Kitchen Jam

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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:

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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 »

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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.

Making jam when fruit is fresh is a wonderful way to save the season, but it can be hot work. Peaches usually show up in central New York markets when the days are around 85 degrees and 100% humidity! Some years, I will freeze fruit slices or berries when they’re fresh, and make jam later in the fall after temperature and humidity have dropped and cut me some slack.

I didn’t freeze any fruit of my own this year, but the growers who supply frozen fruit to my local supermarkets did. Right now I can buy these fruits frozen without sugar: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, mango (!), and cherries — along with several variations of berry mixes. That means that a simple, no-canning-required freezer jam is only 15 mintues and my supermarket freezer case away, all year long.

Peaches are one of my favorite frozen-fruit jams, but this recipe will also work with an equal amount of thawed strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries or mango puree. I haven’t tried it (yet) with cherries…that experiement is on my to-do list! The recipe started with frozen berries, and my peach and mango improvs are based directly on those instructions included in the inserts packed into years of Sure-Jell and Ball powdered pectin – check out the section with instructions for jams from frozen fruits, and let your imagination take over!

Since this is a freezer-refrigerator jam, make sure that you label the containers with a use-by date, and tell gift-ees to keep the jam either refrigerated, or frozen. Enjoy!

PEACH FREEZER JAM from frozen fruit *
3 c. frozen sliced peaches (or raspberries, strawberries, blueberries or blackberries)
1 1/2 c. 100% orange juice, unsweetened *
1/4 c. lemon juice
5 1/2 c. sugar
1 pkg. powdered pectin

DIRECTIONS

• Thaw the peaches (or other fruit.)
• Blend or process the thawed fruit until pureed; you should have at least 2 cups of fruit puree.
• Pour the fruit puree into large, heat-proof bowl (I use my Pyrex(R) 8-cup measuring bowl.)
• Mix 3/4 cup of the orange (or other fruit) juice with the lemon juice, and stir into the fruit puree.
• Stir sugar into the fruit puree, mixing thoroughly (make sure no lumps remain.)
• Let the fruit puree stand for at least 10 minutes.
• While the puree-sugar mixture rests, combine in a 2qt or larger saucepan the remaining 3/4 cup of orange (or other fruit) juice and the powdered pectin.
• Bring the pectin-juice mixture to a boil, and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.
• Stir the immediately into fruit mixture, and keep stirring for 3 minutes to be sure the pectin is well-distributed.
• Ladle the jam into sterilized freezer canning jars or containers, leaving 1/2 inch head space.
• Cover jars or containers with lids.
• Let the jams stand at room temperature 24 hours; check the gel.

Store the cooled jam in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks, or in your freezer for up to 1 year. Makes approximately 5 one-cup containers of jam.

* You can also use 1 ½ cups of 100% or blended, no-sugar added: pineapple, pineapple-orange or peach juice (mix and match the juices used with the fruit!)
This recipe also works with 3 cups of frozen unsweetened whole raspberries, strawberries, blueberries or blackberries, enough to make about 2 cups of pureed fruit before adding fruit juice.