I’ve been on a jam-making kick for the few days.
When I was growing up, my mom would make bread and butter pickles every year or so. They were delicious. So delicious in fact that I wanted to have my own personal stash of them so that I could munch on them to my heart’s content while watching Freakazoid or Pinky and The Brain or any of the ’90s other awesome cartoons. But, while those big, dark green jars tempted me every time I opened the pantry, I had to exhibit self control. The pickles were limited-edition and as I got older, more and more rare.
I’ve been thinking about these pickles a lot lately because, honestly, they could have converted any non-pickle fan. And, while I wasn’t sure I was ready to take on the task of making my mom’s pickles, I did want to try canning something. How about jam? Jam seemed easy. I also liked the idea of working with the pretty jars…have you noticed my logo?
On Sunday morning, I met up with a friend at the Mar Vista farmer’s market and bought 6 pints of strawberries. Later that day, after a video shoot, I took on the task of hulling said 6 pints of strawberries. Wow. That was…exhausting. Then, following the recipe from Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It, we diced the strawberries. My friend juiced 5 lemons and we added their juice and 9 cups of sugar to the diced strawberries. Then I sunk the leftover rinds and pulp into the brilliant red mixture. The fruit then had to macerate for 4 to 8 hours (Until Sunday, I thought macerate meant cut up. But, it has a second meaning: “to become softened by soaking.”).
Cue margaritas and carne asada.
When the requisite time had passed and the half-pint jars, lids, and bands had been thoroughly scrubbed, it was ready to turn the strawberries into jam. By this point they had already darkened, but little did they know they were about to get an even deeper tan. Especially the ones that I was going to end up burning on the bottom of the pot. I put the heavy pot on the stove, hung a candy thermometer on its side and stirred it until it reached 221F. As the recipe indicated, the strawberries created a lot of strawberry “foam” that I had to skim off. At first I tried using a ladle…that didn’t work at all. It gathered too much of the liquid and the strawberries, so I ended up using a large metal spoon instead.
While the strawberries foamed and frothed, I boiled the jars for 10 minutes in the large canning pot and simmered the lids in a small saucepan. Soon enough it was time to fill the jars. Using a funnel and the previously-discarded ladle, we filled the jars with the luscious strawberry jam. I can’t wait to try it this weekend with butter on homemade french bread.
Round 2: Mango Chutney!
More canning took place last night! Following C&H Sugar’s recipe for Golden Mango Chutney, my friend Maux and I created 4 half pints and 2 quarter pints of this Indian-inspired condiment.
Chutney has a special place in my heart. As a kid, I was introduced to it by my parents’ friends who were from Australia but lived in Michigan. The Detroit area is packed with Greek, Thai, and Middle Eastern restaurants, but at that time, Indian was pretty exotic. My parents friends were excellent cooks and one night, they made us a homemade Indian dinner. The intense heat of those dishes was more than I could handle, so I took refuge in the sweet chutney. As I got older, I got into the habit of sneaking it into my ham sandwiches (it was a gourmet treat in our house). If you’ve never had chutney on a ham sandwich, I highly recommend it.
And, while strawberry jam is a lengthy process, making mango chutney is remarkably quick. From start to finish it only took us 3 hours. And, most of this time was spent chopping the mangos, dicing the onions, and enjoying the lovely bottle of Firefly Ridge Maux brought with her. I also had Maux try candied ginger for the first time. This led to much giggling. 🙂
Turns out silliness is great for making chutney! The chutney was bright and smelled so good that we couldn’t stop hovering over the stove. Here are the results!
I sent my dad a small jar today as he might be an even bigger fan of it than I am!
And, for no one familiar with Carol Channing’s singing about jam as the White Queen in the 1985 version of Alice in Wonderland, enjoy.