Five Star Recipe

I take inspiration from many places for the foods I decide to cook. I read cookbooks like novels. I enjoy learning about the past and the cutting edge, differences in food based on culture, climate and economy. Let’s face it though, the best way to get inspired by food is to have tried something, somewhere and have that “WOW, what the heck is that?” moment.

That happened some time ago at a place in Salem, Oregon, called The Ram, a restaurant/brewery that we really like but seldom actually visit. I had a hankering for a burger and I was intrigued when I saw it had something called Tomato Jam on it. I’d never heard of this concept and certainly hadn’t tried it, well that was it, I had to order that one. Sweet, tangy, a little spice, chunky, a refined ketchup? Not really. A salsa? Not like any I’d ever had. This was new, and kind of exciting. My mother-in-law was with us that day and she had a similar reaction. In fact, she made this concept a reality far before I did in her kitchen.

On another outing, my wife and I were visiting a favorite local restaurant, Cellar Cat, and we saw tomato jam on yet another menu. Burgers weren’t on the horizon for me on this day but I asked our great server if I could taste the jam, she was happy to run back in the kitchen and grab a little sample. Again, something completely new. Like nothing else I’d tried before. A quick confession, I’ve meant to write about this for so long, I don’t honestly remember which experience happened first. Regardless of which came first, I knew one thing, when I had fresh garden tomatoes, I was making this magical new condiment.

So, skip forward to last month. Tomatoes coming on heavy, two batches of tomato sauce and one batch of bloody mary mix already completed. Honestly, I was getting tired of processing tomatoes but then I remembered! Re-energized, I went on a hunt, a strange, strange hunt. I went through cookbooks new and old, I scoured the interweb, there were dozens of fairly unique versions of this recipe. I thought back to that experience at The Ram, what did I like most about it? I loved the texture, I loved the sweet, the tang, the spices but it wasn’t spicy hot. Many of the recipes that I’d found used dried chile flakes of one type or another but I didn’t want that type of hot spice, Sriracha would take over the other subtle flavors, what’s a boy to do? Then, I came across a recipe on Pinterest, shocking I know. Instead of using chiles to get some heat, this one used one of my favorite ingredients, crystallized ginger! The following is the result of “nearly” following this recipe. I wish I could credit the original poster but who can even tell who that is on that site anymore.

Oh, one more peeve before the recipe. I hate, hate, hate when recipes use weight for produce such as tomatoes. I don’t use a kitchen scale, I don’t own a kitchen scale. For god sake, please at least estimate what your weights mean in real terms. For our purposes today, we’ll say that 8 average size Roma/paste tomatoes equals a pound.

On to the recipe.

• 1 ½ lb.Ripe Roma tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped (figure 8 Roma/Paste tomatoes per pound)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 T. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 T. minced crystallized ginger
• 1 t. ground cumin
• ¼ t. ground cinnamon
• ¼ t. ground cloves
• 1 t. salt

To peel the tomatoes easily, bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Cut a slight X on the top of each tomato. Place into the boiling water for about one minute and remove to cool for a few minutes. Once they are cool enough to handle, the skin will peel away easily. Continue to dice into small pieces and remove any end portions of where the tomato was attached to the vine.

Combine all ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of a thick jam, about 1 to 1 ½ hours. Watch carefully so the jam doesn’t burn. You will notice that close to the end of the cooking time, the jam darkens in color. This was my queue to be careful and watch it toward the end. Taste and adjust seasonings, then cool and refrigerate. Will keep, refrigerated, for two weeks. Makes approximately one cup of jam.

I tripled the recipe and ended up water bath canning the results. I placed the jam in hot clean half pint jars with two part lids and processed in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. Let them cool to room temp for 12 to 24 hours, remove the rings and store in a cool dark place.