Jam
We've often laughed with friends because as a reason for making jam I often say "Well, what do you do when the fruit is starting to turn a bit too ripe or you have too much? You make jam right?" while most of them would answer, "you eat it."
Anyway, I love a good homemade jam, you can pick which fruits and combination of them to prepare it with and it just has a different flavour.
Jams are often used as cake fillings such as with the Sacher and the apricot jam, or for jam tarts, but they also make for a great gift idea.
Ingredients
- 500g of fruit
- 300-400g of sugar - the amount of sugar will really depend on your preference but also on the fruit you'll pick. When you pick really sweet fruits like apricots or strawberries I wouldn't use more than 300g but if you have more acidic fruits such as at times raspberries, then you might need 400g
- the juice of one lemon
- waxed paper discs for jam jars
- Rhum
Preparation
in a pot, add the sliced fruit, the lemon juice and sugar
stir it and let it rest in the pot closed with its lid for a whole night, approximately 12 hours - you can of course wait less but at least 2-3 hours so that the fruits release all their juices
set over a low heat and gently cook, bringing it to boil, for at least 30 minutes while stirring every once in a while to avoid burning the bottom
in the meantime sterilise the jars
once the 30 minutes have passes, check whether the jam is ready by pouring a few drops of jam onto a cold saucer - place it in the fridge or freezer a few minutes to have it cold - and slowly tilt the saucer. If the jam does not leak away, then it's ready, otherwise keep cooking and checking every 10 minutes
once ready, if you prefer a smooth jam with no fruit pieces, you can blend it with an immersion blender while still warm
pour the jam in the jars
in a small bowl dip the waxed paper discs in Rhum and place one on the top of each jar
close the jars and let the jam cool - you should hear a clicking sound as the jars cool down and that means they will have sealed. If you don't hear it, check the lids to see if they make a clicking sound, if they do, they're not sealed and the jams need to be used otherwise they can be stored for longer. In this case, there's no need to sterilise the jars once filled.
