Sometimes when I am traveling, I find a local market or farm stand. I like to seek out regional delicacies that I can take home. Sometimes I come across a jar of something really interesting, but it's so unusual and unique that I don't know what to do with it when I get home.
Take for example, in the photo above: clockwise from top right, a jar of maple jelly that I found at Atwater Market in Montréal, and jars of lavender & rose petal confit that I found at a small roadside stand in Languedoc, France. What do you do with these?
Solution one: gift them to someone else!
Solution two: use them yourself. Sweet, fruity, and floral preserves can be used on biscuits, scones, other baked goods, and as a condiment for meats and chicken. Spicier preserves such as pepper jelly are tasty spread on a cracker with some cream cheese. They're also really good as a condiment for seafood. Any sort of unusual preserve can be a wonderful addition to a cheese plate, as cheese buyer Gordon Edgar points out. Try stirring a spoonful of preserves in your tea the way the Russians do.
(Image: Kathryn Hill)
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The recipe I use for mango lassi uses a little rose water, so it might be interesting to make a panini with some sliced mango and a creamy cheese and the rose preserves spread on the bread.
Try maple jelly on a bacon sandwich? Yum!
I like to heat up preserves in a saucepan (sometimes I add a splash of liquer) and pour it over angel food cake or pound cake or ice cream.
I make sauces/glazes for meat or tofu with my "odd" jellies.
And the first thing I thought was, didn't you just post a dessert with maple jelly in it?
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/roundup-magazines/funky-picnic-dessert-apple-and-maple-verrinecanadian-house-home-087376
Some other things to put sweet/floral preserves on: rice pudding, pancakes, ice cream, mixed into plain yogourt.
I like to use any of the flower jellies in my tea. It gives it a nice fragrance.
I like to use unusual jellies in vinaigrettes. It's a neat way to add a flavour in that I might not've otherwise. Also, in jelly cookies.
Pepper jelly can also be used as a glaze on pork tenderloin, but I just love it on crackers with cream cheese. Nom.
Smitten Kitchen just had a recipe for neopolitan cake that's basically giant shortbread cookies sandwiched together with jam and stored for a couple days for the jam to soak in -- in the recipe it's raspberry but I bet something unusual like blueberry-Szechuan pepper or lavender or peach-bourbon could be really lovely too.
I just made a berry tart with plum jam glaze. You could make great combinations with fruit and jam glazes to give your tart that extra special touch.
floral confitures heated up and poured over fresh berries with plain yogurt
also make really great cheese accompaniments.
Rose jelly is a nice glaze for a fruit salad. Warm up a little to make it spread farther and gently stir it in. I bet lavender would work, too. It would be great with a combo of blueberries and watermelon. Maybe white peach, too?
While floral flavors aren't really my thing, I can't think of anything I wouldn't put maple jelly on/in. Pork glaze, on buttered biscuits, in baked beans, maybe some kind of bisquick sausage "pie" with a touch of it, out of the jar with a spoon... I have maple issues.
Rose jelly is great for jelly-filled cookies, and also as a glaze for other fruit desserts.
I totally eat "unusual" jellies on cheese - you never know what wonderful combinations you might discover on a chunk of grassy sheeps milk or aged goat cheese! Some of those jams are quite floral and would complement them nicely!
I buy jars of things I don't know what to do with all the time. In fact, I bought some zucchini relish at the farmer's market last year--and I still don't know what to do with it! I'm not normally a relish fan, but I love zucchini so I thought I'd give it a try. But on what?