Pump Up the Jam...Pump it Up

During the May Long Weekend, most people were out of town except little ol' me.  With nowhere to go, I decided to start a jam project.  Strawberries were on sale at Superstore at a 2lb container at $2.50 if you buy in multiples of 2.  Picked some up yesterday on the way home from work.  Then headed to Canadian Tire for the rest of my canning equipment.  Picked up a funnel, magnetic wand to help me fish out the jar lids out of boiling water, and a jar lifter, and a dozen 250 mL jars.

So I've got all my material, let's pump out the jam!  Saturday was the day because P was heading out so he won't get in the way trying to take over the whole project.

All week I've been browsing recipes, but one recipe I knew I had to try was Strawberry Vanilla jam.  I still had leftover vanilla beans and the recipe described it as tasting like strawberries and cream.  Well that did it for me.

Due to my paranoia of botulism, I first soaked my strawberries for a few minutes in water mixed with a little bit of vinegar.  I then rinsed the strawberries with plain water.  I learned about this trick awhile back and read that it kills off mold and other nasties.  I did find the strawberries I bought earlier in the week have lasted longer after I did this trick.

 The recipe:

Quick Strawberry Vanilla Jam

(Adapted from Put 'em Up: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Pickling by Sherri Brooks Vinton)

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon Pomona's Universal Pectin

4 cups strawberries, hulled

1 tsp calcium water (this is found in the Pomona's box.  Follow the directions)

1/4 cup bottled lemon

1 vanilla bean

1. In a huge pot, get a large amount of water boiling.  There has to be enough water to cover the jars and then some when it comes time to processing.  Put in your jars with no lids to sterilize.  At the same time, get some water boiling in a smaller saucepan and put your lids and screw caps in to sterilize. 

2.  Mix the sugar and pectin in a bowl and set aside.

3.  In a non-reactive pot, put your strawberries in and put on medium heat.  Start mashing the strawberries with a potato masher.  Too poor to afford a masher, I used a whisk to mash (which can't be good for the whisk) which resulted in some big chunks which I like anyhow.  Once they're starting to look a bit cooked down and mushy is when I added the vanilla seeds (slit pod and scrape out the seeds).  Continue to mush a bit more, dump in the vanilla pod.  Add your lemon juice and calcium water.  Stir.  Then add your sugar and pectin and stir.  Let it come to a boil.

Calcium water.  The calcium comes in the box of Pomona's.

4.Turn off heat and stir for 5 minutes to release any air and skim off any foam.

5. Take out sterilized jars and put on a tea towel.  Take funnel and pour jam into jar.  Leave about 1/4 inch headspace.  

6.  Take magnetic wand and fish out lids and rims.  Screw onto jar.  You don't have to tighten it to the point where you have to ask your partner has to open it for you (oh how sexist...my apologies).   Screw on the lid as tight as you can make it and as tight as you will be able to open it later on unassisted.

7.  Now you can do one of two things.  You can either not process it and eat the jam within 3 weeks or you can process it in a hot water bath.  Knowing P and I, we will not eat 4 jars of jam in 3 weeks.  If you process it, put covered jars back into large pot of boiling water and process for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, turn off heat and let sit for another 5 minutes.

8. Take jars out with jar holder.  Let them sit on the counter.  You should hear pops as the jam cools indicating the jar has created a vacuum seal as the air seeps out. 


This recipe is supposed to make 4 jars but I increased it by 1 1/2 with the intention of making 6 jars however didn't quite work out that way.   Because I increased the sugar 1.5 times but possibly did not accurately measure the strawberries, the jam is a touch on the too sweet side.

I had enough to make 5 jars, however due to my klutziness, I spilled one of them while trying to pour the jam into another jar.  After dropping a few f-bombs, I scooped up the spilled jam on my (thank godness) just scrubbed hard and cleaned stove and put them into a jar that would not be processed that P and I would eat for the next three weeks (that's how long it's good for without processing).  I am reminded of my nephew Put-Put (obviously not his real name) and the time my Mom and I were watching him go down the slide awkwardly.  My Mom then comments that he is klutzy and awkward like me.  Poor kid. I call P and tell him I made jam but spilled one of the jars.  He asks me if I cleaned it up.  I sarcastically remark no I left it sitting on the stove and all over the floor.  Honestly!

I process the jam.  Meanwile, like a kid, I treat myself to licking the cooled jam left in the pot.  It tastes like jam, but has that je ne sais quoi which I assume is the vanilla bean.  It's subtle and you can miss it if you're not paying attention.

 After this, I went and sat down on the couch to relax, waiting to hear the pops while watching TV.  I counted the pops, but only heard 3.  I start to curse myself and my inadequacies in cooking.  Then I start to talk myself up saying maybe the TV is too loud and blocked out the sounds of the pops.  I went between angst and encouragement for an hour.  I went back into the kitchen to check my jars and they had all sealed (you can tell if you press down in the centre of the lid and it doesn't pop back at you)!  Hooray!

I did the peanut butter and jam test on a cracker (I made this test up) with my "stove jam" and it passed with flying colors.

I'd like to end this post on a very relevant song;

Vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote...Everybody!

Apologies for the major delay in posting.  Have not been motivated to cook of late due to late work days and coming home to the horror of P cooking.  Just kidding.  P's cooking is not that bad.   Also obsessed with watching episodes of Lost on Netflix.  Never watched it when it was actually on but now P and I cannot tear ourselves away.  There's a lot of gasps, F bombs, and sounds of exasperation reasonating in our little apartment with every twist and turn...mostly from me.  Hard to cook when all you want to do is sit and watch.  But I'm back!

Today is BC elections day and after much research, I voted for the party which will most likely provide the funding needed so I can work more.  Having only a part time line at work, I was fortunate to be able to pick up extra shifts in order to work full time.  But unfortunately, I no longer have those extra shifts unless whichever government gets elected in has mercy and throws some more money towards health care.

Ergo, I am on a budget so tight that it reminds me of me trying to get into my pants I wore in my early twenties: no wiggle room. 

A few weeks ago my brother in law N made a tasty fish dish that involved basa fillets, capers, lemon, white wine, and parsley.  I have been wanting to try to replicate it myself, but am on a tight budget.  Thankfully, basa fillets aren't too expensive.  I had some leftover lemons from making lemon bars for P's nephew Milutke's birthday.  I bought No Name capers for $1.28.  I don't have an issue buying No Name products if they're going to be incorporated into a dish and are not the star of the show.  It's cheap and affordable and you can't tell the difference.  Only thing missing is the wine.  I know the caveat is if you won't drink it in a glass, it doesn't belong in your food.  But I'm not Burt Reynolds with money to burn.  I admit it!  I went and bought a cheap American Chardonnay called Flip Flop.  The price was attractive (a whooping $8.00 plus change) and what can go wrong with a wine named after my favorite shoe type.  I did drink it while making dinner and while eating dinner.  For $8 wine, it did its job.

I start to organize my ingredients and P, while rolling his R's to accentuate the Spanish pronounciation, hollers from the living room that he does not want to eat the dish I am cooking unless it involves the fish being put into a tortilla with salsa.  I don't blame him.  We had tasty fish tacos at a pub by Kits beach and we've been craving fish tacos since. 

Basa Fillets with White Wine, Lemon, and Capers sauce

Serves 2

2 basa fillets

salt and pepper

1 generous tablespoon flour (or more depending on how big fillets are)

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion (I highly recommend a shallot but alas I only had a very large onion)

 juice of 1-2 lemons (depending on how juicy your lemon is)

1/2 to 3/4 wine glassful of white wine

3 tbsp capers drained and rinsed

a big ass pat of butter.  I'm guessing it's about 2 tbsps.

1/2 tbsp dried parsley.  If you have fresh, obviously use fresh.  I refused to buy fresh parsley because I knew I would never use all of it and it would just turn to yucky mush.

Chop up onion finely.

Heat pan on medium heat.  Pat basa fillets dry if needed.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Press the fillets lightly to push in salt and pepper into fillets.    

On a separate plate, put flour.  Coat fillets with flour.

Pour oil into pan and let heat briefly.  Put in fillets.  Brown fillets on both side (approx 3 minutes per side depending on size of fillet). If it's not quite done, don't fret.  Keep reading. 

Take fillets out of pan and put on a plate.  Add a little more oil if needed.  Put onions in the pan and cook until softened.  Add lemon juice and wine.  Reduce heat slightly and let reduce. 

Once reduced to about 1/2, add butter and swirl the pan.  Add parsley.  Return fish to pan and continue to let simmer for 3-5 minutes.  I had to do this because my fish fillets weren't quite yet cooked despite the browning.  If your fish is cooked (it's cooked when it flakes with a fork) skip the simmer step.  Swirl pan to coat fish with sauce.  

I served this with rice.  The fish was still juicy and the sauce was tangy with the lemon and capers, but somewhat rich due to the butter.  P liked it too, but said it would taste better, again rolling the R's, if it was in a tortilla with salsa.  Sigh.  That's for another day.

On a side note, in my early twenties, besides being able to fit in some cute jeans, I also had bad food poisoning from a fish fillet of some white fish I can't even remember.  As a result, I have not eaten white fish fillets since, but I am slowly trying to reintroduce them back into my life.  I can only eat so much salmon and I am too poor to afford delicious shellfish.  This was a nice little introduction back. 

Here's hoping the party voted in will do what's best for B.C. and give me some more work!