Using Up My Tomato Yield

Well, I'm back home from vacation and I'm glad to report that the The Self-Sufficient 8-Day Garden Machine experiment was a success!

I made that watering set up to take care of my garden while I was away on a week-long romance vacation in Montreal. In the great Frenchie Canadian city, I discovered a food that I can't believe I've never eaten before: Sweet Tomato Jam. Holy crap, sweet tomato jam!

Photo from Flickr by FotoosVanRobin // Used under Creative Commons License

We stayed at a bed and breakfast called A L'Adresse Du Centre-Ville that went above and beyond expectations each morning preparing a 3-course breakfast for a full house of guests. The hostess served pancakes with strawberry rhubarb sauce, fruit and nut bread puddings, and a balsamic scramble with salsa, among other things. Her specialty was an assortment of fresh homemade jams with new flavors each morning, including carrot-orange, tomato-walnut, and citrus. But the jam that really blew me away was a sweet tomato-lemon!

As soon as I got home, I searched online and found a similar recipe from my fave dude Mark Bittman. It calls for tomatoes and chili peppers, which is perfect: those are the two veggies that are filling up my garden at the moment. But even though it has spicy and savory ingredients, the recipe also calls for sugar, cinnamon, and ginger, which should be interesting.

Here's the super-easy recipe I used, taken from the NY Times:

Tomato Jam

• 1 1/2 pounds good ripe tomatoes cored and coarsely chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated or minced ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 jalapeño or other peppers, stemmed, seeded and minced

1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.
2. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, then cool and refrigerate until ready to use; this will keep at least a week.

Yield: About 1 pint

See? Super easy! You can eat it right away, or if you're into making preserves, you could stick it in jars for water-bath canning.

I used my Black Krim tomatoes and my Hot Lemon Peppers. My one adjustment to the recipe would be to peel the tomatoes first- I HATE those curly cooked tomato skins! I also removed some of the tomato seeds for a nicer texture, but not all of them: You need the gooey part of the tomato to get the right jammy texture.

 

Comments

[Sarah]

Yum! That sounds like a great idea for tomatoes. How many for this recipe? I don't see them listed.

[Martina Fugazzotto]

Wow, I can't believe I omitted the most important ingredient! So sorry, see updated recipe above...

[Lynn]

Mmmmmmmm! reminds me of a green tomato version that is really popular in louisiana.... 'cept they use honey and olive oil (sounds weird but it works)

[Mom]

Does this jam work as a topping for toast or muffins? Or, would it work better as a spread for crackers with cheese, or with some type of meat like pairing Lamb with mint jelly?

[Martina Fugazzotto]

That olive oil and honey version sounds great! There is quite a bit of sugar in this recipe, so I'd definitely be open to experimenting with other types of sweeteners like honey or agave.

Mom, you could really eat this however you want! It's both spicy AND sweet, so I've been eating it on toast every morning, but it would also go great with savory dishes.