curry cravings

pear frangelico not-burning jam

I went to the grocery store tonight and they had a special on local pears. Oh, they looked scrumptious! I decided to make a batch of Charlie's favorite pear frangelico jam. Turns out my 15 pounds was enough to make two batches of jam and a yet-unfinished experimental batch of pear butter. That experiment is currently burbling in the crock pot and will do so for the next 12 hours or so. The jam was scary, since I'm coming off my unprecedented bad streak of TWO jams ruined in a row. Two luscious awesome jams burned and I haven't been able to figure out why.

cooling down

The first was my best-ever strawberry jam. I was so excited that I didn't even write about it. While at the duvall farmer's market with Kristie, I got several pints of possibly the most perfect perfumed hot summer strawberries ever. I labored over them in a painstaking three day maceration process, with gentle boilings, and sugar, and then lime zest, and more gentle boilings, and pectin development in the refrigerator. I even had a SPECIAL set of german jelly jars set aside for the occasion. They close with rubber rings and clips and are beautiful. The end result? Twelve jars of burnt jam in perfect german jars that I am having a hard time finding replacement rubber gaskets for. Those rubber rings? Only useable once, thank you.

would you just look at those perfect berries?

Then came the blackberry bay leaf. I wrote about it the other day but had not followed through with the crucial key step of *tasting* it first. I lovingly spooned some into my breakfast yogurt and when I ate it it was unmistakeably burned. Disgusting black caramel burnt sugar taste. And for each jam, I don't know why! I cooked to below the 221 degree jam set temperature, because each jam just wouldn't get above 218. Was it the natural sugar content? Was I lacking in super jam fairy dust? I will never know, but I do know that I ruined two awesome batches of jam with my bad luck.

The pear jam hopefully will redeem me.

aesthetically pleasing german jars, a thorn in my side

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So I know that if you crave red meat that means you need iron. And peaches can mean a deficiency of beta carotene. Chocolate = b vitamins. Grapes = you may be dehydrated. But curry? Ever since I tried some chicken curry sausages from Larry's Market (a local grocery store) I have been thinking about them. Tonight I managed to buy more and ate them for dinner like they were ambrosia. Oh, so tasty! I am already thinking of how this weekend I can talk Charlie into making me a red curry. He makes such good ones....

Jammin'

It is strawberry season in the pacific northwest. After eating strawberries in cereal, in oatmeal, strawberry shortcake, in salads, and with messy red hands standing over the kitchen sink, it is time to think about storing some of them. Enter: jam. Strawberry jam is one of my all time favorites. Over the years I've settled on a rather modified version of "Gariguette Strawberry" from Christine Ferber's lovely book Mes Confitures. The secret ingredient: limes.

I saw from my notes that last year I made my batches on June 26th with berries from the Bellevue strawberry festival. The festival is this coming weekend, and I may end up making even more jam on Monday! I remember buying so much fruit last year that I could barely carry it all. I lucked upon two flats of great local berries at the grocery store yesterday and a friend of mine wanted a lesson in how to make jam, so today was the day.

Today Kristie and I made two batches. One regular strawberry-lime, and the other with a healthy dose of Grand Marnier. Typically I do an overnight maceration of the fruit and sugar, but decided skip that step and just warm up the sugar today instead. The recipe:

2.5 lbs of strawberries, cut in half and greens removed
4 c sugar, warmed in oven for a few minutes (should be warm, not hot)
zest and juice of 4 limes
4T pectin

Combine berries and sugar in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add lime zest, juice, and pectin and bring to another boil. Keep boiling at a good clip until it reaches 221 degrees. Today ours stalled out at about 213 and wouldn't go any higher. That's fine...it just may take a day or so to firm up in the jars.
Turn the burner off, scoop any foam from the top. Ladle into sterilized jam jars, cap, and process in a boiling water bath for 8 minutes. Pull them out of the pot and set on something heat-proof. Cock one ear and listen for the little "pop!" from each jar that tells you that the seal has taken and your jam is safe to store.


Optional additional step: bake loaves of fresh bread right before making jam.
Final step: eat jam on toast.


Super final step: snicker while pondering all of the punny titles that could be used for blog post. Settle on "jammin" and laugh out loud.

Tonight: Can't eat too much toast because I have a pot of homemade coconut lime chicken soup. What kind of husband hears that you have a cold and comes home after a soccer game at 11pm with a bag of groceries, then cooks you soup to eat the next day? The perfect kind, of course. I watched him chop and saute and fell asleep with my head on the kitchen counter around midnight.

Happy summer solstice!

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Eggs laid in the coop today: 1 (ursula)
Eggs found in the woods today: 0 (but I know one is out there somewhere)