When something, no matter how seemingly insignificant, turns out just right it lifts us up and makes our day.

Monday night my friend came over to make to make apple jelly. I had picked up some tart green apples at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. Sunday night I cut them up and boiled them with some water and let the juice drain off overnight. I read in several books to expect 1 cup of juice from 1 pound of apples. We started out with a little over 3 pounds of apples and ended up with about 11 cups of juice. I was certain the juice was too watery. I wanted to add just enough water to cover the apples, but of course the apples floated to the top (duh!) so I ended up with more water in the pot than I had intended.

We cooked some of the juice down some more and had 9 cups when we started making the jelly. We divided it into two batches and decided to make one batch plain and one batch scented with lemon verbena. We used three cups of sugar and one lemon per batch. Each batch yielded four jars of the most delightful jelly, with a perfect set and just sweet enough to bring out the fresh slightly tart apple flavor without overpowering it.

And the lemon verbena is so wonderful and subtle. I think the flavor of the verbena has changed over the summer. When I tried it earlier in the season (I used it for tea and for flavoring ice cream) it a somewhat coarser, more herbal flavor. Now its aroma is very light and heady. Some of that may be due to boiling it with sugar in jelly, but I noticed a difference even when I used it in tea.

I am so amazed that the jellies turned out so beautiful. It was easy and everything was just right. The hard part is reproducing the experience. It is impossible because there are so many unpredictable variables involved: how ripe are the apples and how much pectin do they have? How acid are they? How tart? How easily do they release their juice? And my lemon verbena will never be precisely the same.

With all of these variables, recipes can only be guidelines. I try not to use commercial pectin anymore, not only because I like a challenge and because, on a lucky day, the end result is superior, but because, paradoxically, using a jelling agent gives you less control over the process. You have to rely more on the recipe more and less on your instincts.

Instructions for Apple Jelly (with Optional Herbal Flavor)

Quarter or chop apples coarsely. Do not peel or core but cut off any brown spots. Put in large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until apples are soft and the skins come off. Pour apples through a fine sieve to collect juice. Let juice drain freely, do not push down pulp. Moisten four layers of cheesecloth or jelly bag. Fill remaining pulp in cheesecloth or jelly bag and find a way so that the bag can be suspended bag over a bowl and the juices can drain. For example, you can hang the bag from a cabinet handle and put the bowl under it. (There are also commercial stands for jelly bags you can buy.) Let juice drain overnight.

The juice you last drained will be thicker and has more pectin. If you have enough juice for several batches, make sure you mix all the juice together before to dividing it into different batches.

(The pulp that remains in the bag can be pushed through a food mill or strainer and used as applesauce. You may want to add some apple juice to it, or sweeten or season it, e.g. with cinnamon.)

Get canning equipment and jars ready. Put several small plates into freezer.

Measure the juice into a large heavy saucepan. Preferably, don't work with more than 6 cups of juice in one batch. Add a two-third (2/3) cup of sugar for each 1 cup of juice. Add strained juice of one lemon. If you want to flavor the jelly, tie about 3-5 large sprigs of herb (e.g lemon verbena, lemon balm, mint, lavender, rosemary etc.) into a bundle with kitchen twine. If using dried herbs tie ca. 2 tablespoons in a piece of cheesecloth or cotton tea bag. Add to the juice.

Bring juice to a boil over high heat. Stir and watch it closely. It should boil vigorously. When it gets thicker (it may take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes) pour a small spoonful on one of the plates from the freezer and put it back into the freezer for a minute or two. Stop cooking when jelly on the test plate is only slightly runnier than you would like it (It will continue cooking in the pot a bit as it cools off). It should wobble a bit when you shake the plat and when you pull a finger through it it should not run together anymore.

Discard herbs if there are any. If there is a lot of foam you may want to skim it off and save it for immediate use. Pour jelly into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Let jars cool off for at least twelve hours. The jelly should be jiggly but not totally firm. If it seems too soft give it some more time. It may take up to two weeks to completely set. Putting it in the refrigerator may help. If a batch is really too soft you can either use it as sauce on pancakes, ice cream etc. Or you can cook it again to a firmer consistency. It is better to err on the soft side though, because there is not much you can do if it is too hard.

Please familiarize yourself with basic canning procedures and food-safety guidelines.  10:29:06 AM    

Yesterday's harvest was not bad at all. Lots of eggplants. I almost waited too long and one had some brown spots inside. I made Moussaka (without meat). So good! But a lot of work since it involves so many steps before you can finally put the pan in the oven: broiling peppers and peeling them, broiling eggplant, frying potatoes, making toamto sauce, assembling the whole thing. But it was worth it. And we will still have leftovers tonight.

I am getting the roof ready for my first attempt at fall planting. It seems a bit too hot still for anything tender to grow. But a late harvest of some beans, cucumbers, radishes and greens would be nice.

I am contemplating setting up a very simple passive hydroponic system. Nothing complicated or mechanical. That way I wouldn't have to schlepp so much soil up there, and since I would drain the system in the winter there would be less weight with the added snow-load.

I am still a bit skeptical whether it will actually work. I will set up a few very simple containers as a trial.

I got some new tart apples at the market. Tonight I will make some apple jelly. Maybe scented with some lemon balm or lavender. Or lemon verbena. I can't decide. Maybe some of each. Or maybe just plain.  10:43:22 AM    

Inspired by food blogger Nupur we went to Jackson Heights last Saturday to check out the Indian neighborhood. I love to be a tourist in my own city! There was so much fresh and inexpensive produce, and of course I couldn't pass up the deal on mangoes by the box ... and then it was Mango Mania!

I made mango sorbet, mango habanero salsa, mango jam and mango chutney. And of course there was plenty of mango to eat.

I made the mango jam with 50% of sugar to the amount of fruit and added one cup of homemade juice from tart pectin-rich apples plus one cup of sugar and the juice of one lemon. The turned out fine. Fine, but not spectacular. I don't quite know what is lacking. Mango can sometimes be a bit one-dimensional. Maybe lime instead of lemon would have given it a bit more zing. Interestingly, the girls said that it was too sour. Lime zest might be interesting, too. And for some reason I keep thinking anise. Raspberries would definitely be great! Maybe I should go back and get another box. Or two.  5:44:00 PM    

Coming back from a visit to Germany where I grew up and lived until I was 27, to me feels like a time of transition, and a good point to re-assess, think things over, and find ways to make adjustments.

One of my resolutions is to take myself more seriously professionally, and in that vein, I did my best to finish an assignment as soon as I had started up my computer.

And then there is summer. With the heat and the humidity came the bounty, and I am finally back to Pickles & Jams. However, after the jamming and jellying and by the time I have cleaned up my kitchen I am too exhausted to blog.

I will try to keep up in bits and pieces, and not always in chronological order. I am learning and documenting my failures and successes is part of the process.

So far I have made mulberry jelly and jam (I am not sure if it set enough, I may have to reprocess), cherry vanilla jam last night which came out great, pesto from the basil on my roof (this will be an ongoing project all summer long). Tonight I want to make some apple jelly from some "real" apples I picked up at the farmer's market. I need to look around for crabapples. I have a feeling there must be some apple trees on the campus of a nearby college.

I am off to deal with some paperwork on my desk. Hopefully I will be back later, writing about mulberries or cherries.  1:20:24 PM    

We came back Tuesday night. The trip was good. We had quality time with friends and family. I will report more later.

Culinary highlight: elderberry blossom "champagne." I never made anything like that before. It turned out great!

Yesterday I went to the grocery store and on the way home I discovered a mulberry tree - with ripe berries that I could actually reach! I went back today and picked some, and later today clambered around in various parks with dog-owners. It turns out dog-owners know their parks! Now the juice is draining from the berries and hopefully tomorrow I will make jelly. I have no experience whatsoever with mulberries, but foraging for them is a lot of fun.

My "garden" is growing wild. I have lots of tomatoes ripening, basil, eggplants etc. I have to spend some time with tidying up and growth control.

I have to go to sleep now. I am exhausted. Jet-lag and mulberries.  11:10:45 PM    

After studying lots of recipes, comparing, trying out and comparing again, I think I have arrived at something of a basic recipe, or at least a process I feel comfortable with. My main inspiration has been June Taylor although I have yet to taste any of her creations. I found a couple of her recipes on the Internet, and while I was never able to exactly follow any of them (due to differences in ingredients and quantities) her procedures for making marmalade (and her philosophy in general) make a lot of sense to me.

In order to arrive at a concoction that jells in the right way (not too runny not too solid), won't spoil, tastes yummy and looks pretty, you need fruit, sugar, acid, water and pectin, heat and time. Your fruit already has some sugar, acid, water, and pectin and therefore, how much of these ingredients you need to add depends on the fruit you start out with. Basically, a real artisan marmalade maker would tailor the recipe to every particular batch of fruit.

The two most important things I learnt during my recent adventures at Marmalade pot:

1) If you don't want your Marmalade to be bitter, keep out the white stuff (the pith, or albedo) because that's where most of the bitterness is.

2) The overall "character" of your marmalade is very much determined by how much rind you add, and how you cut it. If you cut very fine stripes (about 1/8 of an inch), they will pretty much disappear during the cooking, while imparting flavor and aroma (the rind is where the essential oils are). If you want the rinds to add more character, leave them about half an inch wide. Personally, I don't like a lot of big pieces of rind and I found that cutting them into relatively small pieces (squares or triangles) makes for a very pretty effect. Also possible: cut some rind very fine but leave some bits larger. Creative combinations are also possible, e.g. floating bits of Tangelo peel in Grapefruit-Tangelo Marmalade or Lemon squares in Orange Marmalade.

Basic Process for Citrus Marmalade

Wash your fruit. Select the prettiest pieces and peel them with a vegetable peeler. Cut the rind in stripes or pieces. Stop when you have about 1 cup (or more or less, depending on how much rind you like in your marmalade).

Cut all the pith (and peel) away from the fruit and then cut the segments away from the membranes. Work over a bowl to catch the juice. This step is kind of messy and bit hard to describe but you will get the hang of it. Squeeze the juice out of the messy lump of membranes you're left with and collect all the membranes and seeds in another bowl. Stop when you have about 5 cups of segments (and juice).

Put the rinds and the fruit in a large pot. Add the juice of 2-4 lemons (depending on how acid your fruit is). Add water, two cups should be ok.

Put the mess of membranes and seeds in a jelly bag if you have one, or put it in at least 4 layers of cheesecloth and tie it with twine. Put this package in the pot as well. Bring to a boil and cook for 20-30 minutes until the peels are tender. While this is cooking get your canning stuff and jars and lids ready and put a small plate in the freezer (for the jell-test).

Turn off heat. Put the package in a bowl and wait until it is cool enough to handle. The membranes are rich in pectin and you want to get as much of the pectin as possible to make the marmalade jell. To that end, squeeze and twist this package over the bowl until you think you can't coax any more of that thick white pectin-rich oooze out of it. This is a bit laborious and every drop counts. If you are using cheesecloth be careful that it doesn't burst or break. Stir the pectin back into the pot.

Now it's time to add the sugar. Measure the fruit mixture. Traditional recipes would say add one cup of sugar per cup of fruit mixture. I have had good success with 2/3 cup of sugar per cup of fruit mixture. Add the sugar to the pot and stir to dissolve.

Turn on the heat and watch closely, stirring frequently. Don't leave your post once it has started boiling. Let it come to a "full rolling boil." It will be all bubbly and foamy and a bit scary. Keep stirring. It will take at least 20 minutes until the marmalade is done, and may even take 45 minutes or more. You will know your are almost there when a candy thermometer reads close to 220 degrees, the mixture gets thicker, changes color and the bits of fruit and rind have become shiny and sort of transparent.

Drop some marmalade on the plate from the freezer. Wait a bit and trace a line with your finger through it, if it doesn't flow back together and doesn't run when you tilt the plate it should be done. (I overcooked the first jams I made because I was so worried they wouldn't jell. I prefer a softer set and if you end up with marmalade that is too runny you can always cook it again but it is harder to doctor up overcooked jam. It will continue to set as it cools; it can take up to two weeks after processing to fully set.)

Take pot from heat. Quickly fill hot jars, seal and process for 10 minutes). Take jars out of canner and let cool for a couple of hours. Check to see if vacuum has formed, label and store.  9:51:22 AM    

The box of citrus came and the grapefruits and tangelos look beautiful and very fresh, the Valencia Oranges looked like they needed to be dealt with first. Therefore I went to work on Wednesday and made the Orange Marmalade first. It was quite labor-intense but well worth it, both for the result and the learning process. The Marmalade is very fruity and has beautiful color. It is a bit runny still, although it may still set up more. Nobody seems to mind though. It is not bitter at all, and maybe a bit too tame for Marmalade purists. A more traditional marmalade would have more peels, be thicker and a bit bitter.

On Thursday morning I got a call from my neighbor who had a childcare issue so I ended up spending a very pleasant day with a 2-year old. Of course, the grapefruits have to wait. On top of it, a client sent me some work due on Monday, and that will have to take priority anyway. The job is not very large and I get probably get through in the evenings. My neighbor will look after my children on Sunday and it will all work out in the end. I get to the Grapefruit at some point over the weekend. Good thing they were so fresh when they came.

I have saved the peels from the oranges that I wanted to candy and put up in syrup. I may have to pop them in the freezer. I managed to string up some lemon and orange peel strips and they look beautiful hanging in my window in the sunlight. I'll see if I can take a picture later. Now, I have to take over from Mr. Rogers and get back to the playdough. (Sorry, time no proof or edit).  11:45:10 AM