My giant jam sandwich

Vanessa and I recently decided to stop our fortnightly food fight challenge (choosing the same ingredient, and each posting our own creation every fortnight) as we thought once a fortnight was way too long to wait, the food blogging world moves so quickly, we didn't want anyone to forget about us! So starting from last week's fish post from Vanessa, the plan is to choose seasonal ingredients and do weekly posts, so we have new recipes and inspirations (hopefully) each week to try. That's not to say, the food fight is over, I intend to try and out-cook Vanessa with each post, isn't that what little sisters are for? Ingrid

This week I chose rhubarb, mainly because my neighbour, fellow blogger Johanna Cotter, who is a vege growing superstar, has a garden like an organic supermarket, and being her mate, I'm very privileged to get any fruit and vege that she can't use.

I also photograph her blog and last week she made Rhubarb Crumble Muffins (recipe below), which were duly accepted as a thank you for my hard work (hmmm, it's no hard work on my part, imagine hanging out for a day with a friend, who makes you laugh hard, whilst she cooks up a storm and lets you test all her creations, it's a pretty cushy number!) 

Johanna Cotter's Rhubarb Crumble Muffins  

Preparation Time: 10 minutes  
Serves: 12

This recipe is a lovely combination of dessert and baking, meaning you can enjoy it for both dessert or with a cup of coffee for morning or afternoon tea

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
3/4 C Sugar (I like raw sugar, you could use white or castor)
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 eggs
100g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup milk
Juice and rind of 1 lemon

2 cups stewed rhubarb

1 stalk fresh rhubarb, cut into small pieces

Crumble Topping

½ cup flour

½ cup rolled oats

¼ cup soft brown sugar

Pinch of cinnamon

50g butter, melted

To stew rhubarb

1.Chop rhubarb into small pieces and place in a saucepan with the juice and rind of a lemon and 2 large tablespoons of castor sugar.
2. Cover rhubarb with water and bring to the boil.
3. Cook until the rhubarb breaks up.

4. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve to remove the excess liquid. Add more sugar if still to sour at this point. 

5. Set aside to cool

Heat oven to 180 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and add sugar. Stir gently to combine.

In another bowl combine eggs, melted butter, milk, vanilla and lemon juice and rind. Whisk to combine then add wet mixture to dry ingredients. Fold together until they are just combined, then half full muffin tins. Add a teaspoon of the rhubarb to the centre, and top with remaining mixture.

Combine dry topping ingredients and add enough melted butter to combine, then sprinkle over muffins. Add a couple of pieces of leftover rhubarb to the top of each muffin.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden.

Recipe extracted from Johanna's Blog 

  

What about that sandwich?

I liked the idea of making a Jam. I've never ever done it before, I always put it in the same category as making a wedding cake. It's seemed time-consuming, something I don't ever seem to have. But when I was thinking about what I was going to make I really felt like smearing some jam on a doorstopper slice of fresh white bread, (this might be, in part, due to early pregnancy) and I couldn't get it out of my head, so Jam it has to be. So here goes....an amateur jam maker takes her first step.

Rhubarb has inspired a number festivals around the world. The one that took my fancy was the Whoop-Up Days and Rhubarb Festival in Conrad, Montana. You take in a rodeo whilst eating rhubarb pies. Yum!

Normally, I end up having to remake a lot of my recipes or as the experts say, triple test, as I tend to think I can walk before I can crawl. I'm always adding or reducing ingredients, when I haven't even tried out the original. I just can't help myself, and my jam making wasn't any different. Thankfully, it seems to be quite forgiving to my creative experiments.

Making jam was pretty easy, however I did burn my pot, and no amount of scrubbing or hot water seems to be resurrecting it (so don't have your element on high, medium heat is fine as long as its bubbling away). I was also blown away by the amount of sugar - sometimes being ignorant when your smearing jam on your toast for breakfast, is how I want to be. But sugar never-the-less, is what you need to make jam, and lots and lots of it. But I was really impressed with the results, and I plan to try out some more soon, I'm thinking grapefruit marmalade.

Do you remember the children's book The Giant Jam Sandwich?

Rhubarb, Ginger and Lemon Jam

Takes around 40mins 

Makes five to six jars

What you need

800g rhubarb (chop stalk into small chunks, discard leaves as they are toxic)

650ml water - this makes for a sticky thick jam, add more water for thinner consistency.

1.5kg sugar

2Tbsp root ginger (grated or squeezed through a garlic press)

1 lemon (juice and grated rind)

How to make

In a large pot, add rhubarb and water. Boil covered for 10mins until rhubarb softens. Add sugar, stir to dissolve.  Boil on medium heat until setting point. Add ginger and lemon and stir through. My jam took 35mins. I tested it by putting a plate in the freezer for five mins, then adding a spoonful of jam, and putting back in the freezer and seeing if it sets. Skim foam off the top. When cool, pour into jars.

When Vanessa tried this jam, she wanted to put it on crackers with blue cheese, so use this jam for savoury and sweet.

This jam is great added to sweet short pastry parcels, check out http://www.foodopera.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/stone-fruit.html

Boysenberry and Rhubarb Jam 

Takes 50mins

Makes five to six jars

What you need

800g Rhubarb (chop stalk into small chunks, discard leaves as they are toxic)

500mls water

1 can of boysenberries (425g) 

1.5kg sugar

How to make

In a large pot, add rhubarb and water. Boil covered for 10mins until rhubarb softens. Add boysenberries, and sugar, stir to dissolve.  Boil on medium heat until setting point. My jam took 35mins. I tested it by putting a plate in the freezer for five mins, then adding a spoonful of jam, and putting back in the freezer and seeing if it sets. Skim foam off the top. When cool, pour into jars.

This jam wasn't as thick as the rhubarb, ginger and lemon, I'm guessing because it had more water content with the can of boysenberries, but the berries gave it a beautiful rich crimson colour, and it had the more traditional jam flavour. Enjoy, Ingrid