Raspberries Preserves

My simple homemade refrigerator raspberries preserves.  No pectin required!  I reused the jam jar by washing it in the dish washer.  I have since made variety of preserves using this method and none of the jam had gone bad on me.  It didn't last that long in the refrigerator for me, but at least 6-8 months before I finished all. This preserve is delicious and nothing beat homemade!  Just remember to keep it refrigerated.

Our King Sooper has 6 oz. raspberries on sale for 88 cent each this week, which mean it's time to make raspberries preserves.  Just so happen that I only left with one jar of homemade blueberries preserves, so it comes at the right time.

Cocoa Almond Butter

As you know, I have been making my own jam/preserves and learning that making homemade nut butter is also very easy hence I set it out to give it a try.  My girls loved Nutella so I added cocoa powder into my experiment.  It didn't taste very good at first so I tried adding some brown sugar and gave it a taste.  It also felt a bit thick so I added a little peanut oil to make it smoother and the above was the result of it.

We really liked it and when I am out of the almonds, I might try it with peanuts since peanuts is a lot cheaper. I bet you can experiment with different nut for a different nut butter taste as well.  Happy trying!

Homemade Strawberries Jam without Pectin

Hey, it's Spring, with the abundance of cheap strawberries on sale, what are you going to do with it?  You can make strawberry jam that last through the summer!  I used to spend a ton on organic jam but not anymore!  I have learned to make my own jam by following the simple rule of 1 lb.of fruit to 1 lb. of sugar (almost 2 cups).   However, I do cut down on the sugar depending on the sweetness of the fruit, not a whole lot but some since we need the sugar to preserve the jam.  If you click under my label on Jam/Preserve, I have since made kaya (Malaysian coconut jam), clementine marmalade, orange marmalade, pear jam, blueberry jam, blackberry jam and raspberry jam.  Now adding to the collection is strawberry jam!  I should stick to 2 lb. of strawberries next time, since it was my first attempt, I have no clue how much it will yield.

3 lb. of fresh strawberries yield almost 7 jars of strawberry jams for me.  Sweet and oh so yummy!

Blackberry Preserves

I love making berries preserves.  Whenever berries are on sales, I would buy a lot (my bad habit) and since we couldn't taste the berries first, it is like playing with luck, sometimes we would get sweet berries and sometimes we would end out with sour berries.  Luckily these days whenever I end out with lots of sour berries, I know I can make jam/preserves with it.  When blackberries were on sales, I bought a lot again because normally blackberries were sweet, unlike raspberries most of the times were sour.  So, imagine my dismay when it turned out to be sour, so sour that none of us want to eat it.  Hence, I made some refrigerator preserves with it, even without realizing it, I have been making my own jam/preserves throughout the summer (blueberries, raspberries and now blackberries).  I also have some blueberries freeze up to make some preserves during the winter.  Another winter jam that I like best is cuties clementines!  I am waiting for cuties to go on sales.

Raw Raspberry Chia Seeds Jam

I first learned about the raw jam at a Prevention magazine.  It was the Quick Strawberry Jam that uses the chia seeds that intriguing me.  So, of course I had to cut out the recipe and glue it on my cookbook because it will be on my to-make-list.  Then, I started seeing other raw jam recipe on my Facebook page, like raw blueberry jam.  I finally got to try it with raspberry because it was sour and I bought too much.  I wanted to buy 4 but my elder being greedy wanted 6, so I bought 6 packages and it turned out sour and no one wants to eat it!!  Ugh!!  So, I got to make raspberry vinegar and this raspberry chia seeds jam with it.

 
This recipe yields about 4 jam bottles.  So, I kept 3 bottles in the freezer, just take each out to thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using.  One I keep refrigerated and ready to use and I read that it should last 2-3 weeks.  This works as a fruit spread too and can be used in anything.  Hmmm....maybe I should use it to make some cupcakes!

This is definitely a quick way to make jam and healthier, with a dose of omega-3 from the chia seeds, but I still prefer the traditional method.

Matcha Kaya

This idea came about when I was talking to my girls.  I asked them what would be a good filling for swiss roll that I was planning to make.  I told them I have blueberry jam or should I make some kaya?  What else that we can use as a filling and then Evy said green tea.  I was like hmmm green tea... what about green tea kaya and thus this idea was born.  Gotten excited and made this recipe right away (that's the plus point of having a bread maker!)  Tada!  Present to you matcha kaya!  This kaya is sweet, fragrant and hint of green tea flavor.  I thought it was sweet and going to cut down the sugar to 1 cup in my next batch.  Trying to reduce the sugar if I can.  But lots of people like their kaya sweet, so it's up to you!

After I was done making the kaya and browsing over my sponge swiss roll recipe, only then I realized that my electric beater was broken and couldn't possibly make any sponge cake!!  Oh well, no sponge cake at the meantime until I buy a new electric beater.  Thus far, the cake and muffin that I make only required a hand whisk.

Blueberries Preserves without Pectin

I loved buying organic jam or preserves but it can be quite expensive as it ran out fast in my household.  So, the next alternative would be making my own blueberries preserves!  Organic blueberries/ blueberries are cheap during the summer but organic apple is not.  Luckily I can make do with just one apple for this recipe.  I don't use pectin in all my homemade jam and thus far it works pretty well for me.  This blueberries preserves recipe is very easy to make and don't take a lot of times.  It is a great way to preserve the blueberries besides frozen and save some money too, in addition, this homemade preserves is delicious!  I would freeze more blueberries to make this during the winter when the organic apple is cheaper. 

Orange Marmalade

You all know how much I adored the mandarin/ clementine marmalade, but for some reasons the cuties clementines were not on sales at this time of the year unlike previous years.  What is on sales is the California navel oranges, so this year my house is fulled of navel oranges instead of clementines. 

This marmalade had everything in it including the juice, pulp and zest so it looked more like apple sauce.  The color was off as I burnt some at the bottom of my pot.  It would be brighter orange in color instead of this darker color as I didn't even know I burnt the bottom, so when I stir the marmalade, the burnt bit got mixed in resulted in darker color (hence, I put a warning at method below) .  Anyway, I managed to savage about 3.5 bottles before throwing away the burnt part.

It's hard to ask a woman not to multitasking right?  I was multitasking at that time and thus the result.

Clementine or Mandarin Marmalade

 

What to do if you have sour mandarins?  The last batch of the Cuties mandarins that I bought turned out so sour that I wouldn't want to eat it.  Worst yet I bought 6 pounds of it!!  I would have returned it but my hubby said the gas money would have cost about the same and suggested to throw it away.  I am not a wasteful person, so it's hard to throw away 6 lb. of good looking mandarins even though it's inedible.  Then, I got an idea to make it into marmalade.  With added sugar, we can turn anything sour into sweet.  I came across an easy recipe but forgot where I have seen it but the process is really simple.

Look at those good looking mandarins, who could have guess it was so sour!  I guess it's time to stop buying the mandarins, is it the end of the season?  The last 40-50lbs that I bought was so sweet that I was truly disappointed in this recent batch.  Luckily the marmalade rescued me, it turned out so good that even my girls loved it.  I still have about 3 lb. of cuties left, right now sitting in my refrigerator to prolong the selves life, should last for a month before I make another batch of marmalade.  The marmalade can also be used in baking and cooking such as making cake, cookies, spread on Swiss roll, marmalade chicken, marmalade meat balls, marmalade baked salmon, etc.

Pear Preserves

I sampled a pear preserves at my friend's house and really liked it.  Since Bartlett pear is in season now, I would love to make it myself.  I did a search on the web and found some recipes at cooks.com.  It gave me a general idea of how it was made.  What I liked best about this preserves is no pectin required.  For my recipe, I used less sugar (as I found the American version was too sweet), added some ground cinnamon and made it in my bread maker.  Direction for stove top is provided as well for those who don't own a bread maker.

Both my girls loved it.  We spread it on crackers and toasted bagels.  Yummy!  I even used it to make cake.  The recipe for Pear Preserves Cake will be coming up soon!

Brown Sugar Kaya

I decided to experiment with my food again. Instead of the Pandan Kaya that I normally made, I tried my hand on the brown sugar kaya. The color of this kaya is quite yucky isn't it? LOL!

I used the same recipe just omitted the pandan extract and substituted the sugar with brown sugar and put everything in my breadmaker. It turned out in clumps and liquid separated, unlike the nice texture I got from my pandan kaya. Don't ask me why because I have no clue, thus I have to blend everything in a blender and turned out like the above.

Tastewise, it was like kaya with the fragrant of brown sugar (I did cut down on the sugar), not too bad at all. But I just dislike the color of this kaya, not appertizing looking at all. Guess next time I better stick with my pandan kaya. :P Or if I brave enough, I might experiment it with white sugar without the pandan extract and see what color it would produce. Hehe...

Pandan Kaya by Breadmaker

Yeah... I finally made the Pandan kaya using my breadmaker!! My adapted recipe can be found here. Used to make it by hand and had to stand on the stove for at least an hour +. Now, no more standing and stirring for my kaya. :)

Just follow the direction in the recipe and then sifted twice before adding it in the breadmaker and turn the menu to jam function and let it does the work.



When the kaya was done by the breadmaker.



Pour the kaya into a blender and blend until smooth.  This is an optional step, it depends on how smooth you like your kaya or prefer it to be more original.




Then, store in a glass jar and in the refrigerator. Should be able to keep in the refrigerator for up to a month. This is a good kaya recipe, yummy indeed!

Pandan Kaya

~Yield one medium jar, adapted from Jo's recipe.

Ingredients
----------------
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
300 ml thick coconut milk
1/2 tsp. pandan paste

1. In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add sugar and whisk until sugar dissolved. Add coconut milk and pandan paste. Mixed well.

2. Sieve kaya mixture into a stainless steel saucepan (twice) and place on stove top over medium heat and stir occasionally with a whisk until mixture started to thicken. Scoop out any bubbles that formed while whisking. Switched to low heat and stir continously until kaya reached the desired thickness or consistency. Remove from heat and cool completely before storing in a glass jar. Refrigerate afterwards. Kaya will be thicker when it's cool and even more so when refrigerated.

~Will produce a smooth kaya.