How to Make Your Own Infused Olive Oil… the Safe Way!

Flavored olive oils and dressings make great gifts, but watch out; there are safe and unsafe ways to make infused olive oil. The unsafe way is to put anything in the oil that contains any trace of water or moisture. That includes garlic, lemon peel, fresh peppers, fresh herbs and spices. The oil will not support bacterial growth, but the water containing herbs will. Botulism bacteria can grow in this type of environment, even in a sealed bottle, however, there are several things you can do to avoid this problem.

1. Mix all the ingredients, refrigerate them and use them within a week: This is the best way if you are using fresh ingredients such as fresh basil, fresh rosemary or garlic. Garlic Oil for instance is ideal for adding to pasta dishes, then top with a little grated dry cheese.

Fancy Imported Bottles from http://www.ebottles.com/

Fill a decorative 1-Liter Swing Top Glass Bottle or a 500-ml Green Marasca Glass Bottle with extra virgin olive oil. Add a clean head of garlic (whole if desired), and leave to marinade for a few days. You can also use lemon peel, fresh or dried peppers, ginger, rosemary sprigs, etc. Alternatively, you can use a recipe for Italian salad dressing but cut down on the vinegar or lemon juice.

2. Preserve the added ingredients:
Maybe you have seen garlic or herbs mixed with oil. The way it is done commercially is to first preserve the water-containing garlic, herb, etc. with a strong brine or vinegar solution, and then put it in the oil.

The vinegar solutions used commercially are up to 4 times stronger than the vinegars you find in the supermarket. You can find them at commercial food supply outlets. Many of the herb mixes have both salt and vinegar which both prevent bacterial growth. Commercial vinaigrettes and sauces also have chemical preservatives not usually available to the home cook.

3. Dry the herbs to remove all water, leaving the essential oils:
This can be done with a food dehydrator or just by leaving in the sun. After the spices and herbs are dry, you can add them to the olive oil. Whole sprigs of thyme, rosemary, dried peppers, etc. can decorate the inside of the bottle this way.

4.  Press the olives with the spices: Putting lemon, garlic, etc. in the olive press with the olives is the safest way to flavor oil. You must have your own olive press. The oils from the added ingredients mingle with the olive oil and the watery part of the spices is removed along with the olive water.

You could add essential spice oils to the olive oil to achieve the same effect.

Once you have your final product, fill it into decorative bottles so you can display it on your kitchen counter or give it to your friends as gifts. Check out our beautiful Imported Glass Bottles from Europe for your presentation of infused oils, available at http://www.ebottles.com/.

How to Make Homemade Strawberry Jam

One of the great joys of eating seasonal, local food is the unabashed, seam-bursting happiness of eating something you haven’t seen since the last harvest. It’s the kind of excitement which comes from deprivation – food is always tastier when you’re hungry, and strawberries always sweeter, juicier, strawberries, when you’ve not had them in months.

Now, for some of us, it seems entirely magical that the strawberries which would get moldy in your fridge in under a week can, if boiled and put in a jar, stay safely on your shelf for months, or years. It’s the kind of alchemy we tend to feel is best left to the experts…

But here’s the thing – preserving is actually incredibly easy, and incredibly safe. As long as you follow a few basic guidelines, you can have, by this time tomorrow, a shiny, glistening row of jam jars of your very own.

Here is What You’ll Need for Your Homemade Strawberry Jam

Ingredients

• 9 cups of washed, hulled, and lightly crushed strawberries (usually takes 7-8 quarts of berries)
• 6 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice

Equipment

• 8 half-pint canning jars with lids, available at ebottles.com,  thoroughly washed with soap and water
• 1 extremely large pot with a fitted lid, for sterilizing the jars; the pot must be at least 3 inches taller than the jam jars you are using
• 1 stock/soup pot, for cooking the preserves (use a big one – there will be lots of bubbling)
• 1 cake or steamer rack that fits inside the extremely large pot
• 1 jar lifter (a plastic set of tongs for getting the jars in and out of the water)*

*available at kitchen and many hardware stores

Now, let’s get started…

1. Get the jam going. In the stock pot, combine the berries, sugar and lemon juice. Heat gradually until the sugar dissolves, then raise the heat and bring the berries to a boil. Continue to cook, stirring often to ensure that the bottom doesn’t scorch.

2. Skim off any foam that rises to the top of the pot. Don’t throw the foam out – it’s perfectly edible, and entirely delicious (the bubbles in the foam are caused by the rapid boiling, and contain nothing but strawberry goodness). When you’re done with the jam-making, whiz the foam up with a bit of milk or cream in a blender, pour into popsicle molds, and freeze. These will be the best strawberry popsicles you have yet encountered. Also, slip two small plates into the freezer – you’ll use those in a bit to test how “gelled” the jam is.

3. Meanwhile, sterilize your jars. Place the cake or steamer rack inside the extremely large pot. (From now on, we shall refer to this pot by its fancy preserving name: a hot water canner.) The purpose of the rack is to elevate the jam jars off the bottom of the pot, ensuring that water circulates all around them. Fill the pot with water almost to the top, cover, and set on high heat. When the water starts to boil, use the jar lifter to ease the canning jars into the pot. Make sure the jars fill completely, and are submerged. Once the water comes back to the boil, set a timer for 5 minutes.

When the timer goes off, put as many lids into the pot as you have jars (you may need to do this all in batches), and set the timer for another five minutes. When the timer rings again – congratulations! you have successfully sterilized – use the tongs to fish the jars and lids out of the water, and place them all on clean dishtowels to drain. Keep the heat on under the canner.

4. Test the jam to see if it’s ready. By now it should have thickened a bit – it will drip slowly off a spoon that you dip into it, rather than running off rapidly like juice would. Take one of the plates out of the freezer, and plop on a small bit of jam. Return to the freezer for a minute or two. Take the plate out, and run your finger through the jam. Does it more or less stay put, retaining the trail traced by your finger? If so, you’re done! If the jam is still runny, keep cooking, and test again in a few minutes.

5. Can your jam.

Using a ladle, and a wide-mouth funnel if you have one, carefully fill the sterilized jars with your jam. You need the jars to be quite full: fill them to within 1/4″ to 1/2″ of the very top (technical term for this: headspace). Using a dampened paper towel, wipe the rims of all the jars, to ensure that they are clean and not sticky. (Any jam on the rim will prevent the formation of a tight vacuum seal.) Place the lids on the jars and tighten them.

Using the tongs, return the filled jars to the hot water canner; if necessary, top up with more water, so that the jars are covered by at least 1″. Put the lid on, and when the water comes to a boil, set a timer for 10 minutes. When the timer goes off, remove the jars from the canner, and lay on clean dishtowels to cool. (You may hear a popping sound coming from the jars – this happens when the lids suddenly depress inwards slightly at the centre, as the air is driven out and a vacuum is formed. Popping sound = good.) Leave jars undisturbed for 24 hours (moving the jars, and especially touching the lids, can disturb or break the seals on the jars while they are cooling).

6. Check for a seal. If you’ve got a good vacuum seal, your jam is shelf-stable, and can be safely stored in the cupboard for at least a year. How do you know if you have a vacuum seal? One test: press down on the centre of the lid. If it has no give, and does not bounce back when you take your finger away, it’s good. (What do you do with jars that failed to seal? Put them in the fridge – they will last for a month.)

Congratulations! You’ve made jam! Put in on your toast, stir into a bowlful of yogurt, or dollop it over ice cream. Open it in six months, and inhale deeply. Seasonal eating won’t seem so limiting after all.

To get the right canning jars and lids for your canning project, simply visit us at eBottles.com

All images courtesy Arieh Singer.

Source: http://www.greenprophet.com/2008/07/homemade-strawberry-jam-recipe/

Our Favorite Limoncello Recipe

There are many Limoncello recipes available on the internet. Here’s one that we liked. Remember, you can find all different shapes and sizes of Limoncello Bottles at http://www.ebottles.com/.

Ingredients:

2 750ml bottles of pure grain alcohol
zest of 17 lemons
3.5 cups of white sugar
5 cups of water






Instructions:

Zest the lemons, put them in a glass one-gallon jar with the alcohol and let it sit for 45 days. Then mix the sugar and water in a pot and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Let the mixture sit until completely cool and then mix with the alcohol and lemon infusion. Let that mixture sit for 45 days. Then filter the mixture 4 times using #4 coffee filters. Bottle the liquid and put it in the freezer.

That’s the short, basic version. For more detailed instructions, check out the 10 Easy Steps below!

10 Easy Steps to Make Limoncello…

This is basically a long version of the Limoncello recipe that omits no details or explanations. If you plan to make Limoncello at home and have never tried it before, you should read this very closely.

Step One: The first step is to select your lemons. Whenever possible, select organic lemons because it’s actually the skin you use in making Limoncello and that’s also where all the pesticide is. Organic lemons also aren’t waxed, another thing that you don’t want to end up in your liquor. Try to choose thick-skinned lemons with smooth skin. This will make it a lot easier to zest the lemon.

Step Two:  Wash the lemons. You’ll need to do this whether or not they are organic but if they aren’t organic it’s more of an ordeal. You need to scrub them under very warm water with a vegetable brush or some other plastic scrubber. Remove all stickers or stamps and as much of the wax as possible, then dry them with a paper towel.

Step Three: Zest the lemons. Using a Microplane Zester makes doing this step quickly and doing it well. Place a cutting board or a large piece of aluminum foil down to catch all the zest. Then use the zester to remove a thin layer of zest from the whole lemon. If you get even a little bit of the white pith just below the zest, it will make your Limoncello bitter. So don’t take chances, if the lemon is bumpy and you can’t get all the zest without hitting the pith elsewhere, let it go.

The lemon in the picture on the left has been zested. Notice how it is still yellow because only the outer skin was removed without touching the pith anywhere. This step is all about quality over quantity. Our recipe calls for 2 more lemons than what you typically see because it is so important not to worry about not having enough zest. With the Microplane, you should be able to zest all 17 lemons in about half an hour.

Step Four: Filter the liquor. This should actually be done simultaneously with the zesting to save time. Any water filtration pitcher, such as a Brita pitcher, will work. Pour one bottle in, let it filter, pour it into a regular clean pitcher, then back in the top and repeat the filtration about four times for each bottle of liquor.

Whenever possible, use grain alcohol for authenticity. It’s difficult to get because many states don’t allow it to be sold. Vodka tends to have a flavor of its own that is imparted to the Limoncello. However, 100 proof, mid-grade Vodka is the next best thing. If you must, you can also use the 80 proof, but more alcohol is better for making Limoncello.

Step Five: Combine the zest and the filtered liquor into a clean one gallon glass jar and screw the lid on tight. If the lid isn’t tight enough, put a piece of plastic wrap on the top before screwing on the lid. You can use any glass jar of sufficient size from eBottles.com. Put a label on the jar that tells you at least the date and some additional details about how you made it. You may also want to number your batches and track them if you like.

Step Six: It’s a good idea to keep the jar in your kitchen for the first week to ten days and shake it up about four times during that initial period. After that, let the mixture sit and infuse for a minimum of 45 days, longer if you can stand it or if you forget about it. This is where all of the lemon flavor comes from so don’t short-change yourself here.

Step Seven: Add the simple syrup by bringing 5 cups of water to a boil, remove it from the heat and stir in 3.5 cups of white sugar. Then let it sit until it cools down to room temperature. It’s best to use filtered water and regular white sugar. Other types of sugar such as raw sugars tend to have subtle flavors of their own (most notably molasses) that will show up in the final product. Once the simple syrup cools down you can just add it to the lemon/liquor infusion, screw the lid back on and shake the jar. Mark the date you mixed the infusion with the simple syrup on your label.

Step Eight: We suggest that you wait for at least another 45 days. The longer the mixture rests, the smoother the flavor of the final product. (Optional: You can also filter first and then let it sit longer in the bottle).

Step Nine: Filter the Limoncello. This is one of the most important steps and by far the most laborious. However, you should never skip it. The filtration actually gives Limoncello the color, clarity and flavor you expect from it.

First, use a flat-bottom permanent coffee filter that you can buy at the grocery store. Put the filter in the funnel, and the funnel in the container you’re using. Then ladle the Limoncello out of the storage jar and through the filter. This first pass removes all of the zest and other large debris.

Then comes the tough part. Take flat-bottom disposable coffee filters, the ones with the fluted edging, and put them inside the permanent filter. This is basically double-filtering and you should repeat this step a second time. Then, on the last pass, just put the Limoncello through the permanent filter by itself in case any debris or zest gets back in there during the filtration process. So, that makes two filtrations with just the permanent filter and two filtrations with the permanent plus disposable filters.

When filtering, you want to be patient and preserve as much of the liquid as possible, but there will come a point when it looks like there’s more liquid at the bottom but no more liquid is dripping through. Do NOT try to salvage that liquid. Throw it away along with the filter (or wash the filter) because that stuff is exactly what you’re filtering in the first place.

Step Ten: Now comes the fun part: Bottling your Limoncello! On the last filtration, funnel the liquid directly into the bottles you’ll be using. You may want to wash, dry and then sterilize the bottles first. You can find any kind of bottle you want at eBottles.com. Choose from a variety of Swing Top Glass Bottles in 250 ml, 500 ml, 750 ml or 1000 ml sizes.

You’re done! A few bonus tips for you though. From experience, the Limoncello mellows a lot in the first week. So, if you’re not in a tremendous hurry, we recommend that you do your first tasting a week or so after bottling. The longer Limoncello sits, the smoother it gets.  Enjoy!

Surprise Your Senses with a Bottle of Homemade Tahini Sauce or House Dressing from Neomonde’s!

When the Saleh family immigrated to America in the 1970's - unable to find the foods and products they were accustomed to from their native land back home - they decided to start baking their own homemade pita bread...

Soon, their bread became so popular that they began to expand their business to fit the growing demand.

Today, what started out as a family bakery over 35 years ago has grown into the Neomonde Middle Eastern Market, Deli & Café where customers come to enjoy a Mediterranean-style lunch or dinner, pick up their meal to go, or shop in the market that’s attached to the restaurant.

All of the different types of food and groceries the Saleh’s offer at Neomonde’s are based on family recipes they learned while growing up in their native Lebanon.

About 5 years ago, they started selling their homemade Tahini Sauce and House Dressing in the market as well. They like to bottle their sauce and dressing in 16 oz PET Plastic Salad Dressing Bottles from http://www.ebottles.com/.

Neomonde’s favorite part of doing business with eBottles: “It’s simple, cheap and easy! eBottles keeps track of our past orders so with a few clicks of the mouse, we can reorder with no hassle. They communicate with the customer really well, letting you know if your item is on back order, when to expect it, when it is shipped, etc.”

Having been in business for over three decades, the Saleh’s know what it takes to properly package a product, and offer this piece of advice:

“Make sure your product is labeled clearly and correctly. List all the ingredients, include nutritional information if possible, and, if you can, invest in labels that look professional.”

To learn more about Neomonde, visit them online at http://www.neomonde.com/. And if you’re ever in the area, be sure to stop by their market located at 9650 Strickland Rd. in Raleigh NC 27615. 

Great Smelling Fragrances in a Bottle to Freshen Up Your Space While Vacuuming

After spending 10 years as a vacuum distributor and noticing that customers had a difficult time replacing their supplies, Josh Posey and his Dad decided to start their own online business, watervacfragrances.com, in January of 2009.

Since then, they have been selling a large variety of great smelling fragrances for water filtration based vacuum systems, such as Rainbow, Hyla, Pro Aqua & many others.

Their fragrances are unique blends of scents that are added to the vacuum’s filtration water and freshen up your space while vacuuming.

Josh likes to package their fragrances in 1 oz and 2 oz Natural HDPE Plastic Cylinder Round Bottles with Lined Closures from eBottles.com.

When we asked him whether he had a recommendation about labeling products, this is what he had to say:

Don't try to cut corners in this area. Spend the money to have an attractive, durable label. An attractive label can encourage a first time purchase but a label that fades, peels, etc. can discourage repeat business.  (We made this mistake in the beginning)

Josh’s favorite part of doing business with eBottles.com: “The ability to go online and purchase product within a few seconds while having the option to speak to a rep when needed.”

If you would like to try one of Josh’s great smelling fragrances for your water based vacuum system, simply visit their online store at http://www.watervacfragrance.com/.

Great Idea - Cocktails in a Jar!

Fill your cooler with these cocktails in a jar! Great for tailgating at the game or for your next party. No more mixing and measuring cocktails for guests - these drinks are ready for guests to grab so you can enjoy the party too!  

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Here is What You'll Need...

• Round Glass Jars with lids or Wide Mouth Glass Jars with lids from eBottles.com
• Your favorite cocktail recipes
• A bucket or cooler with ice

Below you can find a great recipe for a "Beer Margarita" - sure to be a crowd pleaser!  

Makes (6) 1 cup servings
1 (12oz) can frozen limeade concentrate
12 oz tequila
12 oz water
12 oz beer
limes

Mix all the ingredients together. Add 1 slice of lime into each jar and fill with 1 cup of mixture. Place over ice to chill.

For more recipe ideas click here.