Peach & Blueberry Ginger Jam - Video Interview

One of my earliest memories of growing up next to my Grandparent's farm in North Carolina is how the kitchen felt when G-Ma was canning. The air was moist, the windows were fogged over, you had to talk over the rattling of jars in the giant boiling water pots, there was sugar on the floor that had spilled from the scoops, and there were women laughing - lots of laughing.

Peach & Blueberry Ginger Jam

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

IRONICALLY: This month's Tigress Can/Jam challenge was Stone Fruit as chosen by Hip Girl's Guide. So, rather than have double posts - I doubled up on a post.

The choices of stone-fruits are numerous at this time of the season in California. I'm also keen on using combinations and my little blueberry plant is giving me her last jewels, so I paired those with golden freestone peaches.

Our host for Daring Cooks, John, gave us the option of using one of our own recipes if canning and preserving were already in our wheel-house. It's not only familiar to me - it's like home. So, for this post, I'll add a little video that I had the honor of being in for an interview about Boutique foods in Southern California. I'll add the recipe that I used that day for Peach & Blueberry Ginger Jam. I have many jams on my site also, and I hope you'll take a look if anything appeals to you.



RECIPE: PEACH & BLUEBERRY GINGER JAM

2lbs Peaches (peeled and sliced)
1lb Blueberries
32oz. organic sugar
2Tbls. minced fresh ginger
2 lemons (juice and zest)
2 cinnamon sticks (*optional and to be removed before putting jam in jars)

1) In a large pot add: peaches, blueberries, sugar, lemon juice and zest (and cinnamon sticks). Stir to combine.
2) Macerate (let sit, covered for flavors to mix) in refrigerator overnight or at least 8 hours
3) When ready to continue, add ginger to pot and heat on Med., stirring to dissolve sugar for about 10 minutes.
4) Remove the cinnamon sticks, and increase heat. Stir now and then.
5) Heat til liquid from jam runs off a wooden spoon slowly, rather than a single stream. This may take about 25 minutes depending on amount cooking. (You can also check by putting a small ceramic plate in the freezer before starting your jam, then check the jam set by spooning a bit of the jam on the cold plate. If the jam doesn't run, and has a bit of a rise to it - the jam is ready. You can also check by temperature - jam sets around 219-223F. )

If you are canning the jam, follow the safety rules for home canning in a hot water bath (easy and conveniently found here.)

If you are making this for consumption within a few weeks, you can pour jam into clean containers, let cool, cover and keep in refrigerator.

Anybody can jam, so get your jam on!

Blackberry, Blueberry, Port Wine Jam - Sing it!

The path to my grandmother's house was through the woods. And, no matter how many times I was told as a kid to go straight through without stopping - I got distracted. A 2 minute walk turned into a 20 minute journey. Can you blame me? The path was lined with walls of wild blackberries.

BLACKBERRY, BLUEBERRY, PORT WINE JAM

This month's TigressCanJam ingredient was any product considered an "-erry". That meant strawberries, loganberries, blueberries, cranberries...get it? "-erries". Fun, right? It was almost TOO open for my easily distracted and multi-loving personality. I let the Farmer's Market decide for me, and when the "childhood memory" met with a great price, these black beauties won. But then, I got home to find my little Blueberry bush had turned into a it's own dark jeweled beauty and I couldn't resist having some blueberries join the jamming.
The Port seemed a natural mix and a way to sophisticate the flavors; I was hoping to actually create a jam for breakfast bread, but also a nice marinade or sauce addition to main entrees. I tried it on a nice lean Pork Tenderloin roast with mushrooms. It was the perfect addition to bring a little tang to the umami that was already there.
The recipe is a little from childhood memory (after a while, even Grandma recognized a good berry picker when she saw one), and a little experimentation. It's very simple and I've had great response to this jam as a biscuit topper and as an enhancer. Jam on!

RECIPE: Blackberry, Blueberry, Port Wine Jam
24 oz. Fresh Blackberries (crushed)
8 oz. Fresh Blueberries
1lb 6 oz. organic sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup Port (Warriors is a good balance)

Add the crushed black berries, the blueberries and the sugar to a large, deep pot. Heat on low, stirring often, until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the lemon juice and bring the heat up to Med/High, stirring to blend.
Cook until the berry mixture reaches 220F. Carefully add the Port, stir and reheat to 222F (or check the jam set on a pre-chilled plate in the freezer. If a dollop of jam doesn't run on the pre-chilled plate, the set is good.)

Remove from the heat and let rest for 3-5 minutes so the berries can mix with the syrup. If any obvious hard blackberry cores rise to the top, remove them for a smoother jam.

Pour hot jam into sterilized jars, seal properly and finish with a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
If you don't want to can this jam, just follow the recipe and pour into refrigerator containers, let cool and keep air tight in refrigerator (for 2 weeks).

Blueberry Macarons w/Lemon Curd + Part Two- Tartlette Comes To Town (The Photo Daze)

When I first walked in to the Tartlette Macaron/Photography Workshop, I was almost dizzy with excitement and with dread. I was excited to finally meet Helene Dujardin, someone whom I had been inspired by long before I joined the ranks of "food bloggers". Besides her "never-fail" recipes, there were always those photos...ahh, those photos. I've taught art classes for several years (one of my 100 careers) and I've talked about photography being the art form that paints with light, and Tartelette is one of those artists.
So, the dread part was about the Photography portion of the day. I was confident enough about my baking skills that even if I failed with the macarons, I knew I'd pick it up with practice. However, my photography skills fall into that area of "desire for excellence being far far greater than ability". I can see it in my head, but more often than not - can't technically capture the feeling - the artistry...of painting...with light. My lack of skills were exposed immediately. I politely asked Helene if it was fine to take photos during the class. She very earnestly nodded, "of course, yes - all you want." I pulled out my "new to me" Canon camera and in what I thought was a completely anonymous moment, clicked a quick photo of Helene speaking directly to another student. As I just as quickly brought my lens down, hoping to not be noticed, Helene calmly and sweetly said, "that picture will be very blurry, I could hear your shutter speed is too slow". My hair stood on end...please don't ask to see what I know full well is a perfectly blurry example of my photography ignorance. Helen held her hand out, "let's take a look". YIKES! Busted! With great embarrassment I fiddled with the gadgets I'd been trying to learn and finally brought up my latest shot; a beautiful piece of moving swirls in muted colors without even a tiny hint of clarity. I thought to myself, "she HEARD my shutter speed and KNEW I didn't have a great shot?!?" It's going to be a long day.

I'll spare you the rest of my moment-by-moment thoughts and cut to the highlights of what turned out to be an awesome, fun-filled, confidence building class.
Helene had me reset my camera's aperture to 5.6, leaving my shutter speed to automatic. Once I did that, I could get a fairly decent shot without using flash (which was the exercise I wanted to practice.)
It was a common sense move for anyone who knew photography, and one that I could have figured out if I'd had...oh, a hundred tries, and a lot of time to experiment. But, I would not have understood the "why", so Helene explained. (I will not try to teach in this post, because you deserve to hear it correctly.)

I do suggest any of these:

1) Reading Helene's site, and doing her workshop at your earliest chance,
2) Taking a Food Styling/Photography workshop with the extremely talented Food Fanatics, Matt Armendariz and Adam C Pearson.
3) Reading/Watching the photo tutorials of these wonderfully talented people who explain it very well, even online: Diane and Todd of White On Rice.

After a very well put together DVD of Helene's work with her narrating and explaining how she got these shots, where the light source came from, how she reflected it back when she back-lit subjects, and the importance of asking yourself, "what do you want to say with this shot?", I was feeling taken care of. I had that feeling you get only when the teacher's spirit lets you know you are in a safe place to fail, to ask questions and to grow.

Each student began setting up their space with napkins and food props (things we brought with us to practice on) and Helen would circulate, giving undivided attention to each person's ideas. Then, she would give advice without changing the concept, but giving it focus and strength.

The ideas that I came away with included: Colors pop better with the inclusion of shadows, design ideas should include the movement you want the viewers eyes to follow, don't waste space - even the negative space should be with purpose, when shooting from above - everything is on the same plane so try shooting at 22 without so much fear, think outside the over-used 1.8 aperture used in a lot of food photos if your subject needs to offer more.

For my practice shooting, I brought a small bag of limes. I wanted to learn how to shoot in shadow, when the subject matter is not just one nice piece of cake, but a series of orbs or angles.


Helen had me cut the limes into segments, showing their moisture, their inside life and action. For a few minutes I was a photography partner with Tartelette (heh heh.) I left hugging my camera and feeling proud to own it, wanting to study and practice and, as Helene recommended: Shoot, shoot, shoot, it's the only way to really learn.

Since the workshop I have been on a Macaron flavor obsession. My latest are these:

Blueberry Macarons w/Lemon Curd
(the blueberries are oven dried, then ground to a flavorful dust)

*I followed the Macaron recipe ingredients and directions found on Tartelette's site, HERE, except I added 2 heaping Tablespoons of the oven dried blueberry dust to my powdered sugar and almond flour when pulsing it together.
*I also added a dash of powdered blue coloring to accent the blueberry flecks.
*The Blueberries were dried in a 200F oven for 2 hours, cooled, and ground in a coffee grinder to a dust.



LEMON CURD recipe:
(this is an easy basic recipe I used at CSCA)

1 cups sugar
3 egg yolks
3 lemon (juice and zest)
3 oz. butter cubed

Over a double boiler, with water at a simmer, whisk together the sugar, yolks, juice, and zest until it covers the back of a spoon and has thickened.
Remove from heat and beat in butter a little at a time til creamy - if any lumps, put through a sieve or chinois.
Chill before using.

I'm still experimenting with flavors and I'd love to hear about some of yours or your ideas.
Thanks, as always, for stopping by.