Part I: Tomato Jam
My friend's parents "gifted" (i.e. we don't know what to do with all these tomatoes) him with a bounty of tomatoes from their garden when they visited him recently. Being the hip young single that he is, he was all, "I don't need no stinkin' tomatoes," and promptly tried to the fob them off onto me. I was amenable to this since there's nothing I like better than to figure out a way to cook 5 lbs of tomatoes (this is a false statement; I do like some things better). And so it was that I embarked upon this mad mad project, at the end of which I should have four amazingly wonderful tomato dishes.
The first dish I attempted to make was Tomato Jam. I ran across this recipe after my friend asked me to what do with a huge bunch of tomatoes. I first saw it on the Homesick Texan, and found it also on the New York Times website, with a recipe by Mark Bittman. I showed him the link, and then somehow, he decided giving me the tomatoes was the better option. Then, coincidentally enough, a day or two later, one of the constestants on Top Chef DC made a tomato jam as part of one her dishes. It seemed the universe was telling me to make tomato jam, and I'm not about to ignore the universe.
I pretty much followed the recipe on the Homesick Texan, but used green chile peppers instead of chiles de arbol because that's what I had, and added three cloves (fished out at the end). I also used 2 parts lime juice, 1 part vinegar because I ran out of limes, and omitted the lime zest because the lime I did have was very old and uh, the zest seemed dubious at best. I simmered for yonks, and by yonks, I mean an hour and 15 minutes. I couldn't decide if my jam looked glossy yet, but it was nearing 1 AM and I decided I was ready for my jam to be done. I did a little taste test before pouring it into two jars (one for me, and one for my tomato-giving friend). Overall, I liked it the flavor, very tomato-ey with a nice blend of spices, a bit of tang from the lime, but it is quite sweet and that was quite unexpected. However, it does have a great blend of savory and sweet, which I don't often like, so this turned out quite well for me.
I imagine that this would taste quite good with grilled cheese sandwiches, or on chicken or pork. I'll have to reserve final judgement until I've had a taste after it's had a chance to cool and the flavors to mingle. First impressions though? 1 thumb up.
The Final Verdict: After giving the jam a night to cool in the fridge, I woke up this morning and popped it on a piece of bread. The texture is definitely not jammy, and I suspect I either needed more sugar or to cook it for longer. However, the flavor is indeed excellent, and there's room for experimentation, adding other flavors, such as onion, garlic, and playing around with the combo of spices. Overall, I think I would make this again, although not too frequently as I don't have much of a sweet tooth. Toast and jam has never made it into my regular rotation of foods I like to eat, although I do like them occasionally.
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