Dilled Asparagus

So ever since I purchased the book Canning for a New Generation  I have been looking forward to spring and asparagus because I wanted to try a recipe for dilled asparagus.  Unfortunately, spring was really busy and by the time July came, I figured my dreams of asparagus in 2011 were over.  Imagine my surprise when I was at the Farmers Market at City Hall in Seattle and I saw ASPARAGUS!!!  Well I immediately snatched up some and canned them that night.

Here is just a sampling of the asparagus I purchased.  I need to cut it down to size



I figured I better show you how I sterilize my jars before filling them.  That's right, I let them boil in the water bath canner I am heating up to can the asparagus




A quick flash boil to bring out the bright color




The finished product

Here is my recipe:
Pickled Asparagus (makes 2 pints)
1 lb thick asparagus tips cut 4 inches long (about 3 bunches)
2 cups rice vinegar (4% acidity)
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp pickling spice (I got mine from Penzey's and it smelled so good)
2 cloves garlic, peeled

Get the water bath canner going and sterilize your jars and lids

In a wide saucepan, bring 2 inches water to a boil.  then add the asparagus; bring back to a boil, then immediately drain and transfer to a bowl of ice water to cool.  Drain well

In a non-reactive pot, combine the vinegar, 1 cup water, the salt, and sugar.  Bring to a boil.

Divide the asparagus, pickling spice, and garlic cloves between the hot jars.  Ladle the hot vinegar mixture into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Put on lids and rings tightening to finger tight.  Put the jars in the water bath canner making sure the jars are covered by at least one inch of water and boil for 10 minutes.  Remove the jars from the canner and let cool.


Now, my friend sent me a recipe for spicy pickled asparagus.  I think I might use it to pickle green beans later in the season.

Sriracha Pickles Asparagus (makes 4 pints)
3 cups white wine vinegar
3 cups water
1/4 cup pickling salt
2 lbs asparagus trimmed to fit jars
1 cup Sriracha
12 cloves garlic
16 peppercorns
4 tsp dill seed

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the vinegar, water, and salt to boil for 5 minutes.

In hot jars, pack equal amounts of asparagus, sriracha, garlic, pepper corns, and dill seed in the jars.  Top each with the hot vinegar mixture, leaving 1/2 inch headspace in each jar.  Process in a water bath canner for 8 minutes.  Let sit in a cool, dark place for 4-6 weeks before opening.

Black Beans!! My First Experience with a Pressure Canner

So I recently had a birthday and imagine my excitement when I opened a pressure canner!!!  I have several bags of dried black beans and I never seem to have 8 hours to cook them so I decided to can some black beans first.

Little did I know one mylar bag of beans is a lot of beans (this isn't all of them)



First I soaked the beans overnight, then I rinsed them and boiled them for 30 minutes





Like I said, a lot of beans.  In the pressure canner is my first batch processing.  The second batch is boiling away.

Long story short, it was a very long process.  Here is what I did.

I took a bunch of black beans and soaked them in water overnight

Second, I rinsed the black beans and brought them to a boil in clean water and boiled the beans for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, I got another pot of fresh water and brought that to a boil, sanitized my jars, and filled my pressure canner up to the first line (there are marks inside the canner) and heated that water up.

After the beans had boiled in water for 30 minutes, I put a 1/4 tsp of salt (optional) in the bottom of each jar and I filled the jars with drained black beans leaving 1 inch of headspace at the top.  After filling the jars, I pounded them a couple times on the counter to settle the beans and get more beans into each jar.

After filling the jars with black beans, I took my clean boiling water and put that in each jars up until the top of the beans (the 1 inch of headspace is really important).  Then I put my prepared lids on top and screwed on the rings to secure the rings. 

Now for the fun part.  I put the jars into the canner, put the lid on and locked it.  According to manufacturers instructions, I brought the canner up to pressure which for beans at sea level is 11 psi.  This part took quite a while.  I have a pretty big canner.  Then I sat in the kitchen reading and watching the dial on my canner for 75 minutes to make sure it stayed at or above 11 psi because if the pressure lowers below 11 psi, then I would need to start the whole process over again. 

Remember I did this twice because there are a lot of beans in one mylar bag of beans.  After all that work, I did end up with 17 cans of beans (one didn't seal and I needed to throw it out).  I haven't tried them yet, but I plan to use them this summer as they are an easy no cook protein I can use for dinners.