Tigress' Can Jam May Challenge: A Double Whammy

Whereas people in the southern US have been basking in strawberries for weeks now, we northerners haven't seen a single one yet. When it comes to local produce, we're still subsisting on the tired old contents of our root cellars, plus a few green sprouts like chives and thyme that have begun to pop up in gardens. So, with herbs and flowers already covered, what's a jampickler to do for a May project? I think the conversation would go something like this:

• @tigressjampickl: hey sarah! u r the chooser 4 may's can jam! what should we do? something has 2 b in season 4 us northerners already! :) let's discuss!
• @sarahbhood: Gosh, awesome responsibility! Mangoes are in season though not local. Rhubarb? Or a local-wine-based recipe?
• @tigressjampickl: i luv mangoes but not local for anyone i think. i luv rhubarb 2 but afraid it may b 2 odd 4 some. it's hard!
• @sarahbhood: What about apples? They're stored but we could get local ones still. Been checking local availability for Ontario; only asparagus is really in for May. Even blueberries come later...
• @tigressjampickl: hmmm, maybe we should go for asparagus? such a spring veggie! let's think a bit more today..
• @sarahbhood: Only problem with asparagus is the recipes will be VERY similar. I guess my ranking wd be 1 apples 2 rhubarb 3 wine preserves 4 asparagus, but can U think of other possibilities?
• @tigressjampickl: i know what u mean if we do asparagus they'll b the same. problem i have with apples is they are more fall. i want peeps 2 b excited about working with spring things. what do you think about a double whammy? Focus is asparagus & rhubarb, & peeps can choose one for their entry?
• @sarahbhood: Great idea! Green and red spears for spring!!! ASPARUBARB!!!
• @tigressjampickl: great!! lets do it!! i like it!!!! will give more variety and feels VERY SPRING!!! make sure to be clear that entry is only ONE of those. can jammer's choice. :)

So, to translate for the Twitter-impaired, the May challenge for Tigress' Can Jam is Jammers' Choice: either ravishing rhubarb or gorgeous asparagus. Recipes must be posted sometime between the morning of Sunday, May 16 and midnight of Friday, May 21.

Asparagus photo by Jasonwebber01, Morguefile. Rhubarb photo by Kariatx, Morguefile.

Sarah on Three Foodie Websites

This month Andrea Chiu and Ben Ratcliffe launched a new blog, called Tongue and Cheek. It promises to feature lots of podcasts, and their first one, all about spring things, is now up. If you have half an hour of listening time, the complete podcast features Chris Brown (The Stop Community Food Centre) discussing asparagus, Ben on pastitsio, Tom Morana (Bar Volo) on local beers, Hannah Classen on homemade sausages and Andrea talking to me about herb gardening. If you only have four minutes to spare, there's a little clip of the herb gardening segment in which I manage on the spur of the moment to make a surprisingly coherent connection between railway trains and herb gardening.

Over at the Fiesta Farms site, they're running a series called "Apron Strings", about preserving food traditions, in honour of Mother's Day. I was invited to submit a contribution, so I posted a little piece about my mom's Ontario roots and a certain blueberry pie. I look forward to reading the contributions of other writers, including Joshna Maharaj, Mary Luz Mejia and Maia Filar.

And if you happened to miss it, about two weeks ago I was included among yet another blush-inducingly impressive group of people who were asked to write their Greatest Wine Story Ever Told by Spotlight City's Suresh Doss. I especially like Alex Harber's video tale of ketchup chips and a famous widow. Check it out!

The Meat We Like

If @jamie_oliver and friends wonder how North America got into such a state of obesity and poor nutrition, they need look no further than this ad from a 1957 issue of Everywoman's magazine, placed by the American Meat Institute, which was (or is?) based in Chicago, of course, the city that Carl Sandburg called "Hog Butcher for the World". (Click to see the image at quite a large size. It's worth reading the fine print.)

And look at this baby. Those orange columns around the outside are hotdogs!

Or this aspic displaying various forms of Spam-type canned, sliced meats. (Note how it's labelled "calorie-saving"!)

I would have been conceived about the same time as this layout, and I must say that in my childhood, "luncheon meat" (which we liked to call "munchin' meat") exerted a terrible hold upon me. I liked using the little key to open the can. I like the squelching sound as it slid out onto the plate. I like the fatty porky goodness of the cold oily stuff when I bit into it. I liked it especially in white-bread sandwiches with mustard.

Me and most of the rest of North America.

Strawberries and Asparagus Festival

Organizer Chris Chopik is calling for partners, volunteers, entertainers and of course attendees for Toronto's 4th annual Strawberries and Asparagus Festival. It takes place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 12 at the Children's Garden in Cedarvale Park, not far northwest of St. Clair and Bathurst (and close to the Green Barns!)

The event began as a neighbourhood barbeque to commemorate the community's defeat of the proposed Spadina Expressway, which saved 40 acres of green space for Toronto. It will include free food, music, solar cooking, green gardening, children's activities, a Yoga and Zen Zone, and the Inorganic Market, which collects e-waste and teaches about e-waste diversion. To find out more or get involved, visit the Facebook page from the link above.

Photo by Kittyela, Morguefile.

Lavender Jelly with Orange-pith Pectin #tigresscanjam

So the theme of the April installment of Tigress' Can Jam is herbs. I've done a number of herb jellies before, including lemon balm and rosemary. I've also made jelly from rose petals, which is wonderful. Problem is, you have to add pectin when you make jelly, and I don't like the syrupy, slightly grainy texture you get with powdered commercial pectin.

I haven't tried liquid pectin yet, but after reading up on marmalade and citrus fruits in the winter, I had already been wondering about the possibility of making pectin from orange peel when I read this great post about strawberry and orange pectin jelly by Julia of What Julia Ate. Inspired by the knowledge that it could be done, I decided to apply my experience with marmalade to an experimental recipe. Even though we're about three weeks ahead of the normal growing season this year, my chives and lemon balm just aren't up above the ground enough to use for jelly, so I decided to try a lavender jelly with some lavender I already had one hand.

I guessed at the quantities – an informed guess, from having made so many batches of marmalade in my life. As the pith was boiling, I measured the amount of pectin in the liquid every 15 minutes by dropping 1 teaspoon of liquid into a small jelly jar containing 1 taplespoon of rubbing alcohol, sealing the jar and gently agitating it. At first this only created a slight cloudiness in the jar, but approaching the 90-minute mark the liquid transformed almost immediately into a clear, thick, jellylike suspension, something like dropping egg-white into hot water.

I really wished I had a microscope, because I had the impression that the pectin was forming some kind of solid strings or threads in the alcohol and it would have been interesting to see it up close. (I really felt like a scientist by this point.) I was a bit stressed, however, with making sure I didn't get any alcohol back into the cooking batch by reusing the wrong spoon or absentmindedly flinging the tester back into the pot. This of course would be poisonous.

My experiment gave me just under two cups of liquid, which ended up yielding four 125 mL / ½-pint jars. (I think I will try the same experiment with more water, to see whether I can get more liquid without taking much more time.) The jelly was quite cloudy, so next time I may try straining through a finer-mesh jelly bag (maybe an old t-shirt). However, it was also the most aromatic herb jelly I've ever made; I'm guessing that some residual citrus oils helped as an agent to bind the volatile lavender essential oils. It has a smooth, solid consistency rather like those Asian jelly dessserts made with agar. It is thick enough to turn it out of the jar and slice it, so it would make a very interesting garnish for a fancy dessert or meat presentation.

Lavender Jelly with Orange-pith Pectin

• 4 navel oranges
• 2 lemons
• ½ cup of dried lavender
• 4 cups of water
• 2 cups of sugar

Instructions

1. Sterilize at least four 125 mL / ½-pint snap-lid canning jars.
2. Meanwhile, trim the oil-bearing outer skin off the oranges and lemons. Cut them in half. Juice the oranges and reserve the juice for drinking later.
3. In a non-reactive pot, combine the water, the lavender and the juice of the two lemons.
4. Finely chop all the remaining pith and pulp from the citrus fruits, along with the peel of half of one of the oranges.
5. Rinse the pith gently and briefly under cold water to remove any leftover juice or oils, and add it to the pot, along with any seeds.
6. Bring to a boil and hold at a low boil, stirring occasionally, for 90 minutes.
7. Hang in a moistened jelly bag over a bowl and allow the liquid to drain off. (Do not squeeze it, or you'll get cloudier jelly.)
8. When it has drained completely, measure the liquid and combine it with an equal amount of sugar in a non-reactive pot.
9. Bring to a boil and hold at the boiling point, stirring regularly and skimming off the scum that forms on the surface, until it reaches the setting point.
10. Ladle into sterilized jars, cover and process for at least 5 minutes at a rolling boil.

Incidentally, notice that this jelly sets so firmly that you can actually slice it and cut it into stable shapes with a very small cookie cutter. I sliced it with a bread knife, and it even retained the tiny striations from the knife's teeth. A possible ingredient in a very fussy hors d'oeuvre, like duck confit with lavender-orange jelly garnish???

Mango Tasting Again

Last week I picked up a few more mangoes to taste. I couldn't resist getting another Alfonso - they're so delicious! Here's the scoop.

The large green mangoes at the top in this picture are Palowins, labelled as coming from "South Asia". The interior was gold, and I found them a little stringy, but with a very nice mild tartness. Jonathan commented on its fibrosity, and said it was astringent and certainly exotic-tasting.

To the left are Julie mangoes from Jamaica (they're also well known in Trinidad). A medium-sized fruit, its colour shaded from pale green to rose with a golden interior, and its flavour was fruitier and sweeter, with a melting soft texture and a suggestion of coconut.

On the right, a pair of lovely Alfonsos from India, a rather dear $3 each (!), but available by the box of 18 for a lower price. Once again, the deep saffron flesh had the texture of butter, with a rich and lemony taste near the stone. As Jonathan said, "the flavour has everything the other two have... and more!"

Mexican Mango Tasting

I don't consider myself much of a tropical fruit girl; I blame it on 300-plus years of North American genetics. However, I'm always ready to find out more about fruits and vegetables, so, following from my apple-tasting adventure of February, I gathered a few friends together and embarked on a modest comparison of several different types of mangoes today.

Apparently, there are hundreds of different types of mangoes grown in more than 30 countries – almost everywhere except Canada and northern Europe, actually. Some areas have their own local specialty, while some varieties have been adopted by commercial growers in many countries because they make successful crops for large-scale production. Not too surprisngly, India grows the most different types of mangoes.

Here in Toronto, a mango lover needs to keep an eye on the store shelves to find a diversity of mangoes; some smaller Asian and South Asian shops (like my local Gerrard Street grocers) import a wider variety than you'd find at the average supermarket. (By the way, there's a lot of useful information about how to judge ripeness, how to store and how to cook with mangoes at the National Mango Board website.)

A few days ago, I received a big cardboard box containing three varieties of Mexican mangoes, courtesy of National Produce and the kind folks at Faye Clack Communications. I supplemented this bounty with a sample of India's Alfonso, which is apparently the go-to mango for making lassi. The bowl at the top contains the three Mexican mangoes. The biggest is Tommy Atkins; the medium-sized red and green one is Haden, and the small yellow one is Ataulfo.

In the platter above, the golden-orange fruit at the top right is Tommy Atkins; Haden is the greenish yellow below it, and Ataulfo is the yellow one to the left. The Indian Alfonso was small, yellow and quite round. This was the challenge that met Bev (@BevW on Twitter, who has already posted her reactions at her Daily Bread Blog), Jennifer (@JenniferBylok), Mark (@MarkBylok) and Andrea (@TOfoodie).

A mango cutter was included in our kit; you can just see the edge of it at the top of the platter. I tried it on three different sizes of fruit, and found it worked best on the biggest. However, it was tricky to get it to bite into the mango skin to start, it tended to get caught around the big mango seed, and it left a lot of flesh on the seed with the smaller varieties. I prefer a knife, and it's nice to eat mangos right off the skin by cutting them in half, separating the pit, scoring the flesh into cubes and then turning the mango half inside-out so you can bite the squares off the skin. Some of the mangoes on the platter are prepared that way.

For chopping them up, Bev (who has spent quite a bit of time in Trinidad, where Julie mangoes are popular) suggests slicing the fruit in thirds lengthwise, with the stone in the middle slice; then you just peel and slice.

We were also sent most of the makings for a Mango Caprese Salad: basil and buffalo mozzarella, to which I added sea salt, cracked pepper and olive oil. As a lover of the classic tomato-based Caprese salad, I was skeptical; however, I had to agree with the member of our panel who declared it "surprisingly amazing". At least one of the group left with plans to replicate it at home right away.

Here are my notes on the various types we tried, in reverse alphabetical order:

• Tommy Atkins: Big and impressive, with orange flesh, but pulpier and blander than the other three. In reading about it later, I was not surprised to find that it's a popular choice for commercial growers because it's showy on the fruit stand and ships well; however, it's not the tastiest. The Red Delicious of the mango world, apparently.
• Haden: Tart, firm, a pretty yellow-green inside, and with what I think of as the most mango-ish taste of the four we sampled.
• Ataulfo: Pleasanty acidic and citrusy, with buttery yellow flesh, and the best in the salad.
• Alfonso: The Indian mango tasted very different, much more fragrant and flowery, not tart at all, with saffron-gold flesh and a pleasing custardy texture. I didn't think its taste was as "mango-y" as the Haden, but I really liked it, and thought it left almost a hint of coconutiness in the mouth.

Having tried the comparison, I certainly feel as though I've overlooked mangoes in the past – perhaps because I didn't know how to pick them out when they were ripe, or because I had sampled varieties that I didn't like – and I plan to try more. I'll look out for other Mexican varieties as they come into season, like Kent, Keitt and Francis, and I'll taste some of the Indian mangoes that will be turning up on Gerrard Street.

Above all, if my continuing experiments with fruit are telling me anything, it's that people who care about food probably have to let the commercial growers know that we really want produce that tastes good and is good for us; not just the items that stand up best to international shipping and long storage, and look most majestic in our shopping carts. If we don't get to try some of the lesser-known types of fruits and vegetables, we may miss out on discovering just how good they can be.

Jamie Oliver, Jamie Kennedy to Collaborate on Television Series

World-renowned celebrity chef Jamie Oliver announced today that he'll be teaming up with Toronto's own Jamie Kennedy to film a new reality series, to be titled Jamie and Jamie's Local Food Revolution. The ten-part series is designed to teach school-age children about nutrition and local food sources in a hands-on way, by feeding them meals that consist solely of ingredients the children have gathered, processed or preserved themselves.

We'll take them to the pasture to meet the cows, and then to the barn to do the milking," says Kennedy. "They'll make raw artisanal goat yogurt and sheep's milk keffir. Of course, they won't get true cheese unless the series gets extended into further seasons."

"They'll also get to butcher a whey-fed Berkshire pig," he adds.

"The kiddies'll be out in their little wellies foraging in the woods for ramps and morels and summer berries," says Oliver. "I think they'll be really motivated, because they know that whatever they gather, that's all that will be on their dinner plate, yeah?"

To find out more about Jamie and Jamie's Local Food Revolution, visit the show's official website at The Foo(le)d Network.