose water. Then I discovered Morabaa-yeh Haveej or Persian Carrot Jam made with rose water and lime.

Ok, maybe I can get into this carrot idea!

Morabaa-yeh Haveej or Carrot Jam with Rose Water and Lime

1 quart carrot juice

2 cups shredded carrot

1/2 cup bottled lime juice

2 Tbs rose water

1 tsp butter

4 cup sugar

1 pkg no sugar needed pectin

In a large pot boil together carrot juice, shredded carrots, lime juice, rose water and butter. Boil for 5 mins, add 4 cups of sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil and continue boiling for 20 mins. Add pectin, return to a boil and boil for 1 min.

Pour into prepared jars and boil in a boiling water bath canner for 10 mins.

Makes 6 pints and 1 half-pint.

Shredding carrots.

I had a few limes hanging around in my fridge so I squished them into the pot too.

A little added acid.

Jars getting ready for tops.

Pretty! I love the color of this jam!



I made some challah bread to eat with the jam.

This jam is awesome! It doesn't taste like carrots exactly. It tastes like a combination of pears/apricots/peaches.

I asked my Dad to blind taste test it. He didn't even get close to guessing that it was made from carrots. But he said it tasted good!

Personally and honestly, I think this is the best jam I have ever canned.

*Best Jam Ever*

Just think of all the beta carotene.

Super healthy jam too!

Can Jam January - Citrus

The first Tigress in a Jam - Can Jam!

The theme for this month is citrus.

Pure Gold Marmalade, my own recipe of orange, lemon, passion fruit, mango and peach, is my first choice for citrus, but I still have quite a few jars of it in my pantry and I couldn't find any frozen passion fruit, so I made something new.

I combined Minneola oranges, clementines, peaches, mango puree and guava puree.


The Minneola orange is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit.

Deep red-orange and sometimes called the minneola tangelo, sometimes misspelled mineola, is easily recognized by its characteristic slightly elongated "neck" on one end.

At its peak of maturity, its pebbly peel turns to a very attractive bright reddish-orange color.

This tasty fruit is easy to peel, has a high juice content.

The ingredients above.

I like to buy fruits like mango, guava and passion fruit as frozen puree.

Because (a) it's easier - I hate peeling mangos (b) I feel like it might be fresher - the difference between tomatoes frozen at their peak in summer and fresh shipped tomatoes in the middle of winter might hold true with mangos too. (c) I can't buy local exotic fruits and it's cheaper to ship flat packages of frozen fruit than fresh fruit.

Just my opinion.

Above: The clementines in the food processor.



Some of the fruit before cooking.

I also added one bottle of ginger beer, 3 Tbs ground ginger and 1/3 cup bottled lemon juice.

Plus one pound of white sugar.



Jars bubbling away.



Removing jars from canner.




Finished orange/citrus ginger sauce.



Mmmmm, yummy!
Good for sauces or salads.
Or just on bread.
I think it is a little too runny to call marmalade, so I'm calling it Citrus Sauce.




Tilapia with citrus sauce.

Citrus sauce tilapia on a bed of shredded cabbage slaw.

The orange and ginger really taste amazing together.

I had a lot of fun with this Can Jam!

I know that on my own I never would have canned anything in January.

Now I have a nice gift to add to the gift baskets I'm making for the dinner party on Saturday.

I think I might include a card with recipe ideas for this Citrus Sauce.