The Chef Within

No, I am not the first person to think of making a nut and dried fruit jam.  In fact, when I shop at our specialty market I am always wowed and impressed by the tiny jars of delicious sounding jams that run $5 or $6 a piece.  I’ve never been able to justify spending that much for two ounces of product.  But it did inpsire me.

What happened is the following.  A few weeks ago the youth in our church reinacted a pioneer experience.   As part of one of the meals I had purchased some dried apple rings, dried apricots, whole almonds and raisins.  There was some leftover and I really wasn’t in the mood for any more of that so it sat in the cupboard for a few days.

I kept wondering how I could use up the dried fruit.  Then I remembered the jams.  So….. here’s what I did. 

I took the leftover fruit and chopped the apples into little pieces and sliced the apricots.  I left the raisins and almonds whole. 

Everthing got taken to the food processor and processed…

until quite fine but not too fine.  I wanted some distinction between the fruit. 

Once the fruit was to the right fineness I transfered it to a small saucepan and added about 1 cup of water.  I had about 1 pound of fruit to begin with.  I started cooking the water and the fruit and wondered if it would be sweet enough and so I added some honey, about 1/4 cup.  I could have added sugar but I just felt the honey would be a better fit. 

That was cooked for about 10 minutes (and stirred occassionally) over a low to medium heat…

and then transferred to an airtight container.  We’ve been enjoying it ever since on our english muffins, bagels, crusty bread, pancakes and waffles.   The other day I was doing a mole style enchilada and I added a small amount to the pork filling much the same way you might sweeten a beef empanada with raisins.  They were quite good.

Another thing I tried with the jam were little phyllo pastries.  I took a spoonful of the nut jam and some cotija and mozarella cheese and filled the each of the pastries.  That was served with some honey yogurt and I have to say it was quite light and delicious.  A nice ending to a meal but not too sweet. 

What I especially like about this jam is that it is not overly sweet but has a ton of flavor.  In fact, I would imagine that if you wanted a sugar free product it would be just fine without any added sugar.  There are probably a ton of variations with this, including the types of dried fruit you use.  It would be fun to experiment with.  This jam would also make a beautiful gift when stored in a smaller, dainty glass jar.