Thursday, September 23, 2010

Tomato Jam

In addition to all the solar cooked tomato largesse, I made these four tiny jars of tomato jam.


The recipe is Mark Bittman's, and it is divine. Truly.

I got the idea from a little deli in South Portland that has a sandwich with pesto, fresh mozzarella and some sort of substance that could only be described as tomato jam. So I looked it up, and there was a recipe right there in the New York Times.

I told a friend about it and she thought it would be good with cream cheese on crackers, so for a little get-together with my knitting buddies, I made some nutty crackers and some yogurt cheese (I did want to make real cream cheese, to get started on my autumn to-do list, but didn't have all the necessary ingredients) and placed a dollop of jam on top.

Yummy.

I have this weird thing about liking to make a whole meal from scratch...I have visions of some day making a spanikopita from homemade filo dough, with home-grown spinach and homemade feta. I know it will never happen (I would never, ever have the patience to roll out filo), but the idea of the gritty authenticity of having to make it all appeals to me in a weird way. My crackers were on the dry, abrasive side and my yogurt cheese a little grainy a tad too tart, but the overall effect...so satisfying. I know...weird.

4 comments:

  1. Andrea, it's not weird, at all. I have found that the more I learn to cook from scratch, the more irritated I am by the things that I don't cook from scratch. I guess saying that "out loud" does sound a little absurd. A week or so ago I made some delicious homemade marinara (a staple here) and divine homemade meatballs, and we ate the meal with homemade bread and veggies with homemade vinaigrette. And...it's like I could taste the fact that the pasta wasn't homemade and was marring the meal. It does seem totally weird now that I think about it because I've NEVER in my life made homemade pasta, and I've always tolerated store-bought just fine. But somehow having it stick out like a sore thumb in that otherwise homemade meal was a major irritation.

    Whew, that was a comment. You have a kindred food spirit here.

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  2. not weird. pretty great, actually.

    THIS is the winter I will learn to make cheese!

    And I will remember the tomato jelly for next summer when I am trying to get rid of all of our tomatoes!

    Yum.

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  3. I just want you to send me some of that jam.

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  4. Looks divine and I love that plate!

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