May
21
Photograph by Rosey Lakos
While writing an article on different types of manjar (meyer lemon and chocolate orange!) for isgreaterthan.net, I was struck by everyone’s suggestion in a blind test that Meyer Lemon Manjar tastes like lavender. It got me thinking. Why not make it lavender? I’ve been drinking a lot of lavender/rose tea, and happen to have plenty of it lying around, so I quickly came up with a syrup to add to the sweetened condensed milk, and ended up with a delicious, subtle, floral manjar. For those of you who don’t know, manjar is a Chilean spread very similar to dulce de leche, only much thicker. Dulce de leche is a traditional spread and syrup in many countries, but made popular by Argentina. It is made by caramelizing sweet milk, traditionally by heating very sugary milk over very low heat for a very long time. But no Chilean grandmother, or Argentine, Spanish, or Portuguese for that matter, is going tell you to make it that way. For most people, the best and easiest way is to boil a can of sweetened condensed milk for around 2-3 hours. Using canning jars you can do exactly the same thing, only flavored!
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May
15
Rhubarb is a delicious and very misunderstood plant. While many people are familiar with Strawberry-Rhubarb, it’s rare to find someone who can appreciate it solo. Alone, rhubarb is extremely sour and refreshing, not that dissimilar to sour-grass, or even sorrel. Contrary to popular belief, raw rhubarb is not toxic. The sour in rhubarb comes from oxalic acid which is found in many vegetables (it’s that thing that makes your teeth feel rough when you eat spinach or chard). The leaves of rhubarb contain the most oxalic acid, but in order to get a LD50 (Lethal Dose) you would need to eat 11lbs of them. In fact, one of my favorite pieces of rhubarb knowledge is that dipping the raw stalks in sugar used to be a favorite child’s treat in England. The first dip-sticks! It is even delicious raw in fruit salads.
Rhubarb tends to be the first fresh fruit in any North American spring, ready a little bit before strawberries, but right on time to match up with the first lavender blossoms. You can make a delicious rhubarb lavender jam with little more than rhubarb, water, sugar, and lavender. The simplicity and ease of this recipe is excellent, especially since by this point in the season I’ve run through my reserves and am dying for anything new.
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Sep
14
I should preface this by saying I am not a fan of canning sauce. Tomato sauce is so easy to make from canned tomatoes I really don’t see the need to make it early. I only ever keep whole canned tomatoes in my kitchen, so I only ever make whole canned tomatoes. This leaves me with endless last minute options (soups, stews, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, spicy sauce, garlic sauce, basil sauce, onion sauce, vodka sauce! etc). Not to mention, I can really only handle eating so many of the same thing. I like variety!
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