May Magic in the Kitchen

 

The magic begins outdoors.

Look closer. What do you see?

Dew clinging to petals of deep purple violets.

It was a heavenly Memorial Day morning, with sunshine and dew and a fresh, light breeze. I don't know that I have ever had such a blissful harvest before in my life. Or a more beautiful one. Or one that cost me less in effort, since there had been no planting or watering involved. Nature did all the work until it was time for me to pick the flowers.

Once the flowers are picked and rinsed, an infusion (or tea) is made by pouring boiling water over the blossoms and letting them steep for "several hours." What does "several" mean in a recipe? Another recipe said half an hour would suffice, but I had work to do, so my violets steeped for three or four hours. Doesn't that sound like "several" to you? The magic begins right away with the boiling water, which turns a beautiful shade of blue. 

Next step is to drain the tea, leaving the infused blue tea behind. (Could this be used to color hard-cooked eggs? Wouldn't they be lovely?) 

Violet infusion

By now you have squeezed a fresh lemon, strained that juice, and it's time to add lemon juice to your violet infusion, which turns it from blue to what some call purple but what looks like fuchsia to me. Magic!

Lemon juice changes the color of the violet tea.

From here on, it's jelly-making as usual. Bring to a boil with pectin, add sugar, bring to a boil again, ladle it into jars, and admire the rosy magic (it changed color again!) you have created. 

Finally getting around to that chutney....

I got out the jars and everything at the beginning of the week, but every evening I was too tired, so it was Friday already when I finally got the rhubarb-mango chutney together. Love the aroma of vinegar and spices in the house! You can look online for a recipe that appeals to you or simply make up your own. Chutney, I've found, is very forgiving. And if anyone in Northport needs mustard seeds, let me know. Somehow I managed to accumulate three containers so am more than willing to send two of them to new homes.

 

One Day, Three Projects

The freezer compartment of the refrigerator was filling up. Rhubarb had gone in first, followed by strawberries, both of those in June. Later months brought an abundance of black raspberries. (Black raspberries + strawberries = PJ’s blackstraw jam.) And while fruits were still awaiting disposition into jars, along came sweet corn season. The time had arrived! What better day than Labor Day to do the work?