As I mentioned previously I was thinking of a citrus syrup (perhaps for cocktails), but my mom suggested an orange marinade-and after a small attempt at both I think the marinade wins! In any case it's my "entry", submission, whatever we want to call it for the January segment of the
Can Jam. I ended up with a jurry rigged water bath canning system in a large soup pot, b/c the canner I wanted was gone when I finally got around to the hardware store, but it worked out with a layer of screw top lids in the bottom of a stock pot. Just for safety's sake I also checked the pH of my final product with pH paper (it was about 4.2) before canning. The half pint is a wonderful thing my friends-and small batch canning-oh what a joy. The final marinade has many ingredients, but now it's all done and preserved all I have to do is pour it over chicken or pork and *pouf* tasty meal! I had fun doing it and am looking forward to Feburary's project!Here's a photo of my lovely jar.
Orange Marinade (for chicken or pork)
Note: Best on chicken or pork. Yields about 3 half pints. Can be scaled up if desired. Be careful to avoid squeezing the pith into the mix when juicing the oranges, when heated it becomes VERY bitter.
2T seasame oil
2t red chile pepper flakes
3 shallots
8 garlic cloves
1/2 medium onion
3T diced fresh ginger
1.5 quarts organic, pulp free orange juice (such as Simply Orange)
Juice of 1doz medium navel oranges
1c sugar (depending on the sweetness of the oranges)
1T salt
1/4c tamari
Infuse chile flakes, ginger and garlic into oil, by placing all in a large, deep skillet over low heat. Crank the heat up to medium and add shallots and onions to the mix and carmelize. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until reduced to about 3 cups. Pour into sterilized jars and process 10minutes in a water bath canner.
I love those little fat half-pint jars! I got some for Christmas (none of the stores carry them here for some reason, just the taller thinner half-pints).
ReplyDeleteThis looks GORGEOUS. It's going on my to-make list.
i love half pints too. so this used orange juice and juiced oranges?
ReplyDeleteAh! Maybe I can explain (as a fellow scientist)... navel oranges (in particular) have an enzyme in the pith that produces bitter products within 30 minutes or so after juicing. Navels are a easy-peel and yummy eating orange (consumed within seconds or minutes of peeling), but are not used in ornage juice or cooking for that reason. Next time, try another variery of oranage (satsumas if you like a very organgey-orange taste, or Valencias or another good juicing oranage). Your marinade is going on my list of Things To Try from the CanJam (I help Charrington do his stuff). :D
ReplyDeleteLooks great! What is tamari?
ReplyDeleteTom: Yup- I only discovered the enzyme AFTER I had started juicing (and was using navels b/c they were on sale, although it is interesting that it's room temp active, I had thought it was due to the heat...now I'm wondering what its "evolutionary" purpose is..
ReplyDeleteLibby: Tamari is a wheat free soy sauce...it's tangier and less one dimensional than the normal stuff. It's a bit more expensive, but worth it for me as I use it as the base and in all kinds of sauces and marinades.
great idea! i'm gonna try this one! i tried to make a chutney, but it was an epic fail. so i'm cheering on all those who were able to do something savory with this first challenge: go savory citrus canners!
ReplyDeleteMmmmmm that sounds good! Looks good too!
ReplyDelete