Green Tomato Jam

Before frosts and hurricanes ravaged my 'hood, I picked all of my green tomatoes off the vines.  Sadly I let them sit and get icky for nearly a week.  I got busy and lazy and ugh...I hate when I let food go to rot like that!

In an effort to save what I had left, I searched for a recipe to make quick use of my green tomatoes. 

A few will ripen in a sunny window.  But it seems I just left them out too long and most were getting gross after a few days.  Time was of the essence.

I found two recipes for green tomato jam that were completely different from each other.  In the end, I used one and and added my own flair.

This was a great way to use up green tomatoes.  It didn't even require peeling so the prep work was super fast.  Big plus! 

As for flavor, it's sort of like a sweet and sour thing happening.  The night I made it, I used a some on a roasted chicken and it was delicious.  So I am thinking meat and fish will be a great match.  I put pretty much anything on a baked potato so I am sure it will be great there too.  And I bet it would be yummy on top of a brick of cream cheese with crackers. 

Green Tomato Jam

Ingredients:
* 5 lbs green, unripe tomatoes
* 3 1/2 cups sugar (I used vanilla bean sugar)
* 2/3 cup lemon juice
* 1 box (2 pouches) liquid pectin
* 1 tsp ground ginger
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/2 tsp ground cloves

Directions:
* Core, remove seeds and dice green tomatoes. 
* Add tomatoes, sugar, lemon juice, ginger, cinnamon and cloves to a large pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer on low until it becomes soft and syrupy.  It took me about an hour.
* Once ready, add pectin, one pouch at a time.  You might only need one.  I needed two though.
* Test on a small plate kept on the ready in the freezer.
* Fill sterile jars and process in water bath as usual.  Or store in fridge for two weeks.

So I mentioned yesterday that I was bringing this to the food swap.  Yes well, at least two other swappers brought something similar.  Go figure!  Here I thought I was being all unique.  So it was hugely unpopular.  Which was fine because I will totally use it at home and perhaps a few will be gifts.  I just thought it was so funny though that two other swappers had the same idea!