American Jamstand: a 4th of July jam and other tales of the flood

It feels like it’s been raining for days… oh wait, it HAS been raining for days! And days and days and days. But I’ve kept myself occupied with various and sundry activities such as:

• mysterious goings-on at Dovetail that, while I am not at liberty to discuss, are VERY exciting indeed

• Steve teaching me how to homebrew, specifically this imitation of Bell’s Hopslam that went a little crazy in the pot

• top gal pal and birthday twin Melinda showing me Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market in Decatur for the first time and me going APESHIT over the tubs of spices for 88 cents

It’s been a not-too-sucky week for the most part! I’ll be heading to Edisto tomorrow for a holiday weekend with Kirsten and some of her gal pals. You know it’s gonna be a good time when everyone involved is super into food. I drove down to Lane Orchards this afternoon to stock up on some fresh seasonal peaches to take with me as my contribution. What I did NOT remember was that it was their July 4th Festival today. Poor planning, Melanie. So I parked in the middle of the field and schlepped up to the madhouse that was the store. There were festive locals and rude tourists alike. Lady who opened the box in my cart and removed some of my peaches while I was standing right there – you are on my shit list and I will find you. You do not manhandle another person’s produce after it has been claimed. This is not the Wild West.

I was planning on just getting a couple of quart baskets, but the lovely young lad at the store informed me that a 1/2 bushel box was only $20, and I would be paying just as much for less than half the quantity if I went with the quarts. SOLD.

Debatably good decision.

I carried my half bushel plus some beautiful fresh-picked blackberries back to my car, which I found firmly stuck down in the mud of the field upon my return. After a lot of wheel spinning (sorry, white minivan parked next to me…), I drove back home through what looked suspiciously like an almost-tornado.

Bring me Bill Paxton and a $5 Walmart belt.

I used the sinfully delicious blackberries along with the wonderfully fragrant Thai basil that I found at YDFM (for a DOLLAR) to make yet another round of summer jam.

LOOKADEM BERRIES!

Blackberry Basil Jam

• 2 pints blackberries
• 1/2 cup Thai basil simple syrup (we’ve covered this before…), made with ~1 cup basil leaves
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp powdered pectin
• squirt o’ lime juice
• extra fresh Thai basil leaves for extra basil power!

I mixed the pectin and extra sugar together and sprinkled it over the crushed berries while I was making the simple syrup to macerate them a little. Extra juices are always good. Boil the fruit and simple syrup, and if you want extra basil flavor, throw the whole leaves in near the end. Thai basil is so good. It’s more fragrant than sweet basil and has an almost licorice-y taste to it. Look for the bright purple stems and buds. I adore it and can never seem to find it anywhere. Thanks, YDFM!

Once the jam is good and fragrant, remove the shriveled whole leaves and jar it up! Seeds included because I love them, but you could strain them out if you like.

Happy birthday, America! Go drink a beer. Look out for updates from Edisto if we stop eating long enough to get online.

Also, I’ve joined Bloglovin. Go here if you want to follow along via them!

Jam Three Ways: Sweet, Tart, and OMGBacon

Hi, my name is Melanie and I’m hopelessly addicted to jam, and I have no one to blame but myself. It’s the perfect season for it as well. Berries and fresh fruits of all sorts are aplenty in Georgia right now. Today I made three different sorts of jam: a sweeter jam (strawberry mint), a tart and kicky jam (blueberry ginger key lime), and a savory jam (bourbon bacon). I can’t stop.

Jam line-up. Turn to the side, please.

The two fruit jams follow a similar process to last week’s inaugural jamventure. I found a most coveted bag of key limes at Fresh Market and knew immediately what I wanted to do. Key limes, if you have not had them, are magical. I think I mentioned before that I grew up in Key West, where many many folks had key lime trees in their yards and they were always plentiful. Imagine my shock when I moved away and saw how expensive and hard to come by they were elsewhere! You couldn’t GIVE those things away fast enough in the Keys. The skin is thin and the juice is a cloudy green-yellow, slightly bitter and with a richer flavor than your traditional Persian lime.

When ripe the skin is yellow, but you’ll rarely find them fully ripened in the store.

Blueberry Ginger Key Lime

• 3 cups fresh blueberries (check for stems – you don’t want those in your jam)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp powdered pectin
• 1/4 cup key lime juice (this will take about 15 limes, please don’t use bottled or you’ll hurt my feelings)
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest (because key limes are too thin to zest adequately)
• 2 tsp fresh grated ginger

Look at those bad boys.

Just like last week (except without the spice simmering), throw all your ingredients in a large pot and mash the berries while over medium heat. Stir it at a boil for 15 minutes or until it’s thickened and foaming. It will turn the most beautiful shade of deep purple as the skins cook into the jam. Jar as before, being careful with spillage as blueberries will stain you as soon as look at you.

Smoke on the water and fire in the sky.

Strawberry Mint

• 3 cups strawberries
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp powdered pectin
• 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
• juice of 1 orange and half a lemon

Give your sugar and mint a whirl in the food processor to chop it up thoroughly. Then do just as above: pot, mash, boil, jar. I am dreaming of drizzling this jam on small toasts with creamy goat cheese.

And now, ON TO THE BACON! Bacon was BOGO at Fresh Market today, so it was kind of like fate. I’ve been dreaming of making this ever since I had it at Dovetail, my favorite restaurant in Macon. For this, I once again turned to King Arthur for a base recipe, tweaking the sugar and spice and adding some bourbon because, well, bourbon.

Bourbon Bacon

• 1 1/2 pounds bacon, cut into 1″ chunks and cooked ’til browned
• 1 large Vidalia onion, sliced thinly
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (NOTE: this is not pancake syrup. Not. Pancake. Syrup.)
• 1/4 cup boiled cider (not a common thing in stores down here, but you can make your own by (shocker) boiling down ordinary apple cider until it’s thick and concentrated)
• 3/4 cup strong dark coffee
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Quite simply, throw everything into your slow cooker.

Tell me you can’t smell that.

Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours until everything in your house smells of bacon and love.

Not terribly appetizing, but there it is.

Remove the bay leaves and give the whole mix a quick pulse in the food processor until it’s whatever consistency you desire. Throw it in a large pot, add a shot (or two) of good bourbon, and reduce the whole lot. It will thicken as it cools later, but you want it to be less liquid than it was when it came out of the slow cooker for spreading purposes. Jar and try not to eat the whole business before it even makes it to your fridge.

As a side note, I got back from Charleston this afternoon and had the BEST of times. My girl Kirsten recently moved there and I’d never been, so of course we took the city by storm. We’re good at that. Fortunately not literally, though – thanks, TS Andrea, for blowing right on past us and never raining once! We also managed to keep up our tradition of getting cat-called by a speeding car full of youths. It’s the little things?

I’m sure we’ll both find the time to do a joint post on the whole weekend later, but here are some previews:

-from The Bar at HUSK:

Pig ear lettuce wraps. I know. I know.

-from Charleston’s Cafe:

This is a fried softshell crab sandwiched between pancakes with scrambled eggs and other goodies. It’s real, I promise.

-from our sordid pasts:

We still don’t know the rules.

Strawberry Cardamom Jam

If you’ve been following along, you may be wondering what the heck I did with the rest of the 10lbs of strawberries Eleta and I picked. Well, I’ve always wanted to try my hand at jam. Jam is another one of those things that seems impossibly complicated from the outside but is remarkably simple once you figure out how it’s done. I am a big supporter of jams and preserves of all kinds, but especially ones that are still chunky and fruit-filled. Because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started, I worked off of this recipe from Momofuku chef Christina Tosi. Alas, I am allergic to coriander, so I subbed out for fennel seed and adjusted my spice levels accordingly.

Ingredients (enough for 3 jelly jars full)

• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp powdered pectin (surprisingly difficult to find; I ended up at a natural foods store before I struck gold)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups strawberries, larger ones halved but otherwise whole sans hull (the green bit)
• 3 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp cardamom seeds (not ground)

Combine the sugar, pectin, and salt in a small bowl and hold it off to the side. Heat the vinegar and spices in a saucepan until they start to simmer. Be careful that you don’t get it boiling because it’s such a small amount of liquid. Strain out the spices and return the vinegar to the pot. Add the sugar mix and combine as well as you can. It will be almost totally dry, but don’t you fret.

“Oh god, that doesn’t look right!”

No seriously, don’t fret. With the heat still on medium, add your strawberries. This is where all the delicious liquid will come from. I used a round potato masher to break up the berries and get the texture I wanted. You can also use a large fork, the back of a spoon, or whatever you have on hand.

Phew!

See, look at all that liquid! I told you not to worry. Bring the jam base to a boil and keep stirring until it starts to thicken. You should get a nice strawberry foam on top.

Mmm mmm mmmm!

Remove your jam from the heat and ever so carefully pour or ladle it into individual jelly jars or one large heat-proof container. I can’t stress enough how hot this jam is right now. I splashed the tiniest drop on my thumb while pouring and I’ve still got a burn scar. Let the jam cool off a bit in its container before you lid it up.

Little jelly gems.

Slather this tasty concoction on anything you can find. I opted for some pain au chocolat that my friends Ashley and JW sent me in thanks for officiating their gorgeous wedding. Absolutely the right call, for sure.

Mmm yes.

JAM IT UP, Y’ALL! Now that I know how easy jamming can be, I’m making exciting plans for the other berries that are about to come in season. I’m thinking blackberry ginger… What are your favorite kinds of jam? Are you a seeds/no seeds, chunks/no chunks groupie?