To market, to market. Yesterday I went to Alemany with my friend Maria, and ran into our friend, Marco, who showed us how to make pizza later in the weekend. We bought excellent produce, chatted with our favorite vendors, and got to catch the action at the truck where they sell live chickens and rabbits. Sometimes kids walk through like its a petting zoo.
Winter is fairly short in northern California, but the cool weather is apparent in the offerings at the market: I picked up lovely kale, carrots and sweet potatoes. Other than citrus for marmalades, there are not many winter fruits that lend themselves to jammish endeavors.
I bought guava from an Asian fruit stand, where they were hung up on string to lure shoppers. At the DeSantis stand, I bought lovely calamondin, an Asian citrus with a thin, sweet skin and exceptionally tart interior. Pop the whole thing into your mouth and enjoy.
Confession: I've never had a guava. Like, ever. So when I sliced this guy open and saw the white interior, I was a bit nonplussed. I thought the flesh was red-orange, like on the guava juice labels at my local Mexican super-ette. A little internet research confirmed that there are various types and colors. Who knew?
I used this basic recipe linked above, but substituted about 15 calamondin for the lemon juice. This is the first jam recipe I've seen with brown sugar, so I'm curious about the outcome.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Guava-Calamondin Jam
Sunday, December 2, 2007
What's Good About the Morning?
That's what a vendor at Alemany said, jokingly, to a customer who wished him a good morning. And understandably so: San Francisco mornings are now brisk and gray; the rains are only a few weeks away. Though we may benefit from it, no one looks forward to monsoon season.
It was a good morning, though. Guisell, the wonderful owner of Sabores del Sur, gave me an alfajor, because I looked like I needed it.
The De Santis family stand had lovely, weird citrus fruits, like calamondins, variegated pink lemons (like the one above), and bright orange limes. The sign said "rang pure lime," but I haven't found any references to that name anywhere.
Pickles and Preserves features recipes for a number of weird and old-fashioned fruits: the marmalade chapter alone has recipes that include greengage plums, crab apples, quince, and even calamondins.
I adapted a lime marmalade recipe submitted to Pickles and Preserves by Mrs Everette Rogers of The National Hotel in Leesburg, Florida. Instead of straight lemons and limes, I used orange limes and variegated lemons.
Lime Marmalade
6 large limes
1 lemon
1 cup sugar
Wash fruit, then slice finely with a mandoline, discarding seeds and pieces of pith. Cover with water and boil for 20 minutes.
Measure the mixture and add enough sugar for a 2/1 fruit to sugar ratio; I had about 2 cups of hot fruit, so I added 1 cup of sugar.
Boil over low heat until you reach desired thickness, around 45 minutes. Process in sterilized jars.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Fig jam!
I bought two baskets of organic figs at $5 each and have been following Sean Timberlake's recipe, with a few mods.
Pour boiling water over the figs. Let sit for 15 minutes, then remove the stems and pat dry.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Big Time Weep Fest
Today I'm not interested in writing about what I picked up at the market this morning. It's fall, my favorite season. I am a bit sentimental always, but especially when the weather cools.
Two aspects of my jam project please me especially. One is the time spent with my friends from the Alemany market, especially Marco, Dan and Dan's daughter, whom I met for the first time when she was haggling with a vendor to reduce the price of some sub-par tomatoes.
"Too low! Too low!" the farmer said, shaking a finger. Dan's daughter shrugged and made as if to browse elsewhere until the farmer relented. She is eight, I think, and has a sparkle of wickedness in her eyes.
It delights me to run into them at the market, brag about the deals or exotic produce we've found, and speculate about what we'll turn up next week. I've been able to chat with some wonderful farmers as well, like the lady who sells beautiful little carrots and peonies and the guys who sell the excellent stonefruit.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Quince-Apple Butter
Quince jam or butter recipes can be found in cookery books dating back to the 16th century. Shakespeare mentioned the fruit in his poems and named a character Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Called the "membrillo" in Spain, quince is cooked into a paste and served with Manchego cheese.
This weekend I made a fruit butter with quince, "Pink Lady" and "Cameo" apples from Alemany. While I bought a few organic lemons to throw in just in case, the pectin in quince skin was sufficient to firm the butter without it.
2 large quince
3-5 assorted medium apples
Enough apple cider to cover the fruit
1 cup sugar
Quarter and core the fruit, pour in enough cider to cover it, and boil until soft. Peel off the skins (they should fall away easily) and run through a food mill. Boil a 4:1 pulp/sugar mixture and add any spices you'd like--I put in about 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of cloves. Cook until you reach desired consistency, then process.
Also this weekend I baked rugelach for an open house at my friend Kate's studio, using homemade apricot jam. Early reports indicate success.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Yali Butter
The figs of weeks past were somewhat a disaster. Already a bit overripe when I bought them, slicing and leaving them out overnight resulted in an odd cobwebby coating. I can't explain it, but I sure as hell am not eating it.
Right.
I asked for a sample. It looks and tastes just like an Asian pear, with a firmer bite than a (non Asian? Continental?) pear and a butterscotch-like flavor. I bought two pounds and lugged them home.
So far I've made jams and marmalades but no butters, so I referenced an apple butter recipe by Mrs R D Lea of Chesterfield, VA.
Basically I boiled the peeled, sliced "yali" until about at soft as you'd want mashed potatoes, ran the fruit through a food mill, and then boiled it with sugar, some spices and a bit of vanilla until I liked the texture.
The resulting butter can be as spicy as you like--I used about 2 cups of pulped fruit, one half cup of sugar, and a quarter teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, which gave it a nice kick. I think I might try it warmed over ginger ice cream.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
And...we're back!
This morning I stood at the bus stop in front of the Glen Park BART station with an 80-something-year-old Chinese woman with an empty plaid suitcase. I had my big empty bag. The monitor for Monterey route, to Alemany Market, reported that the bus was coming in 7 minutes. Then 9. Then 34.
The Chinese woman looked at me and raised her eyebrows. I mirrored her gesture. We had enough of this particular brand of shenanigans. Some time between 9 and 34 minutes the bus arrived, and the crowd of market-goers climbed aboard.
Most of the people on the Monterey bus at this time are Asian women with empty vegetable receptacles: suitcases, metal carts, milk crates lashed to wheels. Some are chatty, others are silent during the ten minute ride.
The market is already much different than my last visit three weeks ago. At last sight, the first Asian pears were out. This time I saw four or five varieties. Pumpkin greens are out, and the summer stone fruit is still available, but not at its prime.
For the first time I noticed jujubes at the K+K Farm stand, out of Orange Cove, CA.
Actually, for the first time in my life I noticed jujubes, also called a red or Chinese date. The fruit is sweet, somewhat similar in texture to an apple and can be used, when dried, in soups or teas. I bought a pound and decided to make jujube butter, like apple butter. The jujube is certainly drier than an apple, so I may pair it with another fruit. See the results tomorrow.
Inspired by Sean Timberlake, I also bought plenty of figs to make fig jam. And I ran into my favorite market-goers, including a delightful saleswoman who introduced me to some husked yellow tomatoes.
Details and recipes tomorrow.