Iron Chef Val Caron - Secret Ingredient: Strawberries

Tuesday afternoon our house was the scene of the latest edition of Iron Chef Val Caron. Keith decided to challenge the resident Iron Chef to "Battle: Strawberry Jam".

A la cuisine!



I decided on a traditional, healthier, scratch recipe with tart organic apples, strawberries, lemon juice and sugar being the only ingredients. It took forever to gel but after about an hour of getting bubbling hot sugar blisters on my arm, it came together. I ended up with nice, thick, sweet but tart jam, but I wasn't able to get all the bubbles out. I don't think it's going to keep long. No problem, we'll eat my 5 jars first.



Keith went for the quick Certo recipe. All he needed was strawberries, a ridiculous amount of sugar, a box of Certo, possibly some lemon juice and a few minutes of cooking time. I can't even describe how sweet his jam turned out. As you can also see, the jam seperated in to jelly at the bottom and the berries floated up to the top. We'll eat his 8 jars after mine and I'm sure they will last us to next July!



I think I know who won, but I'm kind of biased. We'll have to subject our next visitor to a blind taste test. The next Battle will be Blueberries!



Monday night though, it was strawberry ice cream sundaes...




But despite all the strwaberries around,Cameron still thinks tomatoes taste better.
We'll need to put the flat from Costco up higher next time!