SWEET JALAPEÑO MUSTARD + A SHEET OF LABELS TO PRINT

It's time to make some sweet jalapeño mustard using the peppers from the garden (or from the store).  Some of my peppers look a little wrinkled (that is OK) as I have been picking them and putting into the fridge until I had enough to make a batch of this sweet hot mustard. As the garden is winding down I did not have quite enough peppers so I purchased a few at my local market and set about to make some mustard.

This is a simple recipe that will yield a dozen 1/2 pints with some left over for the fridge. You start with 42 peppers - if they are big probably only about 38 or so.

This next step is personal preference, if you like the mustard to be really hot all you need to do is to wash them and cut off the stems.

We prefer the mustard to have a little "bite" but do not want it to be so hot that we cannot enjoy the taste. When working with the peppers I put on latex gloves and a mask and glasses (like safety glasses), split the peppers and remove the seeds.

Next step is to grind the peppers. You will note my  hubby's arm as he volunteered to grind them for me. I have an old fashioned manual grinder but you can use any grinder that you have or if you do not have one they could be processed in a Cuisinart, etc.

This is what you will end up with - continue to wear the mask the gloves and glasses.

Recipe:

42 Jalapeño peppers, seeded and veins removed
2 cups yellow mustard (I use plain old French's)
4 cups white distilled vinegar
*6 cups sugar, 4 white sugar, 2 light brown sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 cup flour (I use Wondra flour)
1 1/2 cups water

*I know this is a lot of sugar but this is a condiment and you do not use a lot of this.  You could make this with the Whey Low sugar.

Grind the peppers in a food grinder (wear gloves, mask and glasses). Place ground peppers in a large pot (I use just the peppers and some but not all the liquid).  Add mustard, vinegar, sugar and salt.  Bring to a rolling boil then add the flour/water mixture (just put the flour into a bowl or measuring device, add the water and mix until they are completely combined), stirring constantly bring back to a boil and boil for five minutes. Turn off heat and place the mustard in sterile pint or half-pint jars. Seal with lids and rings. Process in boiling water bath for 5-10 minutes. Remove to a towel and let them cool and seal.

 I find it much easier to fill the jars using a canning funnel.

You do not have to have a special pot for the water bath, I use the pot that I have for steaming tamales and put a canning rack in the bottom, the pot needs to be deep enough so that the water will cover the jars.

After filling 12 1/2 pint jars I put the leftover mustard in a clean jar and into the fridge we will use this jar right away. The others will get a label and be put in the pantry for a week or so before using or sharing.

I moseyed over to The Graphic's Fairy and found a round label, then added the checked circle, my verbiage and some royalty free pepper clip art.  I created the label in Corel Draw.

 Note: Date has been removed from the print out labels.

 TO PRINT: If you have a draw program just copy and paste the sheet into your program. If you do not have a draw program an easy way to print out a sheet of these labels is to "right click" on the image and "save to your desktop", then "right click" on the file on the desktop and you get the option to "open in Picasa" (if you do not have Picasa it is free and an easy download) once in Picasa select the "print" option, then "full page", if it does not fit the page then select the" fit to page" option and it will print out perfectly.  If you are not using a lami-label then print it out on a full 8 1/2 x 11 full sheet label and then cut around the labels as you need them. I know this sounds complicated but it is really easy and once you have done it you will see it is that. Right click, save to desktop, right click, open in Picasa and print. Here is the link for Picasa: Link
 
Place the printed label sheet inside a lami-label and laminate. Cut out the labels and place on the lids. If you follow this blog you will know I LOVE lami-labels and always have them on hand.  Anything you print out can become a good quality sticky-back label. This step is of course, optional. There are labels provided with the jars, you could also print the labels off on a full sheet label and then cut them out. I prefer the lami-labels as they look very nice, the color looks great and you can wipe them off when necessary. Personal preference.

I decided to add some wax and string to some of the jars (those I might want to give as a gift) absolutely no functionality just makes them look more gift-able I think!

More than one way to add the twine and wax.  I chose the easiest and that is to cut a length of the red twine, determine the mid-point, dab a little hot glue on the back of the jar and once it is dried bring the string around to the front, cross the string, add another dab of glue, let it cool a bit and then apply a wax sticker.  You could also just use some was seals you make on a surface that you could peel off the seal and then glue that to the front.  I found these seals in a get-rid-of bin a long time ago and they were 10 cents and I bought all they had and over the years have used them for many things.

Cooks Note: We love this mustard and find all kinds of things to use it for besides ham sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs.  It is great to brush it on ham as a glaze, to brush on bar-b-que chicken when it is almost done (it has sugar so would burn if you tried to brush on while cooking), etc. Use in any recipe you would use mustard, try it in a potato salad for a zippy salad, set out some with pretzel sticks for dipping - have fun with it, we do.



 Resource

Round Ribbon Label, The Graphic's Fairy, Link 
Wax seal stickers, BasicGrey Clippings Wax Seals for Scrapbooking
Canning rack,Prepworks from Progressive International CKC-400 Reversible Stainless Steel Canning Rack
Red Twine, Red Hemp Twine - 20 LB. Test - 1mm - 430 Feet - 100g - 100% Hemp Fibers
Canning jars, grocery and big box stores
Lami-labels, Fed-Ex copy stores (Kinko's)
Font on label, French Script & Georgia

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