Tomato Jam

Hi, my name is Taylor, and I'm a condiment addict. I'm not in denial, and I don't need an intervention. I just need more shelf space in my refrigerator door.

Come take a look at what's in there: 1 two pound tub of mayo (Duke's only, I've got a little thing for the stuff), 1 bottle of bbq sauce, 2 bottles of ketchup, 2 jars of olives, 2 jars of vegetable spreads, 3 bottles of salad dressings, 4 jars of fruit spreads, 4 bottles of hot sauces, 5 kinds of pickles, 5 various ethnic sauces, 5 jars of mustard, and, count 'em, 7 jars of chutney.

Make that 8 jars of chutney. I just made tomato jam. It's really more of a chutney, or a chunky spiced ketchup, than jam.

Being the condiment whore that I am, I knew I wanted to make tomato jam when I saw it in The New York Times a while back. Bookmarked it and made it in under one month, which is a record for me in terms of getting around to actually making bookmarked recipes (one year to never is the usual turnaround time). As Mark Bittman says in his recipe demo video, if you're at the point of tomato desperation (tomato season is ending very soon!) where you're actually thinking about making ketchup, don't; make tomato jam - spicier, sweeter, and much more flavorful.

Now, I'm not keen on eating it on toast for breakfast like you would a fruit jam, but I imagine that might go over well with some. I like to eat it as a chutney on crackers with cheese, or as a sandwich spread. I haven't tried it yet, but I imagine it would be good as a sauce on baked tofu (or meat), and even as a base for a sweet and sour stir fry. I only say the stir fry bit because I had great success a few weeks ago using a jalapeno jam in stir fry (trust, it was good).

I reworked the original recipe to include lime zest, and subbed Thai Dragon peppers for jalapenos. If i were to do it again, I'd add more heat and less cloves.Tomato Jam
adapted from The New York Times
makes about 1 pint

1 1/2 pounds ripe paste tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 jalapeno or other hot pepper, seeded and minced

• Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
• Turn down heat, and simmer for about 1 hour 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened to the consistency of a jam. (Actually took me 1 hour 45 minutes, but I made a double batch.)
• Cool and store in refridgerator. Will keep for 1 week in refridgerator.
  

Strawberry Bay Leaf Jam

A nagging desire to make jam hit me the other week when I finished off, yet, another jar of store bought jam (a pb&j every other day for lunch will do that).

I haven’t made jam since I was little when my mom would go to the farmer’s market and purchase a large basket of peaches, and make dozens of jars of peach jam to put up in the pantry for the coming year. Mmmmm. I love homemade peach jam, but, for some reason, could care less about store bought peach jam...but that's another story.

Well, it’s not peach season, but it is strawberry season! I got up first thing Saturday morning to hit the Headhouse Market for local strawberries, purchased three quarts, and got to cooking.

Along with the nagging desire to make jam, I also had a notion to pair bay leaf with strawberries. I looked around to see if strawberry and bay leaf jam had been done before, and came up empty handed. Maybe that’s not a good combination?

But I had to try it any way. I split the batch of jam into two – one with bay leaf, and one without – just in case bay leaf and strawberries was not a good combination.

And the results? Quite good! It’s still strawberry jam, but with a spicy, mysterious flavor. If you like intrigue in your food – What is that spice? I just can’t place my finger on it. Oh, yeah, it’s bay leaf! – then you’ll like this combination.

I sort of followed the cooking guidelines of this simple strawberry jam recipe from Martha Stewart, but I had no idea how many pounds of strawberries I had. I took a guess at how many pounds my three quarts of strawberries weighed, and then adjusted the lemon juice and sugar amounts.

We also couldn’t find the candy thermometer. So, how were we to determine when the jam reached 220° and the jam was set? Plate test!

Plate test (or gel test) is a fail-proof way to determine when your jam has set up enough. Place a saucer in the freezer at the beginning of your jam making session, cook your jam for just a little under the amount of time specified in the recipe (this is important because "things" happen quickly towards the end of cooking), place a teaspoon of jam on the frozen saucer, then stick the saucer with jam back in the freezer for 1-2 minutes. Remove the saucer from the freezer after 1-2 minutes, and if you push your finger through the jam, and the skin wrinkles, you’re done! If not, boil longer.

Seriously, this worked!

Strawberry Bay Leaf Jam
makes about 2 pints

3 quarts fresh strawberries, washed, drained, and halved
3 tablespoons lemon juice
4 cups sugar
2-3 fresh bay leaves

• Place two saucers in the freezer (in case you need to test the jam again).
• Cook strawberries and lemon juice in a large stock pot over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until juices from the fruits have release.
• Add sugar and bay leaves to strawberries, turn heat up to a rapid boil, stirring occasionally, and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until jam thickens. Remove foam off the top of cooking berries with a spoon during the cooking process.
  
• To test jam for doneness, place a spoonful of jam on the frozen saucer, return the saucer to the freezer for 1-2 minutes, remove saucer from freezer, then push finger through jam. If jam wrinkles, the jam is done.
  
• Remove bay leaf from jam. Ladle hot jam into sterile jars. Refrigerate and eat within four weeks, or process for canning.