Artichoke Relish

The chronological nature of a blog means that, inevitably, posts roll off the screen to be forgotten in the archives. Occasionally, I resurrect a favorite recipe for those who missed it the first go around. What I have in my hand above is a Jerusalem artichoke (or sunchoke), which is the tuber of a sunflower. It's crunchy, sweet, nutty, and absolutely delicious! These were dug the other day at our friend's farm, but you can maybe find some now (autumn and winter) at farmers' markets and better, local grocery stores. My favorite way to prepare Jerusalem artichokes is as a sweet and tangy relish. Every year, my friend and I get together to can 18 or so pints of the stuff (one year we made 40 pints!). It's become a lovely tradition.Where do all of those jars of relish go? In deviled eggs, tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, and chickpea "tuna" salad. On top of burgers, sandwiches, and hotdogs. Next to butter beans and black-eyed peas. On a cracker with cheese. We use it on and in every thing!

Having just made our annual 18 pints of artichoke relish this past weekend, I thought I'd pull the recipe back up to the top of the blog for all y'all that missed it the first time, which was nearly 4 years ago! I'd like to think I've gotten just a tad better at blogging since then.Artichoke Relish

Adapted from A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South

Makes 17 or 18 pints

5 quarts Jerusalem artichokes, chopped
2 gallons water
2 cups non-iodized salt
3 pounds green cabbage, chopped
1 1/2 pounds onions, chopped
6 large green and red bell peppers, chopped
3/4 cup flour
1 (24-ounce) jar prepared mustard
2 quarts apple cider vinegar
3 pounds sugar
3 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons turmeric
2 tablespoons celery seed
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon hot sauce

• Soak artichokes overnight in 1 gallon of water and 1 cup of salt. In another container, soak the cabbage, onion, and bell peppers in the remaining 1 gallon of water and 1 cup of salt.
• The next day, drain the artichokes and vegetables. Spread the artichokes on one towel, and the vegetables on a separate towel.
• Combine the flour and prepared mustard in a bowl, avoiding lumps.
• In a 10-quart or larger pot, add the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, turmeric, celery seed, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, then add the cabbage, onion, and bell peppers. Bring back to a boil and cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.
• Reduce heat to low. Add and mix about a cup of the cooking liquid to the flour and mustard mixture, then add the thinned mixture to the pot of cooking vegetables, and stir.
• Add the hot sauce and artichokes. Raise the heat and stir until almost boiling (about 5 minutes).
• Remove pot from heat, and ladle hot relish into sterilized jars, wipe rims of jars, apply sterilized lids and bands, and process for 15 minutes in a hot water bath.

Sweet Pickled Peppers

This past weekend was a pretty nasty one if you lived in the Northeast. Freezing rain, sleet, snow, oh my! Yes, snow is a bit out of the ordinary in October around these parts, but it's not unusual to have a first frost in October where temperatures dip down below freezing.

If you keep a garden (container gardens count!), those chilly temperatures mean it's time to put the garden to bed, and bring in any plants that can't handle the cold, as well as harvest the vegetable garden's last fruits. All I had left in the raised veggie bed were a few peppers and eggplants, so they came in the evening before the inclimate weather arrived.
These small, rounded, red peppers are actually Mini Belle peppers, but their color and size remind me of spicy peppadew peppers. Don't think I've ever had a fresh pepadew pepper, but I absolutely adore the sweet and spicy pickled peppadew peppers you get at cheese shops and olive bars (I was getting them at Claudio's in the Italian Market, but Superfresh on Columbus Blvd. has them for almost half the price of Claudio's). Goat cheese-stuffed pickled peppadews are the perfect pop-in-your-mouth snack! Mini Belles aren't spicy like peppadews, but I decided to pickle them anyway, since all summer long I've been gazing at the 5-foot tall pepper plant dreaming of cute, red pickled peppers. Feel free to use any pepper you like — sweet or spicy.Sweet Pickled Peppers
makes 1 pint

8 ounces small peppers (or enough to fit in a pint jar)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 bay leaf
4 allspice seeds
4 whole cloves
8 peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon mustard seed

• Insert tip of a pairing knife into the top of the pepper, and working the knife around the top at an angle, cut out a cone. Using your fingers or some other small instrument (I used the handle of a spoon), scrape out the seeds. Wash cored peppers in water to remove any seeds stuck to the inside or outside of the peppers. Dry peppers.
  
• Put bay leaf, allspice, cloves, peppercorns, coriander, and mustard seed in the bottom of a sterilized mason jar. Fill jar with peppers, arranging them tightly without breaking the peppers.
• In a small saucepan, combine the water, vinegar, and sugar, and bring to a boil. Simmer until sugar has dissolved.
• While the syrup is still hot, pour the syrup into the jar, leaving 1/2-inch of headspace. Use a chopstick or some other slim instrument to run around the edges of the inside of the jar, jiggling a bit, to release any trapped air bubbles. There will be lots of trapped air bubbles if you are using whole peppers.
  
• Wipe the rim of the jar, and apply sterilized lid and ring. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars from water, and let cool on the counter for at least 2 hours. Check lids for a proper seal.

Caramelized Pear Butter

In a determination to not let food go to waste, we've canned more food this summer than we ever have in past seasons — cherry jam, pickled beets, dilly beans, bread and butter cucumbers, peach salsa, peach jam, watermelon rinds, pear chutney, pear relish, and pear butter.

I wish I had documented every thing we canned to share with you, but lately I've been taking a much needed break from blogging recipes (sometimes it's just nice to eat food without documenting it), and falling back on the very easy to write CSA posts (sorry to all of those out there who have hit the unsubscribe button).Back to canning. You'll notice that in that long string of canned foods there are quite a bit of pears. That's because I take care of three Bartlett pear trees that produce a lot of fruit. Sort of.

For the past five or so years, the pears disappear almost over night (really it's in about a three week period) when they are a few weeks out from being ripe. It's a huge mystery as to where hundreds of unripe pears go, as they used to not disappear, but we think it's a combination of deer, squirrels, and racoons that have wizened up over the years.

This year, I decided to not let the critters win. I harvested the pears while they were still unripe. Unripe pears work very well in chutneys and relishes when they are cooked down, so I used them there. I then waited a bit longer for the pears to be only a week out from ripe, then stripped the remaining fruit before the critters could get to them. These almost ripe pears sat in my basement for a week until they were fully ripe.

All in all, I think I got about a fifth of the pears, and the critters got the rest. This is a victory!Caramelized Pear Butter
makes about 8 pints

I was intrigued by the use of caramelized sugar in this recipe for pear butter, and combined the caramelization technique with another recipe for pear butter.

1/4 cup apple juice
6 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
7 pounds pears, peeled, cored and chopped
3 cups, sugar
2 teaspoons nutmeg
3/4 teaspoons salt

• Combine apple juice and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice in a deep pot. Add peeled and chopped pears to the apple and lemon juice as they are chopped to avoid browning.
  
• Cook pears over medium heat until juices are released and can be brought to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until pears are very tender, about 20 minutes.
• Remove pot from heat and blend pears until smooth. I like to use a stick blender that you put directly into the pot, but a food processor, blender or food mill can be used, as well. Return the pear mixture back to the pot.
  
• In a skillet, heat the sugar, stirring frequently until it melts and turns an amber color. Being very careful, pour the caramelized sugar into the pear mixture. This will produce a lot of sizzling and splattering, so be sure you have the pear mixture in a tall pot. The caramelized sugar will harden immediately upon contact with the pear mixture, but will dissolve with stirring.
• Add nutmeg, salt, and remaining 3 tablespoons lemon to the pear mixture.
  
• Simmer on medium-low heat, stirring regularly to prevent burning until pear butter has thickened to the desired consistency. Cooking time will vary depending on juiciness of pears, the size of your pot, and if you halved or doubled the recipe.
  
• Turn off the heat, and fill sterile jars. Wipe rims and apply lids and bands. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars from water, and let cool on the counter for at least 2 hours. Check lids for a proper seal. Can be store for up to one year.
  

Pear butter before the addition of caramelized sugar.
Caramelized sugar.
Pear butter after the addition of caramelized sugar.

Cranberry Canning Classes

My friend Marisa not only blogs about canning over at Food in Jars, but is also an experienced canner and canning instructor. She has two hands-on canning classes coming up, both using November's favorite fruit, the cranberry. Sign up now to find out just how easy canning is, and leave with inspiration and a jar of cranberry jelly or chutney.

Cranberry Jelly
Sunday, November 15th
3 - 4: 30 p.m.
Philly Kitchen Share
$45 (price includes all supplies and one pint of cranberry jelly to take home)
Click here to register

Cranberry Chutney
Saturday, November 21st
11 - 12:30
Foster's Homewares (their new location at 33 N. 3rd Street)
$39 (price includes all supplies and one half pint of cranberry chutney to take home)
Click here to register

Artichoke Relish

Firstly, let me just squeal, “artichoke relish!”

I’m not talking about the green, unopened flower buds of Cynara scolymus - ya know, the artichoke of famed artichoke dips. I’m talking about the brown, knobby tubers of Helianthus tuberosus – Jerusalem artichokes. To avoid confusion between the two, Jerusalem artichokes are sometimes referred to as sunchokes.

Jerusalem artichokes are the sweet, edible tubers of native North American sunflowers that were commonly eaten by North American Indians, and then settlers. Jerusalem artichokes grow easily (no-brainer crop) almost any where, and make a pretty vegetable crop when covered with yellow, daisy-like flowers. Heck, stick it in your flower garden!

Neat factoid: The main storage carbohydrate in Jerusalem artichokes is inulin rather than starch. Inulin is converted in the digestive tract to fructose rather than glucose, which can be tolerated by diabetics.When I was younger and lived in the South, Jerusalem artichokes appeared in the fall and winter at farm stands, marquees proudly posted their arrival. If you were lucky, a neighbor would bring over a jar of homemade artichoke relish as a Christmas gift.

I didn’t start eating Jerusalem artichokes any other way than in relish form until I was older. Fresh Jerusalem artichokes are crunchy and subtly sweet. Don’t bother peeling the knobby tubers – it’s laborious and unnecessary.

I looove artichoke relish. It's tangy and crunchy, as the artichokes retain their crunchy quality. It’s definitely a Southern thing, but I haven’t met a person that doesn’t like it - kinda like boiled peanuts. I couldn’t help but laugh at my boyfriend’s endorsement of, “Mmmm. Damn!” If you like relishes and chutneys, you’ll love this. I eat it on sandwiches, crackers, vegetables, and by the spoonful. It's spectacular on hot dogs.

It took all fall and winter to get around to visiting my friend who has a patch of Jerusalem artichokes, but I finally did so a couple of weeks ago. She has all the canning equipment and a large kitchen. Thanks Steph!

Dig the tubers when the plant is dormant and the soil is not frozen. It’s just like digging potatoes – stick a fork in the ground, and tons of tubers appear. You won’t get all the tubers, but that just ensures a crop for next year.

All the little knobs of the tuber make cleaning the dirt off difficult. Cut off the bad spots and pop the fingers off to make cleaning easier. I think we went through three stages of cleaning. Once clean, you’re ready to eat the tubers, or better yet…make relish!

Artichoke Relish
Adapted from A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South

Makes 17 or 18 pints

5 quarts Jerusalem artichokes, chopped
2 gallons water
2 cups non-iodized salt
3 pounds green cabbage, chopped
1 ½ pounds onions, chopped
6 large green and red bell peppers, chopped
3/4 cup flour
1 (24-ounce) jar prepared mustard
2 quarts apple cider vinegar
3 pounds sugar
3 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons turmeric
2 tablespoons celery seed
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon hot sauce

• Soak artichokes overnight in 1 gallon of water and 1 cup of salt. In another container, soak the cabbage, onion, and bell peppers in the remaining 1 gallon of water and 1 cup of salt.
• The next day, drain the artichokes and vegetables. Spread the artichokes on one towel, and the vegetables on a separate towel.
• Combine the flour and prepared mustard in a bowl, avoiding lumps.
• In a 10-quart or larger pot, add the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, turmeric, celery seed, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, then add the cabbage, onion, and bell peppers. Bring back to a boil and cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.
• Reduce heat to low. Add and mix about a cup of the cooking liquid to the flour and mustard mixture, then add the thinned mixture to the pot of cooking vegetables, and stir.
• Add the hot sauce and artichokes. Raise the heat and stir until almost boiling (about 5 minutes).
• Remove pot from heat, and ladle hot relish into sterilized jars, wipe rims of jars, apply sterilized lids and bands, and process for 15 minutes in a hot water bath.