the honey eater » jam/preserves

Lemon Meringue Pie and a Happy New Year

naomi — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:16:49 +0000

I am sitting here, in a friend’s apartment in Berlin with snow falling outside and fireworks going off, thinking of an appropriate way to sum up the past year. It was hard, it was a struggle, it was difficult and heartbreaking on so many levels for so many different people. In a year of hardship there were also a lot of wonderful things that happened: I started grad school and found a career that I truly love, my boyfriend completed his Masters degree and created a beautiful thesis project and, perhaps best of all, my grandmother survived her hip replacement and a heart attack and is up and walking and laughing again. It only feels appropriate to end this year with something tart, and a little sweet, and hope that next year (and the next decade) will be a better.

Lemon Meringue Pie

I had bought some Meyer lemons in the week before my break, with the full intention of making lemon curd. Of course, between one thing and another the curd was never made and the lemons were left unzested and unjuiced. Because Meyer lemons are so lovely (and so expensive) I did what anyone else would do, I packed them into my carry-on luggage and carried them to California. Yes indeed, to California where citrus fruit is plentiful and there are at least three trees on my parents’ block that are overladen with lemons. Ah well.

Lemon Curd
Adapted from Gourment, January and April 2001

Zest of three lemons (a heaping tablespoon)
1 cup lemon juice
scant 1-1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
16 tbsp unsalted butter

Whisk together lemon zest, juice, sugar and eggs in a medium saucepan. Stir in butter and cook over low heat, whisking frequently, until the curd has thickened enough to hold the marks of the whisk and bubbles begin to appear on the surface, about 6 minutes. Strain into a bowl through a fine mesh sieve. Cover surface of curd with plastic wrap and let chill.

Meringue

3 egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar

Whisk together the egg whites and cream of tarter until foamy. Slowly whisk in the sugar and continue beating until whites are glossy and form stiff peaks.

Preheat oven to 400º F.

Pour the curd into a cooled, baked 9″ pie shell. Heap the meringue on top, making sure to seal the edges. Use the back of the spoon to swirl the meringue and form peaks. Place in the oven and bake 8-10 minutes until the meringue is golden. Chill until ready to serve. Watch it disappear.

Gingerbread and Cranberry Meringue Tarts

naomi — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:30:39 +0000

As I sit here eating barley soup I would like to focus on what I’m not doing:

I am not writing a research paper
I am not cobbling together a portfolio
I am not getting high on Sharpie fumes while making a picture book
I am not even lesson planning

I am just sitting here enjoying the quiet in my head. And the barley soup.

Last night I had my last class of the year. Our final project was creating a “big book”, essentially a very large picture book (mine was 13″ x 19″), and an accompanying lesson plan. It was so much fun to see the books my classmates had made, they were so beautiful and creative, and some were just awe-inspiring. Everyone also brought in food and drinks to share. I had been wanting to make these tarts even since Ashley wrote about them on Not Without Salt. I’m so glad I did. Warm and spicy, tart and creamy, light and fluffy, they were a wonderful winter treat*. I had one for breakfast this morning.

Gingerbread and Cranberry Meringue Tart
from Not Without Salt

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Using your favorite gingerbread recipe (I will post my standby very soon)- roll the dough out very thin and gently lay it into mini tart pans.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Unmold the tarts and let cool.

Bring the oven up to 400° F.

Fill your gingerbread shells with cranberry curd and top with a dollop of meringue (I would have piped the meringue but I couldn’t find my star tip). Bake for 8-10 mintues, or until meringue has browned.

Cranberry Curd
adapted from Nigella Lawson via Not Without Salt

I believe I only used 1-1/3 cups sugar, but you might want to taste it before taking it off the heat. It was late, I was tired, I kind of lost track.

1 pound (5 cups) cranberries
1 cup plus 2 tbsp water
7 tbsp butter
1-1/3 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 eggs, lightly beaten

Put the cranberries and water in a pot and cook over low heat until cranberries are soft and begin to pop.

Push cranberries through a fine sieve or a food mill.

Return the puree to the pan. Whisk in the sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, and eggs. Cook over low heat, whisking frequently, until the curd is thick enough to hold marks of the whisk and the first bubbles appear on the surface.

Transfer curd to a bowl and chill, its surface covered with plastic wrap or waxed paper.

French Meringue

the white of one large egg
1/4 cup sugar

Whisk the egg white until soft peaks form.

Slowly whisk in half of the sugar. Continue whisking until the whites form stiff peaks. Fold in the rest of the sugar.

* No only were they delicious, the tarts were a great way to refresh my apartment: when I came home I was worried that it would still reek of Sharpie marker, but instead it smelled of gingerbread, which was a very pleasant surprise.

two cherry jams

naomi — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:17:12 +0000

Once upon a time, long before I was even a twinkle in his eye, my dad lived in a house in Los Angeles that had an apricot tree in the yard. One summer the apricot tree produced an amazing amount of fruit, and my dad, being the man he is, decided to make jam. My dad and I are devoted lovers of stone fruits- cherries, apricots, plums- they all disappear when laid in front of us. He wanted to preserve the pure, manna from heaven flavor of apricots and decided to add nothing to this jam, no sugar, no lemon juice, no pectin, nothing, and just cook it down until it was nice and thick, golden and gooey. It took him three days. He turned off the stove to sleep, of course, and he says, when it was finally finished, it was sheer heaven.

(Yes, I sometimes write recipes on the cartons cherries come in, I don’t always have paper handy in the kitchen. And yes, that is a picture of my trash after cherry-pitting, it looked so pretty, I couldn’t resist. Reminded me a bit of this post.)

Inspired by this story, and Amir’s tales of plum jam making in his native Bosnia, I set out to make a triple cherry jam (kind of like a triple creme cheese, only instead of the extra butterfat, you have extra cherry goodness). Armed with pounds of fruit and a battalion of jars, I set out on what would become an hours-long process.

(I love my cherry pitter. Have you ever tried to pit a quart of cherries with a paper clip? It’s not as fun as it sounds.)

In the end, I hardly needed my army of jars. Three hours of cooking had turned 3 pounds of fruit into about 16 ounces of jam. I sent one 8 ounce jar to my father and kept the other one to eat on toast with mascarpone cheese. While this jam was, and is, by all accounts completely delectable I felt there was a jam itch in me that hadn’t entirely been scratched. I marched back to the farmers market, bought several more pounds of cherries, focusing only on sour ones this time. I wanted something mushy and tart. I wanted to trap the sweet/sour flavor into a glistening red goo. I got exactly what I wanted, and now I’m just waiting for an occasion to make a bunch of chocolate cupcakes, cut little holes out, fill them with jam, and cover them in whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Anyone having a party?

( Please save the foam after you skim it. Eat it with plain yogurt, or ice cream, use it to flavor rice pudding or just spoon it into your mouth. Whatever you do, don’t dump it down the sink.

Cherry Jams
Despite the very similar list of ingredients these jams are two very different beasts. The triple berry jam is much thicker and more chewy. The cherries retained their shape fairly well, especially the Rainiers which are a denser fruit to begin with.

The sour cherry jam is a little more watery and a little smoother because I mashed the fruit while cooking. It is tart, tart, tart, so if you want something a little sweeter, add more sugar. This was just right for me, barely sweet, with the delicate flavor of sour cherries bursting through.

Triple Cherry Jam

3 pounds (1.5 kilos) mixed cherries (I used equal amounts sour cherries, Rainier cherries and black cherries)
1 pound sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon

Toss the ingredients into a medium-large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, lower heat and let simmer for about three hours, skimming foam and stirring occasionally until thick and little liquid remains.

Pour into sterilized jars and process.

Sour Cherry Jam

4.5 pounds (2 kilos) sour cherries
1 cup (175 g) sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Heat cherries in a medium-large pot over medium heat until they begin to release their juices. Mash them a little with the back of your spoon or a potato masher.

Add sugar and lemon juice, bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer, skimming foam and stirring occasionally, for about three hours, or until your jam has reached the desired thickness.

Notes: While its a bit of a drag to cook anything for this long in the summer heat, you can leave it bubbling on the stove and just return every once in a while to stir the pot and check its progress. You don’t even have to cook it for three hours, though I think long cooking gives jams a complexity you cannot achieve with an hour on the stove top. Still, cook it for less time, add pectin or some apple juice to make it thicken faster. Cook it longer if you feel like it. Cook to taste.

As for the canning part, I sterilize my jars in the oven and then process them in boiling water for about 15 minutes, but don’t listen to me. There are many great resources who can help you figure it all out.