Sweet Canned Sweet Potatoes

Sweet.  I'm hearing Crush from Finding Nemo in my head as I type that.
Sweet...  Totally.

Today it's Sweet Potatoes.
These lovely, super good for you little roots need to find their place in my food storage.
I got a bunch of them at Market on the Move this week and I just had to save their yummy goodness.

I didn't really take pictures of the skinning and cubing process.  It's pretty self explanitory.
So let's get this done.  But be prepared it takes a while to process these beauties.  Plan on about 4 hours.
Of course you're not working the whole time, the pressure cooker is doing most of the work,
but you can't leave it alone either.  So plan some other activity you can do while the Sweet Potatoes are cooking.
Like Pinterest or Facebook.  I know you probably will anyway. ;)

Ok.  Back to business.

Peel and cube sweet potatoes and fill prepared jars.  Pack down leaving 1 inch headspace.

Make a light syrup.  The Ball book says 2 1/4 cups sugar to 5 1/4 cups water.  I used my 2 quart pitcher and added 4 cups sugar the water that nearly filled the pitcher.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Pour over cubed sweet potatoes to fill jar.

I added 1/4 tsp cinnamon to one batch of sweet potatoes.
I usually add it to them anyway and thought I'd add it in advance.

 Prepare lids and rings in hot water.

Attach lids and rings.
Place in pressure canner.
Make sure water covers the tops of the jars.
Place lid on and process at 10 lbs of pressure for 90 minutes.
Remove from heat by lifting canner.
Don't slide it on your smooth top stove as it may damage it.
Let pressure drop naturally.
Remove lid facing away from you.
Place jars on a wire rack to cool.
Let sit 24 hours.
Lable and add to your pantry.

One more batch of Beautiful Sweet Potatoes in my pantry done!

Come back tomorrow.  It's going to be Grapefruit Juice.

Then back to crafting with scarves next week. 

Homemade Vegetable Stock

It's Day 2 of my canning and sharing posts.  This time I wanted to make some vegetable stock.  

I came home with the tomatoes and peppers from Market on the Move.  

This recipe is amazing and I will definitely be making it more often.  

What's better than your own stock when you know exactly what is in it?  

And since I tried it in my favorite Artisan Bread, I'm definitely going to run out quick.  

More on that at the end of the post.

I have been pondering what the best approach would be to my food storage.  

Freeze dried and Dehydrated is sure the rage right now.  

And while I'm not discounting it at all, I live in Arizona. 

 What's the big deal with that you might ask?  

Well water is a precious comodity here.  

If you live in a place where that's not the case, this philosophy might not apply to you.  

But for us desert dwellers, water is all to precious.  

We are encouraged to store water, and I am doing that. 

But if water becomes scarce, 

I think I would rather use my precious water for 

drinking and washing, rather than reconstituting my food.  

This is why I bottle so much of what I store.  

The liquid is already there and I don't have to dip into my reserves to be able to eat what I've stored.  

Make sense?  Well maybe just to me.  But lets get to making some stock.

Vegetable Stock

Gather your vegetables.  You will need the following:

1 pound of carrots, washed and cut into 1 inch pieces

6 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch pieces

2-3 medium onions chopped

2 red sweet peppers, seeded and chopped

2-3 tomatoes, seeded and diced

3-4 cloves garlic, sliced

3 bay leaves

1 tsp dried basil

2-3 dried basil leaves

8 peppercorns

Place all veggies and herbs in a large stockpot and fill with water, about 6-7 quarts.

Bring to a boil.

Cover and reduce heat to a simmer for 2 hours.

Remove cover and continue simmering for 4-6 hours.

You could also do this in the crock pot.  

Cover for the first 2 hours on high, then lift the lid with knives laid across the top, 

and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

After the vegetables have cooked and the liquid reduced down, remove the bay and whole basil leaves,
then puree the mixture in your blender until smooth.

Strain through a wire mesh strainer.  Reserve the solids.  You can strain it again through cheese cloth if you want a thinner consistency.  I liked mine with a slight texture, so I only strained it once.

This is what I strained off.  I put it in the fridge in a sealed container to use when I make my garden breadsticks.

Ladle into prepared jars.  I know these are sweet potatoes, but I forgot to take a picture of the stock in the pressure canner.  Make sure the jars are covered with water and pressure at 10 lbs of pressure 30 minutes for pints, 35 minutes for quarts.  I'm using my Presto Pressure canner.  You can find them on my sidebar. 

 Let the pressure drop naturally.  Remove from canner and let sit for 24 hours on the counter.

Beautiful.

I scored with about 2 cups of stock left over that I didn't bottle.  I wanted to try it in my Artisan Bread.  I substituted 2 cups stock for water in the recipe and added 1 cup water to bring it to 3 cups liquid.  The bread was super moist and super yummy.  I like the slight orange-y tint to the bread, and the kids had no idea I snuck a whole bunch of veggies into their bread.  Love it!

 I just finished my piece of bread for lunch today.  I think it's almost better the second day.  Yummm...

Tomorrow it's sweet potatoes.  Be sure to come back!

Pressuring Chicken

 It's coming into canning season again.  I love it!  Plus my bottled chicken was all gone.  I use it regularly in Chicken Noodle soup.  I just realized I haven't posted that recipe.  I promise I will do that soon.

Anyway, I've discovered that Costco Business is a great resource for bulk chicken.  It's not really cost effective to get it at the grocery store, unless they are having a screamin' deal on boneless chicken.

I've also learned that there are more than 2 Costco Businesses.  One in Lynnwood, WA, one in Phoenix, AZ, one in Las Vegas, NV, and one in San Diego, CA.  There may be more now, but those are the ones I know about.  I've been lucky enough to live reasonably close to 2 of them.

When I tell people about it, they always ask if you have to have a special card to get in. Nope. Just your regular Costco card.  I try to make a trip there between once a month, and once every other month to stock up on bulk things you can't get at a regular Costco.  Try it sometime.  I promise you will like it, but don't be expecting a regular Costco.  It's not. It's designed for businesses.

All that said, I got 40 lbs of Boneless Chicken Breast for about $56.  Just about $1.40 a pound.  They have all kinds of cuts of poultry and beef.  I may try some beef next time, but for now it's Chicken.

The Breast cuts were huge so I trimmed them down.  You can't really tell but I am using a glass cutting board.

Fill each jar with the chicken all the way up to the bottom ring.  Add 1 tsp kosher salt.

Add water to finish filling the jar. I used a chopstick to poke down the sides to release any air pockets.

 Put your lids in a pan of hot water and heat on low until just before boiling.  This softens the rubber on the lids so they will seal properly. When you're ready, fix lids and rings on jars and wipe with a clean cloth to get any raw chicken off the jar or lid.

 Fill your pressure cooker with the jars and hot water.  I can do 9 pints.

Close and screw on your pressure cooker lid.  Follow your manufacturer's instructions for processing.  Mine was for 90 minutes at 10 lbs pressure.  You have to wait until the cooker top weights have a constant movement before you can start the timer.  This takes a while so be prepared.  You also can't leave the pressure cooker alone, so find something else to do in the kitchen for the 2 hours so you can keep an eye on the pressure cooker.  When it reaches pressure, I usually bring down the heat to Medium-Low.

When the time is up, turn off the heat and slide the cooker off the burner. Allow the pressure to come down naturally.  Since it's off the heat, you can leave it alone now.  I ran some errands, then came back and the pressure was gone and I could remove the jars.  Place them on a cooling rack and let rest for about 24 hours.  This makes sure the seals form correctly.  Don't be tempted to touch the lids until after 24 hours. 

Lable the lids with the date and add to your pantry.

I don't know why, but that looks so good in my pantry!