Jujube Butter

Jujubes

 I've been discovering all kinds of exotic, fun fruits to create treats...jujubes were one of these discoveries that I made at Fentiman Farms, another little gem that I had never heard of. 

The clerk at the farm store encouraged me to take a bite because I didn't know how to eat them.  Jujubes are also called Asian Dates, and you can eat them like you would eat an apple.  They are similar to an apple in texture and taste, although they are not as sweet - to me, they have a nuttiness to their flavor - and they are much drier than an apple.



Posing for her close-up

Because of their dryness, I decided to attempt a butter.  Like apple butter, this is a thick fruit spread, and has no butter in it at all.  I've never made a butter before, but I figured 'how hard can it be?'  I looked up how to cook jujubes, and everything I found said to cook the jujubes in a pot in covered water until soft (can I get a timeframe here?) and then to mash them with a spoon in a colander or sieve to separate the seeds and skin.  This does not work.  I cooked them for 45 minutes.  They were soft.  I took a handful of them and put them in a colander.  Mash.  Mash.  Mash.  What happened was nothing.  I just smashed them, the seeds didn't work themselves out and the skin just mashed up with the flesh, and I had to pick out the pieces.  Ay de mi! 

I ended up letting the jujubes cool slightly and peeled them individually, by hand.  Wow.  That took about an hour.  Then I smashed them by hand and squashed the seeds out with my fingers.  About another 30 minutes.  I asked myself again for about the tenth time in the last couple months, who writes these directions/recipes?  Does nobody actually TRY them?*

Once the flesh was sufficiently smashed and somewhat smooth, I cooked it with vanilla extract, cinammon, sugar, and ground cloves, all to taste.  I cooked on medium-low heat for an hour and a half**.  I poured the paste in jars, then boiled the jars in a water bath for 20 minutes (because of its thickness) and let the jars cool.  It made 4 half-pints of jujube butter.  It resulted in a unique hazelnut flavor, perfect for spreading on whole wheat toast and butter.  This would be a fun one to give as small gifts throughout the holidays!  xo, AB.

Mmmm....

*I read about making apple butter after-the-fact and found that this process would have been much easier if I had a chinois sieve (I have no idea what this is) or an apple grinder.  Okay, next time.



**Turns out this might have been too long.  I cooked it to the consistency that I wanted the finished product to be, but since the high pectin content will further thicken/harden the butter, I recommend cooking it for maybe 1 hour.  My jujube butter is very thick.  I heated it slightly to make it easier to spread on the French toast.

Dragon Fruit-Mint Jam

I took a detour on my way home from work on Friday to visit Fentiman Farms in Escondido.  I've been patiently waiting to make perfectly-Autumnal blood-orange jelly out of persimmons.  Unfortunately, I arrived only to find that persimmons aren't ready yet due to last week's rainstorm.  My disappointment disappeared, however, as I looked around the store and saw amazing avocados, chemoyas, giant yams, perfect pomegranates (at only $1.25/lb - yeehaw!), an assortment of other fine vegetables, large and small jujubes (?), and these crazy creatures:

 Dragon Fruit. What ARE these?  The young girl that worked in the store sliced one open for me, and I felt like I had just met the Easter Bunny.  This tasty, unique, exotic beauty made my eyes pop out.  Thought to originate in South America, Dragon Fruit have been cultivated all over the world, and proliferate in Southeast Asia. The taste, flesh, and seeds resemble kiwi fruit, but perhaps not as sweet.  They come in red and white varieties (the flesh is either red or white).  They are about as large as a pomegranate, and have a soft, spongey, pink, scaley skin.

To pick the sweetest ones, look for the brightest pink skin, otherwise they are not very sweet. You can easily slice through the middle of a dragon fruit, and the flesh peels easily from the skin, so the preparation for jam, jelly, and other fun desserts is pretty quick and easy.  I tried a piece with a little bit of honey...tasty!  But I enjoy the mellow flavor of the fruit itself as well. 

I scoured the internet looking for recipes for Dragon Fruit Jam or Jelly, and the few I found, although they looked beautiful, required ingredients that I don't have access to (agar-agar, isn't that used in chemistry experiments?) or just don't know what they are (pandan leaves?).  They also didn't seem to be recipes designed for canning, but rather for desserts

you would eat shortly after making them. 

I designed my own recipe: 

Dragon Fruit-Mint Jam

1 lb. peeled, cubed Dragon Fruit (about 1-1/2-2 DF)

1 cup sugar

1 box pectin

5-6 fresh mint leaves, slightly muddled

1/4 c. fresh lemon juice

1/4 c. water

Red food coloring

Place fruit, water, lemon juice, and mint into preserving pan.  Bring to a simmer on medium-high heat, stir in pectin and make sure pectin completely dissolves, 10 minutes.  Remove mint leaves.  Add sugar slowly, stir until dissolved.  Bring to a roiling boil, add 2 drops of food coloring, then turn off heat,

continually stirring.  Skim off foam if necessary.  Fills the equivalent of 20 oz.  I filled 2 half-pint jars and one 4-oz jar.