Houston, we have a problem!

The weather really changed -- it got chilly and foggy (just like summer) and there's no way the solar dehydrator can be effective. The pears have all gone into the oven at 125 degrees.

I've pulled out the "el cheapo" electric dehydrator - five round trays, heating element and no fan. I have put a bunch of Principe Borghese tomatoes into the small dehydrator. I halved them and reserved the seeds to ferment to save for next year. There are 2 trays full - we will see how they turn out.

Moroccan Preserved Lemons

LEMONS ABOUND IN CALIFORNIA. It seems like everyone has a lemon tree - except me. Fortunately, none of those folks know what to do with all their lemons and they are more than happy to have some help clearing lemons off the tree so they don't have to pick up moldy lemons from the ground.

I like to juice up a big pile of lemons and freeze the juice in ice cube trays. I also save the zest and freeze it -- it's very usable for other recipes this way. Of course, there's the lemon chutney, lemon bars, and preserved Moroccan lemons.

When I first researched this, I found a lot of recipes out there -- the process is fairly straight forward and simple, varying only in quantities and spices.

For spices, pick your spices based on what you have at hand and when it comes to dried spices, make sure that what you have that isn't a million years old (throw out the old stuff in the compost heap). I used cinnamon, black pepper, cloves, coriander seed and bay. Check the different recipes for quantities and add to taste. Experiment with different levels of spices in different jars -- it's up to you!

PROCESS:

1. Sterilize your mason jars. Put some of the spices in the bottom of the clean jars, along with a couple tablespoons of salt. Save the cinnamon sticks and some of the other spices to add between the layers.
   
2. Scrub your lemons very well. Trim any bad spots & trim off the stem end.
3. Cut your lemon lengthwise almost to the end, then turn it over and cut from the other direction so it is quartered but still attached at both ends.
4. Stuff as much kosher or sea salt into your lemon, then smash it into a sterilized mason jar using a wooden pestle -- press it down into the jar to get it to release more lemon.
   
5. Add another layer of salt, a sprinkle of dried spices, and another salt-stuffed lemon.
6. Once the jar has enough lemons, press them down and release more juice. Pour more freshly squeezed lemon juice on top to cover. Slide in the bay and the cinnamon along the side of the jar, and get the bubbles out with a butter knife or thin spatula.
   

The lemons I preserved in the last batch were from my sister's lemon tree -- the lemons are softball size. I found that I could get two of these monsters into a pint, but it was a struggle getting them in there (releasing a lot of juice in the process).

Screw on the lids and put aside for a few weeks. These should be ready in 4-6 weeks.

Remember:

• Pull lemons out using a clean utensil, not your fingers or any utensil that has been used on something else.
• Add more lemon juice and lemons as you go along -- if you squeeze a lemon, throw the squeezed (squoze?) half into the jar and push down. The brine and juice will do their thing and you can keep a jar going for a while.

Recipe links:

• Paula Wolfert's recipe on Epicurious
• Kitty Morse's recipe on Seasonal Chef
• Preserved Lemons on Simply Recipes
• Heidi Swanson's implementation of Chez Panisse Fruits recipe on 101 Cookbooks
  

A Plum Massacre

I confess - I probably overdid it, but it wasn't entirely my fault. You see, last year, I looked out the window one day in the 2nd or 3rd week of July and thought, "holy cow! I gotta pick the plums!" I managed to fill up a 5 gallon bucket plus a big size bowl with every single plum off the tree. I am not joking -- I picked the tree clean last year.

Yesterday afternoon, I got out the ladder and started picking. And picking. And picking. I ended up with about 20 or 30 gallons of plums. There are still a lot more plums. The goal in picking all the plums is to avoid waste of perfectly good fruit and to avoid having to clean up rotten, squishy plums out of my garden and off the ground and yard furnitures.

So, I got cleaning and cooking. I ended up with 3 gallons (maybe more) of plum juice. I also ended up with about 1/2 gallon of plum sauce after running the juice through a jelly bag. I made a batch of plum habanero jelly with 16 cups of juice (and 18 cups of sugar), and plum lavender jelly (8 cups of juice, 9 cups of sugar). I used Pomona's Pectin and therein lies the rub... stuff is not setting properly.

I cooked everything down a LOT. I even overboiled a couple times and probably lost about 5 cups of jelly on the stovetop. The plum lavender jelly is setting a bit better than the plum habanero but since I finished that at midnight, I'll give it another day (and an overnight in the fridge) to gauge the set. The plum habanero tastes a bit hotter than last year - I used 8 habaneros (started with 4 but it wasn't spicy enough).

Total haul:

Plum habanero:
7 12 oz jars
8 8 oz jars
9 4 oz jars

Plum lavender:
2 12 oz jars
4 8 oz jars
4 4 oz jars

The plum pulp was used for plum sauce -- I have always wanted to make my own plum sauce, it's sweet, tangy, salty and delicious for dipping egg rolls (which my sweetie & I first made two weeks ago). I read some recipes and threw this together in a pot:

1 chopped up onion
2 star anise
4 cloves
3 chopped cloves of garlic
1/4 c. soy
1/4 c. rice vinegar
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
2 c. unrefined cane sugar
1 t chili flakes
1 c. water

I simmered that and added 4 c. of the plum sauce, then simmered some more and added the rest of the plum sauce and a couple ladles of the hot plum habanero jelly. I threw in another half cup of brown sugar and a cup or so of demerara sugar just to be safe. Plum sauce is darned sweet.

At midnight, I ended up with a Dutch oven totally full of about 8 cups of plum sauce. This sauce smells and tastes like some kind of insanely non-tomato-based BBQ sauce. I'm going to re-taste it after leaving it chill for 24 hours and decide if I want to continue doctoring and cooking it, maybe puree it in the blender and then seal it in jars. I cannot wait to put this on portobella mushrooms on the fire!

I still have two half-gallon bottles of plum juice for more jelly. Guess what everyone's getting for gifts for the next six months?

I also plan to make a batch of lavender jelly once I get through the plum stuff. I have so much mint that I will also make mint jelly and plan to make both mint basil jelly and mint basil pesto once the basil is big enough to harvest.

James pulled up a couple of cilantro plants -- I should have been making cilantro-pumpkin seed pesto instead of reading blogs tonight... oops! It was so quiet over there in the bowl of water by the window!