As we wind
down winter canning and look forward to produce for the spring and summer there
are still so many canning projects we can do in between. Barbara, one of my
avid followers on Facebook, finds canning a great way to make amazing food for
her family. I was pleased to see that she came up with a recipe that combined
the simplicity of ground beef with veggies to make a dish that was either a
stand-alone or combined with your favorite pasta as a quick and easy meal.
Thank you Barbara for letting me share this with Canning Homemade
followers.
Barbara's Goulash
Ingredients:
2-3 lbs ground beef
1 large yellow onion – chopped
3 T. Worcestershire
6 cloves minced garlic
1 cup chopped peppers. Serrano, any bell pepper.
For color I used sweet peppers red, yellow and orange.
3 cups tomato sauce or 2-3 qts whole peeled
tomatoes
1 ½ tsp chipotle seasoning
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste
2 tsp. dry
mustard
Preparation: Brown
the ground beef with onions and peppers, then add minced garlic. Season with
salt and pepper to salt. Be sure to drain well.
Cooking: Get a 4
quart pot or Dutch oven. Combine ground beef, veggies, tomatoes and anything
that’s left goes into this pot (dry ingredients). Simmer for 20-30
minutes.
Filling the jars: On a dishtowel place your hot jars. Fill
your jars with the mixture to 1" headspace. Remove air bubbles and refill
to the proper headspace if necessary. Taking a clean papertowel and wipe the
rims of the jars with white vinegar removing any food particles that would interfere with
a good seal. Using your magic wand extract the lids from the hot water and
place them on the now cleaned rims. Add your rings to the tops of each of the
jars and turn to seal just "finger tight".
Processing: Make sure your
canning water has come to a simmer and place the jars in the pressure
canner. Lock the lid and turn up the heat bring the canner to a boil.
Vent steam for 10 minutes, then close the vent by adding the weighted gauge or
pressure regulator (for dial gauge canner). Process
pints for 75 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure (11 lbs for dial gauge canner) and
quarts at 90 minutes. When
complete turn off the heat and let pressure return to zero naturally. Wait two
minutes longer and open vent. Remove canner lid. Wait 10 minutes then remove
jars and place on dishtowel in a place that they will sit overnight to cool. Do
not touch or move them till the next morning.
Sealing: Sometime
in the next hour your jars will be making a "pinging" or
"popping" noise. That is the glass cooling and the reaction of the
lids being sucked into the jar for proper sealing. Some recipes may take
overnight to seal. Check your lids and reprocess any jars that did not seal.
Remove rings for storage.
From Barbara: Add or remove spices to you and your
family’s taste. It can be as spicy as you like it. Add brown sugar if you like
added sweetness. You can serve this with elbow macaroni or the pasta
of your choice.
