A couple of weeks ago, I spent the weekend making three pints of Momma's Mango BBQ sauce and three quarts of venison sausage chili.
That's venison hunted by one friend, made in to sausage by another, and then given to me to make chili from my little brother's recipe, which includes fresh local sweet corn and tomatoes. I kind of can't wait for a cool nigh when I'm too busy to cook because this beautiful chili will be waiting for me. The BBQ sauce is less exciting. It's my mom's tried and true recipe, which I make and can periodically because it's fantastic on just about anything you can throw on the grill. Chicken, pork, shrimp all taste like this sauce was made for them.
Part 3: Enough with the jam already
Tuesday morning, I was on my way in to work when I got a text message. According to facebook, our favorite farm stand (yes, the farm stand is on facebook, and yes, I "like" it) had a special on peaches: half a bushel of "cooking peaches" for $5, while supplies last. I didn't know what I was going to do with half a bushel of peaches, but for $5, I decided to act quickly and figure it out later. I got them home that afternoon and decided that they definitely looked like they'd live up to the name "cooking peaches", which means that they weren't much to look at, maybe a bit bruised, but still good. Most of them were a little under ripe, so I'd have a few days to brainstorm, and I'd make jam if nothing else struck me. I'd start by making a crisp with the ripest ones. There really aren't a lot of fruits that I wouldn't like to bake into a crisp. Melons, citrus fruits, and bananas are out, but pretty much everything else is fantastic in a crisp. Then I cut into the first peach. It was a white peach, they all were. Now, there's nothing particularly wrong with white peaches. It's just that their flavor is quite a bit more delicate than that of yellow peaches, more like a pear than a peach really. I crisped them up, and it was delicious, but definitely not as peachy as I'd expected. But more importantly, definitely not a color that would be appetizing in jam form. So I thought, maybe I had a few strawberries left in the freezer that I could add for some color. But no, J had eaten them. Then I checked the bushes at work for a few late blackberries. No luck there either. I was considering just slicing them up and freezing them for future crisps or pies, but was worried that I didn't really have the freezer space for that. Finally, yesterday at the farmers market, I found the most beautiful red raspberries. I added about a cup and a half of strained red raspberry puree to each of two batches of peach jam, and it turned the most beautiful bright red. And the flavor is most definitely greater than the sum of it's parts.
And now, I think I'm done, except perhaps for some apple sauce in the fall. My corner cabinet is straining under the weight of all of my jam, and if you find yourself trying to fend off scurvy, I'm your girl.
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