plum jam (no pectin) - yum!

     plums!  so, last year my first attempt at jam, nectarine jam, was a huge success!  it was so yummy!  so, i am definitely going to be making more of that, but i had also wanted to try making plum jam, however by the time i had got around to it plums were out of season, so, no luck.  this year however i managed to do things in time!  yay!  since the nectarine jam worked so well and i had done all the foot work making my own recipe for that, i decided to use the same info for the plum, with one small adjustment... plums are a bit sweeter (though sometimes their skins can be quite sour!), so i thought i would cut the sugar down a little bit.
     my jam recipe is a ratio, for the nectarines i had it at 0.8c of sugar and for the plums i cut it down to 0.75c, so here it is:

1lb (454g) fruit : 0.75c sugar : 18mL lime juice

     now, i dont really remember where i got the 18mL from, it seems like an odd number, but whatever, just use it for the calculation and then round to the nearest 5mL.  To use the recipe, cut up the amount of fruit you have and weigh it out and then multiply it by the amounts of sugar and lime juice.  (i like using lime, just because.. lemon is just as good)

     i used black plums, i thought i bought red plums, but, nope, 14 of them which ended up being 3.5lbs.  so, to figure out the rest, here is the math [ 3.5 x 0.75 =  2.625c of sugar, 3.5 x 18 = 63mL of lime juice ]  2.625c sugar = 2 1/2 cups + 1/8 cup and 60mL is 1/4c lime juice . (this is a really helpful site: www.onlineconversion.com)

     1.5 limes ended up being enough for the juice (+ a little extra)  be sure to save the peels!  they help with pectin content!  after cutting up all your fruit you put it in a bowl and pour on the sugar and the lime juice and stir it a bit, no need to mix it too much, it is maceration time!  time to let all the natural sugars come out and sweeten your jam and make things juicy!  & stick in those lime peels to help impart some extra pectin while you're at it.  cover the whole mess with a layer of wax paper (or plastic) and leave it in the fridge overnight.

     the next day (or few if you are busy) it should be nice and juicy and ready for jam!

    next you need to drain out the liquid.  (i got about 3 1/3 cups), put it in a pot & place it on the heat.



     you are going to need to bring it to a boil and cook the stuff until it gels.  i tested this batch a whole bunch of times, putting a little bit on a cold spoon or plate in the freezer to cool and seeing if it gels, but i realized after when i made a batch of different jam, that when the stuff starts to foam a bit is a pretty good indication that it is ready!  so, keep that in mind!
     after your liquid has gelled, and it doesnt have to be SUPER gelled, just kinda thick, and the liquid in the pot won't be really thick either, only if you do the gel test.  if you want an indication in the pot then it might be when you run your spoon along the bottom, it will start to leave a trace mark.  i tried to get a picture of this but it was hard.  i realized after that i had a feature on my camera that would have made it easier, but i was not thinking, ugh.  this is the best i could do.

    ANYWAY!  now it is time to add your fruit!

     YUM!~  you now need to bring it up to a boil again.  and cook it a bit longer.

   looks super delicious eh?  but i can't really put this on toast.

     time to start mashing!  you can mash it as much or as little as you want.  i like it chunky so i just mashed it till most of it was mashed but some of the pieces were still intact.  i felt it was pretty thick at this point, so time to jar it & boil this stuff up! 

     boiling times depend on altitude, here it is 10min for 250mL jars i guess, so that is what i did.  this amount of fruit made 5x 250mL jars, one was a little low though, but oh well!  i suppose the amount made might might be a bit different depending on how long you cook it (if you cook longer more liquid will evaporate) and how much you mash it (if you mash it more it will be more condensed and so you will have less). 
     the little bits i tasted while cleaning up were SUPER tasty!  so yummy!  & it is really pretty too!

    the ratio again is:

1lb (454g) fruit : 0.75c sugar : 18mL lime juice

New Fruit - Granadilla

     New fruit! the granadilla or the Passiflora Lingularis which is a type of passionfruit, or in the same family as the passion fruit?  one of those things!

     I have seen them in the fruit store before, but they are always rather expensive.  So, when i saw them on sale for $1 i grabbed one up right away and was super excited!  I have only ever had a passion fruit (a purple passion fruit) once and it was really yummy!  Passion fruit is not a common flavour up here in the cold north.
    

     This fruit is so pretty too!  It has a lovely hard orange outer shell with little spots.  It is larger than the purple passion fruits that i have seen, a bit bigger than fist size maybe?  (but i might have small fists)  Wikipedia says: "The fruit is between 6.5 and 8 cm long and between 5.1 and 7 cm in diameter."  (that is abut 2.5 to 3 inches long and 2 to 2.75 inches in diameter).
    After cutting it open it looked like this:

     Lots of little edible black seeds covered in a sweet translucent flesh.  I do not know how to describe the flavour, but it tasted yum!  I do remember that it tasted somewhat different than the purple passion fruit that I had before, but the flavour was similar.  It was very sweet and fruity!  And the seeds were crunchy and not at all bitter or unpleasant.  I know some people will eat pomegranate seeds along with the fruit around them, but i do not like that at all. 

    I pulled out the seeds into a bowl so that i could eat them while watching some tv and it reviled a pleasant surprise!

     The inside was covered in tiny little tentacles!  Like some sort of strange sea anemone or something!  Fruit anemone!  Fun stuff!
 

New Fruit - Sea Buckthron & Korean Melon

     i have this goal to try new fruits that i have never tasted before!  i do not achieve it very often because i do not often find much new fruits around, especially in the winter time.  i dont drive & so am often unable to shop at a lot of the ethnic stores that might carry some of the more exotic produce as well.  on occasion i do spot something new however & am happy to give it a try!  This was the case yesterday:
     i had planned on getting a super duper yummy sandwich from Swiss to Go, an amazing sandwich place & she makes the best pretzel buns!  However!  when i got there she was out of bread!!!  so, no sandwich for me, boo!  (i am hoping to go again tomorrow!)  She did have some tasty looking pastries left & i thought i would give one a try!  I ended up deciding to get one made with Sea Buckthorn berries!

     they are little yellowish orange berries that have a little seed in them.  They were actually pretty sour on their own but along with the cream & pastry it was really quite tasty!  The tart actually had quite a few of them on top and under the cream, so i got a pretty good taste of them.  ...so, no sandwich, but new fruit experience!  (plus she gave me the tart for free!)

Other new fruit i have had in the not so distant past:

Apriums! -- these are a cross between apricots and plums & apparently quite common, like pluots, but i have never seen them before.  They were dark purple-ish red-ish kinda plum like colour on the surface but also fuzzy like an apricot!  Inside they looked like this:

they were SO red!  and SO JUICY!  they were just dripping when i cut them open, even though the whole fruit was still quite firm.  & they were quite sweet!  very tasty!  I will get them again for sure if i see them.  (well, and if they are not $2.48/lb, that is kinda a ridiculous price, but i wanted to try them!)


Korean Melon

what a pretty looking fruit!  it is a little melon, fits i the palm of your hand.  The inside is white flesh that to me tasted kinda like a cross between a honey dew and a cucumber.  i am afraid that the one i got was a little under ripe.  i should have let it ripen a bit & i think it would have tasted sweeter.  apparently you can eat the seeds too, or so says the internet, but i did not, i am not a big seed eater.  i think i read that you could eat the peel as well?  i did not do that either, but the peel is very thin, unlike say a cantaloupe or honeydew that has more of a rind.  i think i might try one again to taste it when it is fully ripened, i like the idea of a personal sized melon!

the end.