Sesame-Studded Tomato Jam
I first made this recipe years ago as a party appetizer dip. It was surprisingly easy with ingredients that we already had/are buying for the dinner, and it was a hit.
The next time, I decided to scale up the delicious recipe and cook a giant 90-oz can of tomatoes from Costco. It tasted okay, but ended up being too big a batch to cook at home easily. A larger batch takes exponentially longer to cook down in a non-commercial kitchen to without giant burners and rotundas to aid the process.
This time, I was reminded of this recipe as a way to use up the remainder of yet another 90-oz sized can of tomatoes. The first 56 ounces went toward butter chicken sauce. (RIP Floyd Cardoz.) It’s my first time also making the actual sauce instead of just the chicken tikka in the first half of the recipe. Now my house seems to be permanently perfumed with the intoxicating aroma of fenugreek. Can’t complain.
Anyway, a smaller batch turned out much better, even with mediocre canned tomatoes.
Peep the jam in this 5-year-old photo. The green bowl on the right. All of this meal, including stuff to the left that weren’t pictured, was from the same book. Highly recommend.
Paula Wolfert’s Sesame-Studded Tomato Jam
In an oven set to 450F, roast:
4 lbs ripe roma tomatoes
Turn occasionally until charred and soft, about 1 hour.
OR Under a broiler set on high, char:
4 lbs whole canned tomatoes, drained well and patted dry
Turn when one side gets a few blisters, and char another. About 10 minutes total depending on broiler strength
If using fresh tomatoes: peel, core, de-seed, and coarsely chop tomatoes. If starting with canned, skip to next step.
Should yield about 3.5 cups. Scale there rest of the recipe to this.
Saute over medium-high heat to evaporate excess liquid:
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
the tomatoes (from above)
Keep cooking, stirr frequently, until the tomatoes are sizzling and beginning to brown.
The agitation mashes the tomatoes further, into a perfect consistency.
Season with:
3 Tbsp good floral honey (orange blossom, lavender, clover, acacia)
1/2 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
salt & pepper
Cook for another minute to meld the flavors.
Remove from heat, and add:
1.5 tsp orange flower water (I never have this)
Additional seasonings to taste.
3 tsp deeply roasted sesame seeds (alternatively, sprinkle this on top as garnish right before serving)
Notes:
From The Food of Morocco, a great book Noah had before we met. Super beautiful photos, great explanations. Ingredients are particular and may be difficult to source, but the ones I’ve tried taste great, even with small substitutes of inferior quality versions/not cooked in a real tagine.
My method of using canned tomatoes is just to get some quick and dirty charred flavor into the tomatoes, but you don’t want to overly char them because there isn’t a skin to peel off, and you don’t want too much bitter black bits in the final dip itself.
The leftover liquid from the can is a little too tin-ny and metallic tasting for fresh applications, but it would be fine to keep to fortify a tomatoey stew or something. Throw into anything you want to give a little extra depth of flavor, that you will simmer or cook for a little while.
A disclaimer: I have never made this recipe with orange flower water because I do not keep that on hand. It would for sure transform this into something different altogether. But it’s great as a dip even without it! (I sometimes add in a dash of vinegar or some orange zest to taste though, which is 100% NOT the same thing.)