Savouring Edible Gifts

Eating the bread and jam friends made is gold

Aside from his day job, a friend in Hong Kong likes to make jam in his spare time, using fruits when they are in season. He takes pictures from start to finish on social media, and one can easily see how much work he puts into it, particularly when it comes to peeling off the skin, or de-seeding the fruit.

I once asked if I could learn how to make jam from him, but by the way he replied, it seemed like this was something he preferred to do alone with his particular way of doing things, and it's understandable.

A prized jar of passion fruit jam

He has made jams from lemons to yuzu, blueberries, strawberries, kumquats, mango, apricot, blackberry and apple.

The fruits are chopped and then cooked in a giant copper pot before being scooped into small glass jars and then carefully labelled and then gifted to friends and chefs.

I am lucky to be one of the receivers and savour every bite of his jams. When I left Hong Kong he gave me a jar of lemon jam -- whole lemons that had been cooked down and it was definitely the taste of summer.

This time he gave me passion fruit jam with a hint of yuzu. It's a golden colour speckled with the dark seeds. 

And then I went to Singapore and met up with an ex-colleague I haven't seen for over 20 years! He recently wrote a book about baking, in particular baked goods from Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India and Indonesia to name a few. 

His book, NerdBaker 2: Tales from the Yeast Indies is so beautifully written and also his recipes are very particular, but also offers substitutions in case you can't find the exact ingredients. He encourages people to try out his recipes because he has rigorously tested them, though he has some fans who read his books for bedtime reading and not in the kitchen!

Indonesian bread made by my friend!

Not only did he sign a copy of the book for me, but also gave me a loaf of bread! In particular roti sisir tapai ubi, an Indonesian bread that you can tear off easily.

So you can imagine I was very excited to try them together!

I heated up the bread in the microwave a bit to make it warm and a bit fluffy before spreading the passion fruit jam over the bread. Needless to say it tasted delicious! 

I thanked both profusely, and hinted perhaps the two should do a collaboration together! Breads matched with jams! 

Ironically my baker friend is on a low-carb diet so when he was testing his recipes he would give away his trial bread to friends. But he says because he can only eat so much bread, it better be good, which is why it's best to make it yourself!