Delight Your Guests with Homemade Condiments!

I have to believe that when Duncan Hines first introduced their cake mixes to the world back in the day, they left out the egg and oil for a reason. I think they wanted us to be able to say that we still made it from scratch because we had to add those items! Homemade anything always tastes better than store-bought products. Try some of my recipes for Memorial Day and see for yourself!

Ketchup… we use it on everything. My brother even puts it on his eggs! Why not make it from scratch? Just in time for your Memorial Day—give them the WOW factor. Make the regular old ketchup or add mangoes to it! Just think outside the box and try it! Make regular old mustard or add raspberries to it! Have fun and experiment.

Mustard is one of the least expensive spices and it’s available in a variety of colors and forms. It can add zip to much more than just a hot dog or hamburger and is not difficult to make. You can add almost anything to mustard to make it a gourmet mustard and it makes a great gift. Just put the mustard in a great jar, box it up with some home-baked crackers, and your friends will be impressed and happy. Mustard has no fat and not many calories. The hardest part of making mustard from seeds is waiting those first few days for the flavors to mellow so you can see if it turned out as planned. If you use mustard flour you need only wait ten minutes or so.

I guarantee you that if you try these recipes you will be so proud to use your own condiments and not buy store bought again! The store bought is loaded with salt, sugar and other preservatives. The difference in taste is unbelievable and you can say you made it! And as an added bonus, you will save money, which we all need to do these days.

Easy Basic Homemade Ketchup

Yield: Makes about 2 cups

• 1 (28-oz) can whole tomatoes in purée
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp. of hot smoked paprika

Purée tomatoes in a blender until smooth.

Cook onion in oil in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until softened. Add puréed tomatoes, tomato paste, brown sugar, vinegar, and salt, and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until very thick—1 hour or more. Stir more frequently toward the end of cooking to prevent scorching.

Cool ketchup so that you can purée ketchup in two batches in blender until smooth. Chill, covered, overnight for flavors to develop.

Ketchup can be kept up to three weeks.

Easy Basic Homemade Hot Dog Mustard

2 TBS white sugar
2 TBS flour
3 TBS dry mustard
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. turmeric

2 cups apple cider vinegar

Mix all dry ingredients together then add vinegar. Boil together until thickened.

Chill, covered, overnight for flavors to develop.

Homemade Pickle Relish

2 cups finely diced cucumber

1 cup finely diced onion

1 tsp. kosher salt

¾ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup sugar

2 tsp. cornstarch mixed with 1 ½ tsp. water

Combine and set in strainer for at least 4 hours. Squeeze as much liquid out as you can and then bring vinegar and sugar to a boil and reduce about 5 minutes. Add in cornstarch mixture and simmer several minutes. Then cool several hours.

1 cup diced dill pickle

¼ cup homemade mustard

2 tablespoons pickle brine

2 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

Combine all ingredients, stir and serve with hot dogs or hamburgers.

For a Great Burger

Pick up some ground chuck with a fat content of at least 20%. 25% would be even better. Lean and extra-lean meats make tough, dry burgers (this is true for turkey burgers or lamb burgers, too-look for grinds with around 25% fat). Don’t overwork the meat.

In a large bowl, pull the meat apart into small chunks, add salt or other seasonings, and toss gently with your fingers. Use wet hands to form burger patties. It also allows the meat to come together faster and prevents over-working. Make burger patties with a dimple in the center. The burger will shrink and pull as it cooks so it will even out. I keep my burgers in the fridge until I am ready to put them on the grill. I think they stay together better that way and they stay juicy.

Keep grill at a steady high heat. With a gas grill, keep the lid down while cooking; with a charcoal grill, leave the lid off. Turn only once! Constant turning will toughen and dry out meat. Cook 2 minutes per side for rare, 3 minutes for medium-rare, 4 for medium, and 5 for well done.

The Sweet Sign of Spring… Maine Maple Sunday 2014!

Spring is coming. How do I know? Certainly not because of the weather outside—it continues to be frightful this year! I know because Maple Sunday is coming right up on the 23^rd! The sugar in maple sap only appears when warm, sunny days and below-freezing nights follow each other for days on end, as they do during Maine’s long, slow spring.

It is quite a treat to go to farms all over Maine on the fourth Sunday in March. You can experience the process and see a real sugarhouse and real kettles boiling sap over the fire.

Just a few facts to ponder from the Maine Maple Producers Association:

• The average maple tree is not tapped until it is about 40 years old. If the tree was tapped any younger, it could hurt the tree.
• An average 40-year-old tree yields about 40 quarts of sap in a season. This is just enough to make 1 quart of pure maple syrup.
• The flavor varies from year to year; sometimes the syrup is dark and rich, sometimes pale gold and delicate. It all depends on the soil and terrain, the wind and the weather—just like wine.
• Once it flows from the tree, the sap must be processed within a few hours or it will spoil, so syrup makers work round the clock once the spring run has started.

Much of the sap is still gathered the old-fashioned way: in buckets hung from trees. It is then boiled down into syrup over wood fires. Some of the larger producers have adopted modern, labor-saving technology—they gather the sap with plastic tubing strung all the way from the trees to the sugarhouse.

From holding tanks, which may hold as much as a thousand gallons, the freshly collected sap, usually about three percent sugar, is fed continuously into the evaporator. There it is kept constantly boiling, throwing off dense clouds of steam as it becomes more and more concentrated. When the syrup reaches a temperature of seven degrees above the boiling point of water, the sugar-density is just right. The finished syrup is immediately filtered to remove particles of “sugar sand.” These, though harmless, would make the syrup cloudy. Once properly clear, the finished syrup is packed in sterilized containers and sealed, ready to be distributed and enjoyed around the world.

When you get back from your trip to the farm, why not try some of my recipes to celebrate this sweet natural syrup? YUMMM!!

Nancy’s Basic Sauce—great to use with any kind of meat or fish!

Ingredients:

2 TBS Dijon mustard
2 to 3 TBS grainy mustard
1/3 cup (or to taste) pure maple syrup
2 TBS mayonnaise
1 TBS lemon juice

Method:
Heat mustards and maple syrup in a small pot. Remove from heat and cool for about 10 minutes. Add the mayonnaise and lemon juice. Pour over meat or fish and bake until done.

Another recipe to try: remember that Sriracha Sauce recipe from last month?  Just take ½ cup of maple syrup and add 2 tsp. of Sriracha (or to taste) and pour over salmon, pork, chicken, or beef and bake until done.

Maple Bacon Jam

Great over a block of cream cheese and spread onto crackers. Also, good with toast and biscuits! The possibilities are endless… Try it with sweet scallops or on a sandwich.