Orange You Glad You Stopped By?

I've been away from Philly Makes! for most of the summer, but if you recall my previous posts you’ll remember I love gardening. For my houseplants I’m partial to exotic flowers and succulents, outside I like to grow edibles. In my tiny yard I have an assortment of heirloom tomatoes and vegetables, over thirty herbs, figs, grapes and calamondins, a variety of miniature oranges that are similar to kumquats. The fruits are small, around the size of a ping-pong ball, and have a sweet rind with a sour inside.

I’ve had the calamondin tree shown in the photo at right for over ten years; it’s almost four feet tall and lives in the yard from April through October, then comes inside for the winter. It produces gloriously scented blossoms and fruit year-round, although every few years it takes a rest.

I made the tart in the photo above using this recipe from Epicurious.com. The top is covered with candied calamondins and the filling is made with ricotta, sour cream and toasted fennel. It was my first time making this recipe so I followed it exactly and used sugar, but next time I’ll make it my way and substitute honey or agave. I served it chilled and garnished with leaves from my tree and of course a pun: “Orange you glad you stopped by?”.

Kimchi!

Kimchi is a traditional korean food made from various pickled/fermented vegetables. The most common variety is made from cabbage, so that's what I made for my inaugural kimchi attempt. It was quite easy to make. I haven't tried it yet because it had to sit out at room temperature for 48 hours, and it is now sitting in the fridge for 4 days before it should be eaten.



There are more photos and a link to the recipe on my site!

Pickled Red Onions

Another food post! This past Saturday I made 10 pint jars of pickled red onions. If you like onions, I definitely recommend making these sometime. They are fantastic on salads. I use a recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, but it's so simple you barely need a recipe at all! All you need is red onions, red wine vinegar, a few cloves of garlic, and some basic canning equipment. I didn't bother to document all the steps this time, since I already did that the last time I made these.

Strawberry Jam!

Some friends and I spent a few hours on Sunday making about 30 pints of strawberry jam...this was my first experience with making preserves and I must say the jam is delicious. Yum!

Also blogged here, with some variations/ addt'l links: http://flyingfoxdesign.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/strawberry-jam/