Tag: preserves
A beautiful and tasty taste of Northern Michigan in a jar
My friend Lex Alexander in North Carolina, who’s studied the subject of artisan jam making for many decades, always tells me that apricot is the hardest fruit to successfully put up in preserves. It follows well from the metaphor up top—democratic engagement is perhaps the hardest way to learn to govern. When either or both are done well, though, the results are inspiring. With Lex’s wise words in mind, I’m perpetually impressed by American Spoon Foods’ amazing Leelanau Apricot Preserves—they’re a great way to put an inspirational bit of apricot into your daily dining, and a wonderful way to appreciate the beauty of the apricot at its absolute best.
Apricots are not, of course, native to this part of the world. The fruit was originally cultivated in China and Central Asia as far back as 2000 B.C. From there, it moved west with merchants who traveled the Great Silk Road, eventually arriving in Persia, where it was called a “yellow plum.” Arabs took apricots to the Middle East, and it also made its way to ancient Armenia. The amazing English writer John Ruskin (who also famously and I believe accurately said, “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort.”), described it as “shining in a sweet brightness of golden velvet.” Although the biggest volume of American apricots comes from California, some of the most flavorful fruit is actually grown here in Michigan. Apricot trees were planted near South Haven around the end of the 19th century. Early efforts were not successful, but eventually, apricot growing took hold. Today, Michigan apricots are known all over the country for their amazing flavor.
Noah Marshall-Rashid, second-generation owner at American Spoon, says of this wonderful jam,
Our Harlayne apricots are grown by Marty Jelinek on a hillside farm a few miles north of Leland, Michigan. The Harlayne is a richly colored, highly aromatic, late-ripening variety specifically developed by Richard Layne in Harrow, Ontario for cultivation in our cool Northern climate. These precious fruits are hand-pitted and then macerated to achieve a silky, succulent texture in our small batch copper preserving kettles.
I never take the excellence of the American Spoon Apricot Preserves for granted. As Amy Emberling, long-time co-managing partner at the Bakehouse, once told me, “Good apricot preserves are hard to come by.” American Spoon crafts the preserves in the best possible, totally traditional way—about 60% apricots (nearly double the fruit content of many commercial jams), cane sugar, a small bit of lemon juice, and a lot of slow cooking in the copper kettles. And they’ve been this good for 43 years now—American Spoon started making preserves in 1982, the same year we opened the Deli.
The jam is super spoonable. It goes great with hard cheeses like Spanish Manchego, over the top of the Creamery’s Cream Cheese, and/or also with cured meat. As you would expect, it’s wonderful on toast. Or take home a dozen of the Roadhouse biscuits—now even better thanks to Vermont Creamery’s Cultured Butter that I wrote about last week—and serve them at your place with apricot preserves on the side. American Spoon makes a curried apricot chicken salad that seems like a great idea—I’m planning to try it with tuna too. And if you spot fresh apricots at the market (now’s the time!), try making what we call a Jamwich: toast a Zinglish Muffin, spread on some Creamery Cream Cheese, add a generous layer of apricot jam, and top it all off with slices of fresh apricot.
Zinglish Muffins, cream cheese, fresh fruit, and jam make a magical combo
A Jamwich is an easy dish to make at home for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or afternoon snacks. I’m reminded of it every summer when the fresh fruit is showing up in abundance at Ann Arbor farmers markets! It brings together a bunch of different flavors and textures in one terrific open-faced sandwich.
Start with one of the Bakehouse’s marvelous Zinglish Muffins. Be sure to use a fork to break it in half or pull it gently apart with your fingers (not a knife) to get the ideal bumpy, craggy, surface-of-the-moon-like look. The unevenness and tiny holes make for much better eating. Toast it up. Spread the toasted sides of the muffin with a good bit of the Creamery’s fantastically tasty, gum- and preservative-free, traditional handmade cream cheese. Spread each side with jam. And then lay on fresh fruit—if it’s peaches or pears, you can slice them; if it’s berries, keep them whole.
The key to the Jamwich is to pair the fresh fruit with jam of the same fruit. Right now, here in southeast Michigan, blueberries, raspberries, and peaches would be the most likely options but of course what’s fresh and in season can swing from week to week and region to region. For blueberries, try the American Spoon Wild Blueberry Jam. If you get fresh raspberries, try the Red Raspberry Preserves from American Spoon. For fresh peaches, I go to American Spoon’s Red Haven Peach Preserves. In the fall, you can use pears with some of the Golden Pear Preserves we have from American Spoon Foods. Figs and fig jam from Agrimontana in Italy. It works well with every fruit you can find.
And since tomatoes are a fruit, there’s no reason you can’t do this with tomatoes and tomato jam. Or go get some of those wonderful fresh varietal peppers that are only now beginning to appear at local markets in southeastern Michigan. Sauté them down in olive oil. Use some of the American Spoon Jalapeño Pepper Jelly on top of the cream cheese then lay on the roasted or sautéed peppers.
The textural contrast in a Jamwich—golden brown, wheaty Zinglish Muffin, creamy Creamery Cream Cheese, the sweet intensity of the jam, and the vitality of the slightly sweet fresh fruit make for a really marvelous combo. If you want, garnish with fresh mint leaves or fresh basil. If you like black pepper as much as I do, grind a bit on as well. Eat ’em while the muffin is warm and toasty!