Microwave Berry jam

If a recipe is simple and quick to make, why would anyone want to buy pre made bottled stuff of the same? This recipe is so simple that we could stop buying those sugar loaded jam bottles. You may ask what to do when berries are not in season. Use frozen berries. You will have to cook them a bit longer, but the recipe works just as good. The reason I liked this recipe was not only it was quick and easy but makes less so that one need not can. It made a little more than a cup of jam which would be good for a week or two.

One Year Back - Pasta with sundried tomato and almonds
Two Years Back - 5 Minute pizza/pasta sauce
Three Years Back - Eggless Mulberry Cupcakes
Adapted barely from King Arthur Flour
Ingredients: 
Berries - chopped if using strawberries 3 cups (I used strawberries, but you could use a combination of berries)
Sugar - 3/4 cup ( 1/4 cup sugar per cup of berries)
Lemon juice - 2 TBSP (optional, cuts the sugary taste)

Method:
In a large microwave safe bowl, take all the ingredients. Stir and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Stir and microwave again for 5 more minutes. If the microwave is powerful, it will be done in 10 minutes total. If not, add another 5 minutes of microwave cooking time. If the mixture can coat the back of the spoon, it is ready. Refrigerate. You can use it directly from the microwave as a berry sauce on waffles and pancakes.

This post is written for weekend cooking post that I write with Srivalli  and  Vaishali, 

Enjoy.

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Orange Jam

If summers are for making jams using berries and peaches, fall and winter are for making marmalade, orange jelly and probably orange jam. I don't really know why orange jam is not easily available as orange marmalade but here is an attempt to make the jam at home. Needless to say it goes very well with bread or crackers.

One Year Back - Vegan Puttanesca Sauce
Two Years Back -  Applesauce Breakfast Bread, Penne with Spicy Coriander Pesto
Three Years Back -  Ricotta Cheese Doodh Peda
Ingredients: 
Navel or Florida Oranges - 5 (they were pretty big)
Sugar - 1 1/4 cup (I used 1/4 cup per orange but you can increase it to 1/3 cup per orange too)
Agar Agar powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Zest of Orange - from 2 oranges

Method:
Keep a stainless plate in the freezer. Peel the skin of all the oranges. Remove the skin and use only flesh discarding seeds. Place them in a blender or food processor fitted with chopping blade. Make a coarse puree out of it. Take it into a microwave safe bowl that can hold twice the amount of puree you have. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Stir and microwave again for 15 minutes in intervals of 5 minutes. Add sugar, orange zest, agar agar powder. Mix and microwave at intervals of 3 minutes stirring after every 3 minutes. When the mixture has thickened considerably and can coat the back of a spoon, take out the plate from freezer and drop a spoon of the hot jam. It should get the consistency of the jam and form a thin skin at the top. That means the jam is done. If not, keep microwaving at intervals of 3 minutes and keep testing. My not so powerful microwave took about 30 minutes total. It also depends on what material bowl you are using. I was using a heavy glass bowl.

You can make it using the stove top method too. Store in a clean jar in the refrigerator for 1 month.

Notes:
This was not a very sweet jam and I made it less sugary on purpose. You can increase the sugar to your liking. Lot of people use pectin for making this kind of jam but I did not have any and agar agar worked perfectly.

Enjoy.

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Eggless Mango Curd

I think the first time I even heard the word 'Curd' which didn't mean yogurt was when I read or saw key lime curd pie. If I remember correctly, it was Paula Deen's show. I never tried it because of cooking the egg. I am not great when using eggs other than in baking. But, having people who love mango, I thought I would try mango curd and make it eggless. Am I glad I tried it? My little girl ate few TBSP of it as is and wanted more.

You can add flavoring like vanilla or almond extract or even cardamom powder. I didn't add any since I still haven't decided where I am using it in. Maybe a tart or a filling for a cake? You will know soon.

One year back -  Bread Baking Basics, Hawaiian Cobbler, Pineapple Gojju
Ingredients:
Sweetened condensed mango pulp - 1 1/4 cups
Sugar - 1/4 cup (optional - if required)
Butter - 4 TBSP
Lime juice - from 1 or about 2 TBSP
Corn Starch - 4 TBSP
Water - 4 TBSP

Method:
Take the sweetened, condensed mango pulp in a thick bottomed sauce pan. Add lime juice to it. In a bowl, whisk together the corn starch and water till no lumps remain. Add this to the sauce pan and turn on the heat. Keep stirring to prevent lumps from forming. Curd is almost done when it gets thick and creamy. If you have the thermometer, you can check it and it should read 165 F - 170 F. Another way to test it is by tasting it. You shouldn't get any raw taste of corn starch. If you feel you need more sweetness, add sugar. Turn the heat to the lowest and add butter 1 TBSP at a time and keep stirring. When all the butter has melted, turn off the heat. Pour into the dry and clean container and place a plastic wrap right on the surface to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or till set. Use within 5 days. This is great as a filling for the cake, great on a piece of toast too.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers.

I have a question for all of you - if you care to answer. Does a woman become a mother just by giving birth to a baby? In my opinion, no. Giving birth to a baby meant you got enrolled in the school to become a mother. I am one of those people who think that you don't have to give birth to a baby to become a mother. You become a mother by caring for someone, taking charge of the situation and by being there when needed.  Just my opinion.

This marks 500th post of mine on this blog. In about year and a half, I have written 500 posts. Don't know whether to be happy about it or not.

This is the first time I am working with rhubarb. They are so tangy that I almost feared I would end up dumping a lot more sugar than what I did. This jam had a perfect balance of sweet and tart taste.

One year back - Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls with apple butter
Ingredients:
Strawberries - chopped and measure 3 cups (I used a bit less than a pint)
Rhubarb - chopped and measured 2 cups
Sugar - 1 1/2 cups or more per taste (If your strawberries are bland, you might need more sugar. Start with 1 cup and adjust towards the end)
Water - 1/2 cup

Method:
In a thick bottomed saucepan, take all the ingredients. Stir and set it on heat. Sugar will melt, strawberries and rhubarb will release their juices and become mushy. It will start bubbling and almost flowing over the pot. Stir and keep an eye on it. You don't have to be constantly stirring it.

Keep a stainless steel plate in the freezer. This is to check for the doneness of the jam. When it starts thickening, take the plate out of the freezer and drop couple of drops of the jam. Tilt and move the plate so that the jam spreads. If it doesn't spread too much and when you take it out of the plate feels like the jam, it is ready. Another test is to take the jam in a spoon. If it coats the back of the spoon, it is ready. If you have a candy thermometer, check the temperature and it should read 210 F. Funny thing is I checked using all the three methods to make sure it is set correctly. When the jam is ready, turn it off and let it cool. You can pour into jars and either refrigerate or can. I just refrigerated mine.


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Apples to Applesauce to Applebutter

Remember my recent post named 'Not all homemade stuff is cheaper' in which, I had written that making applesauce at home is not worth it. Well, I knew the process of making applesauce since I had made it when my kids were babies. You have to simmer the apples on stove top for almost an hour or till they are very very tender. The cost of gas itself was not a motivation to make it at home when I wrote the post.

I did an experiment. I took 2 pounds of apples (I had bought them for 59 cents per pound). Assuming not too much of weight loss happens when you cook them (since you are adding some liquid to it, it almost remains the same with a negligible weight loss. But you do have to calculate the core and peel weight though), I figured out that if I can reduce the cooking time to 10 - 15 minutes, then it will be cheaper to make it at home if I bought apples at a very good price.
I peeled and cored the apples, cooked them in pressure cooker. It was done in 12 minutes or so. Mashed them up to make applesauce.

This experiment continued... to make apple butter. I know not all the countries' grocery stores have apple butter on the shelves. Process of making apple butter is not complex at all. But, cooking time is about 8 hours. I figured out a way to reduce it so that everyone can make apple butter at home easily. Interested? Read on...

Ingredients:
To make applesauce:
Apples - 2 pounds ( about 6 medium sized apples. I had a mixture of macintosh, ginger gold)
Apple Juice - 1/4 - 1/2 cup (If you have apple cider, use that)
Lemon juice - 2 TBSP

To make applebutter:
Resulting applesauce from above
Brown sugar - 1/3 cup or to taste
Clove powder - 1/2 tsp (you could reduce it to 1/4 tsp to have milder spice taste)
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp (you could reduce it to 1/4 tsp to have milder spice taste)

Method:
Take enough water in a bowl that fits in your pressure cooker. Those who do not have pressure cooker will have to do the hard way in a stock pot. Add lemon juice. Peel and core the apples and cut them into big chunks. Add these apple chunks to the bowl with water. When you are done cutting all the apples, drain the water leaving some in the bowl. Add apple juice to just barely cover the apple pieces. You can just discard a little water and cook it in water itself. Cook the apples in pressure cooker for 1 whistle. When cool, mash with a potato masher. If you are looking for applesauce, you can stop at this point. You will have to freeze the applesauce or refrigerate and use up within a week. Another alternative is to can the applesauce which, I have no knowledge about.

Now comes the fun part of making apple butter. If you keep cooking the apple sauce for about 8 hours on slow fire and add sugar and spices, you get apple butter. But, as I said, I was not about to spend 8 hours of time cooking the applesauce to make apple butter. If you owned a crock pot, you can leave it in that and set the timer for 8 hours. Since I do not own a crock pot, (May be I should get one. Mmmmmmmm??) I speed-ed up this process and made it in the microwave. Place the applesauce in a deep and wide dish and microwave at intervals of 3 minutes. Stirring after every interval. When half of the water content has evaporated (it took about 3 - 4 intervals in my not so powerful microwave), add brown sugar, spices and stir. Keep microwaving till all the water has evaporated. Keep stirring in between. It took a total of about 25 - 30 minutes in my microwave. To test for the doneness, when you put a spoon of apple butter on a plate, you should not see any water separating around it.

Yield of my experiment with 2 pounds of apples was almost 4 cups of apple sauce which when turned into apple butter measured to 1 1/2 cups of apple butter.

Cost comparison:
A bottle of apple sauce which has 5 cups of applesauce is about 2 dollars. So, I wouldn't say it is very economical to make it at home unless you get apples for a very good price.

A bottle of apple butter which has 3 cups of apple butter is about 2.87 (depends on the brand). I got 1 1/2 cups of apple butter for probably 2 dollars if I consider the cost of brown sugar, electricity and gas expenses. (May be not since I don't know how much electricity is used for microwaving for 30 minutes) But one thing is for sure, I probably am not going to buy apple butter any more.

Since I have not used any preservatives or too much of sugar, I do not know how long the apple butter will keep in the refrigerator. I am planning to use it up within about 10 days unless I decide to freeze it.

When you have made apple butter, you can either use it as jam and spread on toast or go crazy like me and bake all the following goodies and come up with your own recipes.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls with apple butter
Apple Butter Spice Bread (Egg less)
Sourdough Vegan apple butter cake

Enjoy!!

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Peach Jam

I and my friends took our kids to 'Peach Picking' at Styer Orchard. It is located in Langhorne, PA. If you want to check their website - http://www.styerorchard.com/
They had not only peaches but many different kinds of vegetables to pick too.
We picked a lot of peaches, some white eggplant, plums, squash. It was fun for the kids to get on the hay truck and sit on hay and go around in the farm. I got to eat the freshest, juiciest peach ever straight from the tree. That was unbelievably good.
What do you do when you have a whole bucket full of peaches? You make Peach jam. I gave some fruits to relatives who visited us, some to friends and the rest I made into this delicious Peach Jam.

If you have kids, it is worth taking them to these picks even when it might be expensive when you calculate how much you spend on gas. I drove probably 40 minutes to get there.
Here comes the recipe or just a concoction. This is so simple, I can't even call it a recipe.

Ingredients:
Peaches - 4 pounds
Sugar - 2 - 2 1/2 cups (I used 2 1/2 cups)
Lemon or lime juice - 3 TBSP (for a nice color, you can skip this)
Cinnamon - 1 " stick (optional)
Star Anise - 1 (optional)

Method:
Wash the peaches. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Keep another bowl with cold water ready. I actually dumped some ice cubes in it to keep it super cold. Place the peaches in the boiling water for 30 - 60 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in the cold water. Let it sit for couple of minutes. The skin will get wrinkly and you will be able to peel it off easily. Set aside and repeat with all the remaining peaches. If the peach is very ripe, you don't even need a knife to remove the pit. What I did was to hold the peeled peach in my hand above a measuring cup and squeeze. It just slid off and I tossed the pit out. It does slightly crush the peach but it is okay since when we cook it to make the jam, it will get mushy anyway. 4 pounds of peaches gave me 6 cups of slightly crushed and packed peaches after peeling and pitting.

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, take all the peaches, lemon or lime juice, sugar and place it on heat. If you are using cinnamon and star anise, throw them in too. Keep on boiling for about 30 - 45 minutes (it depends on how high your flame is, how juicy peaches are and how much of peaches are you making jam out of). Keep stirring occasionally or else it will stick and burn at the bottom. Jam is ready when almost all the water has evaporated and a spoon can stand in the center without sliding off. Or, another test is to see if it can coat a spoon. I made some peach jam last year and I boiled it for too long and the jam was hard to get out of the jar. Remember that it thickens as it cools and the pectin in peach sets up. Remove the cinnamon and star anise if you used it and discard them. Let cool completely before refrigerating it. If you are into canning, you can divide them between sterilized jars and can.
Enjoy with english muffin, a bagel, bread toast or like my kids do with a chapathi sometimes.

Note:
Lot of recipes for peach jam tell you to use pectin. You don't really need pectin for peaches, plums since they have natural pectin in them.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It

Mango Jam

Farmer's market has the freshest fruits in summer. We have a place called 'Truck Patch' which is run by local farmers and the beauty of this place is you can even pick some veggies and fruits. The vegetable patch is right behind the store. I had bought some peaches from this place in summer and made jam out of it which we are enjoying till today. I also made tomato jam from the tomatoes bought in bulk from the same place and that is getting used too.

When I opened the bottle of the jam yesterday, I realized that there is very less left and instead of buying jam from the store, I decided to make 'Mango Jam' since my kids love mango. You give them mango juice, mango mousse, mango ice cream they enjoy and eat it. I used mango pulp that we get from the Indian store and the whole process took about 25 minutes and in the microwave. I bet you can't beat that..

You'll have to clean the microwave after it is done unless you have some kind of splutter guard that can be used in the microwave.

Ingredients:

• Mango Pulp - 1 can (I used Alphonso but you could use kesar too)
• Mango jelly crystals - 1 pack (from the indian store which is gelatin free)

Method:
Take a microwave safe ceramic dish that can hold all the pulp and has some space on the top. Microwave for 5 minutes. Stir and add jelly crystals and stir well. Microwave for 5 minutes and stir well. Keep on doing this till the mixture coats the back of the spoon. It took 25 minutes for mine to be done. But, every microwave is different and you know your microwave better than others. Don't try to get it too dry since it solidifies when cooled. Jam is ready when completely cool. Store it in a clean jar in the refrigerator. Use it up within 6 months of making it.

Like Mangoes as much as we do, try these  Mango Mini Muffins, Green Mango Onion subzi, Mango Apple Gojju.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It