Complete Book of Knife Skills

I am very excited to have received a review copy of the Zwilling J.A. Henckels Complete Book of Knife Skills: The Essential Guide to Use, Techniques & Care by Jeffrey Elliot and James P. DeWan (Robert Rose, 2010) this morning. It's a great resource that I look forward to using; I feel it's just about right for helping me to advance from my current level of skill – although it would also be helpful for the teenage first-time cook who wanted to know how to chop up a tomato without losing any fingers.

Starting with the high school cooking classes that taught me how to dice an onion (one of the best things I ever learned in high school, actually), continuing with my summer in an army kitchen (a story I'll tell one of these days) and most recently learning things like "use your knuckles as a backstop" from my ex-kitchen-pro sweetie Jonathan, I've gradually learned how to render most things down to sticks or cubes or Shake 'n Bake-sized pieces – depending on what's called for at the moment. But it's not always pretty, and I have some badgeworthy scars to show for the learning process.

This book might have saved me some wounds. It's a comprehensive guide that includes information on various types of knives, as well as all the different sharpening tools and techniques. It covers proper hand positions (like the "claw" for keeping the blade away from the fingers that are holding the food), as well as methods for taking apart tricky items like artichokes, Alaska King Crab legs and lobsters. It includes full instructions for most types of fruits, vegetables, raw and cooked cuts of meat, fish and seafood, and ends with some fun garnishes like radish roses, carrot curls and citrus crowns.

It even includes Jonathan's obsession, the tourné or "turned" cut, which essentially reduces a carrot or potato to a perfectly faceted seven-sided jewel. (He tells me he and his line cook friends used to compete to see who could, for example, produce the most perfectly turned parsnip using only a broken beer bottle... you get the idea.)

The book is handsomely produced in a ring-bound format with multiple photos for every exercise and glossy pages that will resist spatters from your first attempt to french a lamb rack or spatchcock a fowl. The Cookbook Store has them in stock right now for $34.95. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go and make an apple swan.

Hot Pepper Jelly Recipe for Tigress' Can Jam #tigresscanjam

Hot peppers were the theme for this month's edition of Tigress' Can Jam, so – as a recent convert to pepper jelly – I decided to see what kind of local peppers were conveniently available and put something together accordingly.

Unless I had wanted to opt for something imported from Central America, my sole option turned out to be hot banana peppers, which was just fine with me. Hot banana peppers rank at 5 (5,000 to 15,000 units) on the Scoville Heat Chart, which makes them hotter than jalapeño, poblano or chipotle peppers, but nowhere near a fiery Thai chile, let alone a death-dealing habañero or Scotch bonnet.

I didn't wear surgical gloves, which I literally would do when working with habañeros. Simply washing my hands, cutting board and knife after chopping seemed to tame the ambient capsicum – although I was silly enough to brush my cheek with one hand while working, and felt a slight burn under one eye.

While I was cooking it, I was worried that this jelly might turn out to be a little bit syrupy. It took a long time to reach the setting point, but it gelled up nicely in the jar, thanks, no doubt, to the fresh, tart McIntoshes that went into it. So here's my recipe for what I'm calling:

Golden Banana-Apple Sunrise Jelly

This jelly has a gorgeous warm golden hue, to go along with its slow gentle warming bite.

Day One

1. Quarter 2 lbs of apples (6 medium-large McIntoshes, in my case), and cover them in a pot with 4 cups of water. Use seeds, skins, cores and all. Bring to a boil, then cover, turn down heat and simmer until the fruit has broken down (about 30 minutes). You can help it along with a potato masher.
2. Strain out the largest pieces of skin and core, then use a sieve to extract the juice. Allow the juice to pour through a jelly bag. Do not squeeze it.
3. Pour the juice into a tall jar (a quart/litre pickle jar is fine) and refrigerate overnight.

Day Two

Ingredients

• 3 large hot banana peppers
• 1 sweet pepper (I used one-third each of red, orange and yellow peppers, for colour)
• 1 small onion
• 3 cups of apple pectin liquid (Pour carefully or use a turkey baster to extract the clear liquid without the sediment.)
• 1 cup of cider vinegar (at least 5% acid)
• 4 cups of sugar

Preparation

1. Sterilize jars and warm lids.
2. Very finely chop all the vegetables.
3. Combine all ingredients in a large non-reactive pot and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar completely.
4. Boil rapidly until setting point is reached (about 30 minutes.)
5. Ladle into sterilized jars, and process for 10 minutes according to these instructions.

Jars for the Royal Winter Fair Preserving Competition

Well here we are at the end of the local growing season, and this year I'm marking it by entering some of my jams and jellies in the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair Preserving Competition, which is sort of a Life List item for me. Above, you see my summer's preserving work – not counting about 100 jars that have already been given away, eaten or used for photography for my book.

Out of 100-odd batches, I've chosen ten (one for each jam or jelly category) to enter. Thus there's a Single-fruit Jam, a Single Fruit Jelly, a Spirited Jelly, a Conserve, a Savoury Jelly, a Multiple-fruit Jam, and so on. I'm not entering any of my pickles, because I think jam's really my forte. In case you're interested, here are the official rules.

Since I've never entered before, I have no expectations. I've been told that some entries are disqualified (for rusty rings, improper seals, too much or too little head space, mould and so on), and I've tried very hard to toe the line exactly on all those items, so I'm hoping to be judged in every category at least. (You get judges' notes whether or not you win anything, which is a great bonus.)

I understand that the judging is usually skewed towards preserves made with commercial pectin and recipes that are interesting but not too unusual, which may put me at a disadvantage. However, you can pull wild cards in this department, like the year not too long ago when Martha Stewart took part and apparently drew judging opinion towards the more daring entries.

Ribbons are awarded for first to fifth place, and I understand that there are not usually more than 25 to 30 entries per field (surprisingly!), so I figure I have 50 chances out of 300. Does that make the odds of winning something one in six? Sounds good enough for me! The fair runs from November 5 to 14, and the judging happens in advance, so I'll be biting my nails for the next two weeks.

I have already received my official stickers, now duly affixed to the bottom of each jar (two samples per category), and my entry fee's all paid up. I have until Friday at noon to deliver the jars (below) to Exhibition Place.

Wish me luck!