Steakhouse-Style Sear Roasted Strip Steak

If my boys had their way I would spend the week focusing all my energy on Halloween costumes.  They have been planning possible costumes since this summer, including one complicated plan that involved about eleven springs with pies on the end.  I would do my best to explain that one, if I had any idea what it was supposed to be.  They assured me it would be simple, once we had constructed the door mechanisms and hidden switches.  Happily we have moved on from that idea and have settled on a chimney sweep and a chimney.  Since the decision was made Sebastian has suggested every day that Lewis make a list of what we need for the costume so the boys and I can buy everything while he is at work.  Given that most of the more over the top costumes and their execution came from me I don't know why he thinks Lewis needs to complete this step.

As far as working on Halloween costumes my newest obsession is getting in the way.  I have been far too preoccupied with my newest cookbook to make costumes.  Last week I received a review copy of All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art by Molly Stevens.  Ever since I have been plotting meals or cooking from it.  I didn't want to let Lewis being sick get in the way of my dinner plans, so on Friday night I made Quick Roasted Scallops with Sriracha and Lime, Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Brussels Sprouts Chips Garnish, and Butter Roasted Cabbage Strips with Caraway and Mustard Seeds for my father, my children, and Nana Diane while Lewis slept.  Really it was the perfect opportunity for this menu, because Lewis does not like scallops.  The whole meal was delicious, the highlight being a new favorite recipe for preparing cabbage, a vegetable I know I will see a lot of every winter.

I realize many of you do not share my obsession with cabbage recipes, so instead I am going to share Molly's Sear-Roasted Strip Steak.  We eat a lot of steak here because I split half a cow with friends every year.  Now I have my go to recipe for strip steak.  Lewis emphatically agreed, declaring this the best steak he ever ate.  It might not be a fair comparison to all the steaks he has eaten before as I topped this one with her recipe for Blue Cheese and Chive Butter.  To make the butter I used my latest installment of cheese I am testing for Point Reyes Farmstead.  The Blue Cheese Chive Butter recipe as well as my assessment of the blue cheese they just sent me to sample can be found on Culture Magazines blog.

Steakhouse-Style Sear Roasted Strip Steak
From All About Roasting by Molly Stevens, a book you really want to own.

Serves 2 to 4
Method: Combination sear and moderate heat
Roasting Time" 6 to 10 minutes (plus 2 minutes to sear)
Wine: Strip steak and Cabernet Sauvignon is a classic combination.  Look for good bottles from California's Napa and Alexander Valleys or Washington State.

Two 12 to 14 ounce New York strip steaks, 1 to 1 1/2 inches {I used 2 beef loin sirloin steaks that weighed about 8 ounces each}
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp peanut oil, grapeseed oil, or other neutral flavored oil {I used 1 1/2 Tbsp, next time I will use 1 Tbsp}
1 to 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened (the range is dependent on how decadent you want to be)

1 HEAT THE OVEN.  Position a rack near the center of the oven and heat to 375 degrees (350 degrees convection).  Let the steaks sit at room temperature while the oven heats.

2 HEAT THE SKILLET.  Place a large cast-iron or black metal skillet (a 12 inch skillet will hold two steaks nicely {for my smaller steaks I used a 10 inch skillet}) over medium heat and heat the skillet while you season the steaks.  {Walking away from the heating skillet to attend to squabbling children and getting vegetables from the basement may cause the smoke alarm to go off and alert the neighborhood to the fact you are cooking again.  However in my experience it does not adversely affect the end result.}

3 SEASON THE STEAKS.  Sprinkle each steak aggressively all over with salt and pepper, turning the steak and pressing all sides down onto the seasonings that fall onto the work surface.  you want the entire surface to be seasoned.  If you prefer to measure use 1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt and 3/4 to 1 tsp pepper per steak.

4 SEAR THE STEAKS.  Once the pan is hot, increase the heat to high and add the oil to the pan, tilting to coat.  When the oil begins to shimmer, after about 30 seconds, place the steaks side by side in the skillet.  Let them sear without disturbing; nudging the steaks will interfere with the browning.  After 2 minutes, lift the edge of one of the steaks to check whether it is well seared.  If so immediately flip both steaks and smear the tops with butter, diving it equally.  (If the steak isn't brown yet, continue to sear for another 45 seconds and check again.)

5 ROAST.  Immediately transfer the skillet to the oven.  After 6 minutes, start checking for doneness either by touching the meat (the steak firms up as it cooks) or by taking the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer.  Baste the steaks with pan juices each time you open the oven, and check again every 2 minutes until the steaks are done to your liking.  Depending on what degree of doneness you're after and how often you open the oven to check in them, expect them to roast for 6 to 10 minutes, or until they reach 115 to 120 degrees internal temperature for rare, 120 to 125 degrees for medium-rare and 125 to 13 degrees for medium.

6 REST AND SERVE.  Immediately transfer the steaks to a cutting board, preferably one with a trough - to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.  Serve on individual plates if serving 1 per person, or cut in half to share.  Pour the pan drippings and any juices from the cutting board over the tops of the steaks and serve.

Green Tomato Beef Stew with Jamaican Spices

I spent last week in New York City moving my father out of his apartment.  The week was supposed to end with the sale of his apartment and him moving to Vermont to live in a retirement home.  I spent a week sorting through vast piles of books covered in dust, throwing out clothing that was not even good enough to be used as a rag, and throwing away mattress after mattress.  A the end of the week the apartment was miraculously empty, most of the clothing we were keeping was being shipped to Vermont, and the closing on the apartment did not happen.  So when he flew here to Burlington it was not to move in to a retirement community, instead he has been staying with a really good friend of mine who lives 15 miles away.  Every day when she drives in to work she has been dropping him off at my house for "daddy daycare".  Then she comes to my house after work and we all have dinner before they drive back to Jericho.  However guests for dinner every night does not mean I stay away from experiments in the kitchen, instead there are more tasters for new dishes.

At this time of the year I look at the green tomatoes on the vines thinking about ways to use them.  I could just can several batches of green tomato salsa and be done, but I enjoy the challenge of discovering how different flavors can be used.  One friend stays away from most green tomato recipes, saying they all smack of end of the garden desperation.  However I think green tomatoes have a role in the kitchen, one that works to highlight and balance their flavor instead of using them in an attempt to mask their presence and use them up.  Used correctly they are as much end of the garden desperation as rhubarb recipes are end of the winter desperation for something, anything, fresh. (I am not saying there are no desperation recipes for both vegetables).

When I first went in the kitchen I was planning on doing a stew with the last of the rhubarb that would be a riff on Molly Stevens' Pot Roasted Brisket with Rhubarb and Honey from All About Braising.  As I rubbed the beef with freshly ground allspice, coriander, pepper and salt I realized I could substitute green tomatoes for the rhubarb as an early fall substitution.  I used maple syrup instead of honey and added garlic and fresh thyme as my usual alterations to the regular recipe.  I replaced the golden raisins with dried apricots because they were the only dried fruit I had.  Now dried Califonia apricots will be my go-to in this recipe, any other dried fruit will be a substitution, because their tangy, sour, sweetness added just the right note.

This stew was enjoyed by all 6 people at the dinner table, from age 6 to 81.  My children even clamored over how good it was.  All the flavors came together as a cohesive whole, not a touch of end of the garden desperation, instead a new use for a unique vegetable.  It was tasty enough I think I won't wait to the end of the season to make it next year, instead I will pick some green tomatoes in the late spring.

Everyone was eating the stew so fast I couldn't get a good photo!

Green Tomato Beef Stew with Jamaican Spices
Serves 6
Serve this stew with mashed potatoes.  The amount of meat in this dish was enough to serve 6 with plenty of mashed potatoes and carrots on the side.  I prefer to serve a modest amount of meat but you can easily increase the amount of meat to suit your preferences.

1/2 tsp whole coriander seeds

1/4 tsp black peppercorns

1/8+ tsp allspice berries

1/2 tsp kosher salt or other coarse salt

1 1/4 lbs beef stew meat (you can change the quantity as you like, if you go up to 2 lbs I would double everything else)

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 small onions or 1 medium one Chop the onion into 1/2 inch pieces or slice thinly (I did a mix because slicing was easier and both were fine in the final dish.  Next time I will slice all of them).

2 large garlic cloves or 3 to 4 small ones chopped finely

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 - 2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger (I used about 1 Tbsp)

1/3 cup California Dried Apricots, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces (sorry, the California ones really are that much better!)
1 cup riesling or other favorite white wine
1 cup water
1 lb green tomatoes, cored and chopped into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces (do not peel)
1 bay leaf, preferably fresh
1 small bunch of thyme with the leaves stripped off (about 1/2 tsp leaves)
1 Tbsp pure maple syrup (I used Grade B)

Grind the coriander, peppercorns, allspice, and salt in a coffee grinder until finely ground.  You will have to stop and shake the spices down in the grinder a few times because this is a minimal amount.  Dry the stew meat with paper towels before rubbing the spice mixture on the meat.  Set aside while you prep the other ingredients.

In a medium sized dutch oven or heavy lidded pot heat the oil over medium high heat and add then onions.  Cook the onions, stirring frequently until they are softened and starting to caramelize (while they were cooking I prepped the ginger, apricots and tomatoes).  Add the garlic, salt and pepper, ginger and chopped apricots.  Saute for about one minute until the ginger is fragrant.

Remove the onions and other aromatics from the pan and return to medium high heat.  There should still be a thin layer of oil in the bottom of the pan, if it is not enough to keep the meat from sticking add a little more oil and then brown the meat in small batches on all sides.  As the meat is browned add it to the onions.

Once all the meat is browned set the meat and aromatics aside and add the white wine to the pan.  Cook over high heat for about 5 minutes until the volume is decreased by three quarters, while it is cooking scrape the sides to remove all the flavorful caramelized drippings from the beef and aromatics..  Once the wine is reduced add the water,green tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme leaves, and 1 Tbsp maple syrup.  Bring to a boil and allow to boil for a minute or 2 before adding the meat and onion mixture back to the pan.

Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cook, covered, at a slow simmer until the meat is tender and the green tomatoes have mostly slumped into the sauce, (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours).   After about 5 minutes check the stew to make sure the stew is simmering quietly.  If it is too vigorous use a heat tamer under the pan.

Once the meat is tender remove the lid, increase the heat to medium high and reduce the sauce (however I suggest you do not go to check email while reducing the sauce.  If you do not listen and become distracted you may need to add some water to the pan because you reduced it too much).

Preserving Tomatoes: Freezing

Every summer I can an obscene amount of crushed tomatoes.  I make deals with farmers for the tomatoes that are too ugly to sell, harvest flats of them from my plants and keep some out from my CSA share.  As tomato season progresses I begin to panic, fearing that I will never preserve enough to last until the following summer.  Until one day I look at the jars lined up in the basement and I decide I can stop.  Then, as long as I have made enough salsa, and tomato orange marmalade, I freeze the rest.  In addition I freeze any smaller tomatoes throughout the season, because I learned the hard way, canning small tomatoes is time consuming, overly fiddly, and frustrating.

I know many folks who prefer the ease of freezing tomatoes and preserve all of their harvest without canning.  For the bulk of my tomatoes I prefer to spend more time on them in the summer months so I can use them more easily in the winter.  With a quart of crushed tomatoes I can make pasta sauce, soup, or chili easily enough that I think of them as convenience food.  In addition, if the power goes out, or my freezer dies, I won't lose my entire tomato stash.

However frozen tomatoes do have a purpose that goes beyond preserving the tomatoes I can't or don't want to can.  I will admit their primary use is running out of tomatoes too early insurance.  However they are also perfect for recipes that call for just a few tomatoes.  Many times I use part of a quart of tomatoes assuring myself that I will find a use for them in the next few days.  However many times the jar gets lost in the back of my fridge until it resurfaces in scary new colors.  Instead of using a partial quart I take a few tomatoes out of the freezer, rub the skins under running water to remove the skins, cut out the core and proceed with my recipe.  For a small number of tomatoes you can even do this without getting frostbite.

Frozen Tomatoes
I hope it doesn't insult any ones intelligence to write this in recipe format.  I just know some folks skip the blog chatter and scroll down to the recipe.

Tomatoes, local vine ripened flavorful ones
Zip top bags or Pyrex dishes with lids or plastic storage containers

Place the tomatoes in the bags or containers and close.  Place in the freezer.  To use just remove the tomatoes from the storage container or bag, reseal, and return the remaining tomatoes to the fridge.  Rub the tomato under running water while rubbing the skin.  The skin will rub right off.  Cut the core out with a knife.

Baked Tomatoes with Cheese

Yesterday Lewis returned to work, officially ending our vacation.  A vacation that began with 2 days of  tantrums and whining, causing the adults to grumble, often loud enough for the children to hear, about why we go away on vacation anyway.  However then we settled in and had an amazing time.  Sometimes I feel we go away on vacation so we can really notice how the boys have grown and changed in the previous year.  It takes something that only happens once a year to really step back and witness who they are.  This year they are far more independent and confident; as a major vacation milestone they know agree to use all public restrooms, even the ones with auto flush toilets.

Every year they return with memories of the previous years and expectations of what they want to do.  At low tide Julian can often be found building a massive castle with a moat that can be taken by the ocean as the tide comes in.  As the water begins to lap at the sides he starts to scrape at them with a shovel and kicking the tops of the towers.  Unable to let the ocean complete the destruction without his help.  Sebastian often helps Julian to build the castle, but more often he spends his time collecting minnows and hermit crabs.  This year he did not collect them all himself and instead trained other children on the beach.  Once the tide starts to come in he unceremoniously dumps them all back in the water.

This year the WiFi on vacation was not strong enough to reach our cottage.  I could only check my email when we went out for homemade ice cream.  Which of course means it became even easier to convince me we all needed a treat, (that and discovering the amazing expresso ice cream that Lewis and I could not stop ourselves from ordering, even if it did cause me to lie in bed staring at the ceiling).  However no WiFi helped to make us less distracted.

Not having access to the internet also meant I had to wait to share this tomato dish with you.  Every year I bring the vegetables from my CSA share and my garden with us on vacation.  This year that meant I had an entire flat of tomatoes for the week.  I love being able to walk past the produce in the grocery store, smugly thinking of the produce I already have.  At the local farm stands heirloom tomatoes are $7.99 a pound.  As their value went up so did the responsibility.  Just eating all of them on sandwiches or on a salad was not enough, neither was allowing them to go bad.

The baked tomato dish I prepared was simple, peeling them being the most complicated step.  However the end result could be the center of your table, the main dish with a loaf of crusty bread and another vegetable.  The flavor of the mayonnaise becomes more subtle and balanced after baking.  It was subtle enough that Sebastian was happily eating the dish until Lewis said, "Mayonnaise as an ingredient.  Who would have guessed." At which point Sebastian put down his fork and decided he was done with tomatoes and I of course glared at Lewis.

I added fresh thyme to the chopped scallions but you can play with the herbs you add.  At home I would have baked it in a casserole dish, but there wasn't one in the cottage, so I used a cast iron pan.  Now that I am at home I think I will use a casserole dish.

Baked Tomatoes with Cheese
Adapted from Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, Beans, and Other Good Things: A Cookbook for When Your Garden Explodes


4 peeled tomatoes, or more or less depending on how many you want to serve (how to peel tomatoes)
1/2 to 1 Tbsp high quality mayonnaise per tomato half
1/2 to 1 tsp chopped scallions per tomato half (or more to taste)
fresh chopped thyme to taste
1 to 2 Tbsp grated sharp cheddar per tomato half

The amounts of toping are given as a range because tomatoes vary so much in size.  Also, this is an easy rustic recipe, to your taste.

Preheat the oven to 325° and butter a casserole dish or cast iron skillet that will fit all the tomato halves.

Halve the tomatoes from top to bottom. Cut off a thin slice from rounded side of the tomato halves so the tomatoes will stand up better in the dish.  remove the cores.  Place the tomato halves in the buttered dish.  Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on each tomato half, sprinkle with scallions, thyme and freshly grated black pepper before topping each tomato with 1 to 2 Tbsp grated cheddar cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.  When serving do not tell children about any ingredient they claim to dislike unless they ask a direct question.  If your spouse spontaneously offers this information glare hard at him or her to bore a hole through their head.

Sour Cherry Petit Petit Jam (Apple and Lemon Pectin)

It doesn't matter if I don't have a decent photo of this jam yet (I can always edit the post later) or if I have other things I should be doing other then try to come up with adjectives that describe why you should make this jam.  I need to post the jam recipe before I lose my notes on it again.  This recipe has already moved up to the must have jams category, so I need to preserve it here.  It really is a miracle I found my notes at all, after all they were tucked into my favorite jam cookbook, a place so sensible I I surprised I thought to look there.

When I was first planning on what to do with all my sour cherries I had no plans on incorporating wine.  I knew I would make one with raspberries and after that I had several other combinations I was imagining.  However after spending the morning picking 10 pounds of sour cherries, I took a moment before melting in the kitchen to post about my haul and dreams of flavor combinations on Hippo Flambé's Facebook page.   One reader was reminded of an ice cream topping she loved and wrote, "There is an ice cream shop on Cape Cod I used to frequent when I lived there and they cooked down sour cherries with balsamic vinegar, bordeaux, and sugar, and drizzled it over vanilla ice cream. It was my kind of heaven."  I could immediately taste the sauce in my head and it sounded like my kind of heaven as well.  So I quickly updated my plans to include a jam with similar ingredients.

I didn't have any bordeaux in the house but I did have Michael David's Petit Petit which has the rich flavor of ripe cherries when you drink it.  So I rushed to the kitchen and started a batch of sour cherry jam with a cup of petit petit wine.  I had every intention of adding balsamic vinegar at the end but I tasted the jam first and could not bring myself to change anything.  Just to be sure, I served the foam over a bowl of vanilla ice cream and further sampled its flavor before happily sealing the jam in jars.

The jam has a richness, intensity and depth that reminds me of chocolate.  It is the perfect topping for vanilla ice cream but is equally at home on a slice of toast.  I imagine this winter I will drizzle it on cheesecake and layer it with poached pears and whipped cream.  I also know next summer I will be back in the kitchen making more.  Like my other sour cherry jams this one does not use any commercial pectin.  It relies on apple and lemon pectin instead and so has less sugar to mask the flavor then would be needed with commercial pectin.  I used apples from the orchard where I picked the sour cherries.  In early July they are completely unripe and full of natural pectin.  If you don't have access to unripe apples you can use granny smith apples or crab apples.  The apple pectin combined with the pectin in the lemon peels makes this jam set up beautifully.

Sour Cherry Petit Petit Jam

If you need detailed canning instructions they can be found on last summers sour cherry jam recipe.  I also have a recipe for sour cherry raspberry lime jam.

1 kilogram (2 1/4 lb) pitted sour cherries (1.25 kg or 2 3/4 lb unpitted)

800 grams sugar (3 3/4 cups)

1 cup Michael David Petit Petit Wine (or substitute another rich, fruit forward red wine)

150 grams unripe apples (3-4 small apples) or 300 grams granny smith apple (1-2 granny smith apple)

Peels and pits from the apple placed in a large tea ball or muslim bag

Juice of 1 lemon (1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp)

rinds from the lemon

Place a small saucer in the freezer for testing the jams set.  Combine all ingredients except the lemon rinds and the apple peels and pits.  Puree the ingredients in a large pot with an immersion blender or in a blender.  Add the spent lemon rinds and the peels and pits of the apples (apple pieces placed in a large tea ball) in a large pot and bring to a simmer.  Simmer gently, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves.  Increase the heat to high and boil the jam, stirring frequently at first and as it cooks down stirring more and more to prevent scorching.  The jam is done when it is 220° on a thermometer and it passes the cold plate test.

To test the jams set with a plate, turn off the heat under the jam.  Remove the saucer from the freezer and place a small dollop of jam on the plate.  Return the plate to the freezer and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.  If the jam is set it will wrinkle on the surface when you push the dollop with your finger.  The jam will still be a liquid in the pot when it is set.  Jam becomes runny again when it is heated so do not expect it to look like jam in the pot.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace and seal in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Pea Shell Cooler and Eastside Fizz

I have another sour cherry jam recipe to share with all of you.  It is sour cherry and petit petit wine and the combination is rich and deep.  Spooned over ice cream it reminds me of the deep, intense flavor of hot fudge.  The wine brings out the flavor of the cherries, making them more complex.  However as much as I love eating this new jam drizzled over a bowl of ice cream, even talking about making jam seems like too much for this hot humid dead air day.  So instead let me share some cocktails with you.  These cocktails are easy to make and do not rely on store bought mixes, but rather on fresh produce (and a modest amount of sugar).

Several years ago we were stopped at a rest stop in New Hampshire shopping for alcohol for our week on the Cape.  There is no tax on alcohol in New Hampshire so several of their rest stops have liquor stores with giant shopping carts, mega sized bottles of spirits, and "Don't Drink and Drive" signs on the way out of the parking lot.  Lewis looked dubiously at the large bottle of gin in our cart and told me I was on my own when it came time to drinking the gin.  More gin and tonics for me did not seem like a problem.

I have loved gin and tonics since I was six and my family went on vacation to Barbados.  There was a lime tree in the back yard of the house we were staying at and my parents felt it was important to use as much of the fruit as they could.  They would let my brother and I to take a sip of their drink, and I quickly began turning my back to them when I was taking my sip.  I hoped that they might not notice how much I was drinking if my back was turned.  So even if Lewis did not want any I would happily drink as many sips as I wanted on my own.

When I made myself a Gin and Tonic on vacation Lewis took a taste, and then turned his back so I would not see how much he was drinking.  After that he was a devoted lover of Gin and Tonics, the first one to speak up when we needed to restock any of the ingredients.  The only problem with them is the tonic, with an ingredient list that makes me shudder with its high fructose corn syrup.  I have found a homemade tonic recipe online but have not tracked down all the ingredients.  Enter the East Side Fizz and the Pea Shoot cooler, both made with fresh ingredients and a wonderful way to use some of the mint threatening to take over your yard.

The Eastside Fizz was in July's issue of Bon Appetit's.  The original recipe calls for seltzer water but I did not have any in the house, plus my frugal nature balked at paying money for bubbles.  I love it made with just plain water but you should spring for the seltzer if you would prefer.  One of my favorite parts of this cocktail is eating the gin and lime infused cucumbers at the end.  The pea shell cooler came about as we were all enjoying a bowl full of shelling peas.  I looked at the pile of empty shells and wondered what I could do to utilize their sweet flavor without having it masked by their tough stringiness.  So I tried them in place of the cucumbers in the Eastside Fizz, adding the prosescco to lighten it and play up the citrus.

Eastside Fizz

Adapted from Bon Appetit

10 large fresh mint leaves

5 thin slices of peeled cucumber

1 1/2 Tbsp simple syrup (recipe is at the bottom of the post)

2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

1/4 cup gin

ice

seltzer or water

Muddle mint, cucumber slices and simple syrup in a tall glass.  (Muddling means you squish the ingredients up with a muddling stick in the bottom of the glass.  This bruises the ingredients and releases the oils so the flavors infuse the simple syrup).  Add the lime juice, gin, ice and water or seltzer to fill the glass.  Stir well, allowing the ice a chance to cool down the drink.  When you are done drinking don't forget to eat the cucumber slices.

Pea Shoot Cooler
My own invention dreamed up as a use for the pea shells I hated feeding to my chickens

15 pea shells from fresh peas torn up
10 large fresh mint leaves
1 1/2 Tbsp Simple Syrup (recipe follows)
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/4 cup gin
1/4 - 1/2 cup prosecco
ice
seltzer or water

Muddle the pea shells, mint leaves and simple syrup in a glass.  (Muddling means you squish the ingredients up with a muddling stick in the bottom of the glass.  This bruises the ingredients and releases the oils so the flavors infuse the simple syrup).  Strain the liquid into another tall glass and add lime juice, gin, prosecco, ice and water or seltzer water to fill the glass.  Stir well and allow to chill for a moment before serving or drinking.

Simple Syrup

1 part water
1 part sugar

If you have a cup off water you would use a cup of sugar.  Add the sugar to the water in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.  Turn off the heat.  Now you have simple syrup!

Sour Cherry Raspberry Lime Jam (No Pectin)

Last years sour cherry jam was a success because it set without using commercial pectin, it made a really beautiful translucent jam with preserved cherries suspended within, and many who scored a jar raved about it.  The only problem is my family did not like it.  Turns out we prefer a jam with a more consistent texture and flavor, one where the whole fruit adds body to the whole jam instead of occasional solids floating in jelly.  We are not big jelly eaters and missed the body of the jam having more substance and texture.  Which is fine with me as French preserves are more time and labor intensive requiring multiple steps, fruit straining, simmering etc.  So this year I got to start over after picking 12 pounds of sour cherries at a local orchard.

Last years jam was really just the cherries, so this year I decided to play a little more.  Plus I have a friend with a flat of raspberries at home who I saw in the fields.  So my first inspiration was sour cherry raspberry.  I decided to use lime in place of the usual lemons after seeing raspberry jam recipes made with lime.  Plus my newest summer drink obsession means I have been stock piling limes.  This recipe depends on the pectin in the limes, especially the peels to to gel.  Probably a little easier for the average person to get then unripe green apples.

The results were an unmitigated success.  The boys have enjoyed it drizzled over ice cream and have happily greeted it on toast for 2 mornings in a row without complaining.  Truth be told, after the first breakfast they looked critically at the 4 jars lined up on the counter and told me I needed to make more.  My boys have learned how to judge how many jars of jam they will need to get through a winter.

When I tasted it I was surprised at all the flavors, wondering at first at a subtle background taste I could not place.  Then I remembered the lime, which adds more to the overall taste then the bright acid flavor from lemon juice.  It is tart and sweet with a richness that is addictive.  Plus it set up beautifully with a minimum of hanging over a hot pot in July.  Last summer my kitchen scale broke and has refused to measure in anything other then ounces, or allow me to tare out the weight of anything on top.  I replaced it with a new scale that remembers the previous weight when it turns itself off.  Now as long as I pay attention to when the display goes blank I can slowly weigh cherries as I pit them.  A vast improvement over my old scale where I had to occasionally write down the weight I was at and start over.

Sour Cherry Lime Jam

Note: There is sugar listed twice as it gets added with the raspberries and with the cherries.  I have given conversions from Metric but they are just approximate, I created the recipe using weight.

600 grams [1 1/3 pound] raspberries (mine were frozen, I just put them in the pot still frozen)

200 grams [7/8 cup] granulated sugar

500 grams [1 lb 2 ozs] pitted sour cherries (I have a book that says this is 600 grams or 1 1/3 lbs before pitting, I don't know, I weighed them as I pitted them.  Why measure them twice?)

500 grams [2 1/4 cups] granulated sugar

Juice of 1 lime 2-3 Tbsp (rinds reserved)

Bring raspberries and 200 grams sugar to a simmer, simmer for 5 minutes.  Turn off and allow to cool slightly (I let it cool just long enough to set up my Fruit and Vegetable Strainer).  Set the raspberries aside and combine the pitted cherries, 500 grams sugar and lime juice in a large pan.  Bring up to the simmer and simmer gently for 5 minutes, crushing the cherries with a potato masher as they cook.

Remove the seeds from the raspberries in a food mill, chinois, sieve or a Kitchen Aid attachment. Add the raspberries to the cherries along with the reserved lime peels.  Heat the jam over high heat,  once the fruit is boiling stir constantly until the setting point is reached (this jam was set for me at 220°). You can also do the cold plate test, when you think your jam is set place a small amount on one of the plates in the freezer and place it back in the freezer for several minutes. Test the dollop of jam by pushing it with your finger, if it wrinkles up it is gelled and you can can your jam.  Remove the lime peels from the jam before canning.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe the rims clean with a damp paper towel or cloth and place on 2 piece lids and tighten by hand.  Place filled jars in a water bath canner with water covering the jars by at least 1 inch.  Boil for 10 minutes, when the 10 minutes is completed turn off the heat, remove the lid and leave the jars in the canner for another 5 minutes.  Place the jars on a towel, dish cloth or receiving blanket or a cooling rack, with at least 1 inch between jars. Allow to cool completely, 12 to 24 hours. Once cool take off the bands, test the seal by pushing up on the lid with your thumbs. Any jars that have not sealed properly can be placed in the fridge. Clean the top of the jars, label and store in a cool dry place.