The Yum Yum Factor

The minute I saw this recipe for Rock 'N' Rye Peach Jam , I knew I would make either this recipe or a variation of it as soon as we hit peach season. Once we brought back our delicious Niagara peaches, I kept thinking that the cardamom was screaming ARAK to me and not rye. Only a Canadian will remember using the purple, velvet Crown Royal bag as a pencil case in grade school, but suffice it to say, Rye is as Canadian as it gets. Cardamom, on the other hand, reminds me of the flavours of the Middle East while rye bellows East Coast Canada at 2am on a Saturday after gorging on smores made with a stale Aero bar and the marshmallows that I found in the back of a cupboard in my aunt's trailer. Then I thought that cardamom required an alcohol that comes from the same part of the world and I just happen to have a bottle of Arak that I brought back from Jordan. This Levantine booze is an anise flavoured, colourless alcohol similar to Greece's Ouzo, France'...

Nona and her tomatoes It's time again for the Great Canadian Food Experience . Every month we approach a different aspect of Canadian food and it's traditions and what it means to each of us. This month we are talking about preserving, which is clearly a huge part of our Canadian culinary heritage. Any country that enjoys a short growing season and long, harsh winters is going to depend heavily on food preservation and Canada is no different. From salting fish on both coasts to our modern freezers, we have always looked for ways to make our summer bounty carry us through until spring.

I love spicy jams and jellies with cheese and I also have been cooking with these spicy jams lately. I have a pepper blast berry jelly that is really quite hot and it's great with roast meats. The PC Bacon Marmalade is is thing of beauty and I feel sorry for all of you Americans who can't get your greasy paws on this stuff but it's a fair exchange for rotel, I guess. The high sugar content in jam means it really caramelizes nicely and it gives a nice, sticky, sweet glaze to a roast pork tenderloin or some chicken thighs. I throw in some chicken stock with some of the jam and make a delicious pan sauce and we are good to go. The magical asian produce store had a huge stack of fresh figs that were too cheap to pass up on so the only choice I had was to make a small batch of fig jam. Since I already know that I am only going to use it for dishes like this pork tenderloin with fig jam or with cheese, I decided to just throw some hot sauce right into the jam ...

The other day I bought a 3 lb bag of vidalia onions even though I had no idea what I was going to do with them. In the summer, we usually cook them on the grill, wrapped in foil with some olive oil and balsamic. Since Shack worked every day for the entire summer, we didn't bbq at all so I didn't eat any vidalias and got so exited when I saw them that I couldn't just leave them there in the store. I knew there had to be a way of turning them into some sort of jam and so I went on an internet search for a recipe that would fit the bill. I found some really great sounding chutneys and jams but this one, from The Funky Kitchen, was the closest to the recipe I had clunking around in my head. I made some changes and some additions and I am happy to say that the resulting marmalade is exactly what I was hoping for. It will be great on roasted meat, in paninis, on crackers with blue cheese or on pizza and crostini. It's sweet and a bit spicy and full of delicious rosemary...