Mass Horticulture class will celebrate summer’s fruit with a class preparing and canning the ripest berries of the summer

Learn how to make delicious jam and demonstrate and explore other ways to enjoy the jam that you will take home to use

 This class will take place at the Cambridge River St Whole Foods.

For more info click here!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013 from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM!

Bully Boy Distillers and Bonnie’s Jams, two artisanal New England purveyors, are partnering with leading mixologists for a special event featuring springtime jam cocktails.

A growing trend in the cocktail scene, these jam cocktails incorporate bright spring flavors such as peach, strawberry and rhubarb without resorting to artificial flavorings or heavy syrups. 

Guests will enjoy passed apps and two cocktails prepared by bartenders from Russell House Tavern and Island Creek Oyster Bar with an opportunity to meet Bully Boy founders Will and Dave Willis and Bonnie Shershow of Bonnie’s Jams.

For more details click here!

Mon, June 3, 2013 at 10AM  Jam Session! Summer Preserves with Bonnie’s Jams

The exact origin of jam remains a matter of historical debate; however, from the Crusaders to Louis XIV to the DIY hipsters across the bridge, jams have enjoyed a rich and delicious history all over the world for many centuries. Now, thanks to the growing interest in preserving seasonal ingredients, attention to food waste, and availability of lots of beautiful glass jars and labels, jam-making is more popular than ever. Learn from a pro in this delicious class and take home some of your own jam!

I love a really good roast fish dish and a touch of apricot orange jam makes this dish sublime.  Some nice juicy hunk of white fish works best for me with a saute of vegetables to place on top and keep the juices inside the fish.  This dish is almost as good as roast chicken on a cold snowy New England day.

I look for a thick white fish.  Cod is now endangered and sea bass is usually really expensive.  I was lucky and found a nice piece of haddock at my favorite fish store – Courthouse fish.  I always  consult with Eddie the monger-in-charge who helps choose the best shiniest piece.

I made this dish a few years ago and the Washington Post published it.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup sliced white onion
1 cup sliced fennel
1 cup red or yellow cherry tomatoes cut in two
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 jar apricot orange jam
1 lb white fish
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onions in 1/4 cup olive oil until soft.  Add the fennel and the remaining 1/4 cup of the olive oil and continue cooking until both are soft and beginning to brown and  caramelize.  

When the mixture is golden toss in the cherry tomatoes and cook for 3 – 4 minutes. 

Add the jam and mix.

Dribble some olive oil in the bottom of a pan that just fits the fish.  Lay the fish in the pan and spread with the vegetable jam mixture.

Add sliced oranges on the top and bake at 400 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes or until the fish flakes easily.

Out of the oven, the fish is beautiful and ready to present.

Soup is the only answer to the holiday binging.  And a vegetable soup must restore some semblance of health and balance.  Right? Even without flax or Chia or any other supplemental nutrient?  The vegetables are nutrients themselves – right? Sometimes size does matter.  My friend Bob likes the vegetables in soup the size that Campbells soup dictated.  I like them in chunks determined by my Eastern European heritage and grandparents who liked them looking hearty and meaty even though the meat was missing.

I even took a photo of them pre-diced and souped up.

Gorgeous morsels.

Here is my so-called recipe:

Everything Vegetable Soup

• Onions – 1 or 2 cut in small chunks
• potatoes – one large cut up or some small potatoes such as fingerlings cut in half
• Carrots – 2 or 3 cut up
• Parsnips – 2 or 3 cut up
• Turnip in chunks
• Swiss chard/spinach/kale cut up
• Green beans cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• Zucchini in 1 inch chunks
• salt and pepper
• bay leaf or thyme (optional)
• (pasta such as macaroni or small shells)
• (olive oil)
• (Parmesan cheese)

Using a large soup pot, put the first 3 vegetables into the pot – the onions, carrots, parsnips, potatoes and turnips and cover with water. Add another  8 inches that will cover the remaining vegetables when they are added.  Cook the vegetables slowly over a low heat for about 45 minutes.  Add the rest of vegetables and cook until they are soft and tender.  Add the salt and pepper and herbs if you are using them and continue cooking for about 10 minutes.

If you want to make this soup somewhat Italian, add some tomatoes, cannelloni beans when you add the softer vegetables.  Cook the pasta separately and add when the soup has finished cooking.  

When the soup is served, serve the olive oil and Parmesan cheese in bowls for diners to add to taste.

Did you notice this recipe has nothing to do with jam?  That can come for dessert in the form of cookies.……..

These excellent cookies appeared in a blog by Ken Rivard and Jody Adams – They used my Apricot Orange, Black & Blue and Raspberry Lime Jam.  So proud!!

Or Cheese and Jam:

Did you notice that Thanksgiving is mostly white, brown, and beige? This year I am choosing to make the part of the meal that adds the spark of color.

I usually have the annual feast at my house but with my daughter in San Francisco and my son in Beijing I wasn’t in the mood.  I wrangled an invitation to a long-time friends’ house and that came with feeling the need to contribute to the feast.  Relegated to the edges – no turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy etc – I took up the task of the less starring food roles but also  an opportunity to add to spectrum of color.  I held out for my favorites – a cranberry relish and roasted brussel sprouts with walnuts – I like the slight crunch of the walnuts next to the slightly softer brussel sprouts.  

Notice the colors? Red and green. Colors that get big play in a couple of weeks.

CRANBERRY RELISH

One orange preferably Valencia
16 oz fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cup sugar or to taste

I buy the cranberries almost anywhere and in any form – bagged or boxed.  Since these little morsels are born in New England not far from my house, I know they are fresh.

I use a cuisinart to chop both the cranberries and the orange.  I have a bias for Valencia oranges because those are the variety that grew around my house when I was a child in California and because I like their lemony orange flavor.

I begin with the orange and I mash it quite a bit.

Next I add the cranberries.  I stop and start the cuisinart and try to make the chunks into about 1/4 inch pieces.

I finally add the sugar mixing it into the chopped fruit.  The sugar will melt and form some liquid.

Because I am use to putting things in jars, I put the cranberry sauce in canning jars and store them in the refrigerator where they can last at least a month.

ROASTED BRUSSEL SPROUTS WITH WALNUTS

2 lb brussel sprouts

1 cup walnut halves

1/3 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350

Trim the brown end off of the brussel sprouts and cut in half if very large or leave whole. Blanch in boiling water for 3 – 4 minutes.  Remove from water and place in baking pan with walnuts.  Drizzle olive oil over the vegetable and nuts and toss so that both are covered with the oil.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in oven.  

Shake the pan after 10 minutes cook for 10 more and toss again.  

When complete here’s how it looks.

Jammy Baked Apples for two.

 The weather in Boston turned cold suddenly.  I was under the happy illusion that we would continue with balmy summery days.  Until now.  So with apples at the farmer’s markets and a move towards baking mixing up some concoction to bake my haul from the market was a natural.  And with jam on hand and my love of tree nuts I came up with a delicious sweet and warm baked apple.

Preheat oven to 350.

Ingredients: 

• 2 Large firm apples (Cortland and Baldwins are good choices)
• 1/3 cup of Peach ginger or apricot orange jam
• 1/3 cup Walnuts
• Butter to taste

Peel the top of the apples and core. 

Place apples in baking pan large enough to hold the apples. 

Spread with jam, top with walnuts and lay slices of butter on top.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the topping is bubbling and the apples are soft.

Cool slightly and serve.

The apples are delicious as is but a little ice cream or heavy cream elevates the consistency and taste just enough!

Decadent Jam Martini – Bonnie’s Black & Blue

A little decadence is a good thing. Keeps life interesting. But when I think about jam that word does not come into play. Until now. California, the leader in all areas nouveau, is brimming with jam martinis. And I happen to be a fan of both – a good martini and my home state of California.  I am hoping to work with the Bully Boy distillers and come up with a vodka martini. In the meantime here is my Black & Blue martini served straight up and chilled until a little ice forms on the top of the mixture. Or is it that I just like the glass?

Black & Blue martini recipe

one martini:

• 3 oz gin or vodka
• 1 1/4 oz dry vermouth
• 1 tablespoon jam

Place ice in martini shaker.

Mix ingredients in glass,

Then pour over ice in shaker. Shake it up.

Then pour into chilled glasses.

JAM FILLED MUFFINS

I love surprises. Let me change that.  I love good surprises.  And when a surprise is food related I can’t say enough to cheer about it.  Some time ago a blogger created a muffin filled with my Black & Blue jam and the creation stuck.  I now make these filled beauties (sometimes with Black & Blue and sometimes with another flavor – here I used Apricot Orange) on many Sunday mornings when the weather begins to turn cool in the fall and  I continue right through the winter until the warm weather drives me outdoors.

So here it is a step by step.  I suggest making the muffins with a little ballast with the addition of a little corn meal.  A pure corn muffin will do too but just adding a little replacing a bit of flour works to keep the muffin “cakey” and delectable.

A warning about making the muffin batter: don’t over mix! Mix the wet and dry ingredients together very briefly so the batter will turn into a light airy confection.

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Butter Muffin tin or line with paper.

•  1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup corn meal
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 jar jam (8 oz)
• (optional: 1/3 cup sugar mixed with 2 tablespoons cinnamon)

Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Mix milk, eggs and melted butter together very briefly – a few lumps may remain.

Note the eggs – here is a little attention to my local egg source that I buy at Sofra Anna Sortun’s excellent little outpost a couple of miles from my house/kitchen.

Place one to two heaping tablespoon of dough into the muffin tin. 

Depress the mixture a little and add a tablespoon of your favorite jam onto the hollow of the dough. 

Lightly lay the final layer of batter on top of the jam to just below the rim of the tin. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if used.

Continue this to fill in the rest of the tin.

Bake until golden and the mixture springs back slightly when pressed – about 25 minutes.

The inside’s should look like this.

 Enjoy!

Raspberry  Jam Crostata (Tart)

I can’t explain why but I love making a crostata.  I even enjoy making the crust that becomes the platform for jam and I have to admit to an abundance of jam on hand for almost any cooking extravaganza. I guess part of the fun is the reaction by anyone who gets in on the presentation. The funny thing is that a crostata is one of the easiest of impressive desserts. In Italy a crostata is served in the morning with coffee and sometimes at the end of the day for a late afternoon sugary lift. Here is the recipe and you can see by the photo how very impressive this little dessert can be. This raspberry lime tart – called a crostata in Italy – is as good for dinner as it is the next morning for a holiday breakfast with steaming cups of coffee or tea.

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick and 3 tablespoons butter, chilled
• 1/3 cup ice water
• 1 1/2 jars jam

Set oven to 350

Place the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and mix for 2 seconds.  Add the butter cut in chunks and turn the processor on and off until mixture resembles corn meal – about 20 to 30 seconds.  With the processor on add the water in a steady stream until it clumps – about 15 – 20 seconds.  Remove and form into a disk about 5 inches across, wrap in plastic and rest in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.  

To assemble the tart roll the dough until 1/4 inch thin, cut a circle to fit  and lay in tart pan. Spread with 1 and 1/2 jars of jam.  Make a  a criss-cross design with strips of the dough on top of jam.  Place in oven and bake until crust is a light golden brown.

The key to perfect dough is keeping all the ingredients really cold.  I never touch the dough and roll it on a marble slab with a marble rolling pin.  After I roll the dough for the base of the tart, I slip it into the freezer while I make the strips for the top.  I then take it out, spread a jar and a half of the jam (oops only gave you one jar – you can make a two flavor tart and spread half with the Raspberry Lime, and half with the peach Ginger) and lay the strips on quickly then put it into the oven .

When fully baked it should look like this.

And tastes like this. Yum!