Black Currant Coulis and Other Summer Delights

Red Currant Jelly (left) Rhubarb Jelly (right) Rhu-rant Jelly (back)

I've kind of abandoned the blog for the summer.  The Co-op that I wrote it for has changed over people and it doesn't get published anymore so I lost interest.  It's now my recipe file for things I don't want to lose track of or things people ask me about.
I decided to post the recipes that I used to create these jellies and the Black Currant Coulis because I've had a number of people ask me about them.  So, here ya go folks!


Rhubarb Jelly (makes 9-10 half pint jars)

Day 1 pick, wash, and chop into 1 inch pieces about 5-7 pounds of rhubarb.
Place in a large stock pot and add 2 cups water.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the rhubarb is mush.
Allow to cool and then strain through a mesh strainer to remove the pulp.
Store in the refrigerator overnight.

Have a glass of wine.

Day 2 rinse 4 thicknesses of cheesecloth and place in the mesh strainer.  Pour the cold juice through the cheesecloth to remove any residual pulp.

Measure 6 cups of strained juice
2 boxes of Sure Jell
and bring to a full rolling boil over high heat.

Add ½ teaspoon butter and 9 cups of sugar all at once.

Return to a full rolling boil (a boil that can’t be stirred down) and boil for one(1) minute.   

Ladle into hot prepared jars filling to within 1/4 inch of the top.  Wipe threads and rim and seal with two-piece lids. 

Place jars in a boiling water bath that covers the top of the jars for 10 minutes.  Remove to a rack and allow to cool.

Finish the bottle of wine.

Bobbe Almer adapted this recipe from a Kraft Recipes Sure Jell Rhubarb Jelly recipe.

Currant Jelly (makes about 9 half pint jars)

Day 1 pick, and wash about 3 quarts of currants.
Place in a large stock pot and add 2 cups water.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the currants are pale and falling apart.
Allow to cool and then strain through a mesh strainer to remove the pulp.
Store in the refrigerator overnight.

Have a glass of wine.

Day 2 rinse 4 thicknesses of cheesecloth and place in the mesh strainer.  Pour the cold juice through the cheesecloth to remove any residual pulp.

Measure 61/2 cups of strained juice
1 box of Sure Jell
and bring to a full rolling boil over high heat.

Add ½ teaspoon butter and 7 cups of sugar all at once.

Return to a full rolling boil (a boil that can’t be stirred down) and boil for one(1) minute.   

Ladle into hot prepared jars filling to within 1/4 inch of the top.  Wipe threads and rim and seal with two-piece lids. 

Place jars in a boiling water bath that covers the top of the jars for 10 minutes.  Remove to a rack and allow to cool.

Finish the bottle of wine.

Bobbe Almer adapted this recipe from the Sure Jell package.


Black Currant Coulis (makes about 12 half pint jars)




Coulis is a form of thick sauce made from puréed and strained vegetables or fruits.
 
Pick and wash about 4 quarts of black currants.
Place in a large stock pot and add 3 cups water.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the currants are soft and falling apart.
Allow to cool and then put them through a food mill until the remaining seeds/skins are dry

About 8 cups of juice/pulp remain.  Some seeds came through the Foley food mill, but they are fine and taste good so no problem.

Return the juice/pulp to a clean stock pot, add 5 cups of sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

I brought this to a boil and let it boil for a few minutes before putting it into hot half pint jars and sealing with two piece lids.

I chose to freeze mine in these jars so I filled them just to the bottom of the threads.  If you prefer, you could fill them on up and process in a water bath.

I’ve already used some of mine by adding a tablespoon to balsamic vinaigrette - it was awesome!  I plan to use some to baste a pork roast and grilled chicken too - yum!  It would be delicious drizzled over cheesecake or an ice cream too.


Bobbe Almer created this recipe.

Regional Cuisine - Goetta

Is regional the same as local?  I've been thinking about regional foods lately and why they have remained regional and not spread around the country like the people we meet.  Regional recipes seem to have an ethnic or cultural influence and be made with locally obtained ingredients.  Like goeduck in the Pacific Northwest, lobster rolls in New England, fried diamondback in Texas, and Rocky Mountain oysters in Montana...  but ok, I'm not going there.  For the most part, all of these regional foods are based on locally obtained ingredients, and that's great, Right?

There's a regional food that I grew up with that has always been a puzzle to me.  It's not based on any locally obtained ingredients or to my knowledge, any ethnic or cultural traditions.  I have wondered over the years why it has been such a well kept secret, where it got its start, its rather odd name, and why it has never escaped from its origin.

As a child, I stood by my Grandmother while she stirred a huge pot on the stove and we always had it as a sort of porridge that first night for dinner.  It was so tasty!

According to anything I can find on the internet, it originated in Cincinnati, Ohio in the late 1800's, of German-American heritage.  Well, I think that just means no one really knows, because my Grandfather was French and my Grandmother was Swedish.  Also, if you ask a person from Germany, they have never heard of it.  The internet also says it originated as a peasant dish to stretch out servings of meat.  I can somewhat picture this convenient logic, but I still don't totally believe that either, because when we make stew, we don't say it's to stretch out the meat.  I actually think they made it because it was delicious.  

I hope I've got your interest by now, because I'm going to share my age old secret recipe handed down from my Grandmother. Goetta (pronounced get-ah) is the regional food from Cincinnati that I'm talking about.  I also want to make sure that you understand that there is NO relationship to Scrapple.  Scrapple comes from the Pennsylvania area and is made with cornmeal and parts of pigs that were destine for the rendering plant.  There are NO similarities here.

GOETTA

1 to 2 pounds pork - as in a fresh pork shoulder or any lean pork 
1 to 2 pounds beef - as in a chuck or round or rump roast

Remove any obvious fat and brown the meat on all sides and then add 3-4 cups of water, a teaspoon of salt, and cook until fork tender.  (My grandmother cooked hers in a pressure cooker and that's what I do too.  About 45-55 minutes in the pressure cooker.)  No pressure cooker?  You can braise the meat in a crock pot on medium for 5-6 hours or in a covered dish in the oven 300-325 degrees for 2-3 hours.  
Braising requires that the meat be slow cooked in liquid until tender.  Add water as necessary to keep the meat from drying out and have lots of good juices.

Once tender, remove the meat from the juices and allow it to cool completely. You can even prepare the meat the day before and refrigerate.

In the photo above, I had actually cooked extra and reserved some of that for another recipe.  I finely diced about 11/2 pounds of each meat.

Once again, I'm going to give you an alternative to cooking this.  My Grandmother and I until just recently always cooked it in a big pot on the stove.  I've adapted my recipe to a crock pot method that takes a lot of the work out of it.

In a crock pot (or large, heavy bottomed pot on the stove top), add the chopped meat along with the following ingredients.

3 cups of organic steel cut oats ( these are knows as pinhead oats to the old timers)
6 cups of the broth from the meat plus water to make the 6 cups
2 medium onions diced finely
2-3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
3 teaspoons salt - it's important to add enough salt or the oats will taste bland

Set the crock pot to high for the first 2 hours, stirring every hour and keeping the lid on.  At 2 hours, turn down to low and begin stirring every 20 minutes to half hour for another 2 hours.  Do not add additional liquid as you want it to be very thick. If it appears that it is getting too thick to stir, add only a small amount - 1/2 cup and stir in completely.  When finished, the oats should be tender and your spoon should be able to stand up in the center of the pot all by itself.

If you are doing this on the stove top, ignore all of the stirring instructions above and you will need to stir it every 10-15 minutes for the first couple of hours and more often as it thickens.  Your burner should be on low the whole time as this stuff wants to stick and burn quickly. You are also going to need to add more water because the frequent stirring will evaporate more.  Add up to an additional 2 cups of water, 1/2 cup at a time as needed.  Now you can probably see why the crock pot is so great for this.  In both methods, keep it covered with the lid unless stirring.

When the oats are tender and the entire pot is very thick, take it off the heat, remove the bay leaves, and spoon it into a couple of deep dishes to cool.  I use my rubber spatula to press it into bread pans.  Once cool, cover the pans and put one in the refrigerator and the other in the freezer.

If there's a little left over, add a pat of butter and enjoy it fresh... ummm! just like grandmother used to make.

Like I said, we used to always have a serving fresh for dinner and it's great that way, but the way it is most often prepared is the refrigerated loafs are sliced into 1/2 inch slices and fried.  (The crispy fried version is pictured at the top of this post.) Of course, I no longer fry it in the traditional bacon grease, but if you are into that, that's the way it used to be done.  I fry it in a skillet with a little organic olive oil.  It is most often served for breakfast as an accompaniment to eggs.  We used to have it for any meal with or without eggs.  A couple of slices of this and a salad make a healthy dinner as well.

The way I cook it, it has little fat, as the meat I use is lean and I fry it in very little olive oil.  It is made with organic whole grain oats, which are very good for you.  It's an old time comfort food for me.  I do hope you will enjoy it too.

Pork Roast with Apples, Carrots, and Asian Plum Sauce

I just got finished putting a pork roast in the crock pot.  I thought I’d better start documenting it before I forgot the measurements.  If you’re reading this post, it turned out awesome! 

As I was having coffee this morning, I was thinking about what to do with the roast that I had thawed in the frig.  I just bought a big bag of organic apples and just yesterday I peeled a bunch of my small carrots from the garden.  Supplied with adequate caffeine, the brain began spinning.........  Let’s put it all together in the crock pot and see what happens!!!

For some reason, all my creativity was used up on the ingredients today and I could not come up with a super snappy name for it.  If you have any ideas, let me know.  Here’s the details:

Pork Roast with Apples, Carrots, and Asian Plum Sauce

2 ½ - 3 pound pork roast - I used a sirloin tip roast, a loin roast or any meaty roast would be good

4 cups peeled carrots, cut into 3" long by 1" thick pieces
1 large sweet onion, chopped
4 large apples, cored and chopped into 1 inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
1 cup Asian Plum Sauce* - purchased or homemade - my recipe follows
* Don't have Plum Sauce?  Here is a perfect alternative - an equal amount of whole berry cranberry sauce.

Rinse and pat dry the roast, then brown it on all sides in a little olive oil over a moderately high heat.

Browning the meat adds lot of flavor.

Once the roast is browned, remove it, turn the heat down to low, add a little more olive oil and the chopped onions.  Caramelize the onions over low heat until they are translucent and a delicate brown color.  Sprinkle the salt, thyme, and sage into the onions.

Lightly caramelize the onions and add the herbs

 


I put my carrots on the bottom.  Then put the roast on top of the carrots, poured the caramelized onions over the top of the roast, and then added the chopped apples on top of that.

Carrots-roast-onions-apples

After I dumped the onions into the crock pot, I put the Asian plum sauce in the skillet to warm and to continue deglazing the skillet.  I wanted every little bit of flavor from the browning, caramelizing, and the herbs into the crock pot.  

Top it off with the sauce

Once everything else was in the crock pot, I poured the Asian plum sauce over the top and turned the dial to high to give it a kick start.

After about an hour, turn the crock pot down to low and let it cook for about 5-6 hours or until you are ready to serve.

This would be equally good served over a bed of wide noodles or rice.  I chose to make the rice today.

As mentioned above, whole berry cranberry sauce will make this dish equally as good and there's no need to search the stores for plum sauce.  This recipe made enough for a family meal or if you're only one or two, generous left overs.  It had a delicious sweet flavor with the mingling of the sweet carrots and apples.  A perfect compliment to the pork roast.

Enjoy!




Here is my recipe for the Sauce:

Asian Plum Sauce

This is a condiment that you can purchase at your local co-op or grocery in the ethnic food section, but it is easy to make if you have a supply of plums.  Plums seem to be abundant in the Missoula valley in the fall and last year someone gave me a bucket full.  I had already made more jam than I knew we would eat in several years so I decided to make plum sauce.  We have enjoyed it with many dishes, including stir fries and just over noodles.

 8 cups plums, pitted and chopped - skins on
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup apple juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

In large heavy saucepan, bring plums, onions, garlic, and apple juice to boil a over medium heat - reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until tender.

Add sugar, vinegar, salt, and spices and continue to simmer until it reaches the desired sauce consistency.

Fill and seal canning jars and process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes, or freeze in ½ pint containers.