Monday, October 3, 2011

Canning Tomatoes, Steamed Buns, and Garlic (Not Necessarily Together)

The CSA from which I get veggies every other week sent out an email last week saying that they had extra tomatoes for sale, so I decided to buy 25 lbs. and try my hand at canning crushed tomatoes. Now I've done jam (in pints) in this apartment before, but I wanted to can the tomatoes in quarts and that meant I had to change my tools.

First, I had to borrow a HUGE pot from the playground at work. Of course, that's what you would do, right? I could peel and briefly cook the tomatoes in batches in a regular stock pot, but the canning required a pot which could contain quart jars plus space above these for another inch or two of water. And because the pot was so big, I had to make use of 1 1/2 burners in order to get the water up to a boil.
I eventually got all of the jars processed and they seem to have all sealed well. I'm looking forward to good tomato sauce all winter long!
And... tonight I tried my hand at steamed buns (Korean or Japanese?) If you haven't had them before, steamed buns are a sweet dough traditionally filled with pork, but mine were a mixture of veggies and chicken. The dough is wrapped around the filling and then all of the cooking is done in a steamer. I have to say that they turned out pretty darn good and there were plenty of leftovers to throw in the freezer for later!

If you want to see how to make them or just see some fun videos on Japanese cooking , check out Cooking With Dog. No, it's not what you think.

And lastly, the funnest (yes, funnest) video on how to peel a whole head of garlic in under 10 seconds.