Tomato Jam

I want to get this posted before tomato season is completely over ! We have been enjoying the boxes of Early Girl tomatoes we have been getting from Yellow Wall Farm. While they don't sell at the farmer's market they do have a farm stand on Saturdays between 9:00 and 1:00 PM. Judy has been very good about setting aside the most beautiful "seconds" for me. I have been making more tomato juice and roasted tomatoes for our freezer. Here's Bob with the new freezer we bought ourselves for our anniversary this year. Our old one was full to the top and I was not done yet !! I love my new freezer.

Back to the title of this post, tomato jam...a while back I was lunching with some friends at Greens at Fort Mason in San Francisco. One of the condiments was a cherry tomato jam. I was intrigued and tried my hand at a version with full sized tomatoes.

Here's what I came up with:

Laurie's Tomato Jam

Ingredients:

4 cups peeled and whizzed tomatoes

3 cup sugar

1 lemon juiced

 one inch cinnamon stick, one cardamon pod, three cloves in cheesecloth or muslin bag.

1) How many tomatoes you need will depend on the size. And they will need to be peeled, so do the "boiling water for one minute" trick to make the skins slide right off. If you use cherry tomatoes, don't bother, of course.

2) Once the tomatoes are peeled, use a blender, food processor or emersion wand to whiz them.

3) Toss them in a pot along with 3 cups of sugar, the juice of one lemon and the spices tied up in cheesecloth or muslin bag.

4) Simmer slowly then bring to a hard boil almost to jell point 220.

5) Remove the spice bag and can as usual or store in the fridge. This recipe makes four cups.

You can use it on sandwiches or burgers, over cream cheese, in salad dressing or on toast :-)