Antipasto with Joan - October 2014

Antipasto With Joan

Our good friend, Joan Beck, invited me to her and Art's home in Gibsons to spend the day making antipasto.  I jumped at the opportunity.  I hadn't made antipasto in 6 years.  Jeremy was the biggest fan of my antipasto and my heart just wasn't in it.  But time has passed and Joan, with 3 new recipes to try, was game to try my one and only favorite for all time.  And darn, we were so busy, I forgot to take photo's of the process.  

Joan has the perfect kitchen set up for a day of chopping.  And if you want organized.  She is the gal.  I know, I know, most people think I'm 'Ms Organizer extraordinaire' but I don't hold a candle to Joan's talents.  Besides being a gourmet in the kitchen (she is writing a cook book), she is charming and fun.  We had a delightful day.

And the day, I couldn't believe what we accomplished in 5 hours.  78 jars of 4 varieties of antipasto.  Joan's trick was to pour the hot antipasto in hot jars from the oven,   No processing.  I have always put tuna fish and sometimes shrimp in my antipasto which would not bode well if it were processed.  So for this batch I forego the seafood ingredient, knowing I can add it fresh when serving.

Roasted Vegetable Anitpasto:  Yummm, this recipe had capers in it.  Roasting the vegetables gave it that full smokey flavour.  A bit saucey.

Old Italian:  Straight forward 

Calebres:  Wow, this had horseradish, artichokes, worchestershire sauce and even pizza sauce.  Very nice with bite.

And ofcourse, there was my 'go to' forever Antipasto.  See recipe below. 

Nadine's Antipasto

Ingredients

1 lb. pickling onions

1 lb. cauliflower

1 lb. green peppers

1 lb. red peppers

1 lb. celery

1 lb. green beans

1 qt. dill pickles

4 tins sliced mushrooms

3 tins black olives

3 jars stuffed green olives

80 oz. Ketchup

1 large chili sauce

1 cup Olive Oil

1 cup white vinegar

4 tins solid white tuna

Method

Cut all vegetables into bite size pieces and add all other ingredients but fish.  Stir constantly until full boil is reached and add tuna.  Boil for another 10 minutes and seal in clean, sterilized jars.  Process for 25 minutes (after water starts to boil). 

Having the exact quantities is not important.  If you have more celery than green peppers, if you like more olives, be creative.  The sauce for the quantity is important.  Make sure there is plenty of sauce to cover everything.  Antipasto is a lot of chopping.  I've been known to prepare one day and can the next but then I double and sometimes triple the recipe.  Good luck.