Sweet and Savory Easy Jam Recipes

thegardendiaries

3 years ago

When you have oodles of tomatoes coming in every day, I had to do something with them besides sauce. There is only so much sauce I can use throughout the year. So, I tried 2 recipes, one for heirloom tomatoes, mostly red, and the other for yellow grape tomatoes which had a banner year in my garden.

Use any variety of tomato for this jam – the riper, the better

Yes, yes, I know tomatoes and jam is an oxymoron, but when I spotted a recipe for tomato jam that included chocolate, I was hooked. After all, I had tasted and enjoyed tomato sorbet which is another sweet treatment for my favorite garden edible, so I was willing to give jam a try. To clinch the matter, the recipe called for 5 pounds of tomatoes which would put a dent in my accumulated stores on my kitchen counter.

The recipe that I found called for Black Brandywine tomatoes. I did not grow that variety this year, so just used the various varieties that I had on hand.

An immersion blender is the easiest and fastest way to create a smooth consistency before you start to cook them in a Dutch oven on the stovetop. And it saves considerably on cleanup. If you don’t have one, you could easily use a blender or food processor, but put an immersion blender on your Christmas list as it will make your cooking life sooo much easier.

The Recipe for Red Tomato Jam

After roasting, use an immersion blender to make it smooth

I didn’t have a block of bittersweet chocolate so threw in some chocolate chips

I used my jam on freshly fried corn fritters and it was delicious! I want to try a big dollop on a brie wheel for the ultimate appetizer.

The Recipe for Yellow Tomato and Basil Jam

I also had a bumper crop of Blue BumbleBee tomatoes this year. Here is the description from Baker Creek Seeds: “Superior breeding efforts have resulted in one of the most delectable and color-saturated tomatoes we have seen! Plants produce bunches of 2-inch globes, round and brilliant blue, maturing to a golden yellow with blue shoulders. This newer variety was introduced by J and L Gardens and is a cross between the famously sugary Amy’s Sugar Gem and the antioxidant-rich OSU Blue tomato. It is perfect to snack on or for salads and should be a centerpiece for market displays!

A centerpiece indeed! This was quite a beautiful one and I could see placing a bowl of them freshly picked as decoration for your table.

I was literally picking baskets of Blue Bumblebees every few days. They are delicious raw in salads and other dishes, but I had too many to eat. So, I found this jam recipe and made 3 batches to last through the winter. They are incredibly easy to pick as an entire truss of the tomatoes would ripen at once, and I simply sliced off the entire bunch.