Tomato Chilli Jam

 

 

The other day I made 6 pots of Tomato Chilli Jam.  To call it "jam" is actually something of an over-statement.  It is sticky enough, but has such a soft "set," that it is more like a stiff tomato sauce. But there you go.

So, how to make it ?You can find a huge variety of recipes using all sorts of herbs and spices, but my preference is to keep it simple.  The following recipe has a very pleasant tang, which goes especially well with cheese scones. 

Ingredients:

1 kg tomatoes

200ml red wine vinegar

500g golden caster sugar

couple of cloves of garlic

6 red chillies (more or less, depending how hot you want it)

2 inches of ginger

50 ml fish sauce

 

First, roughly chop the garlic, ginger and chillies, and whizz them up in a blender with the fish sauce.

Then put the sugar and vinegar into a saucepan and heat slowly until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the sauce you have made.

Then peel the tomatoes, by nicking their bottom, and plunging them in a bowl of boiling water for a few seconds until the skin starts to peel back.  Then whip them  out a put into a bowl of iced water (as if you were blanching them). Take them out as soon as they are cool, as if they are left in for a few minutes they will turn to mush and be much more difficult to chop.  Drain, dice and add to the saucepan.

Bring to the boil, and simmer for around one hour, until it starts to stiffen up.   Then put into jars (preferably ones with plastic lined "pickle-proof" lids.