CARAMELIZED APPLE

2-3 tart apples

2 T. brown sugar

1 T. butter (dairy or non-dairy)

Chop apples into small pieces. You leave the skins on which makes this the easiest way to deal with apples and makes for a delightful taste. Heat brown sugar and butter in a skillet over medium heat and stir until it all starts to bubble. Add your apples and stir to coat evenly. Stir occasionally. This way the water will have time to release and evaporate. Then the sugar and butter starts to get kind of stringy. This is a good thing. It’s how caramel is made.

The apples should be looking caramelized at about 12-15 minutes. At this point, transfer to a bowl to cool. You may choose to add these into a vanilla cupcake batter, fold at the very end into cinnamon pancakes or roll into cinnamon rolls before baking. Caramel apples get invited to most parties.

I have gone plum crazy. Apples and pumpkins are right around the corner, so you have ample warning. Here is an easy plum preserves proportional recipe. Can be bumped up or down depending on your plum load.

The number inclined pattern people will see that for every 1 pound of fruit, you add 1 cup of sugar. That is the ratio. You also can leave the skins on the plums. So that makes it real easy. Scale your liquid to match the rest of your proportions. You can can (ha) it, or treat it as simple freezer jam and use it up quickly.

PLUM PRESERVES

1.5 lbs. plums, halved and pitted

1.5 c. sugar

1/4 c. water

1/4 c. lemon juice

Add all ingredients to a pot and stir. Keep checking back in on the mixture. It takes some time to cook down and begin gelling. My batch was near an hour since I was keeping it on low heat. You can be real professional and use a thermometer and cook until it reaches the jam territory of 220 degrees F. But I just go by how it drips off a wooden spoon.

To my limited knowledge, herbs are separated into two categories: woody and tender. Woody herbs include rosemary, oregano, thyme as some of the big ones. In many climates, these herbs continue to thrive even in winter and develop a woody main stalk. For those of us who do not have the luxury of plucking fresh rosemary in December from our garden, we have to harvest when we can and keep it the best way we know how. Preserving woody herbs is pretty straightforward. Drying these herbs out increases flavor and can be happily used up when fresh greens are scarce.

Tender herbs will dry, but you really have to watch them to make certain they don’t mold. The best way I know of to preserve tender herbs like dill, chives, parsley and basil is to make a compound butter with them. Compound butter is not complex. It is simply tossing in either savory or sweet ingredients to softened butter and then whipping them. You can then use up right then and there on bread or for sauteeing vegetables.

A more rewarding option is to freeze the mix and rediscover in the depths of winter. Making a roux with an herb butter base with herbs picked at the height of their freshness and literally frozen in time…doesn’t get much better than that on a February eve.

HERB COMPOUND BUTTER

1/4 lb. butter (vegan or regular is just fine)

5 T. fresh tender herbs

1/4 t. lemon zest (optional)

Mix butter in a mixer with paddle attachment for a few seconds to just soften it. Add your prepared herbs and optional zest and whip to desired consistency. Place back in original butter wrapper, parchment paper or waxed paper. Put in the freezer and then try to remember it is there in the middle of winter when you need to bust out a batch of roux for that mid-winter mac and cheese. You know, to keep your winter weight on.

It seems this time of year I always have too many strawberries to eat fresh but not enough to make anything with. Until I figured out the golden strawberry ratio for a quick and unfussy jam.

Cans and lids and sterilizing seem like an awful lot of stuff to faff about with. This jam is meant to be made and enjoyed maybe even in the same day. It will make as much as you need. Just keep in mind that you will need to freeze it or use the contents in the fridge within two weeks or so.

Strawberries are a naturally low pectin fruit, and if you are harvesting them at their peak ripeness, or even over-ripeness, they contain even less pectin. That means that you may need to add extra citrus or even a cubed apple during cooking. I don’t mind a runnier concoction, so I don’t really worry about pectin amounts.

The ideal ratio for this strawberry jam seems to be to use 3/4 of the sugar amount to the fruit. That does not make sense. Try again: If you use 8 oz. of strawberries, you would need 3/4 of that amount in sugar…so 6 oz of sugar. The great thing about ratios is that you can make as much or as little based on how much fruit you have.

STRAWBERRY FREEZER JAM

8 oz. strawberries

6 oz. granulated sugar

Juice of a lemon (or grapefruit or lime in a pinch)

Wash fruit and get rid of stems. You can cut strawberries into smaller pieces, or leave whole if they are smaller and homegrown. Combine fruit, sugar and citrus juice in nonreactive pot (like copper). Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the strawberries begin to break down. You can smoosh a few here and there.

Raise heat and cook, stirring and keeping an eye on mixture. Skim any foam off with a wooden spoon, of course. You can use a jam thermometer, or just use intuition since it is just going to be kept in the fridge. Jam always starts off bubbling like mad and then calms down later. It is during this calm that the mixture begins to thicken and darken. You’ve got jam. 220 degrees F if you are being scientific about things. Actually that should be in centigrade for true scientists.

Pop into a jar or smother some on a croissant.