Ginger Preserve

I made ginger preserve differently this time. I cut the ginger into strips instead of grating it. I was surprised that the ginger preserve was much hotter than usual. After I boiled and changed the water twice, the ginger was OK. I usually don't have to boil my grated ginger preserve. It was interesting.

Orange Sauce

Since the local oranges season has finished, I now have to buy oranges from the U.S. to made sauce for yogurt. I miss orange season here.

Lemon & Orange Syrup

I made another fruits syrup for yogurt. I used navel oranges and lemons this time. The lemon made the syrup a little sour.

Dried Strawberries

When I made candied citrus peels, I wondered if I could do the same for another type of fruit as well. I tried it with strawberries. I cooked the strawberries in a pot and dried them in the oven at 100℃ for one hour on each side. The strawberry became a dark colour and shrank to 1/5 of its original size. The strawberry has a sweet and rich flavor. It reminds me of raisins.

Ginger on Toast

I have kept my home-made ginger preserve in the fridge. I can't stop myself from putting a lot of it on buttered toast every morning. I'm not sure if it's OK to eat two or three tablespoons of ginger everyday. Is it too much?

Seminole Orange Syrup

I made syrup using seminole oranges today. The syrup has more of a reddish orange colour than usual. We often eat the syrup with yogurt.

Sour Strawberry Jam

I made strawberry vinegar syrup again last week. After I pick the strawberries out of the syrup, I used them to make jam. The jam has a bit of a sour taste, which makes the jam delicious.

Bonito Flakes

Every time I make noodles, I use many dried bonito flakes for making soup stock. I reused the used bonito flakes today. I roasted the bonito flakes with some sugar, soy sauce and sake in a sauce pan until they were dry. The flakes are good for sprinkling on rice.

Candied Peels

I made candied citrus peels today. The bottle on the left is amanatsu, which is from the peel that I had left over when I baked a cake. The amanatsu has thick white pith that makes the candied peel bigger. The bottle on the right is lemon, which is from keeping lemon peels in the freezer each time I used a lemon for cooking or baking. I used 580g of granulated sugar, which is the same weight as the peel. It took a long time to make the candied peel but they are very useful for baking or in snacks.

Ginger Preserve

I made some ginger preserve recently. I ground 300g of ginger in the food processor.
I then cooked the ginger with 200g of honey in a pot.
I enjoyed eating the preserve on toast, having it in tea or cooking with it. My favorite way to use it is for ginger pork saute.

Lemon Marmalade Paste

I don't know why but my lemon marmalade is more delicious when I pureed the marmalade with a blender. I love marmalade and the taste of this lemon marmalade paste is even better than regular marmalade.
The marmalade taste had totally changed after 2 days in the bottle. I can't explain how much I enjoy it on toast every morning.

Naval Oranges and Yogurt Faces

This is a face I made on my yogurt this morning using 2 prunes and orange syrup.
Sunny side up yogurt.
I bought some navel oranges again today.
I want to make orange syrup again.

Orange Syrup

We have yogurt every morning for breakfast. Andrew likes to mix jam in it and he prefer thin jam to thick jam. I made some orange syrup for him today. I used 5 navel oranges that I bought from my neighbor. I grounded the peel and cut up the inside of the oranges.
I cooked the oranges with sugar and then I used a hand mixer to make the oranges smooth. After that, I put the orange syrup into grass bottles. I didn't cook the oranges too long this time because I wanted a fresh orange taste for the yogurt.
I made some apple sauce too. I added little sugar and cinnamon for the apple sauce. I am interested to make apple butter. I might try it next time.

Lemon Marmalade

Since I finished all my orange marmalade, I miss it a lot. I love marmalade even though it takes a long time to make.
I made lemon marmalade today. I found an interesting recipe. First, I boiled lemons.
These lemons were soft and dents could been seen after boiling for one hour.
I cut up these lemons and cooked them with brown sugar until they were thick. (lemons 1,269g, sugar 1,000kg)
The marmalade is not a beautiful yellow colour because I used brown sugar. I didn't have any white sugar today. I can't wait to have toast with the marmalade soon.

Robin's Raspberry Jam

I appreciate homemade food very much. When Andrew and I visited Robin's house she gave us some of her raspberry jam that she won a prize for last summer. The jam is so good. What's funny was Andrew didn't notice it was raspberry. He thought it was strawberry after he had it two times!

Yuja-cha

柚子茶を作ろうと張り切って買った柚子ですが、しばらく手をつけずにいました。今日は重い腰をあげ、家にある瓶を集めて熱湯消毒をし、柚子を刻みました。

柚子茶作りは難しくありませんが、時間がかかってしまうので、始めるのには少し勇気が要ります。今回は全部はちみつに漬けました。

Ginger and Honey

新しょうがをおろしてレモンを混ぜ、蜂蜜を加えて煮ました。

しょうがが煮詰まったら２つに分け、半分はそのまま、もう半分にはシナモン、ナツメグ、クローブ、カルダモン、コリアンダーを混ぜて瓶に詰めました。

このしょうがを温かい紅茶に混ぜると、寒い日にほっとする飲み物になります。香辛料入りの方は牛乳入りの紅茶に混ぜて、チャイのような味を楽しみます。他にも紅茶に入れるだけでなく、お菓子や料理に使うことができそうです。

Orange and Lemon Marmalade

この春に3回作ったマーマレードのうち、甘夏みかんとレモンで作ったものが一番おいしく、家族にも好評だったので、また作りました。甘夏みかん2,008g、レモン703gに、砂糖は1,355g入れました。
レモンの皮を刻んでいきます。前回は包丁のあたる人差し指の腹にまめができたので、今回は気をつけてゆっくりと刻みました。
次に甘夏みかんの皮を刻む時になってから、フードプロセッサーを使う事を思いつきました。機械の力を借りると、皮を刻む作業は十分の一の時間で終わってしまいます。刻んだ皮は一晩たっぷりの水に浸しておきます。
皮は3回ゆでこぼし苦みを取ります。実は房を分けてから種を取り出して切り、圧力鍋で短時間煮ます。それから皮と房を合わせて鍋に入れ、砂糖を3〜4回に分けながら煮詰めました。
ちょうど良い固さになったマーマレードは消毒した瓶に入れ、さらに煮沸消毒をして完成です。1日目は下ごしらえ、2日目は茹でて煮詰めます。今回2日目の作業にかかった時間は2時間でした。まだ時間はかかりますが、少しずつ慣れてきました。

Caramel Sauce

鍋に砂糖と少量の水を入れ、中火で煮溶かします。
しばらくすると、砂糖がだんだんと茶色に色付いてきます。
さらに濃い色になり、煙が立ち始めたら火を止めます。
生クリームを入れると、ソースが一気に膨れ上がります。
キャラメルソースができました。

Relish

ホットドッグやハンバーガー用の薬味を作ろうと、パプリカ、玉ねぎ、トマト、きゅうりを用意しました。
酢、砂糖、鷹の爪、月桂樹の葉を鍋で煮とかします。
刻んで塩もみをし、水気を絞った野菜を入れ煮ます。
湯むきし、種を除いてみじん切りにしたトマトも加えます。
でき上がりです。今日のところは消毒した瓶に詰めて出番を待ちます。
今回は小さな瓶に4つ、中くらいの瓶に2つできました。