Tomato Jam

Sunday and Monday night found me doing something I haven't done in literally years.  I found this recipe on Pinterest months ago, it's been haunting me ever since, and Sunday night, I just couldn't take it anymore; I had to tackle it.  I felt literally giddy, driving to the store and loading up on piles of tomatoes, ginger, chiles and spices - it had been a long, long time since I girded up my loins for a serious kitchen project.  Not only that, but, as much as I love cooking in all of its forms, there are a few, shall we say, genres, that are especially close to my heart.  Bread and pastry is one; preserving is the other, and preserving is what was on the agenda.  Specifically, I was going to make tomato chile jam.  I know, I know; I can hear the groans already.  (Why can't you make something normal, like strawberry or something?)  I can't help it, people!  I see ingredients like garam masala, palm sugar, mustard seeds and ginger, and I just have to know what it tastes like!  Plus, you know how Pinterest is; the picture is so ooily, gooily perfect, your mouth starts watering on the spot!

So, here goes...

Tomato Chile Jam - makes ten 8-ounce jars
(as adapted by yours truly - here's a link to the original, for those who are interested)

9 pounds - plum tomatoes (I used the regular, nasty grocery store ones.  I can only imagine the results if one were to use fresh garden tomatoes...)
1/4 cup - olive oil
2 Tablespoons - ground cumin
2 Tablespoons - garam masala (for the record, I LOVE this stuff.  I even put it in my granola.)
6 Tablespoons - brown sugar
2 Tablespoons - whole cumin seeds
1/4 cup - whole yellow mustard seeds
3/4 cup - red wine vinegar
11 ounces - palm sugar (you can usually find this at Asian markets or sometimes in the Asian section of the grocery store - it's kind of a liquidy brown sugar)
1/2 cup - fish sauce (also found in the Asian section at the grocery store.  And trust me, it reeks when you sniff it.  Don't say I didn't warn you.)
5 ounces - fresh ginger, peeled and grated
14 cloves - garlic, peeled and crushed (I used a garlic press)
10 - red chiles, deseeded and finely chopped (keep in mind, the heat is in the seeds and the white ribs inside the pepper.  The more heat you want, the more seeds and ribs you leave in.  When you take it all out, you're left with flavor, but not much heat.)
Kosher salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Peel and core the tomatoes and then slice them in half lengthwise.  (I added the peeling step just now.  I'm kind of not happy with the whole skin in my jam thing.  How to peel tomatoes?  Cut a little "X" in the ends, dip them in boiling water for a few seconds, and then plunge them in ice water.  The skins will slip right off.)  Spread the tomatoes on foil-covered baking sheets, flesh side up.  You want to keep them in a single layer.  (I filled two baking sheets really really full.)  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with ground cumin, garam masala, brown sugar and cumin seeds, and season to taste with kosher salt.

Roast for about an hour or so; you want the tomatoes to start to caramelize and brown a bit.  (The recipe called for 30-40 minutes, but I found it took more than an hour.)  Meanwhile, toast the mustard seeds in a small skillet over medium heat until they start to pop.  Take them off the heat right away and then grind them to powder in a spice grinder.  (I use a little coffee grinder for this purpose.)

Once your tomatoes come out of the oven, toss them into a big pot, along with all of the other ingredients.  (Chopping and grating all of that stuff will keep you plenty busy, trust me.)  Get everything nice and hot and starting to bubble on medium heat (stirring pretty regularly), and then turn it down to low and simmer for three or four hours, or until it all gets sticky and jammy.  It's a good idea to stir the pot every so often so nothing sticks and it cooks evenly, but frankly, I entertained a series of visitors and made a Starbucks run in there, and everything turned out just fine, so it's a pretty mellow undertaking.  The longer you cook it (shy of burning it, of course), the sweeter and more caramelized it gets, so don't be shy or in a rush.

Once it's all nicely cooked down, spoon the hot jam into hot, sterilized jars, filling the jars to a quarter inch from the top.  (For those uninitiated into the wonders of food preservation, hot and sterilized means you wash the jars, rings and lids in hot, soapy water, and then put them in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a simmer.  This kills bad germs.  I usually put my jars in my boiling water bath and my lids and rings in a little saucepan.  Makes them easier to access when I need them.)  Wipe the top of the jars with a clean rag to remove any residue (residue will mess with your seal), screw a lid and ring on pretty securely, and process in a boiling water bath (water covering the jars by at least an inch) for ten minutes.  After ten minutes, remove the jars from the boiling water and let them cool on a towel on your counter.  This is where the most awesome part happens.  You're cruising along, wiping up your counter and putting stuff away, and, all of a sudden, you hear this POP.  Yeah.  That's the jars doing their magical sealy-thingy.  It's a total thrill - you do all this stuff, follow all the steps all careful-like, crossing your fingers and hoping the whole time that everything does what it's supposed to, and then...VOILA!  It actually works!  I get a big kick out of it, every time.

How does it taste?  Amazing.  It has this huge, bold flavor that kind of fills up the room.  Not a speck of boring in that jar, no sir.  The only thing I might do different next time is dial the fish sauce down a bit.  Maybe a quarter cup?  I definitely like the umami quality it brings, so I wouldn't completely eliminate it, though.

What to do with it?  It would be killer in a cheese sandwich, or with cheese and crackers.  It would make an amazing dip or spread for pita or foccacia or any kind of flatbread, really.  It would make a nice sauce for meat or fish, and I'm thinking of creating a savory pie, with a puff pastry or phyllo crust, maybe a nice ricotta filling, and then this jam as a topping.  Serve it with a salad or as an appetizer.  I ate some tonight with an eggplant I found in my crisper drawer and roasted, and it totally jazzed up some boiled potatoes I mopped it up with.  So, yeah, lots of options.  

Of course, if you happen to live in my neck of the woods and you want to taste without the bother, I do have a few jars here! 

An Unboring Dinner Option

Hey, but I am so excited!  I actually cooked dinner tonight!  As in, cookbook-propped-open-on-the-counter-cooked!  From a new cookbook I just bought!  (Which begs the question, why on EARTH am I still buying cookbooks?  Because if I'm too busy to actually cook, I may as well read about cooking, no?)  Besides, having been reduced to a rather Spartan diet of late (partly the result of the gluttony chronicled on this blog), a hot, delicious, thoughtful meal was positively heavenly.  And gosh, I don't know what it is, but something happens when I start actually cooking (as opposed to, say, just heating or roasting or something equally hurried and mindless).  It's like stress oozes out through my chopping hand, and mellowness and general pleased-with-the-world-ness gets stirred right back in.  Fortunately, I was so tickled with the results that I shot a quick picture before I demolished.  Behold!  

Here's the recipe.  Note, this is enough for two people, but it's easily multiplied.  Although your kiddos might not be so hot on it...

"Turkish" Eggplant with Yogurt and Mint

(Adapted from Food & Wine's Best of the Best, Volume 13)

1 - eggplant

Olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Half of an onion, cut into thin slices

3-4 cloves of garlic, cut into thin slices

1-2 - red chiles, cut into thin slices (depends on how much heat you like.  I like it hot, and I used two, though I coughed the whole time.  You could wimp out and skip these, if you wish.)

Half a lemon 

1/4 - 1/3 cup - feta cheese - crumbled

Generous 1/4 cup - plain Greek yogurt

1/4 cup - fresh mint leaves, torn

Cut the eggplant in half the long way and score the flesh in a diamond pattern, cutting decently deep but careful not to cut through to the skin.  Place them on a baking sheet covered with tinfoil and drizzle them with a generous amount of olive oil (maybe 2-4 tablespoons), turning to coat all sides.  Salt and pepper generously.  Turn flesh-side-up, and roast in a 400-degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until very tender.

Meanwhile, saute onion over medium heat in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil until soft and golden.  Add garlic and chiles and continue to cook for a couple more minutes, or until the garlic and chiles are soft.  Remove from heat and salt and pepper to taste.

Place each eggplant half on a plate and use a fork to mash the flesh in slightly, creating a bit of a cavity.  Squeeze lemon juice to taste over each half, and fill each cavity with the onion mixture.  Sprinkle with feta, dollop with yogurt, and scatter some fresh mint over the top.  Finish it off with a drizzle of olive oil and extra salt and pepper as needed.  

That's all there is to it!  (I know.  Hardly a hard-core demonstration of mad kitchen prowess, but still.  So totally awesome.)  Keep in mind, I winged the measurements somewhat, especially on the garnishes, so feel free to adjust to suit your own tastes.

I'm a bit of a minimalist when it comes to dinner so this was pretty satisfying to me, but if you want a more well-rounded lunch or dinner, a nice green salad and maybe some rice pilaf or good bread would make for a pretty bang-up meal.

Plus, I love the virtuous feeling one gets when one consumes out-of-the-ordinary produce.  You can almost feel your body thanking you.  Hashtag pure win.

Adorable Town Sighting!

First of all, before I say anything else, a heartfelt "thank you" to those of you who have taken the time to read my ramblings and then share your comments with me, whether verbally or digitally.  I have a lot of fun making noise here in my little corner of the world, but you have no idea how much it brightens my day to think that somebody out there might actually be reading and enjoying.  Your comments mean more than you know.

So anyway, last weekend, I jaunted off with one of my adopted families (yes, I am struck by the mind-blowing opulence intimated by saying such a thing; yes, I am an incredibly, incredibly blessed girl to have, not just one wonderful family, but several) to spend the weekend in the Destin, Florida area.  We had one very important item on our agenda, and it was THIS:

And what was the impetus for this important expedition?  THIS GUY!

Who happened to have just reached the ripe old age of TEN YEARS OLD, obviously an occasion worth celebrating!!

And how did we do?

Not too bad, I'd say!  Seems to me that sore upper body muscles and a full cooler are pretty good indications of a successful fishing trip.

Oh, and a word of warning, for those who haven't done it, deep-sea fishing is highly addictive.

In any case, we had some leftover weekend after our fishing excursion, so we decided to head east and explore the little community of Seaside.  I'll come clean, I'm really not much of a beach person, except for in very small doses, and I'm REALLY not a hot-weather person.  (I think this partly comes from being extremely fair-skinned.  It all starts to feel rather...futile.)  That being said, I fell completely and helplessly in love with this little town, located literally steps from the beach, and explored on foot, under a merciless sun, in breathtakingly hot weather.  

Rather than a bunch of gushing commentary, I'll give you the penny tour via photo.  (Okay, there will be a little gushing commentary.  Can't help it.)

Because this is how a lot of people get around, around here.

Love.  Want.

I mean, seriously!!!

Who has a whole section on Architecture?  And cool architecture!  Not pictured, the Southern Fiction section...  

The coolest dressing room I've seen.  Though the proprietor did look at me a little strangely when I asked her if I could take a picture of her dressing room...

I mean, you know a shopping district is pretty fab when a person is reduced to taking pictures of displays because they're so awesome.  

Then, there were the food options.  (Of course.)

Airstream food trucks.  Almost cliche.  But soooo charming, nonetheless.

Almost.  But grilled cheese won out.  Things like this happen on vacation.

Because he's pretty cute.

Yep.  This.

Strawberry Goat Forever.  Alabama goat cheese, strawberry preserves and prosciutto.  Melty and delicious.

So, yes, I would definitely put Seaside on my Top Ten list of worthwhile weekend destinations.  Rent a villa, hit the beach, bike into town for some shopping and eating and maybe a concert in the park?  I'm in!

Oh, and speaking of FINDS, on the way home, we stopped at Lofty Pursuits in Tallahassee.  (Honorable mention to Jennifer, who found this place.)  As any reader of this blog will know, I've been to several really great ice cream shops (Sweet Dreams in Gainesville, Jeni's in Atlanta, Mount Desert Island in Bar Harbor and more than a few others).  This one is the most fun, hands-down, no contest.  The menu is a twelve-page, spiral-bound wonder of creative, delicious-sounding concoctions.  (It's like the Cheesecake Factory of ice cream shops!)  I had a hard time deciding between the Late Night Snack sundae which is described as "Vanilla ice cream drenched in our hot butter caramel sauce, M&M's and crushed potato chips" (I know, right?) and the S'More sundae, which is described as "Chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and ganache, crushed graham crackers, whipped cream and a toasted marshmallow".  The S'More sundae won out for two reasons: one, because I am a sucker for all things S'Mores; two, because the S'More sundae better lent itself to the two flavors of ice cream I wanted: Purple People Eater (raspberry ice cream with chunks of dark chocolate raspberry truffles) and Chocolate Cake (exactly what it sounds like).  The decadence!

It tasted even better than it looks.

Old school.

The decor isn't anything to write home about, especially when compared to, say, the hipness at Jeni's, but the place is obviously a labor of love by someone who really cherishes the simple pleasures of yesteryear.  The menu is full of the kinds of treats that all of the old soda fountains used to dispense; things, like Egg Creams, Phosphates and Rickeys, all pretty tough to find anymore, plus crazy stuff, like the Kitchen Sink (an actual kitchen sink, filled with 26, yes, TWENTY SIX scoops of ice cream, plus every single topping in the place).  In addition to the overwhelming array of ice cream options, the place also offers a variety of old-fashioned hard candies, all made in-house, and all kinds of toys and games.  Plus, it's a bit of an old-timey museum of sorts, displaying the owner's quirky collection of things like yo-yos and yo-yo trophies (!), original Frisbees, a payphone and a poetry vending machine (!!).  Classy?  Not really.  Heartwarming?  Beyond a doubt.

I plan on drumming up as many excuses as I can possibly think of to go to Tallahassee.