Jamarchists at the Party

We won! Anarchy is happily attending Just Food’s annual fundraiser party, Let Us Eat Local, after entering Not Eating Out in New York's contest, in which food bloggers posted unique recipes featuring food from their region or community. The bloggers were asked to describe where the main ingredients were purchased and why they chose those particular purveyors or farms. Our fellow foodie bloggers posted some delicious recipes for the competition and we felt honored to be in their company. Our mouths were watering reading about Dave's homemade eggplant and black pepper fettuccinne with heirloom tomato and roasted garlic sauce, Jessica's beet handkerchiefs with garlic scapes, Emily's fresh corn polenta with fried egg, garlicky greens and tomato sauce, and Brian's Cabbage and Kielbasa Stew. Wow, I can't wait to try these using my CSA and farmer's market bounty!

The event, which takes place tonight at Prince George Ballroom, will feature small plates from many of the city’s most renowned restaurants, like Blue Hill, Gramercy Tavern and Jean-Georges. Yum!

We won with our Pink Pearl Apple Preserves with Calvados and Cardamom recipe. Yes, the jam is pink, the apples come from Montgomery Place Farms in upstate New York, and I picked the cardamom in Kerala, Southeast India. It's the bomb and will be featured on our fall menu.

If you want a taste, within the month we will have some in a jar for the new Greenpoint Food Market, where we will be most Saturdays. Come say hi!

Greenpoint Food Bonanza

Anarchy was in the house last Saturday at the inaugural Greenpoint Food Market. We had a great time hangin with the most amazing array of vendors and eaters. Our jams had great company alongside locally made pickles, kimchi, deviled eggs, the most delivious ginger drink, cookies, fabulous bundt cakes and more.

Head to the weekly food market every Saturday inside the Church of Messiah located at 129 Russell Street between Nassau and Driggs Ave in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and eat your heart out. You won't be disapointed.

Jam on.

In the Belly of Autumn

I preserved the last wild blueberries of summer today, cooking up a batch of Easy Like Sunday Morning blueberry jam for the Greenpoint Food Market tomorrow. Rain poured down on the little restaurant in Brooklyn, the door open to the back garden that was now filled with branches and leaves as the winds of autumn swept in great waves through the city, pulling us swiftly into autumn.

The kitchen at Chestnut was warm and fragrant with the scent of hot blueberries and maple syrup, alongside the pastry chef's roasting peaches and melting chocolate. As the wind and rain sang through the doorway and the radio played patriotic songs to commemorate 9/11, we became nostalgic and wistful. In the fulcrum of memories, both of us started to wax poetic about fruit recipes for fall and winter: pears and Pinot Noir, apples with port and nutmeg, marmalades to tickle the tastebuds such as kumquat/cranberry and grapefruit/tarragon, and the dilemma of acquiring really fresh persimmons in NYC. Wild and whimsical flavor combinations ricashayed around the kitchen as we conjured up new inventions and prepared imaginary provisions for winter.

In the spirit of the season, the weather, the day: jam on.

The Rejam Incentive: Reduce + Reuse + Recycle = Reward

At Anarchy in a Jar we try and be as green as possible (e. g., local & organic fruit, eco-delivery service). Glass jars can be used over and over again--sterilized with every batch, of course. We can't reuse the flat lid--the rubber needs to be new and perfect to create a proper seal--but the metal ring and the jar are 100% reusable.

The Rejam Incentive:
If you return your jars to us we will give you a dollar off your next jar of jam. Help save the planet, one jar at a time. We already have some smart green jamarchists who have been returning their jars like good citizens (thanks, Holly).

Wanna join the Rejam and return your jars? You can find us at the the Greenpoint Food Market a few Saturdays a month or email us for drop-off locations.

It's easy being green. Jam on.

Midnight Musing

It could have been the late hour. Or the hours of jamming we had put behind us. Perhaps it was the wild winds blowing outside the kitchen window, ushering in the fall. Regardless, it was midnight when inspiration hits (isn't that always the case?).
Please come say hello to the ladies of Anarchy this Saturday at the Greenpoint Food Market from 12-6pm and grab a scone---we promise to smother it with the last taste of summer, our newest creation and two of our all-time favorite flavors--Basil Blackberry. Sure to be a classic.

Jamarchists in the Kitchen

We cooked up a batch of our classic raspberry balsamic jam and another of blackberry this morning at Chestnut in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Chestnut is a charming and insanely delicious restaurant where we be jammin' at dawn. I highly recommend you eat here, whether for a romantic date in the back garden before winter sets in, or a cozy glass of wine and small plates at the bar--the gnocci is made in house and divine. Chef Daniel Eardley uses mostly local and organic ingredients and describes his cozy and welcoming restaurant as eating at grandma's (top chef grandma, that is)--a perfect place for us jamarchists to cook up our concoctions! If you go, make sure you eat dessert. Chestnut's dessert chef, Carla, whips up magical things alongside us in the morning when it is the ladies-who-make-sweetness that preside.

Jam on.

Emma's Raspberry Jam

Each batch is being named for our favorite jamarchists who helped us pick and gather the fruit. This batch is named after my little sister, who helped pick the berries with me and took the beautiful photo above. Thanks lil' Em!

Apple Preserves with Calvados and Cardamom

Pink Pearl Apple Preserves with Calvados and Cardamom
Pink Pearl apples, Calvados, cardamom, sugar, lemon juice

I visited my friend Talea at Montgomery Place Farms in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY in Northern Dutchess County this weekend. Talea was my first jam teacher (besides my mother) when I was an innocent 21 year old. She grows mostly organic, heirloom fruit and sells her bounty at the Montgomery Place Farm Stand at the intersection of 9G and Route 199 near Redhook, NY. She also sells her jam and honey there, which might be as good as ours if not better. If you visit, give her a hug from the Anarchy girls.

Talea sold me some amazing heirloom Pink Pearl apples--tart, sweet and buttery with a marbled pink flesh. Maybe it's because they're pink, but they taste sweeter and zippier than their white-fleshed relatives. I instantly began to imagine the jam I would make with these beauties.

These apples were so special I had to preserve them with equally amazing companions. Calvados (apple brandy) and cardamom that I collected in the Cardamom Hills of southeast Kerala, India--where the air smells of pepper, tea and cardamom--balance beautifully with the apples. Tart, sweet and spicy! My father used to splash (and drink, of course) Calvados on pork and baked apples in the depths of winter, and the taste recalls the warmth of cooking with my family. Look for these preserves on Anarchy's autumn menu!

Recipe

2 1/4 pounds Pink Pearl apples (other tart varieties will work too), peeled, cored and cut into chunks
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon cardamom pods (wrapped in cheesecloth)
1 1/2 cups Calvados* (apple brandy)

In a preserving pan, combine the apples, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer, and then pour into a bowl (ceramic is best). Cover the fruit with a sheet of parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, separate apples from their juice. Add Calvados and cardamom to apple liquid and bring this preparation to a boil in a preserving pan, stirring gently. Skim. Continue cooking on high heat 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Place a candy thermometer in the jam. It will be ready when it reaches the setting point 105°C\220°F.

Add apples and return to a boil. Check the set or that the temp is back to 105°C\220°F. Do not let jam scorch. Remove cardamom pods.

Finish by filling the jars to within a 1/4 in of top with the preserves and seal (for jar preparation, see this detailed recipe). Boil for 10 minutes in a water bath. Let rest 5 minutes, then remove.

Makes about 4 8oz jars.

*Go totally local and use New York made apply brandy! Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery in Warwick, NY makes a great one.

Thanks to the Veggie Voice blog for the great image. My pink pearl pics were shabby compared to yours.

Dark Kiss in a Jam

Our Dark Kiss Jam with black raspberries, white and yellow peaches, sugar and a little lemon juice failed to pack the kind of punch the name and our label demands in a jam. What to do?

It needed more acidity, and a deeper, more complex series of flavors. Sweet, tart, sour and then possibly a teeny hit of bitter zest. Also, the texture of the peaches was difficult. They turned to baby food and failed to give the peachy, juicy punch that happens when they're fresh and raw.

How to repair our Dark Kiss?

For the flavor I'm adding lime juice and pithless lime peel that has been simmered with sugar until it is translucent and soft. The texture is trickier, but I am working with mashing the fruit and adding all natural pectin. The combination of pectin and lime should make the jam firmer, and less like baby food.

I'll let you know when the jam is fixed. Until then, we be jammin.

Sugar Plum Fairy Preserves

Sugar Plum Fairy Preserves

Golden sugar plums, trockenbeerenauslese (ice dessert wine), and sugar

A tantalizing mix of sugar plums from upstate New York and an amazing bottle of trockenbeerenauslese ice wine. Trockenbeerenauslese is made from grapes left on the vine until nearly dry. Because these grapes, picked one by one at fullest maturity, are very concentrated in flavor and sugar, they produce extremely rich, nectarous wines often described as "liquid gold".

This is top shelf jam. Exquisite plum flavors, concentrated sweet fruit balanced beautifully by acidity to maintain a light and lively feel in the mouth and heady pleasure to all the senses. Close your eyes and eat this with a spoon.

2 1/4 pounds sugar plums (other small plums will work too), pitted and cut in half
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
2 1/2 cups Trockenbeerenauslese*

In a preserving pan, combine the plum halves, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer, and then pour into a bowl (ceramic is best). Cover the fruit with a sheet of parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, separate plums from their juice. Add ice wine to plum liquid and bring this preparation to a boil in a preserving pan, stirring gently. Skim. Continue cooking on high heat 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Place a candy thermometer in the jam. It will be ready when it reaches the setting point 105°C\220°F.

Add plums and return to a boil. Check the set or that the temp is back to 105°C\220°F. Do not let jam scorch.

Finish by filling the jars to within a 1/4 in of top with the preserves and seal (for jar preparation, see this detailed recipe). Boil for 10 minutes in a water bath. Let rest 5 minutes, then remove.

Makes about 4 8oz jars.

*Did you know New York is the 2nd largest wine producing state in the US? And some of them kick ass. Try one of New York's own ice wines in this recipe, a great alternative to the pricey Trockenbeerenauslese (you don't really need to spend $200 on this jam). Casa Larga Vineyards 2006 Fiori Delle Stella Vidal Ice Wine, Duck Walk Vineyards 2007 Vidal Blanc Ice Wine, and Standing Stone Vineyards 2008 Vidal Ice are all award winning wines.

note: too busy balancing wine and plums, I failed to photograph this gorgeous creation and everyone who bought jars claims to have eaten it already. But this flickr gal took an awesome pic!

Rise of the Jamarchy

We had another successful jam-boree jam tasting this past weekend, and cooked up some specialty, limited supply concoctions for the occasion. Thanks, Jamarchists, for a good time. We'll have another jam tasting in December.

Here's a sampling:

Sugar Plum Fairy Preserves

Golden sugar plums, trockenbeerenauslese (ice dessert wine), and sugar

A tantalizing mix of sugar plums from upstate New York and an amazing bottle of fancy trockenbeerenauslese ice wine. Trockenbeerenauslese is made from grapes left on the vine until nearly dry. Because these grapes, picked one by one at fullest maturity, are very concentrated in flavor and sugar, they produce extremely rich, nectarous wines often described as "liquid gold". This is top shelf jam. Exquisite plum flavors, concentrated sweet fruit balanced beautifully by acidity to maintain a light and lively feel in the mouth and heady pleasure to all the senses. Close your eyes and eat this with a spoon.

Fig-alicious Jam

black mission figs, sugar and lemon juice

Made black mission figs that were picked fresh and smuggled to us from California (thanks Jamarchist agents). Pure, perfect fig. A sweet, flavorful aphrodisiac.

Easy Like Sunday Morning Blueberry Jam

blueberries, maple syrup, sugar and lemon juice

Made from a mix of blueberries from Uncle Wolf's and Kelder's Farm in upstate New York. Sweet blueberry perfection with a rich maple syrup body. Loose, European style set.

Due to the success of Easy Like Sunday Morning, well be adding it to our permanent menu!

For more info on our jams, jellies, chutneys and preserves, see our tasting notes page.

Jammin on the Road

Jammin at Casa Blanco

The ladies of Anarchy have been on the road in New England and California the past few weeks, vacationing and collecting fruit to play with.

Liv traveled to Vermont and acquired some raspberries and blackberries from Uncle Wolf (a great painter and generous fruit gatherer) and to Southern California where she picked fresh, gorgeous black mission figs that we made into some stellar jam (Forbidden Fig Jam).

Laena went to Cape Cod where she foraged for rosehips (to be made into Really Rosy Rosehip Jelly) and Maine where she got blueberries (for Easy Like Sunday Morning Blueberry Preserves with maple syrup and Bitter Blue blueberry marmalade), some of which she made into a pie for Andy's infamous garden party at Casa Blanco.

Now we are back in Brooklyn preserving our adventures in a jar.

Black Like My Heart

We picked up some fabulous white and yellow peaches from Biarmere Farm on Long Island. Clark and his crew at Briarmere run a great fruit stand on the North Fork, and are world famous for their super delicious pies. There was a line out the door and down the street, and people leaving with armfuls of pies.

Upon our return to the other end of the Island, we started experimenting. The results?

A Real Peach Jam with white and yellow peaches
Rose White Jam with white and yellow peaches and rose water
Black Like My Heart Jam with yellow and white peaches and black raspberries

Each one is a divine peach explosion.

Jam on.

Gnomes and Red Currants

Today I picked red currents from Kelder's Farm in Accord, New York. Their fruit is not organic, but is low-spray and beautiful. They are some of the nicest people you will come across, and their farm is beautiful without being fancy or "fussy". This is not Martha Stewart's made-over version of a farm--you know you're on a farm, and I can't help but admire and love the wild flowers growing amidst the berry bushes accompanied by the frog pond symphony of ribbits as hawks soar overhead. Ah, the country. And they have goats, Walter the Donkey, some pot-bellied pigs, and a giant 80 foot gnome!

Red currants are a wonderful fruit, and make a terrific tart jelly that is great on toast, a tart glaze, or with meats. The famous Bar-le-duc jam (akin to caviar) from France goes for $40 a jar and was enjoyed by Mary Queen of Scots. They grow in grape-like clusters on bushes, hanging ruby red under a canopy of leaves. Native to Europe and related to the gooseberry, the fruit has become rare in the United States. Red currants are just starting to be cultivated again after being uprooted in the early 1900s when they were mistakenly thought to promote a tree disease.

Currants are extremely good for you (move over, hipster goji berries), and are high in vitamin C, B1, iron, fruit acids, and fiber. They have many medicinal properties as well, including fever-reducing, sweat-inducing, menstrual-flow inducing, mildly laxative, astringent, appetite increasing, diuretic and digestive properties. Wow.

Look for Anarchy's miracle-cure Red Currant Jelly coming soon.

Traffic Jam: Anarchy in a Jar's Bike Delivery Service

Need some jam RIGHT NOW? Do you live in Brooklyn? We can deliver the goods to your door via our bike, Bluebell. She is the perfect eco-delivery vehicle: zero-emissions and beautiful at the same time.

It's a recession, people, and eating out is so passe. That's why Traffic Jam is here to rock your Sunday morning.

If you're really nice we'll bring you the scones too.

Email us at anarchyinajar@gmail.com to schedule a delivery or direct message us on Twitter: brooklynjam.

Cherry Preserves

They're here. The new batch of Anarchy in a Jar cherry preserves.

Midnight Morello Preserves are made with low-spray Morello black sour cherries. These beauts are a gorgeous dark red color, with a jewel-toned ruby glow. Sweet cherry aroma finishes with a tart, crisp acidity in good balance. We have them in a loose, European style and a firmer, New World style set.

Amarelle Sour Cherries in Syrup (Amarene Sciroppate) are made with low-spray Montmorency amarelle red sour cherries. These are simply cherries preserved in syrup, with a tart finish and a natural almond aroma. Delicious mixed with water (to make the Persian drink, Sharbateh Albaloo), soda water or tonic, on ice cream or cake, and in cocktails.

Like most of our jams, the fruit is macerated overnight with lemon juice and sugar to allow the sugars to soak into the fruit. This produces a much better tasting jam. Our tasting notes describe the process, ingredients, and flavors of each jam.

Our jams, jellies and preserves are "vintage," made from fruit grown in a particular year and under those unique environmental conditions. Variations in character from year to year can include subtle differences in color, palate, nose, body and development.

All of our jams are made in small batches, making each jar unique.

Want Anarchy? Email anarchyinajar@gmail.com to place your order. If you are in Brooklyn, we can deliver via our zero-emissions bike service "Traffic Jam", or you can pick up at our home or tasting parties.

Jam on.

Jam Pizza

On a hot, humid, 90 degree day, on the top floor of a brownstone in Brooklyn, we decided to make pizza. Not just any pizza: jam pizza. Inventive and masochistic, it was an experiment in food territory that many have navigated, but rarely charted to such extremes by jamarchists with a mission to take it up a notch. Watch out Mark Bello, NY Magazine's so called "revolution", and all you other NYC pizza mashups, obsessive pizza hords, and pizza pro-bloggers alike--the jam queens are ready to tussle and yes, the revolution still starts here, in your mouth.

We made two kinds: the classic with fig jam, proscuitto, parmesan, truffle oil and fresh arugula on top; the trendalicious porker with Midnight Morello black sour cherry preserves, BBQ pulled pork, caramelized onions and manchego cheese.

Our advice is make these in the winter.

Fig You Pizza
1 lb pizza dough (we like this recipe)

2-3 ounces Parmesan, grated (try other cheese too)*
fig jam
about 2 ounces prosciutto
two generous handfuls of arugula, gently tossed with a little olive oil and coarse sea salt
truffle oil to taste
yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling the baking sheet

Preheat the oven to between 500 to 550 degrees F with a baking stone inside. Sprinkle about 2 to 3 tablespoons of yellow cornmeal on pizza peel or baking sheet, then place your pizza dough on top. Lightly sprinkle truffle oil over the pizza dough, then spread some fig spread on, enough to coat it but not too thick. Lay half the prosciutto on top. Sprinkle with Parmesan, then slide the pizza onto the baking stone.

Bake until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted, about 5-8 minutes. Take the pizza out and top with the rest of the prosciutto and a mound of dressed arugula. Sprinkle with truffle oil.

*An amazing variation (thanks to Fog lover, Caroline) that I like to call the "Fig Fog Pizza," is to use Humboldt Fog cheese, which is the best cheese on earth.

Cherry Pig Pizza

1 lb pizza dough (we like this recipe)

2 cups pulled pork or pork carnitas, shredded

1/2 cup BBQ sauce (make your own)

1 onion, sliced and caramelized
6 ounces sliced manchego cheese

Midnight Morello Cherry jam (or make your own, fellow jamarchists)

yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling the baking sheet

Place a pizza stone on the lowest rack of the oven and preheat to between 500 to 550 degrees F with a baking stone inside. Sprinkle about 2 to 3 tablespoons of yellow cornmeal on a baker's peel or baking sheet. Place the rolled out pizza dough on the prepared baker's peel or baking sheet.

Combine 1/2 cup of cooled barbecue sauce with the pork. Spread some cherry jam on your pizza crust, enough to coat it but not too thick, leaving about 3/4-inch of dough uncovered around the edge. Spread the pulled pork over the sauce, then top with the onions. Spread the cheese evenly over the top.

Using a quick flick of the wrist, slide the prepared pizza onto the hot pizza stone and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the crust is crisp and golden and cheese is melted and bubbly.

...thanks ilrosewood and roboppy for pics.

Drunk Cherries

Recipes for two cocktails with Morello Cherry Liqueur

What to do when you are consumed by cherries for 3 days of hot and heavy jam making? Make things with them that dull the senses.

While making cherry preserves this past week, I made some delicious Morello Cherry Liqueur, and although I am supposed to let it seep and macerate for a few weeks, I've been dipping in the barrel. It has been hot, humid and stormy in NYC, the perfect time to invent icy cold cocktails.

Sexing the Cherry
1 1/2 oz cherry liqueur (or store-bought brandy if you must)
1 oz lime juice
1 dash bitters (campari or blood orange)
4 oz tonic water (the good kind if you can get it)

Pour the cherry liqueur, lime juice and bitters into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice cubes, and shake well. Strain into a highball glass almost filled with ice cubes. Top with tonic water, and stir well. Garnish with a lime wedge, and serve.

Like My Heart

2 shots Campari bitters
1 1/2 oz cherry liqueur
club soda
slice of lime

Pour cherry liqueur over four ice cubes in a highball glass, and add the campari. Fill with club soda, garnish with lime and serve.

Sunday Morning Edition

After approximately 12 hours of cherry jamming yesterday I woke up dreaming about the stuff. A sickness perhaps? Too lazy to get out of bed I sent my dear roommate and fellow jam Queen a text wishing her a good morning and pleading for scones. It may be the hottest day of the summer but she was kind enough to return to the kitchen and in no time at all we were enjoying the fruits of our labor. Absolutely delish. Like cherry pie for breakfast. A perfect way to celebrate the weekend and preserve the flavor of the season.

Snocciolatore Till Dawn

What is a snocciolatore?

An Italian cherry pitter, the humble snocciolatore is every jammer's friend. And we are pitting a whole lot of cherries over here at the Anarchy headquarters in preparation for jamming.

Stay tuned for the next installment: Midnight Morello Cherry Preserves.

We be jammin'.