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The original recipe can be found on Epicurious here.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg ripe tomatoes
  • 450g sugar
  • 2 or 3 grinds of black pepper
  • Big pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 4 or 5 fresh chillis

Method

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Using a paring knife, cut out the stem end off each tomato, then slice a shallow X in the bottom. Get another big bowl about half full of cold water ready.

Plunge the tomatoes into the boiling water until their skins loosen, the original recipe says for 30 seconds, but I found it took about a minute to get good results.  Remove them with a slotted spoon and put them into the bowl of cold water-it helps the skins peel off. I found it easiest to peel the skins off and dump them into the bowl of water; and then throw the whole lot into the compost.

The original recipe says to squeeze out the seeds of the tomatoes; but I couldn’t be bothered and it turned out just fine. Roughly chop them up though so that they are in small pieces.

Cut the chillis into fine pieces or rings. If you want a bit more heat, leave the seeds in; otherwise de-seed your chillis.

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over a medium heat stirring frequently to make sure the bottom doesn’t burn and it all cooks evenly. Foam will rise to the top, skim this off for a clearer jam.

I cooked the mixture until it had reduced by about 2/3 and was thick and goopy. Remember it will thicken even more as it stands.

The amounts for this recipe made about 1.5 ‘honey’ jars of jam and it was so yummy that I made another double batch.

I’d serve it with some good strong cheeses; but I suspect you could even use it on sweet-savour type sandwiches. It makes an excellent gift too!

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