Kitchen Jam

Image via Wikipedia

I wanted to experiment with pickles, and this challenge’s focus on zucchini was going to give me a great opportunity. Zucchini is coming into the farmers markets and grocery stores, and the simple zucchini relish recipe in the 75th Anniversary Ball Blue Book from 2009 seemed like the perfect chance to try pickles.

Then, after I tried the relish – well, my pickling skills need work. I must have done something wrong, but the relish isn’t the crispy hot-sweet relish I was aiming at. It’s kinds mushy – so maybe I cooked it too long? Not sure, but my pickles clearly need some work.

But this recipe for Watermelon Jam, which I first published as part of my 12 Jams of Christmas series, is the freshest tastes of summer in a jar, as any good jam should be. So when I experienced my pickles #fail, I went back to my roots, to a tried and true, simple and to the point jam recipe. I know – from me. I am just full of surprises this month.

This recipe was inspired by an Indian foods blog written by Chandrika and called AkshayaPatra. Chandrika’s recipe makes a very small batch, although it can easily be doubled. The key to this jam recipe is that it’s proportional: for each 2 lbs. of fruit pulp, you’ll need 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice. Because it’s summer and basil is also just coming in bunches to stores and farmers markets, I used a tablespoon of minced fresh basil leaves in this version.

I used what Wegmans calls a ‘personal watermelon’ — a perfect dark green sphere less than 8″ diameter, seedless and organic. The jam is thick, brilliant red. Two pounds of watermelon will make up into about 1 cup (the watermelon will cook down quite a bit as it cooks to the jellying point.)

Watermelon Jam

2lbs watermelon pulp (remove pulp from rind and seed the chunks)

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon finely minced fresh basil

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 teaspoon lime zest (zest from about half a lime)

• Remove the watermelon pulp from the rind and cut it into chunks. Seed the melon if seeds are present.
• Mix the salt and sugar together, and stir into the melon pulp.
• Stir the lime juice, zest and minced basil together, and then combine them with the melon mixture. Simmer about 15 minutes until the sugar has dissolved in the juice. To help break down the melon pulp, mash it in the saucepan with an immersion blender.
• Continue to to simmer the melon-sugar mixture until it thickens and easily coats the back of a metal spoon. You can also test the jam for consistency using a spoonful of jam placed onto a very cold (frozen) plate.
• Ladle the hot jam into sterilized jam jars and process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath canner according to USDA directions for canning. Alternately, allow the jam to cool in the containers and store in refrigerator for up to two weeks, or freezer for up to a year.

Makes about 1 cup or two half-cup containers of jam.

As for that zucchini pickle relish recipe – here it is. I’m sure there will be enough zucchini around this summer for me to try my hand at it again and make it work. But right now, I’ve got three pounds of sugarplums to turn into jam.

Zucchini-Poblano Pickle Relish

(this recipe was adapted from the larger quantity recipe that appears on the Ball canning and preserving site, and from the recipe that appears in the 2009 Ball Blue Book.)

3 cups finely chopped zucchini (about 3 medium)
 1 cup finely chopped onions (1 medium)
 1 small red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
 2 poblano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
 1 tablespoon Ball® Preserving & Pickling Salt
 2/3 cup sugar
 2/3 cup white vinegar
 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
 1 Tbsp prepared horseradish
 5 (4 oz) half-cup glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:

• COMBINE zucchini, onions, red and green peppers and salt in a large glass or stainless steel bowl. Cover and let stand in a cool place (70 to 75°F) for 12 hours or overnight.
• TRANSFER to a colander placed over a sink and drain. Rinse with cool water and drain thoroughly. Using your hands, squeeze out excess liquid.
• COMBINE zucchini mixture, sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, turmeric, horseradish and chili pepper in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until liquid is reduced and mixture is the consistency of a think commercial relish, about 45 minutes.
• PREPARE boiling water canner in the meantime. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
• LADLE hot relish into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot relish. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
• PROCESS in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude*. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups of relish, enough for five 4-oz jars (5 half-cups)

Local strawberries from Reeves and Gaerelick farms near Syracuse

Last summer, I was in a chipotle phase, adding a touch of pureed chipotle peppers in adobo to several jams. This summer, my low sugar jam experiments are going to include Pomona’s Universal Citrus Pectin.

I didn’t forget the chipotle – in fact, after tasting rhubarb mango and rhubarb strawberry (which became more of a sauce than a jam…note to self: do not use frozen rhubarb for jam!), I decided that the beautiful local strawberries that made their appearance a couple weeks ahead of schedule deserved at least one taste of chipotle.

I’ll be back to update the recipe in the morning after jars have cooled and sealed, but this was my attempt with June’s Iron Canner CanJam ingredient, berries.

Strawberry Chipotle Jam

4 cups mashed strawberries

3/4 cup organic dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons pureed chipotle pepper in adobo sauce

2 teaspoons Pomona Universal Pectin Powder

2 teaspoons calcium water

• Hull the berries and macerate them overnight in 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar. In the morning, mash the berries and mix in your jam kettle with the calcium water.
• In a separate bowl, mix the brown sugar and Pomona pectin and set aside.
• Heat the berries, juice and calcium water. When the fruit mixture comes to a boil, mix in the sugar/pectin and stir thoroughly while cooking to dissolve the sugar crystals.
• Stir in the chipotle puree and bring the mixture back to the boil. When the mixture boils, test a drop of the juice on a cold spoon to make sure it jells.
• Remove the boiling fruit from the heat and fill prepared sterile jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the jar rims, place the caps and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes at sea level.

Makes about 4 cups of jam (8 four-ounce jars, or 4 eight-ounce jars)

Image via Wikipedia

I went simple, and old school, this month for Tigress’s CanJam, where the secret ingredients were rhubarb and asparagus. The local asparagus isn’t ready yet, but the rhubarb is – and although mangoes aren’t local to central NY, they are in season, cheap and fragrant. So here goes:

Read the rest of this entry »

Image via Wikipedia

My mango jam recipe is very simple – mango, water, a bit of sugar, a splash of vanilla.

For this month’s secret ingredient – herbs – I changed things up a bit in my basic recipe. I’m not completely happy with the balance in my current proportions, but if mangoes stay this inexpensive (right now, they’re four mangoes for $5), I’ll be doing more experiments making this recipe again to get it right. Read the rest of this entry »

Image via Wikipedia

I missed the deadline for posting a recipe for Tigress’s April Can Jam.

The secret ingredient – herbs – really got me thinking. We’re in a tempting phase right now…chives and lemon balm are up, but the rest of the garden herbs aren’t even showing themselves yet. I was going to have to reach deep into my freezer (I have a huge batch of frozen thyme) or into my dried herbs (pretty much all I have left from last year’s harvest is sage.)

And the fruit that was tempting me this month was decidedly NOT local – ripe mangoes have been sending hints of tropical times, soft scents of warm places that just cried out to me from their display in the fresh produce section at Wegmans. And I mean – seriously – organic mangoes were 4 for $5. Bananas, oranges and cabbage are the only produce cheaper at this time of year.

So I bought a bunch of fresh (imported from some Canadian greenhouse) organic dill, which is perfuming my kitchen counter as I speak. And I caved and bought two perfectly ripe fragrant mangoes. And a lime. Because I knew what I wanted to do – dilled mango jam. Or salsa, maybe, or a mustard or a chutney. But I knew those tastes – mango, lime and dill - would work together.

And then work happened. And each night since Tuesday my mangoes have gotten more ripe, my dill more fragrant - while I came home, ex’d dogs and crashed.

So, I’m sorry Tigress, but I missed the deadline for the herbs CanJam.

But I will post the recipe here, and I promise it will be brilliant. I’ll probably make it this afternoon – if I don’t crash again and take a nap in the sunny warm afternoon living room.

Now…back to burning my candles at both ends.