After a busy weekend, I've had an equally busy morning in the kitchen.
We had an unexpected bounty of carrots last week that I'm finally getting put up for winter and goodness do they look beautiful! It's not often that you can call home-canned food beautiful. The green beans turn sorta olive colored, bright-white applesauce usually turns beige after being exposed to air; but these carrots are beautiful! We grew a number of different varieties and colors this year including red, orange, yellow, white and purple and they are simply stunning sliced up in canning jars.
To my colorful carrots, I added broccoli, cauliflower and pearl onions in layers then pickled it with a vinegary brine for jardinera. The hard part will be waiting several weeks for the flavors to mix and mingle, but what a wonderful treat we'll have for Christmas Eve! We love jardinera with crackers and cheese or as a side with modest meals like soup or sandwiches. But our favorite use for jardinera is as a relish...scoop the veggies out of the brine and drain them, then run them through a food processor til you have a nice, finely chopped relish. It's so delicious on top of hamburgers, mixed into tuna salad or anywhere else you'd use dill relish. Probably more healthy too!
4 comments:
I must say, I've never hear of the term "jardinera". I looked it up, and it would be one of the few ways I'd eat cooked carrots.
I love them raw or pickled, but there is something about the taste and texture of cooked carrots that has never sat right with me.
The recipe I found was on Cooks.com - it says that you basically parboil the veggies in water and vinegar, then store them in an oil, vinegar and herb sauce.
Sound like what you do?
I will have to try your Jardinera is sounds great as a relish. I had a lazy weekend and now start a busy week. More work for my preps and more work at my job.
CI- Jardinera is usually on the top shelf at grocery stores, just above the pickles. And it is so good!
I don't do any parboiling, so the veggies are crisp/tender, not mushy, especially the carrots. You just cut them up, throw them in the jar, add a boiling vinegar/salt/sugar brine and then waterbath them for 10 minutes.
This recipe is more like what I followed:
http://www.thatsmyhome.com/general/pickled-vegetable-blend.htm
Oh, carrots! In all the confusion this year, I only planted a few. The store boughts are so woody. I hope to never make that mistake again!
The jardinera sounds wonderful. I'll have to try it sometime!
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