Granny’s Cook book.

Chilli jam

Chilli jam is a real tongue warmer, it goes well with meats and cheeses and a bacon sandwich, I personally love it on a toasted bagel with cream cheese and chives, but that’s another story. It’s pretty easy to make and may I suggest you wear some disposable gloves to prep the chillies and don’t, what ever you do touch your nose, eyes, or anywhere on your face until your finished prepping them, otherwise you’ll feel the burn for sure.

Chilli jam

2 red peppers (150g) approx.

150g of hot chillies (I used the yellow habanero ones) A piece of ginger about as long as your index finger or less (if you don’t like too much heat)

1 dessert spoonful of garlic powder, (heaped) 400g or more of tomatoes. Tinned or fresh 750g of sugar 250ml of vinegar.

Method

First of all, put a large pan on the stove, pour your vinegar into it and add the sugar, let that heat up on the stove until hot but not boiling over. Also place a small plate into your freezer for later to test the chilli jam.

Next put on your disposable gloves, then start preparing the chillies, I cut the tops off and scooped out all of the seeds inside. Once that was done I placed them in a blender/ processor and zizzed them until they were fine. Next add the tomatoes a little at a time, blend them all, by now your simmering pan of vinegar and sugar should be ready for you to add the peppers and chilli mix. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine, turn down the heat and let it sit at a high enough heat to achieve a rolling boil, basically that’s boiling without boiling over, but keep an eye on it, it could catch on the bottom of the pan inside, so don’t have the heat too high and don’t leave the pan.

Continue to cook the chilli jam stirring gently until it starts to thicken, you can test this by using a plate that you’ve placed in the freezer, so it’s nice and cold, you spoon a little of the jam onto the plate, place it back in the freezer for 5 min. Then take it back out and push your finger through the jam, if it starts to form a skin then it’s ready, if not, boil it some more and repeat the process, until it’s ready.

Sterilize your jars either by heating in the oven for 15 mins at 200 or boil them, either way make sure they are clean, warm and ready for you fill up with your chilli jam.

This recipe does make a hot jam, not for children I’d say, you can add less peppers and ginger if you want to, it’s a matter of personal taste. We like it hot so that’s why I have these amounts in this recipe.

I like my chilli jam on meats and cheeses and I am very fond of it over cream cheese with chives on a hot toasted bagel with a coffee. As I said before it’s also a really good accompaniment to a big thick bacon sandwich.

As you can see form the last picture It makes approx. 6lbs of chilli jam, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less, it depends on how much juice your tomatoes yield when you blend them. Which incidentally can affect the setting process, if you find yours doesn’t set as planned you can cheat and use gelatine, or Certo, or cook some apples into the jam, as apples have a natural pectin in them and if that fails too there’s always cornstarch or keep boiling it until it does set. Granny won’t be beaten.There’s always a way.

I ladled mine into hot jars and popped on the lids, when the jars are cool I will label them and date them. I hope you enjoy the chilli jam as much as we do, we even like it on chilli, fish and chicken, it’s very versatile if you like a wicked, sinful heat to your meat. Enjoy!