A How-To on Canning, PLUS a Recipe for Do Chua (Vietnamese Pickled Carrots & Daikon)

Canning is a GREAT way to preserve food; basically, the food is sealed in an airtight container through a boiling-water bath or under pressure canning. This extends the shelf life of food and keeps it from having to be refrigerated or frozen. 

You can preserve TONS of stuff, from jams/jellies to sauces, and yes, pickles! 

Boiling-water bath canning is simple: Once the contents are placed in canning jars and sealed, the jars are lowered into a pot filled with enough boiling water to completely cover the jars. Boil for 10-15 minutes (depending on the recipe), carefully remove the jars from the water, and, as the jars cool, they will vacuum seal. You don't need any special equipment, but I HIGHLY recommend purchasing a canning tool kit - this kit contains everything you need, from a magnetic lid lifter for the canning lids, a jar lifter, a wide-mouth funnel for filling the jars, and a headspace ruler (more on these tools below). 

I use my pressure canner for my boiling-water bath canning, but you can just a use a big, heavy bottomed pot. Just make sure you have enough room for the jars and water to cover them. 

Pressure canning is a bit more difficult; first, you need a pressure canner, which usually has a gauge or weights. The pressure canner will have a tight seal on it; like with pressure COOKING, the pressure increases the boiling point of the contents, making them cook more quickly and effectively sterilizing the food. Pressure-canning is a little more dangerous, as you HAVE to wait for the pressure to drop before opening the canner, and seals CAN let go and cause a huge mess or even injury. Luckily, modern pressure canners are a lot safer than they used to be, and I've never had an accident. 

Honestly, I've done pressure canning a few times, and I HATE IT. I prefer to just stick to what I can can (ugh) with a boiling-water bath. 

So, how do you know when to use a boiling-water bath or pressure canning? The boiling-water method is only safe for foods with a high pH (under 4.6), and works best for pickles, fruits, jams/jellies and tomatoes. Granted, I know tomatoes are technically a fruit and not a vegetable, but they are acidic and can GREAT. Pressure canning raises the boiling point of the food, killing the bacteria that causes botulism (Clostridium botulinum for my Carl Linnaeus nerds), making it the ideal canning method for vegetables and meats. 

For this post, I'll be making do chua, which is a Vietnamese condiment made of carrot and daikon sticks, pickled in a sweet vinegar mixture. Though these ARE vegetables, since I'm adding vinegar and lowering the acidity, a boiling-water bath is sufficient for canning. 

This is the last jar I have, from a batch  I made last year...

Back then, I didn't have a julienne slicer, so I had to cut everything by hand :(

You'll just have to keep reading to see exactly WHAT I do with my do chua :)

Creamed Spinach

Creamed spinach sounds SO gross (looks kinda gross too!), but it's actually SO good. It's a classic steakhouse side and really DOES go amazingly well with beef. 

Ninja Turtle Barf right there, folks...

This dish is surprisingly simple; you make a roux, add milk, then a healthy dose of Parmesan cheese for good measure. Add the spinach, season with nutmeg (a must in any creamed spinach recipe), and that's it! This recipe uses frozen cut spinach for an extra shortcut (plus, sometimes fresh spinach is REALLY pricey in stores). 

On top of being super tasty, this is also a great dish for vegetarians! 

Saucy Macaroni & Cheese (Recipe From 1870)

I make pretty damn good macaroni & cheese, whether it's my baked version or my bacon/ranch version. But sometimes I want a saucier mac & cheese, and I absolutely refuse to reach for the blue box. 

This recipe hails from just after the Civil War, from Jennie June's American Cookery Book, published in 1870. You don't need the oven (just the stovetop), and the recipe is so incredibly simple. Simply boil your noodles, make a creamy sauce (from REAL cheese, of course!), and that's it.

The original recipe: 

MACARONI.

Put four or five ounces of macaroni in water, and boil for twenty minutes, until tender. Mix into half a pint of milk a little flour, and a small piece of butter, half a tea-cup of cream, half a tea-spoonful of mustard, salt, pepper, and cayenne, and four ounces of good fat cheese grated very fine; stir all together and boil for ten minutes. Pour this over the macaroni, after draining it from the water boil five or six minutes and serve.

Luckily, Kitchen Historic has 'modernized' the recipe, making it much easier; she has also doubled the recipe. Honestly, with a recipe THIS good and THIS easy, who needs the blue box anyway?

Cast Iron Skillet Blackberry Cobbler

Over the weekend, my parents and I stopped by a local fruit & vegetable market to pick up some produce. In addition to fresh fruits & vegetables, Amish cheeses, and local dairy and eggs, they have a TON of home-canned products; mostly various pickles and jams/jellies, but then I spotted something interesting - cobbler in a jar. 

The BF is a huge fan of cobbler; indicating that blackberry cobbler was his absolute favorite (for me, it's peach). Since I keep frozen berries in the freezer year-round for smoothies and ice cream, I knew I'd have to make him my version of blackberry cobbler. Luckily, though, a local store had some great looking blackberries for only $0.99 for a half-pint, so I grabbed a few. 

Cobblers here in the South are always named by their fruit; typically apple, peach or berry. Our cobblers are almost always comprised of one fruit and one fruit only, never mixing flavors. In true Southern tradition, though, a cobbler MUST be served warm and topped with vanilla ice cream.

Like this:

Avocado Chocolate Pudding - Delicious, Easy, Healthy, AND Vegetarian/Vegan!

I know I'll probably catch some hell for this, since I JUST did a post about chocolate pudding, and used (oh no!) prepackaged box mix, but this is my new go-to recipe for chocolate pudding. 

It takes about 5 minutes, it's vegetarian/vegan friendly, AND it's actually healthy. Why? Well, this version omits the standard milk/cream/egg custard-base that most puddings use, and gets its creaminess from an avocado.

And no, this pudding will NOT taste like guacamole...trust me. Avocados have tons of vitamins(1/3 of your daily vitamin C, and 1/2 of your daily vitamin K) and fiber; one average avocado is about 300 calories, yes, but has only 15g of unsaturated fat (your heart will thank you) and 4g of protein. Avocados also have more potassium than bananas, and is currently being researched for anti-cancer properties. 

Meatloaf with Herbed Cream Sauce

Man. Meatloaf gets such a bad rap, but to me, it's one of the ULTIMATE comfort foods. i'm pretty sure I never shied away from it as a kid when it appeared on the dinner table (if so, I KNOW Mom & Dad will let me know), and I still remember making it for the first time when I moved out on my own. 

Honestly, it turned out pretty terrible. I didn't want to mix the 'loaf' with my hands, so it didn't hold its shape and ended up a puddled greasy mess that NO amount of ketchup could fix. 

Luckily, now I have a go-to 'standard' meatloaf, culled from a REALLY old issue of Southern Living. This recipe though? Wow. It's almost as if someone classed up the humble meatloaf; instead of being served with ketchup, there's a wonderful creamy sauce, filled with fresh herbs. Adding mushrooms to the meatloaf itself adds a really nice flavor and texture as well. It's like true comfort food, turned up to eleven.