Spiced Peaches, Part 3: Peach Maple Cardamom Jam

This is the third installment of Not Your Grandma's Spiced Peaches.

This Peach Maple Cardamom Jam is one of those rare creations in life where the whole is much, much more incredible than the sum of the parts - even if those parts are pretty darned amazing to start with.
   
Food of the Gods.

Plus!  I didn't use white sugar - only our homemade maple syrup.   Bonus points!  

This is a jam that is fabulous on biscuits, but would be phenomenal as a filling in cakes or as an ice cream topping when you want something that's a bit more exotic than plain peach.

Peach Maple Cardamom Jam

• 3 cups chopped peaches
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/3 cup Dutch Jell All Natural Lite pectin  [or  3 Tablespoons Ball Low Sugar Pectin]
• 1 1/2 cups maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp cardamom

Mix the peaches lemon juice and pectin in a large pot.   Bring to hard rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Boil hard for 1 minute.    Add maple syrup and cardamom.  Stir well and bring back to hard rolling boil, stirring constantly.   Boil hard for 1 minute.   Ladle into jars and process 10 minutes for canning.  Yield 3 pints. 

Note:  I picked up the Dutch Jell All Natural Lite pectin at my local Amish store [Freedom Country Store in Freedom, Indiana].   I like that it comes in bulk.   It gels very well - almost too well.   I'm going to use it with other fruit and let you know how I feel about it later in the season.

Spiced Peaches, Part 2: Peach Chai Jam

Welcome to the second installment of Not Your Grandma's Spiced Peaches.

I've been wanting to use my Chai brew in jam for a while, and peaches were first on my list to use it with.  I figured it would be a nice variation of the traditional spiced peaches.    I was so right. 

It was so good, that now I'm thinking I might try it with plums. 

Also, I might try it with blueberries.

In fact, I might try it with everything.  

Peach Chai Jam has a mellower and more complicated flavor than the typical clove and cinnamon spiced peaches that I'm used to.  This jam is definitely one we're going to put on the 'Must Have in the Pantry' list.


Peach Chai Jam

• 4 cups peaches
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup Robin's Caffeine Free Chai Brew
• 3 Tablespoons Ball Low Sugar Pectin
• 2 cups sugar

Mix the peaches lemon juice, chai brew and pectin in a large pot.   Bring to hard rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Boil hard for 1 minute.    Add sugar.  Stir well and bring back to hard rolling boil, stirring constantly.   Boil hard for 1 minute.   Ladle into jars and process 10 minutes for canning.  Yield 3 pints

Note:  The Chai Brew is just the spicy base that I use to make chai.  Follow the link above to the recipe.   Don't add the milk to the jam, just the concentrated spicy brew.   And yes, you can leave the sugar out.

Not Your Grandma's Spiced Peaches, Part 1: Ginger Peach Jam

It's peach season here.

For the past couple of years we've had access to the peaches on a friend's tree.  This means that we spend days and days peeling and pitting peaches.

And then we spend months and months enjoying peaches in smoothies, pies, jams, etc.

God bless generous friends with peach trees!  Thank you!!

With all those peaches, I decided to do some experimenting with spices in my peach jams this year and I came up with some really great recipes.

Really.  Great.

As in - the finished products are likely to cause you to break out in the singing of spontaneous Halleluias.  I'm totally not kidding.   

These are not your grandma's spiced peaches.

This is what I made:

• Ginger Peach Jam
• Peach Chai Jam
• Peach Maple Cardamom Jam

So, over the next few days, I'll give you the details.

The delicious, mouth-watering, halleluia inspiring details.  

I'll start here with the simplest of the spiced jams.  Ginger Peach Jam is made with chopped candied ginger.  If you make the candied ginger yourself, then you can use your ginger sugar for this jam.    It's really good!   So good, that you just might consider trying to make some.

Ginger Peach Jam

• 4 cups peaches
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/3 cup Dutch Jell All Natural Lite Pectin OR 3 Tablespoons Ball Low Sugar Pectin
• 1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 cup ginger sugar
• 1 cup white sugar

Mix the peaches lemon juice and pectin in a large pot.   Bring to hard rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Boil hard for 1 minute.    Add sugars and ginger.  Stir well and bring back to hard rolling boil, stirring constantly.   Boil hard for 1 minute.   Ladle into jars and process 10 minutes for canning.  Yield ~3 pints

Note:  If you don't make your own crystallized ginger, try to get it from a bulk store and then make sure you collect about a cup's worth of the sugar that falls off the ginger and collects in the bottom of the bin.   If you don't have access to ginger sugar, don't worry about it.   Use 2 cups of plain white sugar.  It'll still be great.

Pomanders

One of the great joys of this season for me is pomanders.    I love them.   I love them with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.   Suns which I am desperate to see during this, the darkest part of the year.  

Pomanders smell great, they're easy to make and they last as long as they stay dry.


What you need: 

• fruit:  oranges, clementines, kumquats, apples, lemons, etc.
• whole cloves
• pointed toothpicks, skewers, etc. to poke the holes in the fruit
• powdered spices:  cloves, allspice, cinnamon, orris root

Use the skewer to poke holes in the fruit.  Leave a bit of space between the holes.   [As the fruit dries, it will shrink and the holes will get closer together.]  The fruit will ooze and get you all sticky.    That's part of the fun.  You'll smell great for days.

Put a clove in each hole.  

Smell the divine aroma!

When you've covered the fruit with cloves, sprinkle them all over with powdered spices.   I use equal amounts of ground cloves, allspice, cinnamon and orris root.   Use what you have.  Don't worry if you don't have orris root. 

Cover the pomanders completely with the spices.   They'll help dry the whole thing out.

Over the next few weeks, the pomanders will dry out and become hard.

Put them in an attractive bowl or arrangement and remember to turn them over every day or so to help them dry evenly.   

These stay good through the winter here in the Midwest.    I toss them out when I do my spring cleaning in March, which is when things start getting wet and humid around here again.

Robin's Caffeine Free Chai

I  love chai.   I once had a huge cup of really good chai from a Starbucks at a rest stop somewhere in Pennsylvania on the way back from Philly to Indiana.   It was delicious.   It also had so much caffeine that I could have run beside the car all the way across Ohio.  

Oh. My.   I had the shakes for days. 

I generally don't need artificial stimulants to keep me going.  Ever.   I tend to be a bit like the energizer bunny by nature.   Also, I'm hyper-thyroid.    Caffeine is something I avoid. 

Unfortunately, real chai is made with black tea.   Black tea is full of caffeine.  

A dilemma!  I love chai.  I hate caffeine.   So I made it my mission to brew a terrific chai without the tea.

And I did.  It's fabulous.  If I do say so myself. 

Here's the recipe.   You make it as mild or strong as you like and as sweet [or not] as you like.   I designed it so you can keep it for a while and make it a mug full at a time as you need to.  Brew some for yourself and sit back for the rest of the weekend and soak up some calm to get you through the next few weeks. 

This will make two quarts of chai.  

Robin's Caffeine Free Chai

• 1 star anise
• 20-24 whole cloves
• 12-14 whole alspice
• 2 heaping teaspoons of broken cinnamon bark [or thereabouts]
• 12-14 whole white peppercorns
• 6 green cardamom pods, opened so the seeds can come out
• 2 inches ginger root, sliced
• 1 quart of water
• 1/4 cup sugar [or more to taste]

Put all the spices in a pot with the water and simmer for 20 minutes or so.  

If you like it mild, then strain the spices out.   Add the sugar and add enough water to make a full quart.  To serve, add equal parts chai and milk to a mug. If you're not using it all right away, then keep the extras in the fridge in a jar.

If you like it stronger, then leave the spices in the brew.   Pour it into a jar and add the sugar.   Add enough water to fill up the quart.  Keep the jar in the fridge.  It'll get stronger as it sits.   When it's good and strong, I put 1/4 cup of the brew in a mug, add a 1/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk, then nuke it all until it's good and hot. 

Easy Herbs for Pork

Here is another meat rub that we love, love, love.

It's my very favorite way to fix pork shoulder chops or even a larger pork roast.

As I did with the Chicken Rub recipe, I've given you a single use version and a bulk version.

Enjoy!

P.S.  Don't freak out about the mustard thing.   It won't taste like you poured French's yellow all over it.  Trust me!    It's not really spicy at all.    Try it once before you pass judgement.

Pork Rub - single use

• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 Tablespoon  mustard powder
• 2 teaspoons rosemary powder

Pork Rub - bulk

• 1 1/2 cups salt
• 2 cups mustard powder
• 1 1/2 cups rosemary powder

Stir it up well and rub it on the meat.    Don't worry too much about the proportions.   It'll taste great!

Easy Herbs for Chicken

I love this herb mix.    Whenever we bake a chicken, we cover it in this stuff.   We also put a couple of spoons full into our chicken stock.   Yum!

It's quick.   It's easy.  It doesn't call for exotic ingredients.

Whew.  I'm so glad.   I can't deal with exotic right now.

I've given you two recipes - one for a single use on chicken or in soup and one that's a bulk recipe.   

Chicken Rub - Single Chicken

• 1 Tablespoon dried crushed rosemary
• 1 Tablespoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 Tablespoon [1 1/2 tsp] salt

Chicken Rub - Bulk recipe

• 4 oz dried thyme leaves
• 4 oz dried crushed rosemary
• 1 cup salt

Stir it all up and use it on chicken [or turkey!] or in soup.  You can make these without the salt.    Don't worry if the proportions aren't exactly right.   Everything will still taste good.  

To put it on a chicken, pour the herb mix in your hand and rub it all over the chicken.   You can try to sprinkle it, but it doesn't stick all that well unless you get up close and personal.