Two Carrot Jam Recipes

[rachel]

I didn't know whether this should go here or in the "canning, freezing, and preserving" section.

Why is it that I always make carrot jam in December? Somehow carrot jam and Christmas seem to go hand-in-hand for my family. Anyway, I've got two recipes I'd like to share with you. The first is the basic, bog-standard, plain carrot jam recipe. The second, which my younger sister lovingly terms "reindeer poop", is more complex, and much richer, with all the spiced nutty flavours of Christmas.

Plain Carrot Jam
1kg carrots
1kg raw sugar
1 lemon

-Peal carrots and chop them finely. Cover in water and simmer until soft. Mash.
-Add sugar. Add grated rind and juice of lemon. Mix well.
-Bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes.
-Drop temperature to the lowest and simmer until it looks like marmalade.
-It's now ready to be put into clean, dry, warm jars.
-After a day or two, use it just like any other jam or marmalade.

Christmas Carrot Spread
1kg carrots
1kg raw sugar
100g mixed nuts
50ml rosewater
50ml coconut water (I suspect this was originally buttermilk)
2 lemons
1 orange
ground cardamom
ground cinnamon
ground cloves
ground ginger
dash of brandy (completely optional; I've never put it in, myself)

-Peal carrots and chop them finely. Cover in water and simmer until soft.
-Drain carrots, setting aside simmer water, and mash.
-In a saucepan, combine simmer water, rose water, and coconut water.
-Add sugar and heat to form a syrup.
-Add carrots, finely chopped nuts, grated rind and juice of lemons and orange.
-Add hearty dashes of spices to preference. (If you're not familiar with the strong tastes of British Christmas, go sparingly on this step. Probably go a bit sparingly with the orange, too.)
-Bring to the boil and boil for ten minutes.
-Add a good dash of brandy (apparently it helps preserve it; I'm not convinced and also don't have access to brandy, so, you know...)
-Drop temperature to the lowest and simmer until it's sticky and looks not dissimilar to wholegrain mustard but much darker brown.
-It's now ready to be put in clean, dry, warm jars.
-We find this is best on water-biscuits, preferably with cheese if you eat it.

There you have it. You need never wonder what to do with excess or slightly-overaged carrots again. If you have trouble with any of the terms I've used, do let me know and I'll see if I can translate.

[Guadalupe]

Thank you for sharing your recipe traditions with us, Rachel. These look delicious! They remind me of a marmalade or a chutney.

We've had Vegemite before and like it though it's not for everyone. The strong flavor can either appeal or offend

In the USA some of our recipe traditions during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season include pumpkin pie, apple pie, sweet potato pie, pecan pie, ham and turkey. We make apple butter too.

Apple Butter recipe
Peel, core, and chop your favorite pie apple.
Place in a slow cooker with a splash of apple cider and pumpkin pie spice (if you don't have the spice, simply add cinnamon and cloves).
Cook on low for a few hours until you can mash it smooth.
Can as usual or use it right away.

We like to use apple butter as icing for our spice cakes. The house smells wonderful for days.

[rachel]

Mum tried to make pumpkin pie a few months ago and... well, I'm sure she did a very good job of it, but I can't get my mind around either sweet pumpkin or sweet pie! We have fruit-mince pies at Christmas and I've never liked them. I think the closest we really come to American-style pies would be apple crumble. Pies are almost exclusively savoury for us.

We usually eat goose or duck for the main Christmas meal and ham for another, although I know turkey is very popular as well. We ate lamb this year by mutual consensus, because meat prices have skyrocketed the last few months and we've been eating basically just poultry for about two months. Christmas poultry is usually eating with cranberry sauce, and lamb is often eaten with mint sauce, but I've definitely seen apple butter around. Lemon butter is also quite popular.

In fairness, there are a lot of Australians who aren't keen on Vegemite. Don't tell anyone! I've never much liked it myself, although if the other option's Marmite, I'll go for the Vegemite every time. It's an acquired taste - I think you have to grow up with it to appreciate it. I only like it occasionally. And you've definitely got to have it with an equal amount of butter.

I'm really on a jam kick at the moment - I've made so many these last few weeks! Carrot jam is my absolute favourite sort of jam, and has such a pleasing colour, a nice bright orange. All jams are basically the same: equal parts fruit and sugar, water if necessary, and lemon juice to thicken it.

Apples and pears - chop to about 1.5cm, stew in a little bit of water until soft, add sugar, boil for 10 minutes, add lemon, reduce and simmer until ready

Berries - chop in halves, stir through sugar, leave to steep overnight, boil for 7 minutes, add lemon, boil for 5 minutes (I always seem to burn it this way, so I just do it in the slow cooker now - cook on low for 4-6 hours, add lemon, cook on high until ready. This will turn out a very dark jam; if you do it the quick way, it will be redder)

Bananas - chop to about 1 inch, cover with water and boil until soft, mash gently, add sugar, boil for 10 minutes, add lemon, reduce and simmer until ready; it should turn an interesting purple-pinky colour

Citrus - wash thoroughly and boil whole until soft enough to mash with a wooden spoon; add sugar, boil for ten minutes, reduce and simmer until ready

Ginger - chop to about 1cm, cover and boil until soft, add about 1.5 times of sugar, boil for 10 minutes, add lemon, reduce and simmer until ready

You can tell if jam is "ready" because it congeals into a jammy texture when you drop it on a cool plate. I know some ladies who bring jams to a rolling boil and test it, then bring it to the boil again if it's not ready. This, to me, seems like you're asking for the jam to burn. I suppose you've got to have been making jam for years and years to be able to do it that way!

Jam and marmalade are similar, but different in the preparation method. Marmalade involves a lot more standing overnight and soaking in orange juice or lemon juice. I think my berry jam recipe might technically be marmalade. Generally-speaking, berries will be made into jam and citrus will be made into marmalade, although if you add lemon rind or orange rind to the carrot jam, it really does taste like marmalade. The Christmas spread is definitely more of a chutney, though, because it's spiced/savoury - jams are much sweeter.

I think the difference between jam and American "jelly" is that jelly has been strained and is mostly pip-less and fruit-less. We don't have that much here - I think just cranberries are done that way, although sauce is essentially the same but not as congealed. We tend to prefer chunky jam with big bits of fruit in.

I'm looking forwards to blackberry season in a few weeks... We didn't make nearly enough blackberry jam last year to last us through!

[Guadalupe]

These look good.

We've always had abundant and cheap sugar in the USA. A lot of it is grown in the southern USA. That's probably one of the reasons for our sweet pies.