Anarchy in a Jar » jam

We

Laena — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:57:40 +0000

Markets are where you will find the jam Queen and her resident Jamarchists-in-training every weekend all summer long.

Emma and I have been having a great time and enjoying all the lovely people we get to meet! Come visit if you haven’t yet, or become a weekly visitor (our favorite!) and taste the new flavors like Spiced Beer Jelly and Pickled Strawberries. At Smorgasburg we also sell Roberta’s Bread from the famous restaurant in Bushwick. Our friend Melissa bakes the most wonderful, incredible bread in the backyard of Roberta’s – it’s a perfect jam carrier. Melissa Weller started baking for Roberta’s this past fall, and she’s awesome. She was head baker at Per Se and Bouchon, and she worked at Sullivan Street and Babbo too. Her bread is seriously the best in New York City. It freezes super well too, in case you can’t eat a whole loaf in a day.

Come taste some at our stand, we offer samples.

jammin’ with the ladies

Laena — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:23:20 +0000

apples at the NYC greenmarket

local jonathan apples at the market

al and barb -- my favorite mom & daughter helpers!

I was lucky to have some great jam helpers with me this past weekend. Allison and her mom Barb came and assisted me in a the kitchen as we made “Boozy Apple Preserves” with rum-soaked currants, cardamom and blood orange. They were a delight to cook with, and the preserves turned out great. I wish I had thought to take a few photos of them with rags on their heads and gloves on, geared up for jammin–it was adorable! It was heartening and inspiring to cook alongside mother and daughter, as we peered into pots and tasted the elixir together. The love and laughter definitely filtered into the jam.

We soaked currants in rum for an hour or so, but we could have soaked them longer. They plumped up like little drunkards, and we added them to 1/4 inch diced Winesap apples. We threw in some sugar and then juiced and zested a few blood oranges to add acid, flavor and depth to the concoction. Meanwhile, I simmered cardamom pods in syrup and added this, plus a few pods to the apples mixture. Then we cooked it for awhile until we reached the gel stage (221 Fahrenheit). While we waited for the jam to jam, Carla plied us with chocolates and pastries, not perfect enough for the restaurant, but just right for our taste buds.

I love having helpers in the kitchen! If I’m lucky, I have a few every month that come join–students, friends, strangers and jam fans–to learn my jam secrets and assist me in the artisanal process. It adds to the love in the jam, and makes it taste that much better.

Jam Making Workshop: Anarchy in a Jar Demonstration at Beer Table

Laena — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:46:34 +0000

jam student pours the elixer!

Peak season and you haven’t yet preserved summer’s bounty? On Monday, August 23rd, we will be getting our jam on at Beer Table. I’ll demonstrate simple ways to make preserves and offer other ideas for stocking up your larder (plum pickles? hot pepper jelly?). Each attendee will take a jar of jam home with them and will receive two special beers during the session.

Limited to 12 participants.

Please e-mail events@beertable.com for reservations.

7:00-8:30 pm, $50.

Visit their website to learn more about Beer Table and upcoming events.

Call 718.965.1196 or email events@beertable.com for more information

Beer Table
427 B 7th Avenue
between 14th & 15th streets
Brooklyn, NY 11215
open daily from 5 PM until 1 AM

**beer + jam + good company= awesome**

Limes for a rainy day

Laena — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:49:16 +0000

: whoa, look at those green hotties!

We’re hoping the new iPhone 4G comes with a scent feature. This post would be much sweeter if you could share in the divine scent that wafts through the kitchen as the limes are cooked into marmalade. Jose, who works alongside us in the kitchen at Chestnut, couldn’t help letting out an “mmm” as he walked by the pot.

We slice Persian limes into quarter slivers and cook them with some water to soften the rind, then let them rest overnight in the fridge, then bring to a boil and add sugar, then back into the fridge to macerate overnight, then we boil them into marmalade, add some pandan leaf and jar them for your eating pleasure.

Dreaming of the exotic scent of limes is a perfect antidote to this rainy, balmy Monday in New York.

Lime & Pandan Marmalade

Laena — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:42:39 +0000

pandan extract about to enter the marmalade

pandan leaves in the wild

Today we made Lime & Pandan Marmalade with pandan leaf extract. We’re extremely lucky to work alongside pastry chef Carla while cooking our jam at Chestnut (her and her husband also run the delightful Mama’s Food Shop on the Lower East Side). Not only is she incredibly kind and lovely, she’s also a flavor master who has worked in some of the finest restaurants and haut-dessert enterprises. We often get into discussions about flavor as we groggily listen to NPR in the morning–Carla concocting delicious desserts while we mix our elixirs of the jar. She suggested pandan, which she used in a chocolate she designed for Vosges Chocolates.

Pandan (P. amaryllifolius) leaves are amazing. They’re used in Southeast Asian cooking to add a distinct aroma (coconutty? hazelnutty? leafy?) to rice and curry dishes such as nasi lemak, kaya preserves (Malaysian/Indonesian coconut egg jam which has coconut, pandan & duck eggs–total anarchy), and desserts such as pandan cake. The aroma is caused by the aroma compound 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which is what gives jasmine rice its unique smell. Pandan are called daun pandan in Indonesian and Malay; and 斑蘭 (bān lán) in Mandarin.

But what to mix it with? She brought us a little sample and we started experimenting. The Southeast Asian aroma instantly made us think lime marmalade. But with the heady, exotic flavor notes of pandan, we didn’t want our marmalade too bitter or chewy as it often is with big hunks of peel. We microplaned the peel and finely seperated the membrane from the fruit to make it as pure and dainty as possible. It’s insane and delicious! Great on toast, poundcake, as a glaze on meat or fish, or mixed with a little water and drizzled over fruit.

Lime & Pandan Marmalade Recipe

20 limes
8 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon pandan extract (found in SE Asian markets)
about 4-5 cups water

Scrub limes and zest them with a microplane into a large measuring bowl. Remove the bitter white pith from the lime peel. Section out the lime pulp from the tougher membrane with a paring knife. Squeeze Juice out of membrane before discarding. Add enough water to equal 8 cups of total pulp & water and pour into saucepan.

Bring the lime pulp, zest & water mixture to a boil for ten minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool thoroughly–cool for at least two hours or refrigerate overnight.

Add sugar and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for approximately 20 minutes, or until jam is set and has reached 220 degrees (put some on a spoon in a dish, and set it in the fridge for a few minutes, to test the set). Do not overcook or marmalade will solidify. Add pandan, bring back to a boil and turn off heat. Let sit 3 minutes and stir to make sure zest is distributed.

Fill jars to within a ¼ inch of the top and sealing (for jar preparation, see this detailed recipe). Boil for 10 minutes in a water bath. Let rest 5 minutes in bath, then remove. Listen for the jars to “pop” letting you know the jam is sealed! Do not move for 6 to 12 hours to get a proper set.

Eat with pleasure.

La poire est très beau

Laena — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:27:32 +0000

We were playing with pears in the kitchen very early this morning, and the jam looked so beautiful as it glowed in the autumn light pouring in through the back door of Chestnut.

We jammed it with fresh ginger, and also cooked up a batch of “Hot Fireman’s Pear” with chipotle and cinnamon. Carla the pastry chef was baking tarte tatin and making caramel, and the kitchen smelled like a heavenly dream of autumn.

You make jam in NYC?

Laena — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:16:58 +0000

We get this a lot. People scoff and think it’s weird. Most small batch & artisanal jam is made on farms, in France or California, in rural areas with easy access to fresh fruit, or all the above. But NYC is the perfect locale for jam production, just like it’s the perfect place to start a rooftop farm or raise bees. Let us count the ways:

1. Access to great produce. While it seems contrary to the industrial image of NYC, it’s actually easier to acquire fresh, beautiful fruit here than in many parts of the country. Numerous farmer’s markets across the city and demand by gourmands and chefs means the fruit is top of the line and there’s great variety. Red Jacket Orchards, is a perfect example. They’re our favorite fall vendor and their plums, apples, pears and quince are impeccable. You can find them at one of the markets almost every day of the week.

2. A dearth of local jam for sale. There are very few local jam companies, and none that produce anything like we do (if the label says NYC but it’s made in a factory upstate or in Jersey, sorry, it doesn’t count). People want their jam and we bring it. Here’s hoping it doesn’t get too saturated like the NYC pickle market!

3. Voracious & fine-paletted foodies who like it local, organic & artisanal. Thanks, eaters, for being so discerning, hungry, supportive and inspiring. It’s easy to stay cutting edge and excited when people keep us real. It’s our friends and jam fans who challenge us to include their favorite new flavors, like bergamont, pear & chipotle, St. Germain. And this is what gernerates new ideas and heightens our experience of the everyday act of eating. Jam on!