What I Bought at the West Side Market: Nuts and Roses

I'm happy to report that after last week's kipper mishap, both of my culinary experiments this week were a success.

ROSE HIP JAM IS GOOD

I. What is a rose hip, anyway?

I wasn't sure what to expect with the rose hip jam, especially because -- all pomposity aside -- I wasn't absolutely certain I knew what a rose hip was. I knew it was part of the rose plant (turns out it's the fruit left behind after the blossom falls away), and that made me a little hesitant because I have mixed feelings about using the rose flower as a flavoring...chalk it up to an accident involving too much rosewater pouring into a white chocolate icing. (Shudder.)

II. So what does this jam taste like?

It's sort of like a thick, seedless strawberry preserve -- a little more tart, and with just a hint of a floral aftertaste if you close your eyes and pretend.

III. What did I use it in?

Well, this is your lucky day, people, because I am about to give up my scone recipe, which I've guarded secret for YEARS, since my college days making them for Sunday morning shoppers at a little Lakewood bakery. (The recipe is mine, but the roll-up technique is from my favorite cookbook, The Hay Day Country Market Cookbook.)

ROSE HIP JAM SCONES

2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 c. demerara sugar (you can use white sugar too)
grated zest of 1 lemon
3/4 stick of butter (salted or unsalted, your choice), cut into squares
1 scant cup half and half (more if needed)
1/4 c. rose hip jam

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Sift the flour and dry ingredients well (including the lemon zest). Add the butter squares and either cut them into the flour using a pastry cutter or mash them in using your hands until the flour mixture resembles coarse cornmeal - you do want to leave a few larger lumps here and there; it adds to the texture. Mix in the half and half slowly - you should have a really stiff, but not crumbly, dough. (You don't want it to be too wet; you want it to pull away from the sides of the bowl.)

Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough into a rectangle approximately 12 x 4. Spread the jam onto the bottom third of the rectangle (note: do NOT use more jam than recommended...it may not look like a lot, but it will liquefy and leak out the sides and turn into a sort of sweet cement on your supposedly nonstick pan). Then fold up the dough rectangle, cut in four pieces, and cut those four pieces on the diagonal. (You should end up with eight small rectangles.) Sprinkle tops with extra demerara sugar, if you like.

Bake for approx. 12-15 minutes. (Don't let them get too brown). Eat with a nice mug of tea - I like PG Tips.

(Be forewarned: when baked, the rosehip jam takes on a resemblance to hot ketchup.)

I taste-tested this on my dad, a real pastry junkie. I wanted to see if he could identify the flavor of jam. "Apricot," he said, without tasting it (that gives you an idea of what color it turns in the oven). Then: "peach." Then "strawberry." (When I told him it technically wasn't a tree fruit OR a berry, he got cranky, so I had to divulge the secret.)

PISTACHIO OIL: USE SPARINGLY

What do you use this for?
I spent a long time looking online for appealing recipes using pistachio oil. This one for Ice Cream with Roasted Grapes sounded good until I recalled a failed grape pie experiment last year -- it tasted like eating a pie full of eyeballs.

So I decided to just try roasting chicken in it. Then I saw how good the duck legs looked at Kaufman's, so I switched species. It's very intense, pistachio oil, so be careful not to use too much. I think it might have actually overpowered chicken, but the duck stood up to it nicely.

Here's the end result:

ROASTED DUCK LEGS WITH MARMALADE AND PISTACHIO RELISH

Duck:
2 duck legs
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Throw the duck legs, skin side up, in a roasting pan. Salt and pepper the duck legs. Put into oven and forget about them for 2 hours.

Marmalade and Pistachio Relish:
4 oranges, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/2 c. mixed marmalade and jam (I used about a third tart cherry preserves and 2/3 lime marmalade - go with something colorful, although I must say that I thought the lime and pistachio married well)
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped (more or less, depending on taste)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbsp pistachio oil (note: USE SPARINGLY! this stuff is really, really strong)
Several healthy grinds of fresh black pepper
(you can probably add some actual pistachios to this, but I didn't have any!)

Let the relish sit for about 30 minutes prior to serving.

Serve with mashed potatoes, potatoes au gratin, or the like, maybe with a little bed of bitter greens, with the relish on the side. (You need something bland and/or creamy to cut through the fruitiness). And don't throw out that duck fat! It's delicious to eat by the spoonful -- mmm.

BONUS: There was quite a bit of relish left over, so I added about half a cup of Leelanau cranberry wine and roasted a boneless pork loin in it.

Up next week:
Green bamboo rice ($6.50/lb) at Urban Herbs, and
Mace ($2.75/oz) also at Urban Herbs