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?

Strawberry Tart with Citrus Cognac Custard

June is starting off right. The sky is impossibly blue, the pollen count has finally gone down, and the summer fruits are starting to pour in. Eleta (of Bungalow Kitchen) and I took some time early Thursday morning to perform that great rite of Southern summer passage – strawberry picking.

I wasn’t kidding about that sky.

We made our way to Elliott Farms for a u-pick bonanza of Bibb County’s most glorious berries and each walked away with about 10lbs of fruit (priced at a steal of $2.50/lb). I’ve had a tart pan sitting unused in my kitchen for months now, so I immediately thought of a yummy strawberry tart. Because I trust the dear Contessa on her baked goods far more than, say, a certain blonde convicted federal offender whose recipes never turn out, I leaned heavily on Ina Garten for this tartventure. I wanted more flavor than simply a basic custard, though, and thought strawberries and grapefruit went quite nicely together. We will divide this into shell and filling, because they really are totally separate until the 5 minutes before serving.

Shell Ingredients (for one 8″ tart, but can also be divided to make 4 individual portions)

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp cold butter, cut into about a 1/4″ dice
• 2 tbsp shortening, chilled
• 1/4 cup ice water
• aluminum foil and dry rice or beans for weight

For this grand crusty adventure, I got to use both of my favorite mighty kitchen tools – the KitchenAid stand mixer and the ancient and all-powerful Cuisinart food processor. Both weigh about the same…

Muahaha!!!

First, the food processor. Sift your dry ingredients into a small bowl. Ina says to freeze this for 30 minutes, but I’m not quite sure why since the flour doesn’t really get all that cold… Maybe it’s to remove any excess moisture? *shrug* Fill up the food processor with the flour, diced butter, and shortening. Give it a good whirl until the butter and shortening are evenly distributed in small bits throughout, then sloooooooowly pour the cold water in until the dough looks almost pellet-like. It will be very sticky and should come together in a ball in your hand with little pressure. Do just that, and shape the ball into a disc about 1-2″ thick on a VERY well floured surface (this shit is super sticky). Wrap the disc in plastic wrap or parchment paper and chill it for 30 minutes minimum, but more if you’d like. You can make the cream filling while you wait or do it later while the shell is cooling. Totally up to you. Preheat thy oven to 375*.

Once you’ve chilled your disc of dough, roll it out (again, VERY well floured surface) to about a 1/4″ thickness.

Like so.

Carefully lift the dough and center it over your tart pan. Fit it in without stretching it too much – you want the crust to stay that thick so it holds itself up after baking. The easy way to trim off the edges at this point is simply to roll your rolling pin over the pan and take off the excess cookie cutter-style.

Et voila.

Carefully place a sheet of foil (buttered, buttery side down) into your shell and fill with dry rice, beans, or pie weights if you’re lucky enough to own some. This will keep the shell from rising up in the center and ruining your lovely flat surface or, perish the thought, cracking. The rice and beans will be fine to keep afterwards; just put them in a container and let them cool off.

Silly but necessary.

Bake it up for 10 minutes (I recommend putting it on a baking sheet for easier transfer), then carefully remove the foil (please don’t dump rice into your partially cooked tart shell…) and bake again for 20 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Take it out and let it cool completely. I tented my shell with foil after it was cool and kept it for a day before using it. It was still perfect.

Tender and buttery and perfect.

ONTO THE CUSTARD!!!

Citrus Cognac Custard Ingredients

• 5 egg yolks, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups, plus 1 tbsp kept separate, whole milk
• 1 tsp citrus zest (I used grapefruit because I still have a ton, but lemon might be easier for you)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp Cognac (please don’t cook with anything you wouldn’t drink)
• 1 tbsp butter

Here is where the KitchenAid comes in. Using the paddle attachment, mix the yolks and sugar on medium speed until it gets thick, fluffy, and pale yellow. It should take somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes. Slow it down and evenly sprinkle in the cornstarch.

This is what you’re going for.

In a small saucepan, gently heat the milk (minus the extra tablespoon) and the zest together until it’s hot but not burning or boiling. Strain out the zest and get the milk into a pour-friendly container. Painfully slowly, so as to avoid curdling, pour the milk into the fluffy egg party (speed still on low). It will turn out looking like pre-gelled pudding. Throw this into a pot and get ready to watch it like a hawk. Cook it over medium heat, whisking constantly. Seriously, I mean constantly. This custard will turn from liquid to solid pudding mass in the time it takes you to blink. I thought I ruined it when I stepped away to take a sip of water.

Here there be custard.

At this stage, remove it from the heat and quickly whisk in the vanilla, Cognac, butter, and reserved tablespoon of milk. Once the butter pat has melted in, push the custard through a strainer to get any chunky bits you may have missed with the whisk. It will ruin the consistency later if you don’t. Chill it up, with plastic wrap directly on the top to avoid getting a skin, until you’re ready to serve.

You can really put anything on top of this tart, but obviously I picked this specifically to use with my strawberries. So Slice up about a cup of berries any way you want – halves, thin slices, chunks, whatever! No more than an hour or two before serving, smooth the custard into the tart shell and artfully arrange your berries on top. Remove carefully from the tart pan (it should be very easy if your shell came out correctly) and slice with a very sharp knife. Enjoy with or without whipped cream (I’m looking at you, Ivy Cadle).

So many tart puns, so little time.