Tomato Orange Marmalade

My addiction to canning began 7 years ago with this recipe, all that I love about canning is present in tomato orange marmalade.  It is a product that is inaccessible if you do not make it yourself, one that looks beautiful cooling on your counters for weeks longer then necessary, an enjoyable almost meditative cooking process and of course a flavor that is well worth all the time you invest in it.  The flavor is one that provides a bright sweet flavor to a long winter of stored root vegetables.  I was recently asked what compelled me to make this recipe when I first saw, tomato is not well known as a sweet preserve and many would not even try it.  Honestly I do not remember, it may have been my love of tomatoes, or the way I was imagining it would taste in my head or just an adventurous streak.  Although we should remember that tomatoes are a fruit, so really it should be less of a mental leap then making a tasty dessert with rhubarb, which is a vegetable.

I ended up making Tomato Orange Marmalade in my No Added Pectin Jam Making Workshop last Saturday and I think it is safe to say it surprised all the participants.  Everyone immediately fell in love with it.  One attendee said, "This is my new favorite thing."  A sentiment I fully understand as it is a spread that is just the right side of sweet to be perfect spread on toast or filling a French crepe, but would also be happy paired with chevre.  The tomatoes serve to balance the citrus and temper the bitterness that is usually so prevalent in marmalade.  In the end I think everyone was happy that I called it in to pinch hit for the seedless raspberry jam I originally had planned.

Raspberry jam seemed perfect to teach now as the season was just beginning, giving the participants plenty of time to make it on their own before the season was over.  However I failed to think through the nature of farming and availability.  I was happily remembering picking fall raspberries in the height of the season, when you can take less then thirty minutes to fill a flat with berries.  However this is the start of the fall raspberry season and the picking is frustrating at best.  So in the end I had enough local raspberries to make a batch in my workshop but not enough to swap in and out various steps like a Food Network Star.

In case I have not sufficiently piqued your interest to try this marmalade recipe perhaps my eight year old's undying love for it can persuade you.  This has been Sebastian's favorite since he was 3, the year I ran out mid winter and unable to imagine his diet without it found out a quart jar of home canned crushed tomatoes would work in the recipe.  Every time Sebastian introduces someone to it and they fall in love it makes his day.  He loves knowing that other people have discovered one of his favorite culinary joys.  If you do try this please let me know in the comments, I know he will love to read them.

Tomato Orange Marmalade
Adapted from Gourmet 2003

It is important that you use the best quality tomatoes you can for this recipe.  You can use any color of tomato you want, a mix is especially striking.  Don't use paste tomatoes as they do not have enough liquid in them.  If need be in winter you can make a batch using 1 quart jar of home canned crushed tomatoes.  However supermarket tomato look alikes will not work.  A friend tried that once and when I asked how it was she replied, "Well... I ate it."  Which meant no one else would.



3 pounds peeled, cored and chopped ripe heirloom tomatoes, including juices (the weight is after peeling, coring and chopping, including the weight of any juices)
3 cups sugar
2 organic juice oranges, washed
1 organic lemon, washed
1/8 tsp salt

Place peeled, chopped tomatoes and their juices in a 5 to 6 qt or larger, wide pot, (the ingredients will all fit in a smaller pot but you need to leave space so they will not bubble over, ideally it should be at least 9 1/2 inches wide to encourage rapid evaporation).  Slice oranges and lemons as thinly as possible, including peel and pith.  I slice mine on my mandolin using the thinest insert and then remove all the seeds and slice the rounds into 4 pieces (and the pieces that are only peel I julienne, you can also quarter the fruit and then slice it as thinly as possible with a knife.

Place the lemon and orange slices in the pan with the tomatoes, checking again for any citrus pits you missed, in the pot with the tomato.  Add the sugar and salt and place over moderate heat while stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.  Turn the heat to high and continue to cook until the setting point is reached.*

Using a canning funnel ladle hot marmalade into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Run a bubble wand or small knife around the inside of the jar to remove air bubbles.  Use a damp paper towel to clean the surface of the rims, place a clean lid on top, add the rings and tighten as tightly as you can with your hands.  Place the filled jars in a water bath canner and process for 10 minutes.  After the 10 minutes is up remove the lid, turn off the heat and leave to rest for 5 minutes before removing the jars to cool on a towel or receiving blanket.

*How to test the setting point of jam:
This recipe is a great one to learn how to make preserves without added pectin as it gives you a visual cue when to begin testing.  At first the ingredients all look like separate items, tomatoes, juice and citrus slices.  I never begin to test this recipe until the ingredients take on a cohesive look, like they are all one product and most of the liquid is evaporated.  When making jam do not expect it to look like jam when it is still hot, hot jam is still a liquid unless you have moved beyond the gel stage and gotten to the cement stage.

Once it begins to look cohesive begin testing, for this recipe I rely almost exclusively on the cold plate test.  I place 2 saucers in the freezer and when I want to test the set I place a dollop on the plate, remove the marmalade from the heat, and place the plate in the fridge.  After a few minutes check the plate, the marmalade should remain in a mound that does not run if it is done, if you run your finger through it it should leave a line.  If you want a firmer set it should wrinkle before your finger if you push the mound, I personally prefer a softer set then that with this one.

If you do not trust your set testing abilities do the cold plate test and when you think it is set take the pot off the heat, place it in the fridge and test the set the next morning.  If it is set heat it back up to boiling before ladling into hot jars and canning (the product must be hot to safely can it).

Sour Cream Banana Muffins

The other night I made banana muffins that were so good I just have to share with you. I would give you an actual taste, but now they are just a memory. They were soft with a delicate crumb and a pronounced banana flavor that remained subtle. They weren't overly sweet, which is a little surprising as the original recipe is for a banana cake, not a muffin. I made them to be nice to Lewis who has been putting up with my whining and low grade cooking since the beginning of the year. Tp begin the year I got a miserable cold that morphed into bronchitis. I'm still not totally done with that foul illness, but I have gotten back my will to cook. That really was the most troubling of my symptoms for my family.

Lewis makes breakfast on most weekday mornings and he was wondering what we could have the next morning. I said no to making another loaf of the bread machine bread, which helped us get through the month. So while Lewis read to the boys for bed (we take turns, each reading our own chapter book to them), I scrounged for ingredients in my kitchen and inspiration for muffins. I always have overripe bananas lurking in my freezer (the ones I have are far sorrier looking then the ones in the photo above, they are not really photo worthy). So I perused some of my favorite blogs to see what recipes I could find. For my first real baking in a month I wanted to make something new, not my regular banana bread muffins. Molly at Orangette blogged about this banana cake recipe and as I looked at the ingredients I became hopeful. Hopeful that this cake would be as good as the banana cakes from Eli Zabar's that I fell in love with last time I was in New York. The ingredient list was the same so I forged ahead, making them as individual muffins so I could feel like it was breakfast.

The resulting muffin was just what I was looking for, although happily not as sweet as the cake from Eli Zabar's. If I am going to bake a cake as muffins and serve them for breakfast it is better if they aren't sticky sweet. I may in the future try them with less butter and sugar but really I will probably just bake them up following this same recipe. I wouldn't want to waste perfectly good ingredients or my time in the kitchen on a botched rendition. At least I added whole wheat flour.

Sour Cream Banana Muffins

Adapted from Orangette and Gourmet

1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 oz's) unsalted butter at room temperature

3/4 cup light brown sugar, not packed, after all I was making muffins and not cake

1 large egg (place the egg in a bowl of warm water until you are ready to use it)

3/4 cup overripe, very brown bananas, puréed (I puréed mine with an immersion blender)

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract (I often up the vanilla extract in recipes, it makes them subtly better)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt (I used Kosher)

3/4 cup white whole wheat or whole whet pastry flour

3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

Place the oven rack in the middle position and preheat to 350° Fahrenheit. Line muffin tins with 12 liners and set aside.

Beat the butter and brown sugar in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high speed. The mixture should be pale and fluffy, stop and scrape down the bowl as necessary. Add the egg and mix until well combined, then add the banana purée, sour cream and vanilla extract. Mix to combine well and add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix before adding the flours and mixing on low speed. Make sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and mixing one final time, although mix only until combined to prevent overmixing (if you mix to much the flour will form gluten strands and the muffins will be tough).

Divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin cups and bake in the center of the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean (It can be moist from the butter but there should be no batter). Allow to cool in muffin tins, store in an airtight container. These go especially well with a strong cup of coffee, although Julian didn't seem to mind them without coffee. Sebastian didn't like them, but he didn't like the cake from EAT either.

Braised Pork on Om-nom-nomnivore

For my most recent adventures in the kitchen you will need to head over to Om-nom-nomnivore and my post on Pork Loin Braised in Milk. This is part of their week long salute to swine flu.

Now that I have directed you to that post I can go back to sitting shiva for Gourmet magazine. Gourmet has been my go to magazine for many years now and I am deeply saddened to lose it. Without Gourmet I would never have begun my localvore focus that began for me with the article they ran by Bill Mckibben when he ate only locally produced items for 9 months. Time to go drown my sorrows in leftover pork.

-Robin