Rhubarb Two Ways or Canning, Continued.

There are few things that I can’t live without. My KitchenAid Mixer probably tops the list. Coming a close second would have to be my freezers. Yes, I said freezer(s), plural. Of course I have the small freezer that is part of my refrigerator, but I also have a small chest freezer. And a larger, stand-up freezer. Both are mostly full most of the time. Of course, the contents vary from day-to-day and season to season, but I keep them pretty loaded. When things come into season, I try to can as much as possible. Sometimes, I don’t have time to can everything I want before it will spoil, so I freeze the excess until I have time to deal with it. I do that with tomatoes. A lot.

Last year I had an abundance of rhubarb.  I made some delicious Rhubeenas and still had a bunch left over so I chopped it up and threw it into the freezer. With summer’s bounty (and strawberry season) nearly upon us, it’s time to clear some space in the freezers.

 In the first Can Jam, I used asparagus as the May ingredient, but Rhubarb was also an option. Among the rhubarb recipes was a recipe for Rhubarb and Cinnamon Jam from Seasonal Menus. I love cinnamon and have a jar of extra-long cinnamon sticks, so I thought I’d give it a go:

Rhubarb the First Way

• 2lbs. sliced rhubarb
• 2 lbs. sugar
• 3 extra-long cinnamon sticks, broken in half
• 2 T. lemon juice

Combine rhubarb and sugar in a nonmetallic bowl.
Let macerate overnight in the refrigerator.
Set up canner and boiling water bath; wash and sterilize jars and lids.
Transfer rhubarb mixture to a saucepan.
Add cinnamon and lemon juice.
Heat over medium heat, stirring often until sugar is completely dissolved.
Bring to a boil.
Boil until jam sets.
Remove cinnamon stick pieces, add one to each jar and ladle jam into hot jars.
Process in water bath for 15 minutes.

The cinnamon flavor wasn’t very intense, but I know from experience with my Chai-Spiced Apple Rings that the cinnamon flavor blooms as the jars age. I expect that even the color will turn warmer with time. This recipe made almost exactly five 1/2 pint jars.

For a printable version, click here: Rhubarb Cinnamon Jam Printable Recipe

Rhubarb the Second Way doesn’t help fulfill my Can Jam goals, but it does help me complete my goal to can enough jams/jellies to get us through the year, and it helps me meet my food storage goal. I snagged this recipe from Tigress but made some modifications. First, she used lavender sprigs; I opted for dried blossoms. They looked quite lovely after their overnight in the fridge, but I know from my soap-making experience that the magenta-purple cooks away. She also includes an extra step: “pass (rhubarb) mixture through a strainer and pour collected juice into a non-reactive pan. add honey and bring to a boil. skim any foam that collects on top and continue cooking until 221 F on a candy thermometer.” Afterwards she returns the solids to the boiled juices and re-boils the whole mess. I’m not sure of the point, but her jam was lovely. I myself hate the mess straining creates and don’t do it unless absolutely necessary. Mine tastes delish and has about the same look as hers, so I don’t think it is an essential step.

Rhubarb The Second Way (Honey Lavender Rhubarb Jam)

2 pounds sliced rhubarb
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 ounces light honey
3 T. lemon juice
3 tsp. dried lavender blossoms

1. Combine rhubarb, sugar, lemon juice and lavender blossoms in a nonmetallic bowl. Stir this mixture gently, cover with a plate and macerate in fridge overnight.

2. In the morning, prepare the canner and boiling water bath; wash and sterilize jars and lids. Turn heat down and leave jars in canner until ready to fill.

3. Pour rhubarb mixture into a non-reactive pan. Add honey and bring to a boil.  Continue cooking until the jam is sufficiently set. Process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes.

yields approximately five 1/2 pint or two pint jars.

Again, if you prefer a printable version, click here: Honey Lavender Rhubarb Jam Printable Recipe

Not only did I clear up some space in the freezer, but I’m a quart-and-a-half closer to my jam and food storage goals!

I’m Back! (And I Brought Drinks)

Wow.  When I started my “hiatus” I didn’t realize it would be this long, but as with life, one thing leads to another and before you know it nearly a month has flown by without any updates.  

On top of all the crazy business that is my life, my laptop decided last week would be the time to die.  I have a call in to technology to see if there is any hope for it, but for now it is out of commission.  So, I have been working on our antique (by technology standards) desktop.  It is slow, loses connection to the internet from time to time and is quite a bear to publish from, but it still works and will have to do until I figure out the laptop situation. 

With spring over and summer produce coming out to play, I have been doing a lot of canning lately.  Last month’s Can Jam was asparagus or rhubarb.  My official post was asparagus, but I was inspired to can up some rhubarb as well.  

Tigress canned up a delicious rhubarb cordial she dubbed “rhubeena“.  Several other participants made cordials with rhubarb as a base too.  So, I looked at all the variations on cordials like this one and this one.  And don’t forget about this one and especially this one.  I also looked at some of the jam pairings.  I haven’t made rhubarb jam before, but rhubarb lavender and rhubarb ginger both sounded delicious.  Armed with all that knowledge and a slew of recipes, I decided to make a batch of lavender rhubeena.  

Rhubeena from the first batch~ mystery recipe.

Looking back and forth between all the recipes and the different processes each canner used I started jumbling it all up and didn’t take good notes, so I can’t tell you what I actually did to create my first ‘beena but I can tell you that it was delicious.  The lavender flavor was very subtle.  Dylan calls it rhub-ade and it is good with soda water but with the addition of vodka it is a delicious, refreshing summer cocktail. 

Inspired by my success the first time (and the ten pounds of rhubarb gifted to me by my friends,) I decided to give it another go.  Lavender was tasty so I decided to try that again but wanted to try something new.  I also wanted to make sure to take better notes so that I could share the results with you so here we go! 

Even after using 17 cups of this I ended up with 3.5 pounds for the freezer to use later!

Rhubeena Two Ways 

Ingredients: 

• 17 cups rhubarb
  (Slice stalks lengthwise then chop into 1/2″ pieces)
  

  Sliced in half lengthwise.

  

And chopped into 1/2" chunks.

• 1 quart water
• 12 candied ginger medallions
  

  Bulk candied ginger medallions from Oryana.

• 1 small bundle of lavender blossoms
  

  Use this much. 🙂

  (I recently came across a blog post complaining about the ambiguity of recipe ingredients.  How much is a sprig?  How big is a “small bundle of lavender blossoms”?  I don’t know, but I can’t describe it any other way so for the  sake of clarity and accuracy, I have included a photo of my bundle so that you are not left feeling confused.  Oh, and I used a bread tie to bundle them.)

• 4 1/2 cups sugar (may vary based on amount of juice in your rhubarb)

Process:  

• Add rhubarb and water to a large stock pot; bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
• Pour rhubarb pulp into a jelly bag (or an old cotton pillowcase) and drain overnight.
  

  If you would like to truly disgust your children, after you are done straining the rhubarb, warm it up, add a little sugar and eat the delicious stewed rhubarb.

• In the morning, measure the strained juice; you will need three cups of sugar per quart of juice.  My rhubarb gave me six cups of juice so I needed 4 1/2 cups of sugar.
  

  This batch was a bit pinker than the last batch.

Now for the “Two Ways” part. 

• In a small saucepan combine 2 cups of strained rhubarb juice, 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1 small bundle of lavender blossoms. 
• Bring juice, sugar and lavender to a boil; turn off stove and let steep 30 minutes.

Meanwhile 

• In a medium-sized saucepan combine 4 cups of strained rhubarb juice, 3 cups of sugar and 12 candied ginger medallions. 
• Bring juice, sugar and ginger to a boil; turn off stove and let steep 20 minutes.

While your ‘beenas are steeping, prepare your jars and start your water bath.  I like the tall 12 oz. jelly jars for my ‘beenas because I don’t have any of these fancy Weck juice jars but use whatever you prefer. 

When your bath is ready and your ‘beenas have steeped long enough, turn the heat back on and bring the cordial to a boil; adding cooled juice to hot jars will cause your jars to break and your cordial to leak into your water bath. 😦 

Again, Two Ways: 

Remove lavender bundle from the lavender cordial.  Some loose petals will remain in your cordial.  You may strain them out but I left them in mine.  Fill your hot jars with lavender cordial leaving 1/4″ head space. 

Place three ginger medallions in the bottom of each jar and fill your hot jars with ginger cordial leaving 1/4″ head space.  

Process your cordial in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. 

See the ginger medallions in the left jar?

I had about a cup of ginger-beena left over.  I could have processed it in a smaller jar, but I wanted to try it out so I put it in the fridge. 

We tried it the next day and YUM!  Ginger is my new favorite.  It tastes like the best ginger ale syrup ever!  Add about 2 ounces to a tall glass and fill with soda water.  This is also super delicious with a splash of vodka.  I think the flavor will intensify with age because I added the medallions to the jars.  I like my ginger ale with a bite, but you could strain the medallions out if you like a milder ginger ale.