Five years ago, I posted about the best cookbooks for the fall [you can see it here]. One of those five was The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders. Blue Chair was, and of course remains, a thick tome sharing the new jam perspectives of Rachel, an author and a very successful jam entrepreneur.
Just last fall came this successor book: Blue Chair Cooks with Jam and Marmalade. With spring here, you may have on hand a stock of jams, ready for use. Or you may have empty jars and are already looking for fresh fruits — the berries are here! — that you can turn into jam this spring and summer and fall.
Rachel knows that jam is an important ingredient, a universal ingredient that can be enjoyed many ways. Yes, your jam has a destiny far beyond mere toast or biscuits. The goal of this book is to show you how jam can add dimension, as well as sweetness, to dishes. And, with the jam already made, you can achieve distinction with just the simplest of kitchen utensils: a spoon.
In Blue Chair Cooks, there are chapters to take you through the day: morning, afternoon, and evening. You can greet the sun with jam and salute the sunset with jam, too. Here are some of the sweet ideas in Blue Chair Cooks:
- Morning
Chocolate-Orange Babka
Jam-Filled Doughnuts
Banana Fig Cake
Black Fig and Cacao Nib Belgian Waffles
- Afternoon
Allspice-Blackberry Jam Cake
Onions with Marmalade & Rosemary
Brussels Sprouts with Kumquats & Smoked Salt Featuring Kumquat Marmalade
Finnish Meatloaf with Lingonberry Jam
- Evening
Lettuces with Roasted Beets & Lime Featuring Lime Marmalade Dressing
Couscous with Sprouting Broccoli & Bottarga and Tomato Jam
Salmon Rillettes with Blackberry, Huckleberry, or Elderberry Jam
Lamb & Pork Sausage with Kumquats, Currants & Pine Nuts Featuring Kumquat Marmalade
Chicken with Apple, Onion, Balsamic Vinegar and Fig Jam
Boysenberry Sorbet Made With Boysenberry Jam
Do you know what a peacotum is? It’s a new fruit, a hybrid of peaches, apricots, and plums. Rachel is on top of these new flavor opportunities, like the peacotum, and here you will actually find a recipe for peacotums and then one for their use: peacotum trifle. Blue Chair Cooks is a hallmark of the new, the imaginative, the different. Open up the pages Blue Chair Cooks, and you’ll never look at a jar of jam the same way again. And, you will never enjoy jam more. Marmalade, too, of course!