Kitchen Jam

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Do you ever think about tastes in your head, combine foods in your imagination, just know that different foods will mix perfectly into a wonderful unique taste?

That’s what happened to me when I was researching recipes for this month’s CanJam, part of the Tigress’s year-round canning challenge. March’s Iron Jam ingredient is alliums – and while even the ramps and green onions and chives aren’t quite in season here in central New York, the onions and garlic from last fall have wintered over nicely. This morning’s farmer’s market was filled with tables full of onions and garlic mixed in among the root vegetables.

I have a pretty good recipe for red onion marmalade – but I was also in the mood to experiment. Since I knew my recipe worked with pectin, I wanted to try a no-added pectin version. And since onions are low-acid vegetables, I wanted to bump up the acid by bringing some high-acid fruit to the party. I was thinking of dipping into my last bag of cranberries.

And then I saw some brilliant red rhubarb in the produce department, right next to the latest shipment of blood oranges from Florida, and I looked at the two red onions in my basket – and even though it wasn’t strictly local, I knew exACTly what I’d be making for March.

The combination of rhubarb (a lot of extra acid), blood-red blood orange juice (acid and sweet), a touch of ground cinnamon and ground ginger, a hit of white balsamic vinegar (more acid), a small amount of organic dark brown sugar, and the March stars – red onions – came out tart-sweet with a strong hit of orange. The rhubarb breaks down in the jamming process, but the red onions are chunky enough to hold their shape, take on some of the rhubarb and blood orange color, and suspend themselves in the jam. So, maybe a purist would call it a preserve, but I’ll stick to calling it a jam. My microbatch is sealing now; I’ll upload a picture as soon as it cools and I’m sure the texture is right. So far, I can’t decide whether to spread my taste combo on a grilled cheese sandwich or just eat it straight out of the jar! It’s a keeper – I hope you enjoy it, too!

Red Onion & Rhubarb Jam

1 packed cup of red rhubarb, thinly slices (about 1/4 lb.)

2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons orange zest

1/2 cup blood orange juice (I used two medium blood oranges – only zested one)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 c. white balsamic vinegar

1/2 c. water

2 cups coarsely chopped red onion

3/4 c. dark brown sugar

5 4-oz jam jars and lids (or enough containers to can or freeze 2 1/2 cups of jam)

• Dice the rhubarb stalks into thin slices (like rhubarb coins.) Mix the slices with two tablespoons of brown sugar, cover and let macerate for 24 hours.
• Zest one of the blood oranges, and then juice both of them to make at least 1/2 cup of juice.
• In a 4 qt. saucepan, combine the rhubarb and its juices, blood orange zest, blood orange juice, the ground cinnamon and ground ginger, the white balsamic vinegar and water, and begin heating.
• While the juices and rhubarb are heating up, coarsely chop a large red onion to equal about two cups of half-inch onion pieces. Stir the onion into the rhubarb-juice mixture, and bring to a boil.
• When the onions come to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes or until onions are softened. Stir in 3/4 cup of brown sugar (you may increase sugar to 1 cup if you want a sweeter jam.) Stir until the sugar dissolves.
• After the sugar dissolves, bring the mixture to a boil and boil hard, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until a drizzle of jam juice on a frozen plate gels.
• Ladle the jam into hot sterilized jars leaving about 1/4 inch headspace. Cap the jars, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes for 4 or 8 oz. jars.

If you prefer not to process this jam, it freezes well. Ladle the hot jam into sterilized freezer-safe (straight-sided) jars or containers. Allow to cool on the counter until room temperature. Tighten caps or container lids, label and freeze. Use freezer jam within a year.

Makes 2 1/2 cups of jam.