by Micky Ellenbecker, Purchasing Assistant
I’m not a jam or jelly person, I’m just not. Eating jelly on toast has never been my thing because it’s just too sweet or too much of the same thing. But I have a new obsession. It’s jam and jelly! This new obsession has a very specific application, which involves putting different jams, jellies, and fruit preserves on traditionally savory sandwiches or wraps. I knew I already liked this combination because I’m a sucker for it whenever I see it on a restaurant menu, but for some reason I never apply this simple yet ingenious twist at home. Probably because I’m not a jelly person, so I never buy jelly! Well, now I buy all the jams willingly and I also find myself trying to brainstorm new or classic sandwich combinations that could be given a jammy flavor boost. Let me share two of my latest concoctions with.
Cottage Bacon, Egg & Fig Jam Wrap
I made this one on a recent camping trip and it involved all sorts of random ingredients all wrapped into a very satisfying breakfast. I chose Divina Chili Fig Spread to give the final flavor boost for my wrap, but Quince & Apple’s Black Tea & Fig Preserves also served to be a great fig option for those that wanted to avoid spicy foods. Serves 2.
2 slices Willow Creek Cottage Bacon, chopped
4 eggs, beaten
1 handful Caesar’s Sharp Cheddar, shredded
1 handful cherry tomatoes, chopped
A few sprigs of fresh dill
1-2 scallions, chopped
1 Tbs. Divina Chili Fig Spread or Quince & Apple Figs & Black Tea Preserves
2 Gitto’s 8-in Flour Tortillas
butter or oil
salt and pepper to taste
Directions: Melt butter or oil in a skillet and add the chopped cottage bacon to fry up for a couple minutes, and then add the beaten eggs, salt & pepper. Once the eggs are nearly cooked, turn the heat to low and mix in the shredded cheddar until uniformly combined. Lastly add the dill, tomatoes, and scallions and stir for another minute until combined. Remove from heat. Once you’ve applied your desired amount of fig jam to your tortilla, add the egg mixture and enjoy!
Mediterranean Marmalade Dream
This sandwich is a great combination of diverse flavors. You get the bitter from the marmalade and the arugula, the sweet from marmalade and cucumbers, the salty from the feta, kalamatas, and hummus, and the tang from the sourdough. I know not everyone loves arugula. I personally find it to be too dominant of a flavor for a salad, but it’s a great option for this sandwich as there are many other flavors to balance it out. I recommend giving it a try, but any other salad-type green will serve as a substitute if you know arugula just isn’t your thing. Serves 1.
1-2 slices sourdough bread
1 Tbs. Quince & Apple Orange Marmalade with Lemon
2-3 Tbs. hummus
1-2 Tbs. feta crumbles
5-6 Kalamata olives, chopped
6-8 cucumber slices
1 handful arugula
Directions: This one doesn’t require any cooking, so it’s super fast, but still very satisfying. First, I toast the Sourdough Bread, and my personal favorites are Troubadour Bakery or Madison Sourdough sandwich loaves. I tend to be an open face sandwich kind of human these days, so I just use one slice personally. It gets a little messy, but I’d rather have more toppings and less bread. Then I add the ingredients in the order they appear on the list from top to bottom. That way the small bits of feta and kalamatas stick to the hummus and you have a more cohesive masterpiece.
And there’s more!
We offer a lot of your standard fruit jams and jellies, but we also have a number of options that many may not have tried yet, and they lend themselves perfectly to these sorts of applications. Quince & Apple is our local fruit preserve champion of unique flavors. Beyond the Figs & Black Tea and Orange Marmalade with Lemon that I mentioned above, we offer their full line of preserves, which includes Tart Cherry & White Tea, Pear Mostarda, Peach Chamomile, and Shallot Confit with Red Wine, to name a few. We also offer a number of their preserves in small 1.5oz jars, so you can sample them before committing to the full jar. Other brands with unique flavors include Divina, Mitica, and Casa Forcello. I’m planning on trying the Mitica Tomato Jam (found at East & North) once I work through some of my current stash! Some of these special offerings are only stocked in or nearby the Cheese departments at all three stores, so be sure to check there if you don’t find what you’re looking for in the usual jam and jelly aisle.
