Blueberry Bay Leaf Quick Jam
We started our holiday weekend with an early morning visit to a local farm for some berry picking. The blueberry bushes were flush with dusky blue berries. With our crates brimming with berries, we headed to the kitchen to develop a jam recipe that would preserve the subtle sweet flavor of blueberries, without the accompanying cloying sweetness that is common to many berry jams. Our Blueberry Bay Leaf Quick Jam is simple to make, small batch, refrigerator style (not canned) jam that is accessible to first time and seasoned jam makers alike. We made this particular jam with one of my uncles', an avid jam eater and aficionado, in mind. This Blueberry Bay Leaf Quick Jam has a soft and graceful texture, excellent for spreading. Paul added a unique twist to the recipe to further preserve the raw blueberry flavor, he combined the potency of a blueberry jelly base with raw berries, resulting in juicy fresh blueberries suspended in a deep magenta preserve. Blueberry Bay Leaf Quick Jam has just the bare minimum amount of sugar allowing for the very fresh blueberry taste to shine, with a subtle woodsy note of bay leaves and Meyer lemon supporting in the background. While our plan had been to bring my uncle a jar of this Blueberry Bay Leaf Quick Jam during an upcoming visit, I'm afraid that at our current rate of consumption, we will have polished off all the jam within a few short days. It is just that good!
Yield: Two 1/2 pint jars and a few extra spoonfuls
Ingredients:
- 1 pint fresh blueberries (about 2 1/2 cups) washed
- 3 tablespoons no-sugar pectin
- 7 tablespoons water
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 Meyer lemon, juiced
Steps:
- Sterilize your canning jars (1/2 pint size) or containers either by immersing them briefly in boiling water or running them on your hot water/sterilize dishwasher cycle.
- Put half of the blueberries in a blender or food processor along with the pectin, water and sugar and blend until the blueberries are well pureed.
- Pour blueberry puree into a small saucepan and add the bay leaves. Turn the heat to medium and whisk constantly until the mixture comes to a rolling boil (3-5 minutes).
- Immediately take off the heat and remove the bay leaves.
- Add the lemon juice and reserved fresh blueberries and stir with a spatula to combine.
- Pour into canning jars, seal and refrigerate immediately. It should be ready to use within 2 hours. This fridge jam will keep 2-3 weeks as long as it is refrigerated. It will most likely be safe to use for longer, but this is the most conservative window for safely using this jam.
Fresh Guava Jam
Hurricane Matthew is churning through the southern Caribbean this weekend, and we can already feel the winds picking up and the temperature falling here in Port-au-Prince. Currently, it looks like the eye-of-the-storm is likely to pass just off the southwestern tip of Haiti, but the damage may be significant. People are bracing for the storm; battening down the hatches and stocking up the larders as they are able. Keep Haiti in your prayers.
One of the new additions to our pantry stock, in addition to some pickled red onions and granola, is Fresh Guava Jam, courtesy of jam making with our staff this week. Rather than traditional Cuban-style guava jam, which relies on long cooking to create a darker caramelized flavor, our Fresh Guava Jam has a bright fresh fruit flavor. It is not too sweet and has a tart bite from fresh squeezed key limes, which balance the warm tropical sweetness of the aromatic guavas.
Buttermilk Popovers with Quick Strawberry Jam
For my father's family, Christmas Eve, Heiliger Abend, is the heart of Christmas. It is a magical dark and cold night, where old hymns are sung by memory in German, acapella, by candlelight. My sister and I would look forward to the special appearance of traditional Christmas sweet and savory foods made by my Oma for Christmas Eve snacking. For Heiliger Abend this year, our young family of three is once again together. We will start new traditions as a family, and borrow from the past. Tonight we will be making my Oma's roast meat filled pastries, fleisch pieroshki with pickles. As a nod to our ravenous little eater's current favorite breakfast, will crank up the oven Christmas morning to make a batch of these airy buttermilk popovers with homemade strawberry jam, before an afternoon Christmas feast with our family. We will be thinking of our family and friends far away this Christmas as we celebrate, Merry Christmas! This recipe is inspired by Jenny Rosenstrach and adapted from King Arthur Flour.
Homemade Blueberry Soda
In less than two weeks, we will be back home in Haiti, with both a chattering toddler and tiny newborn in tow. On my bucket list of foods to enjoy before we leave are the delicious peak-of-summer blueberries that line our local farm stand. So this week I boiled up a batch of blueberry syrup to make into tall frosty glasses of Homemade Blueberry Soda; a thirst quencher on these steamy Indiana days. For more blueberry additions to your cooking, try: Summer Chicken Waldorf Salad, Blueberry Bay Leaf Quick Jam, Hoosier Milk Tarts with Berries, and for a blue tinted breakfast, Blue Corn Griddle Cakes with Lime Butter.
Basil Yogurt Panna Cotta with Blueberries
Panna Cottas are a custard made with cream and gelatin. Panna cottas are deceptively easy and one of our favorite dishes to make for guests throughout the year using different flavorings and variations. Basil Yogurt Panna Cotta with Blueberries is our summer version, one we have made a little tangy with the addition of Greek yogurt and lemon. We originally created this basil Panna cotta as a dessert to bring to a dinner at our friends' house who loves all things Italian and basil. We loved it and have been making it ever since!
If you are in the Pittsburgh area, come down to the Pittsburgh Public Market this Saturday (August 16) between 12-2 pm try a free sample of our Basil Yogurt Panna Cotta with Blueberries and say hi!
Homemade Berry Yogurt Cups
We just got back from a weeklong trip to Canada for my sisters’ wedding, it was a magnificent weekend of celebrations, and we are thrilled to have a new brother-in-law! Driving home yesterday, we realized that in all the wedding festivities, it sort of slipped our minds that we have a food blog to write!
In the meantime, we have been busy cooking and eating summer produce and I wanted to share a simple make-ahead breakfast I have been eating this berry season. It all started with a craving for a decent berry yogurt cup; just a simple cup with plain yogurt and some fresh tasting berry puree that didn’t have the caloric count and saccharine sweetness of an ice cream Sunday. It turned out that this was a tall order! My grocery store hunt yielded a host of unpalatable and over-priced results, so I decided to try my hand at making yogurt cups at home. These Homemade Berry Yogurt Cups are simple to make and delicious to eat, a refreshing summer breakfast on the go.
