Iron Chef WAYCT - What Are You Cooking Today

[Tyler]

@Brodie These look phenomenal!

I know what I'm going to have for dinner now but there won't be any comparison to these beauties!

[Pointman]

@Giles I made a large batch this year as I found some great peaches and figured I'd go ahead and make plenty for gifts. And since I scaled up and went off script, I'm trying to remember exactly what I did as these jars have been in my cupboard a good few months.

You seem like you're well experienced in the dark art of jamming. I would keep the lime zest low if you want to use it. Assuming you're using three pounds of peaches, I wouldn't put more than a teaspoon of lime zest as it ends up coming through more pronounced that you would assume. That said, having done this with and without lime zest, I think it's much better without it.

I would use lemon juice and pectin both since peaches are low in pectin.

Also, pending on your preference of rosemary, you can either drop the sprigs in whole, strip the sprigs and dice or strip and work them down in a mortar and pestle for more oil extraction. Then either put your rosemary in cheesecloth or be okay with having bits of rosemary in your jam. I like lots of rosemary and leave the leaves in mine. I'm a savage.

That's a really long-winded way to get to I would work it out roughly as follows:

Peach Rosemary Jam with or without Lime Zest
3LB fresh peaches
5 1/2 cups sugar
7 tablespoons pectin
4 sprigs of rosemary
1/3 cup lemon juice. (Or lime but I think lemon works better)
1 teaspoon of lime zest (optional but I like it better without it)

Also, if you don't want to peel your peaches, you can blanche them in boiling water and then drop them in an ice bath and the skins will slide off like when blanching tomatoes.

[Pointman]

Also, I skipped any sort of actual cooking of jam but mashing, cooking and setting jam is pretty much the same across the board. Throw some spoons in and plates in the freezer the day before or day of and when you think you've got it the right consistency, drop a tablespoon of jam on a frozen plate and see if it runs. If so, keep going, if not, you're good. Most importantly, don't wear your 11oz white Iron Heart t-shirts unless you want it to look like Cy Twombly got ripped before painting it.

[Giles]

Hahahaha, and thank you a lot. Now to find some decent peaches.

Giles

[Pointman]

In an ode to my grandfather, I made a pot of shrimp and okra gumbo last night. I can do better but the missus is happy and this is a much healthier route.

[Pointman]

Made a Japanese beef curry pot pie last night. Sacrilege? Perhaps. Delicious? Most certainly.

[ARNC]

Not sure if this belongs on here as it’s kinda basic but it’s good. Mushroom and leek orzo, the first vaguely proper thing I’ve cooked in ages (I don’t think I’ve bought an onion this year). Hoping to get better.

[Pointman]

Every other month or so, I pull leftover chicken bones and vegetable scraps from the freezer. Add another five pounds of chicken quarters and make a giant pot of chicken stock I simmer all day to extract as much collagen as possible. Then it's strained and divided into quart containers and into the freezer so I have access to quality stock as needed. That stuff in the store is absolute garbage.

[Giles]

I do this every time I cook a roast chicken/turkey or whatever Sometimes (well, quite often), we will have roast chicken, just because I have run out of stock.....

I do it with beef too, but tend to use chicken stock more often than beef.....

[Brian]

I do this also
, last weekend however ended up with a frantic neighbour visit at 11pm and all the smoke alarms going off in the house as I fell asleep after no sleep after working a night shift, while making the stock it reduced to nothing and burnt everything in the pot to the point that the pot is now in the bin
The house still has a whiff of it a week later