Bam! Yummo! It’s A Good Thing!

Meet your next Food Network star -- kitchen courtesy of Sandy

A lot of Food Network chefs have a catch phrase all their own that you instantly recognize when you hear it.  Emeril has his Bam!  Rachael Ray has her Yummo!  (BTW, I can’t stand Rachael Ray, when I hear her say yummo, or EVOO, I just cringe, and quite possibly a small part of me dies.)  Even Martha will tell you that “it’s a good thing!”  I don’t have a special Miriyummy phrase, yet…

Hmmmmm, what’s the phrase that I say most in the kitchen?

Turn up the music!  — No, that doesn’t have anything to do with food, but it does have everything to do with cooking.  I love to cook to Jackson Browne, Barry White, even ABBA.  Not Bruce Springsteen, though.  His music is best for cleaning the house.

Bugger, I just cut my finger again!  — No, that one doesn’t encourage much faith in my kitchen skills.

Argh!  I just dropped an egg, will someone get the dog in here to clean it up? — Forget it, that one is so not made for Food TV!

Dropped eggs are never a problem as long as Shovav is around

How about… This rocks!  I say that a lot after I taste something.  A little hubris-y, I admit, but hey, it does rock!

Okay, so I don’t have my own cooking show (yet), but I’m getting there, one Dalia Bar at a time!  The other day I posted some of my food pics to Facebook.  My friend Debza, who’s been through thick and thin with me since the 8th grade, commented on one picture and said, “Wow, who knew you were Martha Stewart?”  Okay, I’ll take that one as a compliment, although I would much rather be compared to Nigella Lawson or Carine Goren.  Just don’t liken me to Rachael Ray or I’ll gouge your eyes out with a Microplane zester, okay?

Yes, I will admit, I can be a bit Martha-ish in the kitchen.  I bake my own challah for Shabbat, I distill my own liqueurs, I can bubble up some loquat chutney (it rocked, FYI), I’ve made my own marmalade and a while back, thanks to one of my favorite blog reads, Matkonation, I made some Cherry Tomato Jam.  Organic Cherry Tomato Jam, thank you very much…

It’s actually quite simple to make, it set like a dream, and was very yummy at several BBQs we’ve thrown since I first Martha-ed up this concoction.  We spread it on grilled chicken, have it with toasted pita, I’ve even drizzled it on my corn muffins.  It’s a good recipe.  And you know what?

It rocks!

Cherry Tomato Jam

• 1 kilo (2 pounds) cherry tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 500 grams (1 pound) sugar

1. Wash and dry the cherry tomatoes.  Place them in a large pot and add the lemon juice.  Using medium heat, bring it up to a boil.  Don’t worry that there’s no additional liquid in there, the tomatoes break down relatively quickly. Once they’ve come to the boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
2. Add the sugar.  Turn the heat up back to medium and let the stuff come to a boil again, and then turn the heat back down to low and simmer for another 45 minutes to one hour.
3. To check if the jam is ready place a small amount on a cold plate (I put a plate in the fridge when I started cooking, especially as it was a hot day).  You then put the plate in the freezer for about 2-3 minutes.  When you remove it from the freezer, draw a line through the jam with your finger.  If the line remains, the jam is ready to be poured into your jars.  If not, return the pot to the heat and retest after a few minutes.