As the summer
winds down, so do the farmers’ market baskets brimming with peaches, plums and
nectarines. One of the best ways to hang on to a little bit of summer during
the cold, cruel winter months (forgetting for a moment that I live in South
Florida) is by making homemade preserves. When I think of the best
preserves I’ve
ever tasted, I think of Frenchwoman Christine Ferber. Ferber has a small shop
in the Alsatian village of Niedermorschwihr. She is the daughter of
fourth-generation bakers and pastry-makers and as a child spent hours watching
her father work. When it was time for her to do her apprenticeship, she
couldn’t
find an Alsatian pastry master who would teach a woman, so she left
home to spend three years in Brussels. When she returned, she devoted
herself to her passion: creating the finest jams in the world by capturing the
essence of natural fruit flavors. Her secrets? Precision and patience. She
makes over 200 flavors of
jams and sells them to some of the finest restaurants
in the world. Here are some of her intriguing flavor combinations:
Strawberry
with Black Pepper and Fresh Mint
Peach with Lavender
Honey
Wild Blueberry with
Pinot Noir and Licorice
Pear with Jasmine
Mandarin Tea
Green Apple &
Wild Prune Jelly
Melon and Raspberry
with Citrus Zest
Raspberry and Litchi
with Rose Water
Rhubarb, Apples and
Gewürtzraminer
Spiced Green Walnut
You can find
many of Ferber’s recipes in her book Mes
Confitures (Michigan State University Press, 2002), or, if you prefer, you
can buy her jam online from Borne Confections (www.borneconfections.com).
Following is a recipe I adapted from the book.
Adapted from Mes Confitures (Michigan State
University Press, 2002) by Christine Ferber
2 ½ pounds
(1.13 kg) ripe nectarines
3 ½ cups
granulated sugar
Juice of 1
lemon
3 whole cloves
1 ounce (28 g)
finely chopped fresh ginger
3 ounces (85 g)
finely chopped crystallized ginger
1. Blanch the
nectarines for 1 minute in a pot of boiling water. Refresh them in a bath of
ice water. Peel them and cut each nectarine into ten wedges, removing the pit.
2. In a large
shallow pan, gently combine the nectarine wedges, sugar, lemon juice, cloves
and fresh ginger. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly with a
silicone spatula, until the mixture comes to a simmer. Remove the pan from the
heat and transfer the mixture to a bowl. Cover the fruit mixture with a piece
of parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.
3. The next
day, pour the mixture back into a large shallow pan and add the crystallized
ginger. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Skim the foam off the top and
continue to cook for 5 minutes, stirring gently. Remove from heat and cool.
