Sri Lankan Cashew Curry

August 29, 2018

I know I’ve posted a lot of Sri Lankan recipes recently.  I’m trying to post enough to create a Sri Lankan meal if my readers are interested.

Sri Lankan food is not common in the United States.  There are some Sri Lankan restaurants on Staten Island but I’ve never ventured to them when I’ve been in New York.  It’s not that I don’t want to, but it’s a bit of a hike to get there…and there are so many good restaurants in NYC that are easier to get to.

One of these days I’ll try some of the Sri Lankan restaurants in Los Angeles but for now I’ll have to settle on my own cooking.

Sri Lankan Arrack is made from the sap of coconut blossoms (Photo by SilentBobxy2 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons)
If you like Indian, especially South Indian, and Thai food, chances are excellent that you will like Sri Lankan cooking.  I find the spices in Sri Lankan food to be more delicate than Indian with abundant use of super-aromatic spices like cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.

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Curry leaves are an absolute delight, lending a taste and aroma that I can’t really describe.

Although native to Brazil, the cashew was transported to India by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century.  From there it spread throughout South Asia.  It is also commonly grown in Africa.

Cashews are an integral part of Sri Lankan cuisine.  Devilled cashews are a common nibble with cocktails.  Arrack is the classic distilled spirit of Sri Lanka, made from the sap of coconut blossoms.

In Sri Lanka, cashew curry is made from fresh cashews.  I’ve never seen fresh cashews in the United States.  Whole raw cashews work well if soaked in water for several hours, just like dried beans.

In my experience there are two basic styles of cashew curry in Sri Lanka, a dry one and one with gravy.  The one I have always made is with gravy.  The “gravy” is really seasoned coconut milk.

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In years past, I would always make my own coconut milk from shredded coconut but now, with rare exception, I use coconut milk that I’ve purchased.  With a good quality coconut milk, such as Aroy-D it is really impossible to tell the difference when making a curry or other well-seasoned dish.

Aroy-D is an excellent brand of coconut milk

This is an especially easy dish to prepare as all the ingredients are simmered.  There’s no sautéing involved.  That makes it a great introduction to Sri Lankan cooking.  Serve it with rice to sop up all the wonderful gravy.

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Sri Lankan Cashew Curry
If using homemade coconut milk, use 3 cups of thin milk instead of 1 ½ cups purchased coconut milk and 1 ½ cups water. Long thin chilies, such as Cayenne or Thai Bird peppers would be appropriate for this dish.
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Course Mains, Vegetarian
Cuisine Sri Lankan
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Mains, Vegetarian
Cuisine Sri Lankan
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Votes: 0
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Instructions
  1. Cover the cashews with water and allow to soak for 2-3 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.
  2. Split and seed the chilies.
  3. Lightly crush the lemongrass. Peel off the tough outer layers and cut off the dark tough tops, leaving about 4 inches of softer inner pith.
  4. Put everything except cashews, thick coconut milk, and salt into a saucepan.
  5. Boil gently, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.
  6. Add drained, soaked cashews and simmer approximately 15-20 minutes.
  7. Add two teaspoons salt.
  8. Simmer until cashews are cooked but not mushy, approximately 10-20 minutes more.
  9. Add thick coconut milk.
  10. Taste and adjust salt.
  11. Simmer 5 minutes more.
Recipe Notes

Rampe (pandan, bai tuey, or bai toey) can be purchased frozen in Asian grocery stores.

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Louis Evangelista’s Pasta e Fagioli (“Beans and Macaroni”)

August 22, 2018

I completed my residency in psychiatry in June 1981.  Although I was part of the 1980 graduating class in medical school, I didn’t finish until 1981.  The added year allowed me to get a master’s degree in anthropology as well as to complete all my coursework, field work, and dissertation defense for a PhD.  I didn’t finish writing my PhD dissertation and, unfortunately, didn’t get a PhD.  (The reason I didn’t finish writing my dissertation is a long story better suited for another day.)

I started a private practice in Philadelphia as soon as I finished my residency, forming a partnership with Gene d’Aquili.  Our office was at 2400 Chestnut Street.  It was an apartment building but was conveniently located to the University of Pennsylvania and the management was happy to allow us to rent one of the apartments for use as an office.

In quick succession, Wolf Rieger, another psychiatrist from Penn and one of my previous instructors, did the same thing right down the hall from us.

Mark Vuolo, another resident in my group opened his practice a few floors up from us.

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It was a congenial group.

Starting a private practice takes a while so I, like most newly-minted psychiatrists, took on a part-time job.  I was a hired by the Lenape Valley Foundation (LVF) in Bucks County, north of Philadelphia.  LVF provided the bulk of the psychiatric services in Bucks County.  The Foundation provided the community mental health center for the county, ran the psychiatric inpatient unit at the hospital in Doylestown, provided psychiatric services to the Bucks County Correctional Facility, consulted at area nursing homes, and ran a psychiatric partial hospital, among other things.

Part of my responsibility was to be the psychiatrist at the partial hospital.  A partial hospital is a program that operates during the day, with patients going home for the night.  It can serve as a bridge from the hospital to less intensive treatment or it can provide supportive services in an ongoing manner for individuals who need more care than can be provided in an office-based psychiatric practice.

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Each day, a group of patients and a staff member made lunch for everyone.  In psychiatric parlance, this would be an “activity of daily living” (ADL) and would be considered a therapeutic activity.  The older adults usually made comforting, grandmotherly food.  Louis Evangelista, the Music and Movement Therapist, often had his group make Italian food.

By regulation, I, as the psychiatrist, was required to be onsite a specified number of hours per week based on the number of patients.  After a few months, once I knew all the long-term patients and had a good system in place to evaluate the new ones, I had time on my hands so I took on one of the ADL groups.  It was probably the only time a partial hospital had a psychiatrist teaching patients how to cook!

Louis made a killer pasta e fagioli.  He learned it from his Sicilian grandfather.  When I left the Lenape Valley Foundation and the partial hospital, it was the meal I requested for my last day.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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Louis Evangelista's Pasta e Fagioli
Canned red kidney beans work well in this recipe but if you want even more flavor, start by cooking dry beans. If you do, I suggest using my recipe for Cannellini alla Toscana, substituting red kidney beans. A link to the recipe is in the Notes section, below. A little olive oil added at the end will improve both the flavor and the mouth-feel of the sauce.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings
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Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Bring four quarts of water seasoned with 1/3 cup of salt to a boil.
  2. Meanwhile, gently heat the beans and their liquid in a small pot.
  3. Separate the leaves of the escarole.
  4. In a sauté pan large enough to hold everything, heat the olive oil.
  5. Add the garlic to the oil and sauté over medium-low heat until brown. Be careful not to burn the garlic or it will impart a bitter taste.
  6. When the garlic is brown, discard it and remove the oil from the heat.
  7. When the water comes to a boil, add the escarole leaves, return to a boil, and cook until wilted, approximately 1 minute.
  8. Lift the escarole out of the water and toss with the oil in the skillet.
  9. Cook the spaghetti in the same water used to cook the escarole until it is almost al dente. It should still be just a bit crunchy on the inside.
  10. Add the warmed beans to the sauté pan with the escarole and keep warm on low heat.
  11. When the pasta is ready, reserve one cup of the pasta-cooking water.
  12. Drain the pasta and add to the beans and escarole.
  13. Season with black pepper to taste.
  14. Cook over medium to medium-low heat until the spaghetti is just al dente, adding the reserved pasta cooking water as needed.
  15. There should be enough liquid left to create a glossy sauce.
  16. Off the heat, add the grated cheese and a few glugs of olive oil if you wish (I do!)
  17. Taste and adjust salt.
  18. Serve immediately with grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano cheese on the side.
Recipe Notes

If you want to start with dried beans, use my recipe for Cannellini alla Toscana.

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Risotto with Zucchini

August 15, 2018

One of the glories of summer produce is zucchini.

We eat our fill of fried zucchini blossoms but also zucchini itself in many ways, among them sautéed in olive oil with aromatics and herbs, made into a frittata, boiled and dressed with olive oil, stuffed with ricotta and mint, cooked in a light tomato sauce, made into calabacitas, and most definitely, used in risotto.

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Although there are exceptions, such as Risotto Friulano and Risotto alla Milanese, most risotti that I make contain vegetables.  As far as actually cooking the rice goes, the technique doesn’t vary.

Fried zucchini blossoms are a much-loved summertime treat in our house

Aromatics (shallot, onion and/or garlic, depending on the risotto) are sautéed in olive oil.  The rice is added and cooked slightly.  A bit of wine is added and cooked away then the liquid (almost always broth but I make a killer champagne risotto and I also have a risotto recipe that uses carrot juice) is added in small amounts and cooked off before more is added.  Cheese and a bit of butter are stirred in at the end.

What varies for me is how the vegetables are prepared and when they are added.

Some vegetables are cooked in advance then added to the rice when it is nearly done.  I do this, for example with the mushrooms for Risotto ai Funghi (Mushroom Risotto).  Other vegetables are put in at the very end and cooked briefly.  This method works best for vegetables that don’t really require cooking to be edible.  Believe it or not, really good summer corn fits into this category as do frozen peas.  The third method is to sauté the vegetable in the olive oil before the rice is added.  This is the method I use for Butternut Squash Risotto.

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It is also possible to add the vegetables part-way through cooking the rice though I rarely use this method because it is not possible to guarantee the vegetables will be cooked properly when the rice is done.

Despite the difference in texture, zucchini can be added at the beginning as with butternut squash.  The final texture is different, with the butternut squash being cooked but still holding its shape completely while the zucchini will soften much more but will still be recognizable.

Once you get the hang of cooking the rice for risotto, you can turn any vegetable into a risotto by just considering which of the cooking techniques to use.

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Risotto with Zucchini
Broth for risotto should be light in flavor, not a heavy stock. The broth should add the barest amount of background flavor but allow the other ingredients in the risotto to shine. Risotto uses a lot of broth. It is important that the broth have minimal salt so as not become overly salty. I never salt my homemade broth for this reason. If it seems that you will run out of broth before the risotto has finished cooking, put some water on to heat. It is important that all liquid added to the risotto, other than the initial addition of wine, be at a simmer.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings
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Instructions
  1. Bring the broth to a bare simmer.
  2. Meanwhile, peel the zucchini then slice into ½-inch thick rounds.
  3. In a heavy-bottomed three-to-four-quart saucepan, heat the oil over medium to medium-high heat.
  4. Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil, stirring frequently, until the onion becomes translucent.
  5. Increase the heat to medium-high. Add the zucchini and ½ teaspoon of salt.
  6. Sauté the zucchini until the greenish color changes to a slightly less vibrant shade and the edges of the zucchini rounds become just a little less sharp, approximately 5-7 minutes.
  7. Add a few grindings of black pepper.
  8. Add the rice and stir until coated with oil.
  9. Sauté several minutes until the outer edges of the rice grains become translucent while the center remains white, approximately 5 minutes.
  10. Add the wine. Stir frequently, but not constantly, until the wine has totally evaporated. You will begin to see some starch leaching out of the rice. More and more of the starch will leach out as you cook the rice. This is what will make a creamy sauce, not a large quantity of butter, cheese or cream.
  11. When the wine has evaporated, add 1/2 cup of the simmering broth. Stir thoroughly, paying particular attention to loosening any spots where the starch seems to be sticking to the bottom of the pan. You don’t want to brown (or worse yet, burn) the starch.
  12. Stir frequently, but not constantly, until the broth has evaporated.
  13. If the broth is unsalted, as I recommend, add 1 ½ teaspoons of salt to the rice as you begin to add the broth. If the broth contains salt, do not add salt until the end.
  14. Keep repeating the process with ½ cup of simmering broth each time: cooking, stirring, and loosening any spots that are sticking until each addition of broth evaporates. The heat should stay as close as possible to medium high. The moderate boiling of the liquid will coax starch out of the rice to create the creaminess that is the hallmark of a good risotto.
  15. Begin tasting for doneness after approximately 3 cups of simmering broth have been added. When the rice is al dente, firm but not crunchy in the center, add another ½ cup of simmering broth, stir, and remove the rice from the heat.
  16. Off the heat, stir in the Parmesan cheese, butter, parsley, if using, and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Taste and adjust salt.
  17. In two or three small additions, add as much of the broth as the risotto will absorb without becoming watery. Stir thoroughly.
  18. Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes

With risotto, the goal is to have rice grains that are still al dente (but not crunchy) in the middle surrounded by a creamy liquid. An Italian risotto should be creamy from the starch in the rice, augmented with a very modest amount of butter and cheese. Risotto served in America is often overly rich from butter, cheese, and sometimes cream.

Risotto rice is a short grain rice that cooks slowly, making it much easier to achieve an al dente texture because it takes a while to actually overcook it. The three types of rice for risotto are Arborio, Carnaroli, and Vialone Nano. Arborio is the easiest one to find though the other two are more forgiving than Arborio when it comes to overcooking.

I recommend buying good quality rice imported from Italy. It really isn’t priced that differently from domestic. Do not wash the rice.

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Sri Lankan Roasted Curry Powder

August 8, 2018

Most historians of cooking claim that curry powders are legacies of the European colonization of South and Southeast Asia.   I don’t doubt that this is partially true but I think the reality is much more nuanced.

The word “curry” is believed to come from the Tamil word “kari,” meaning sauce.  Now, however, the term is applied to a range of dishes from a wide swath of South and Southeast Asian countries, not just to dishes from India.

What constitutes a “curry powder?”  Does it take multiple spices and herbs or just more than one?

In Sri Lankan cooking, for example, the combination of coriander and cumin in a two-to-one mixture is commonly used in many dishes.  This is so much the case, that Nanacy Rajapakse, who taught me Sri Lankan cooking, suggested that I make the mix and have it available for use as needed.

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I think we can generally acknowledge that “curry” as we use the term in the Western world, is really a Western construct.  It usually refers to a generously spiced dish cooked in liquid, though the liquid may be (mostly) boiled away in some cases to make a “dry” curry.  The word “curry” (or translational equivalent) may not figure into the name of a given dish in the local language but when rendered in English, I suspect, the word “curry” is often used in the name of a dish to signify the general concept.

An array of Sri Lankan dishes. The darker beef and pork dishes make use of roasted curry powder.

Whether commonly prepared spice blends used in these countries actually constitute “curry powders” is a matter of definition and whether or not these spice blends pre-date, or are a result of, European influence is up for debate.  Even when curry powders or pastes are used, my experience is that other herbs and spices are almost always added to fine tune the taste of a dish.  In South and Southeast Asian cooking, it would be rare to rely on curry powder alone to flavor a dish.

Clearly, however, the way spice blends are used in South and Southeast Asia differs from the way “curry powder” is used the Western cooking, whether the curry powder is used to impart an interesting flavor to an otherwise Western dish (like deviled eggs, for example) or to create a Western version of an Asian dish (like a generic “curry” found in so many cookbooks that predate the last 20 years, or so).

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In addition to the coriander-cumin blend noted above, Sri Lankan cuisine makes use of roasted curry powder for meat dishes and unroasted curry powder for vegetable dishes.

Though the spices for many “curries” are cooked in oil at the start, the roasted curry powder of Sri Lanka is different.  It produces a depth of flavor that is completely different from that which can be obtained by simply frying the raw spices and herbs at the beginning of cooking.  While it’s easy to pull together different spices individually for each non-meat dish that might otherwise use an unroasted curry powder, one cannot replicate the taste of roasted curry powder without actually roasting it.  There really is no substitute for roasted curry powder if one wants to make traditional Sri Lankan food.

A curry leaf plant.  The leaves are very fragrant.

There are several dishes planned for the coming months that make use of roasted curry powder.  Today’s recipe is the starting point for those recipes.  If  you have any interest in Sri Lankan, or South Asian, cooking you won’t be disappointed in whipping up a batch of this curry powder.

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Sri Lankan Roasted Curry Powder
Roasted curry powder is used in Sri Lanka for meat dishes. It brings a depth of flavor that cannot be achieved by any other means.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Servings
cup
Ingredients
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Servings
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Instructions
  1. Combine the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, and cinnamon on a rimmed baking sheet.
  2. Roast in the oven 325º F, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, approximately 20-25 minutes.
  3. Lightly crush the cardamom pods but don't remove the husk.
  4. Combine the cardamom pods and curry leaves on a different baking sheet.
  5. Roast the cardamon pods and curry leaves in the same oven as the seeds until the leaves are crispy. Remove the leaves
  6. Continue roasting the cardamom pods until lightly browned.
  7. Roast the cayenne pepper in a dry frying pan over moderate heat till slightly darkened in color.
  8. After removing the roasted spices from the heat, immediately pour them into a cool rimmed baking sheet as the heat of the baking or frying pan can overcook them.
  9. Finely grind the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, and cinnamon in a coffee mill.
  10. Stir in the roasted cardamom pods, curry leaves and cayenne pepper. The curry leaves and crushed should not be ground.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Cherry Jam

August 1, 2018

Every year during late summer when I was in grade school we would pick elderberries.  The “we” was myself, my cousin Donna Medile and our mutual friend Ricky Slivosky. Ricky’s dad, Joe, would take us on this adventure.

We’d go to various places in Stackhouse Park, aka the “woods” near our neighborhood.  If you look at the map on the website link, you’ll see Fayette Street.  It’s the street I lived on.  It basically goes right into one of the walking paths into the “woods.”  We never called it Stackhouse Park though everyone knew the name.

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Joe Slivosky would take the elderberries to one of his relatives who would turn them into pies and jam.  I can’t say that I actually cared much for either but I loved picking the berries.  I also liked the idea that something we picked from the wild could be turned into something we ate.

Ever since then, the idea of preserving fruit, preferably fruit that I picked, by turning it into jams, jellies, preserves or by soaking it in alcohol, has fascinated me.

Pitted sour cherries ready to be turned into jam

Santa Fe had a bumper crop of stone fruit in 2012.  Peaches and apricots were everywhere.  I made peach nectar, peach preserves, apricot preserves, apricot and lavender preserves, and apricot preserves with bourbon and brown sugar all from fruit I picked from friends’ trees.  We are just finishing up the bounty of what I canned that year.

Two years ago, I made orange jam and lemon jam from citrus trees outside our house in Palm Springs.

Although guava jelly is my absolute favorite in the jam-jelly-preserve category I find it impossible to get really good guava jelly.  Years ago, I would bring guava jelly back from Guyana where it was made by a friend of my college roommate’s father.  It contained only guava juice, sugar, and lime juice and it tasted just like guava.  Nothing I’ve had since compares to it.

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Cherry jam is actually my second favorite, though, honestly, there isn’t anything in the jam-jelly-preserve category that I don’t like except traditional British orange marmalade, which I find too bitter.

I was really excited when Rich DePippo’s cherry trees produced enough cherries for the birds, the squirrels, and us this year.

If you’re intimidated by the idea of canning, then don’t can the jam.  Make a batch of it, which will be about six cups total.  It’s really a breeze to make.  When the jam is done, put it in nice jars and refrigerate.  It’ll keep for a few months with no problem.  You can also gift some of it to your friends, who will be amazed that you made it yourself.

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Cherry Jam
This recipe uses one box of traditional fruit pectin. If you make a lot of jam, you may want to buy pectin in a multi-use container. Follow the instructions on the container for the amount that equals one box of pectin. Pie cherries or sour cherries make the best jam.
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Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 6 hours
Servings
cups
Ingredients
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 6 hours
Servings
cups
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Put six clean, 1 cup jam jars into a large pot of water. Bring to a boil and reduce to low to keep the jars and the water hot.
  2. Put six new lids in a small saucepan of water. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low and keep warm.
  3. Pit the cherries.
  4. Put the cherries in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. There should still be bits of fruit visible.
  5. Measure four cups of chopped cherries.
  6. Combine the chopped cherries and pectin in an 8 quart saucepan.
  7. Over high heat, bring the cherry mixture to a full, rolling boil; one that cannot be stirred down.
  8. Add the sugar all at once.
  9. Stir and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil as quickly as possible. Boil for one minute.
  10. Remove the jam from the heat.
  11. Skim off any foam.
  12. Remove the jars from the hot water. Turn the heat to high and bring the water to a boil.
  13. Ladle the jam into the hot jars filling to ¼ inch from the top.
  14. Put a lid and a band on each jar. Tighten until you just meet resistance. The lid must be loose enough to allow air to escape (but not allow water to enter) otherwise the jar will explode when being processed.
  15. When all the jars are full, lower them into the boiling water.
  16. Return the water to a boil and boil 10 minutes at sea level. If you are above 1000 feet in elevation, increase the processing time by the amount noted below.
  17. Remove the jars from the boiling water and tighten the lids. Do not overtighten or you may break the seal.
  18. Allow the jars to cool completely.
  19. When cool, the lids should all be concave or, if pressed, should stay concave. If the lids pop up in the center, refrigerate that jar as the seal is not adequate to protect the contents.
  20. Add the following time to the original 10-minute processing time based on altitude: 1000-3000 feet above sea level: 5 minutes; 3001-6000 feet above sea level: 10 minutes; 6001-8000 feet above sea level: 15 minutes; 8001-10,000 feet above sea level: 20 minutes
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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