Chilli Jam

Chilli jam is a big favourite of ours. It's a brilliant accompaniment to a cheese, salad or ham sandwich. It's also a good accompaniment to roast chicken, turkey or pork, goes well with poached salmon, and it's fantastic for livening up any Christmas leftovers. It also makes a good gift. You can make it as mild or spicy as you like, and you can make a green or red version. The red is sweet and spicy, the green more vegetal.

A word of caution - the biggest problem I have with chilli jam is getting it to set. Chillies don't have any pectin, which you need for setting, so you have to add it in one form or another. I have tried using jam sugar (which contains pectin), liquid pectin, and lemons, with varying degrees of success. I have never resorted to using gelatin, as suggested by some recipe books. If the worse comes to worst, you can do as I have done on some occasions, and cook it for a long time, so it goes thick through reduction. Despite this niggle, chilli jam is well worth the effort.

Put 500g of chopped, de-stalked, de-seeded red peppers, 2-3 teaspoons of crushed dried red chillies (or 5 or 6 chopped fresh chillies, including seeds), a larged chopped onion, 3 chopped cloves of garlic, and 250ml of vinegar in a bowl and pulse blend until all the lumps are small. Add to a large pan with two cups of jam sugar and two teaspoons of salt, heat til the sugar dissolves and bring to a rolling boil. Add two tablespoons of liquid pectin if using ordinary sugar rather than jam sugar. Cook for about 20 minutes and put a teaspoon of the jam into a small cold bowl and see if it starts to set. If not, keep cooking for a further 20 minutes, and then pour into sterilised jam jars and put the lids on.

Keeps for months until opened. After opening, keep it in the fridge, but I guarantee it won't last long!

Notes:

1. For green chilli jam, use the same quantity of green peppers and 6 fresh green chillies.

2. To sterilise the jam jars, put 1cm of water in the bottom of each jar, place in the microwave and microwave on high for 8 minutes. Sterilise the lids by boiling in a saucepan.

3. If anyone has any tips for improving the setting, please let me know!