Kitchen Jam

It’s happened again. Every summer — hot, cold, rainy, dry — those green thumb masters begin showing up at work and at my door with arms full of the garden equivalent of a computer virus: zucchini

Zucchini is relentless. You think you’re on top of your crop and then o.m.g., you discover anarchy in the left corner of the patch. You realize that you have stumbled on the vegetable equivalent of a Louisville Slugger, the baseball bat of the garden, zucchini gone wild.

There are several solutions — shred it and freeze it for winter muffins, make soup, cut it into chunks and make bread and butter pickles. When my neighbor gifted me with six zucchini, all over 10 inches long, I thought about all of those options. But then this recipe showed up in one of my search feeds, and it was such a crazy idea that I couldn’t resist.

The boiled zest and juice are cooling in the refrigerator for lime marmalade and lime curd and that will take a day. Meanwhile, here’s a slightly crazy-sounding solution for over-achieving zucchini that comes together very quickly. The gelatin in the recipe helps it set up quickly, and gives the beautiful jars of jam a jewel-like glow. I did find one recipe that suggested this jam could be processed in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, but most treat it as a freezer jam. Since I was using peach jam and wanted more savory fruit-chipotle spread, I added a teaspoon of pureed chiptole to the recipe, with great results.

Hang onto your hats, jammers; this freezer jam doesn’t follow any of the rules!

Zucchini (Peach*) Jam (with Chipotle)

(adapted from a recipe at The Family Homestead)
3 cups peeled, shredded zucchini
3 cups sugar
1 (12 oz. ) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, pureed (optional)
1 (3 oz) box peach* gelatin

• Peel zucchini, remove any seeds and shred. Add the shredded zucchini to a large stockpot.
• Cook on low heat until zucchini comes to a boil; stirring often (about 20 minutes.)
• Once zucchini comes to a boil, continue boiling and stirring over low heat for about 10 minutes.
• Add the lemon juice, sugar, pineapple and juice, and chipotle if using the hot pepper. Cook over medium heat; stirring constantly for 10 minutes more.
• Remove pan from heat. Add the box of gelatin; stir for 1 minute.
• Ladle jam into sterilized containers. If freezing, leave 1/2 inch headspace.
• If processing, use jars and rings suitable for boiling-water baths. Boil half pint jars for 5 minutes and pint jars for 10 minutes.
• Yield: Makes 5 cups (five 8-0z. jars) of jam.

* other gelatin flavors also work: apricot, any berry, cherry, lemon, orange or lime. Use regular flavored gelatin, NOT sugar-free or artificially sweetened. The sugar in the jam helps with the gelling.

Ah, Wegmans. It is THE grocery superstore chain here in Central New York, and elsewhere in the northeast. When the first superstore opened with a full casual restaurant inside serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, a cofee bar bakery and wood pizza oven, I looked in awe and thought, I’ll never need to cook again.

In these parts, Wegmans buys in-season produce from local farmers, and in most of the superstores the produce section is front and center right at the entrance. The emphasis on fresh-is-best makes it easy to treat the big super-grocery as if it was a corner market. It’s even easier to get into the habit of stopping in every other day for just enough of what’s new and fresh. Last night, when I dropped in on my way home, the scent that greeted me at the front door was a full display of ripening Persian limes — perfect green orbs. I tossed a 5lb. bag directly into my cart.

Today, I’ve spent some time finding the perfect recipe — but I’m still not sure.

What would you make? And if you have any other ideas for these beautiful citrus stars, please share!

Lime Jam With Ginger and Vanilla

(Inspired by Recipe-zaar #243473 by Thorsten; ingredients converted to items commonly found in the US )

50 min | 30 min prep: Makes approx four 8-oz (1 cup) glasses

• Press out as many limes as needed to get 1 1/2 cups lime juice and pulp. Don’t discard the pulp; it improves the consistency.
• Grate as many limes as needed to get 1.5 teaspoons of finely grated lime zest.
• Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds to the grated lime zest and set aside.
• Put juice, pulp and white wine into a non-reactive saucepan.
• Add pectin, the vanilla bean halves and freshly grated ginger to the pot.
• Stir constantly while bringing the mixture to a boil over medium high heat. Boil for another 5 minutes, stirring all the time.
• Remove from heat and remove the vanilla beans. Stir in the vanilla seeds and grated lime zest and mix thoroughly.
• Ladle the jam into hot jars, leaving 1/2-in. headspace. Cover with bands and rings and process in boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes or according to the directions for water-bath canning of jams from the USDA.

———- or should I make this one? ————–

Cucumber Lime Jam

From a recipe at ‘The Old Farmer’s Almanac‘ website: www.almanac.com
Yield: Makes about 3 pints (6 cups).

2 limes, unpeeled, cut in chunks and seeded
1/2 cup lime juice
1/4 cup cider vinegar2
2 1/2 to 3 cups peeled, seeded cucumber
pinch of salt
1 package powdered pectin
4 cups sugar

• Combine limes and juice with vinegar in the container of a blender. Blend until lime is cut into smaller pieces.
• Add cucumber and blend until the level in the blender measures 4 cups.
• Combine cucumber mixture in a large pot with salt and pectin.
• Bring to a boil and add the sugar all at once. Return to a boil and boil hard for 2 minutes.
• Seal in sterilized jars and process 10 minutes in boiling water.

———- or maybe this one? ———-

Honey Lime Curd

from http://www.joythebaker.com/blog (which I think I could either process or freeze, if I’m very careful.)

———- or maybe simple and 0ld-school? ———–

Lime Marmalade

from this post at http://homecooking.about.com

Help me out — what would you make with this fragrant, flavor-burst citrus?
[polldaddy poll=1957306]

On Tuesday, I updated my New York State Fair winners post with the names of the first-place winners in the Canning and Jam & Jelly Culinary competitions.

Today I have Kathy Wood’s 1st Grand Prize winning recipe for Red Pepper Relish, which won the Fair’s overall Labor Day cook-off to earn best dish overall for 2009. Congratulations, Kathy! Here’s a link to the video from the winners announcement on Canning Day, which was broadcast on Syracuse9WSYR: video

9WSYR also published Kathy’s winning recipe on their site:

Kathy Wood’s 2009 New York State Fair Grand Prize Winner:

Red Pepper Relish

6-8 large red bell peppers; cut in ¼ inch dice
8-10 tomatoes, seeded & diced
2-3 large onions, chopped
6-8 cloves garlic, finely minced
2-3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely minced
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 cups sugar
1 ¾ cups cider vinegar
½ cup ketchup
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon dried oregano, lightly crushed
1-2 bay leaves

Directions:

1. Mix red pepper, tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapenos and salt in large bowl. Allow to stand for three hours. Drain thoroughly, but do not rinse.
2. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Let boil for 10 minutes.
3. Reduce heat to medium, stir in pepper mixture, and cook until peppers are translucent but still crunchy, about 30-45 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and cool until warm. Remove bay leaf.
5. Return relish to a low boil.
6. Ladle hot into clean, hot, one-pint jar leaving 1/2” headspace.
7. Release air bubbles, clean rim and threads, seal with a new scalded lid, and a threaded ring.
8. Process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.
9. Yield: approximately 4 pints.