Chilli & Garlic Jam

Yesterday I recieved a lovely email from a fellow plotholder who had been sampling one of my preserves.

Obviously I replied with the recipe, but after posting on our Facebook group I had further requests to share the details.

The chili jam is made from pink gooseberries with onions, apple,garlic, malt vinegar, sugar, chillies and some cumin, salt and pepper to taste. If you don’t have pink gooseberries then it does work well with rhubarb or redcurrants too! I just like the nice colour you get from the pink gooseberries and the little black seeds in there.If you use berries it gives a much fruiter flavour than juse apples too!

In basic terms:
1. 2/3rds fill a jam pan with pink gooseberries.
2. Add 2 large chopped onions and 2 large cooking apples (chopped/peeled)
3. Lots of garlic – was probably 20 cloves?
4. Add chillies – I put quite alot in. Depends how hot you like it. Again probably about 20 small hot ones (we grow Apache).
5. Add about 750ml of malt vinegar and about 4 cups of sugar.
6. Simmer and reduce down by about 1/3.
7. Add spices/seasoning to taste – I just add a about 1 tbs cumin and 1 tsp salt with lots of black pepper, simmer for a few more mins and then taste. Then add more if I think it needs it.
8. Blend with a hand blender – you don’t have to do that, but will give you a more ‘jam’ like texture.

In all honesty there is a little bit of an art to it. Once I start to reduce it down I do taste it and sometimes adjust the sugar/vinegar as it depends on the fruit you use.

I make quite alot of different chutneys and play around a bit. Once you get used to knowing the taste of the right vinegar:sugar ratio it is quite easy to get some really interesting variety!