Surplus: Loquats

Another goal of this blog is to help deal with surpluses. One of the great things about having a garden, or working in a farmstand, or finding produce on sale, is that you have access to great food! The problem, there is only a very short window of time to get that food and often you have A TON of one specific kind.

This happened to me the other day when a lady, one of my customers at the stand, brought me an entire box of loquats! We had been talking about them one day, and she brought me the box the next day. I seriously almost cried with joy when I saw it. For some reason, the fact that she had labeled the box for me made it just that much better.

 

 I must’ve eaten 20 the first day. Then when I brought them home, my husband had another 10. The next day, I was still staring at an entire box of loquats.

 

Loquats are a little weird, they don’t have that much flavor other than a delicious light sweetness. They have a very high water content. Not much fruit, and huge seeds. What to do… what to do…

Then, my husband suggested we make jam. I can’t tell you how much I love this man.

 

 A little bit of googling and four recipes later, I had a plan. The base recipe I used can be found here, but it wasn’t to my standard (or my mom’s) for food safety, so I modified it a bit.

 

Loquat Jellam

Ingredients:

• 6 cups loquats, pitted and skinned
• 7 cups sugar
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 package Sure Jell (the yellow box)

Directions:

1. Sterilize your jars and lids. Get a big pot of water boiling, for the canning process.
2. Add the lemon juice to a bowl of 1-2 quarts of water. Wash the loquats well, peel the skin off with your fingers, then cut the fruit off in long skinny chunks. In a way much like taking long strips of zest off a lime. Discard the skin and cores/seeds. Place the fruit into the bowl of water as you get it, keeps it from turning brown.
3. When done, drain the water, and use a stick blender (or a normal blender) to blend up the fruit. Don’t puree, but get pretty close. You’ll need exactly six cups of loquat. At this point, pour boiling water over your lids (the part with the pop top and seal), and let sit until you need them.
4. Then follow the directions on the sure jell package for cooked jam. Basically, in a large pot, mix the loquat and pectin. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Just at a boil, mix in the butter and all the sugar at once. Bring back to a boil, stirring frequently, and boil for exactly one minute.
5. Pour the mixture into your jars – will make 9 cups of jellam or so. With lids on hand tight, process the jars in the boiling water for 10 minutes.
6. Substitutions: This fruit/sugar recipe is specifically for loquats – but jam can be made of just about anything!

My jellam came out a little runny – half way between jam and syrup, so good for both purposes. It’s very similar in flavor and color to apricot jam. I love it. Plus, the best part, this recipe used up the whole box of loquats.

 

 

So far I have put this stuff to many uses. We got some orange chicken the other day from an Asian restaurant and it was WAY TOO SPICY (and I love myself some spicy), so when I reheated the leftovers I poured a couple tablespoons of this jellam over it and sautéed till warmed through - delicious! We've also used it over pancakes, instead of maple syrup and on toasted English muffins over cream cheese. Versatile and delicious!! 

 

 

Cherry-Strawberry Jellam

People are picky about their cherries. The other day someone came into the stand looking for cherries and we had some, but there weren’t many left. He took the whole box of them over to the sun and went though each and every cherry in the box. A little later he came over to me with a bag of perfect fruit. The rest however, he said needed to go into the garbage. He was right. He took every last perfect cherry and the leftovers were all pretty sad – some had super smooshy tops while others had an under-developed twin sticking off the stem. At the end of the day, no one took them – so of course, instead of throwing them away, I just had to take them home. That same day there was also 2/3 of a basket of organic strawberries that had been passed over all day. They had similar symptoms of over-ripeness.

So, what do you do with squishy, super-sweet, over-ripe fruit? It was obvious to me! Make jam! I had never made freezer jam, but I hear about it often. Freezer jam is easier to make than regular processed jam, and requires less fruit and less sugar. This was a good option for me, because I was tired and I figured there was only about a pound of fruit to use.

Here’s all I did – washed all the fruit, and discarded the really weird ones. For the strawberries, I hulled them, cut off the squishy parts, then cut the rest of the fruit in quarters. For the cherries, I de-stemmed them, pulled off any weird twins, cut off the super-over ripe part, then just pushed out the pit. Then it all went straight into the blender! The recipe called for two full cups of fruit… I was a little bit short, so I threw in a ¼ cup of blueberries I had laying around, and blended the mixture up again.

The recipe that follows, is straight from the instructions that come in the regular Sure-Jell Fruit Pectin box:

Strawberry Freezer Jam 

• 2 cups crushed strawberries (buy 1 qt. fully ripe strawberries) 
• 4 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl 
• 3/4 cup water 
• 1 pkg. SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin 

Directions:

1. Rinse 5 (1-cup) plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly. Discard stems. Crush strawberries thoroughly, 1 cup at a time. Measure exactly 2 cups prepared fruit into large bowl. Stir in sugar. Let stand 10 min., stirring occasionally.
2. Mix water and pectin in small saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring 1 min. Add to fruit mixture; stir 3 min. or until most the sugar is dissolved. (A few sugar crystals may remain.) Fill containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids.
3. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to 1 year. (If frozen, thaw in refrigerator before using.)
4. Substitutions: The cherry freezer jam recipe called for exactly the same quantities as the strawberry one, so I felt confident substituting half cherries. Also, I wasn’t preserving it for the long term, so chemistry wasn’t 100% important.

Also, what I make is Jellam. I hate big chunks of fruit in my jam. It makes it hard to spread on toast, it has a weird mouth feel, and the chunks often float to the top of the jar… I don’t know, I just don’t like it. But, I also, don’t love jelly. It takes longer to make, its super thin, I don’t think it’s as flavorful. So, I just blend my fruit, to just about smooth. Kind of a half way between a jelly and a jam – a Jellam!

This recipe would work for those leftover strawberries and cherries in your fridge, that didn't get eaten at their peak and their just not that appealing to pop in your mouth as a snack. This jellam ended up being sweet concoction of fresh fruit goodness.