Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa is tangy, sweet and spicy. It is a fresh and easy to prepare. Serve it with tortilla chips, on a flour tortilla with grilled chicken and rice, or my favorite way, serve with a French lentil salad.  This salsa is easily adaptable to ingredients you have on hand, add a chopped peach, tomato or nectarine or use lemon juice instead of the lime juice.  Make it your own.

Mango Salsa

3 ripe mangoes

1 medium red bell pepper

½ chopped red onion

½ cup packed fresh cilantro or parsley leaves

½ to 1 jalapeño depending on your heat tolerance

1 large lime, juiced 

Salt to taste

Dice mangoes into ½ inch cubes carefully cutting around large seed.

Chop red pepper and onion into a small dice.

Chop jalapeño into a fine dice.

Rough chop parsley or cilantro.

In a large bowl, combine the chopped mango, bell pepper, onion, cilantro and jalapeño.

Add the lime juice and mix the salsa.

Salt to taste.

Let rest for 30 minutes.

Kale Pesto

The reputation of kale is so big and so wonderful that it is surprising that cities are not named after it!  Kale is packed with nutrients, said to improve the health of eyes, skin, hair, bones and digestion.  It improves eye and heart health.  It is an antioxidant.  “Eat More Kale” is the phrase of the brain health community.  I appreciate that kale is so wonderful but I simply like to eat kale – it tastes good.  I like to lay chopped kale at the bottom of my soup bowl before I ladle soup in, add it to salads, make kale chips (I can easily eat a whole head of kale in the kale chip form), and now I like it as a delicious pesto.  It is tasty and hearty.  Add another star to kale because the pesto did not turn black when refrigerated like basil pesto.

I used the pesto as an addition to a quick bean soup but you can toss your pasta with it or spread it on a cracker or bread.  Who knows maybe there will be a town named for kale – Kale, California?

Kale Pesto

2 cups packed torn kale leaves, stems removed

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves

1 teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup toasted walnuts

3-4 cloves garlic

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a food processor, combine the kale leaves, basil leaves, and salt pulsing until the kale is chopped up. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil.

Scrape down the sides of the processor.

Add the walnuts and garlic and process until a smooth paste is formed.

Add the cheese and pulse to combine. 

Peach Jam

I love peaches and peach jam is the perfect way to preserve that fresh picked flavor.  I find that peach jam can be too sweet especially with hand picked peaches but that is fixed easily by adjusting the sugar.  Adding cinnamon and ginger makes this jam special and when I defrost a container in January, it is fresh and tasty. The jam defrosts nicely in the refrigerator without any changes to the texture.

Peach Jam

About 4 pounds fresh peaches

¼ cup lemon juice

3 - 4 cups granulated sugar depending on the sweetness of your peaches

if you would like a spiced peach jam add:

2 cinnamon sticks or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

4 ¼ pieces cut from fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon of ground ginger

adjust spices to your tastes

Peel peaches, pit, and cut into chunks or rough process through the food processor for a smoother jam.

You can at this point boil water, prepare and ice bath, cut an x in the bottom of your peaches and run them through the boiling water then to the ice bath and you should be able to slip the skins off.

I prefer to peel the peaches with a knife close to the skin.

In a medium saucepan, stir together peaches, sugar, lemon juice and spices if using.

Bring peaches to a boil and boil until thickened and the jam is set.

Skim foam as needed.

Place in freezer containers or glass containers for the refrigerator.

You could can the jam at this point.

Ready for the freezer

Black Plum Jam

We love jam in our house.  I prefer mine on my morning toast and the rest of the family spreads thick layers of jam on biscuits, corn muffins, toast and bread.  My grandmother served plum jam with her Sunday breakfasts where she toasted up English muffins.  Living in the desert southwest, plum jam had been hard to find when I first moved here.  Now I can find it easily but I still crave a certain plummy flavor over just the over-powering sugar sweetness I find in a lot of store plum jams. I saw a great sale on plums and thought jam.  I have always wanted to make jam even though I don't know how and I  am a little scared to can the jam so it keeps in the pantry but making it for the refrigerator and freezer is within my skill range.  I really would like to learn how to can from my Dad as he did a lot of canning when I was growing up, along with my Mom.  He still makes his chili sauce and pickles every other year or so. One year soon, I must spend a day doing that with him.

This jam is really delicious.  I keep catching my son taking a spoonful as he stands at the refrigerator.

Plum Jam
2 pounds small plums pitted and cut into 1/2-inch wedges

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 lemon, seeded

In a large, nonreactive saucepan, toss the plums with the sugar and let stand, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is mostly dissolved, about 1 hour.

Squeeze the lemon over the plums, add it to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until the liquid runs off the side of a spoon in thick, heavy drops, 20 to 25 minutes.

As the fruit cooks down dissolve any sugar crystals stuck to the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped into hot water - this prevents the sugar from recrystallizing.

Skim off any scum that rises to the surface of the jam.

Discard the lemon and spoon the plum jam into three 1/2-pint jars, leaving about 1/4 inch of space at the top.

Close the jars and let the jam cool to room temperature.

Store the jam in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.

I put 1 freezer proof plastic container in the freezer and will let you know how it turns out.

adapted from foodandwine.com