Kitchen Jam

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.
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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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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. Read the rest of this entry »

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March’s CanJam ingredient – alliums – is a serious challenge. Although I’ve got a pretty good recipe for Red Onion Marmalade, I wanted to try something a bit different.

It’s not local (unless it can grow under snow?) but beautiful ruby-colored stalks of rhubarb have been showing up in the produce section for a couple weeks. So I’ve got a cup of rhubarb ‘coins’ (finely diced rhubarb) macerating in two tablespoons of organic brown sugar for the first microbatch of March jam. I’m counting on the rhubarb to bring its high-acid to a party of red onions slowly cooked in blood orange juice and spices. I’m going for a brilliant red onion-rhubarb jam with a hit or orange.

Stay tuned.