Don't toss those apple scraps-- make easy apple peel jelly!

 

Save the scraps and peels from making an apple pie, and turn them into a beautiful (and delicious) jelly

We always make apple pie at Thanksgiving. Usually my mom and I make a couple others as well: cherry, plus blueberry or peach. Apple is a given though, and for the past few years it's been my responsibility to peel and slice the apples. Seven or eight medium size apples go into the pie, and no matter how careful I am peeling and coring them, there's inevitably quite a bit of flesh that gets removed. 

I felt so guilty about discarding all this edible fruit.  I was sure there must be a way to make something out of the peels and cores, but had a hard time finding any suggestions. This year, though, I finally found a way to pull as much usefulness out of the peels as I could, courtesy of A Year Without Groceries: I made apple peel jelly!

I am amazed how simple the process was. You don't need to add any extra pectin, since there is so much pectin in the apples themselves. I have never made jelly or jam before, so was a little nervous about the process (especially with my family members all waiting to sample the results). It came out so well, though, I am considering making a big batch of apple butter or another pie when I get home, just to have peels to make more jelly!

Ingredients:

Apple peels and cores

Water

Lemon juice

Sugar

Cinnamon (optional)

Instructions:  

1. Put the apple peels and cores into a large pot, and fill with enough water to just see the water below the top peels.

I used a mix of apples in the pie and therefore in the jelly: Jonathan and Granny Smith. This jelly is very sweet so you probably want to include at least some tart apples.

 

2. Bring the water to boil and cook, uncovered, until the peels are quite soft. The water will turn a lovely shade of pink. 

We tossed the cooked peels outside for the birds and squirrels after straining the liquid. At home I would have added them to my compost pile.

 3. Now strain the liquid into another pot.  You want to use a fine-mesh strainer (not a colander) to make sure things like seeds don't end up in your jelly. Press the solids against the strainer to make sure all the juice is squeezed out. I'm pretty sure a bit of pulp made it through my strainer, but the jelly still turned out nice and clear.

You'll want a smaller pot for boiling down the liquid. It starts out looking fairly cloudy.

4. Measure how much liquid you have at this point. (I had 3 1/2 cups.) Add 1 TB lemon juice for every 2 cups liquid, and 3/4 C sugar for every cup of liquid.  I also added about 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

 Bring the liquid back to a boil. Watch closely; when it gets close to being done it starts to foam up. You don't want it to boil over!

As the liquid merrily boils away, you can see it starting to clarify already.

You have to boil the liquid for quite a while to reduce and concentrate it. I think my batch took about 40 minutes, but I forgot to check the time when I started, so I'm not sure exactly.  The temperature of the liquid has to get up to 220F and stay there for a while before it will jell. 

5. While the liquid is boiling, put some ice in a small bowl nearby and get a small spoon ready. Periodically scoop a small amount of the liquid with your spoon, then place the spoon on the ice to cool it rapidly. Once cool, tilt the spoon over the pot to see how runny it is. When you first start, it will be very runny. A little later it will start to get thick and syrupy but still pour off the spoon in an even stream. When the jelly is almost done it will be even thicker but still drip off the spoon. It's done when the chilled spoonful has solidified and doesn't form drips. 

You can see the level had reduced quite a bit by the time the liquid was ready to jell, and the color darkened and clarified.

 6. Now ladle the jelly into clean, sterilized jars. According to the original directions, you should put on sterilized lids and process in a water bath canner for ten minutes. I haven't yet overcome my anxiety about this step of canning, though, so I skipped it and am storing the jelly in the fridge.

I ended up with two small jars of jelly, plus a bit extra. Such a gorgeous color!

We tested the jelly by slathering it onto little baked scraps of leftover pie crust dough. Yum! The next morning we also had the apple peel jelly on toast and English muffins. 

Like I said, this was super easy to do. You get beautiful, delicious jelly from scraps that would otherwise be discarded. I hope you'll give it a try this winter, whether for your own household or as gifts for friends and family. Enjoy!

Easy Cuban(ish) Black Beans in the Crockpot-- great for after hiking!

Delicious black bean stew with andouille sausage, perfect for a chilly evening

This weekend we had our first real fall weather. You know the kind I mean-- a nice chill in the air, crunchy leaves under your feet, sparkling clear sunshine slicing through air that is blessedly free of summer's steamy haze. A perfect day to go hiking, in fact!

And one of the best parts of going hiking is when you come home ravenous after a day of exploring the woods, climbing mountains, or strolling the shores of your favorite lake with friends or family. You open the door and are greeted by incredible smells of the stew that's been bubbling away in your crockpot while you were gone. Yum! I love my crockpot all year round, but it's just so incredibly satisfying this time of year.

Today I'm sharing with you one of my favorite recipes for an autumn post-hike meal: a Cuban-ish Black Bean Stew, heavily adapted from Better Homes & Gardens' Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes. It's very flexible, you can add a different kind of sausage, extra sweet peppers, a different amount of spice, and so forth. I love topping it with chopped fresh tomatoes or a really good fresh salsa, and some grated cheese, as well as an extra squeeze of lime at the table.

I love it when I have the time to brown the sausage and onions before adding them to the crockpot. But sometimes I just run out of time. That's what happened yesterday-- I barely scraped the ingredients together before dashing out the door to drive to work. So while it simmered all day, my brilliant husband minced up a few herbs and veggies from our flagging fall garden-- one carrot, a few radishes, and several sprigs of dill and basil. These added lovely new layers of flavor to the stew, and I'm eagerly anticipating leftovers tonight. Feel free to go wild with improvisations on this one, and let me know in the comments what you try!

The uncooked ingredients before I added chicken broth. I wish you could smell the pungent lime zest, garlic, cumin, and hot pepper! The lime really gives a nice tropical boost to this stew.

Cuban(ish) Black Bean Stew With Andouille for the crockpot

Ingredients:

1 pkg Andouille sausage (or another kind of smoked sausage), sliced in half-moons
1.5 cups to 1 lb dry black beans (the original recipe calls for only 1.5 cups, but I sometimes dump in the whole pound package. Depends on how much I want to make.)
3.5 cups home-made chicken or turkey broth (or use storebought low-sodium chicken broth, two 14.5-oz cans is about the right amount)
1 medium to large onion, chopped
1 sweet red pepper, chopped
1 to 3 small fresh hot peppers, minced (I grow a small but pungent hot yellow heirloom pepper, and usually use three including their seeds. If you want less fire, use fewer peppers and/or remove the seeds and white pith from the hot peppers.)
4 cloves garlic, minced (if you use bottled garlic from the store, this is about 2 tsp worth.)
zest of one lime, shredded (I do this on a microplane zester that lets me get almost all of the zest without a single skinned knuckle. If you want, save the lime to squeeze on each serving, later)
2 tsp ground cumin
0.75 tsp salt
0.25 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
Optional: fresh or frozen cooking greens (kale, collards, spinach, turnip, etc.)

Instructions:

1. Rinse your dry beans thoroughly until the water runs clear. While doing so, pick out and discard any misshaped beans or pebbles that might have snuck in.
2. Put the beans in a large bowl with enough cold water to cover the beans by at least an inch or two. Let sit overnight, covered with a towel to keep out dust.
3. In the morning, drain the beans and rinse once more.
4. Put the beans in a slow cooker, at least 3.5-4 quart size or bigger.
5. Brown the sausage in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the sausage is browned on all sides, scrape it into the slow cooker on top of the beans.
6. Return the pan to the heat and add the onion and sweet pepper. Saute until the onion is golden. This step is important so the vegetables pick up the flavorful fond (browned bits) from the bottom of the pan. Use a wooden spatula to scrape up the fond if you need. You can also add a dash of the broth to the pan if you need help loosening some of the fond.
7. Pour the cooked vegetables into the crockpot with your beans and sausage.
8. Add the minced hot peppers, garlic, cumin, lime zest, bay leaves, and salt & pepper. Pour the broth over all.
9. Cover and cook on the low setting for 10 to 12 hours.
10. If you happen to have any fresh or frozen cooking greens like kale or collards, toss them in for the last half hour or so of cooking for a great nutritious boost.  At the moment I have a ton of frozen kale in my freezer from the summer, so that's what I usually do. If your family doesn't like cooked greens, just skip this step. The day I made the batch shown in these photos, I had meant to add greens but it smelled so good when I came home I just couldn't wait that long to eat. :-)

As any bean stew should be, this is also good over rice, or you can just eat it with toppings like you would chili-- chopped fresh tomatoes, salsa fresca, grated cheese, even corn chips. I bet it would be good with fresh bread too, to sop up any extra broth!

I hope you enjoy my take on black bean stew, and have a great time hiking this fall.

Notes:
If you use the smaller amount of dried beans, you'll have a more soupy consistency to the stew; if you use the whole package it will be much thicker. I like it both ways, myself.

As happened to me, if you're really in a rush in the morning, (or just want to minimize dishes to wash), you can skip the browning steps and just dump everything into the crockpot together. It's so wonderful with that deep browned level of flavor, though, you should try doing it at least once. If you can plan ahead, you might even brown the sausage and onions the night before!