Jammin' Wednesday
/Ok, that is an unbelievably cheesy title in that I mean it very literally. I did just make a new jam. One of my food missions this summer has been to construct a blueberry-based jam that remains interesting bite after bite. I love blueberries. I love how pert and tidy they are, I like that they bounce a little bit and roll happily when you drop them (versus the ruinous smush of stone fruits, for example). As I write that, I believe it sounds like I'm writing about perfect B-cup boobs, but if the shoe fits... In any case, I also like blueberry blue; it has depth, dimension, a bit of mystery. Blueberry blue can look matte or vaguely iridescent. It can appear to glow or it can seem to absorb surrounding light. I find it pleasing when I come across berries with stems still attached; the stem is so delicate yet sturdy, and it's always the perfect shade of green for the blueberry blue. Aesthetic perfection.
I love to pop blueberries into mouth, a handful at a time. Jack used to call them "bubbas" and he would eat them til the cows came home, lips and hands stained that deep blueberry blue.
Despite my love of BBs, I don't often like them in baked goods because they so quickly veer towards teeth-aching, grimace-inducing cloy. I also don't enjoy them in salads, even though I find most fruits terrific additions to a mess of cool greens. The whole superfood salad thing made me nuts. Goji berries? GACK!! Plus blueberries? I was just a'wretch.
So perhaps you see my dilemma with wanting to make blueberry jam but feeling awfully skittish about doing so.
I do love my blueberry-Grand Marnier preserves. They have just enough sugar and are flavored with orange zest, orange juice and cinnamon in the secondary roles. Today, still rolling in BBs, I decided to riff on a favorite of my fruit combos: blueberries and peaches. I love peaches with ginger, and I like blueberries with St. Germain, so I slowly added each element to my jam pot. I love the colors of summer produce- I mean, just look at these in concert?
And I love what can result from a thoughtful forced marriage of disparate ingredients. I still don't preference BB jam over, say, a strawberry, plum or rhubarb one, but this is delicious and different and will remind me of a hot July day later this fall when remembering summer becomes difficult.
