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Growing Chillies from Seed |
The recipe for Jan's Chilli Jam as featured in the 2022 Virtual Village Supper
Chilli Jam
Makes 7-8 227g (8oz) jars
Keeps for 6-9 months
Ingredients:
5-6 medium red peppers (or a mix of red and yellow)
4 hot red chillies (eg scotch bonnet, birds’ eye)
2-4 mild-medium long red chillies
Zest and juice of 2 limes (or 1 lemon and 1 lime)
350ml (12 fl oz) red or white wine vinegar
1.3kg (3lb) white granulated sugar
125-250ml (4-9 fl oz) liquid pectin
2 tbsp sweet paprika
For a mild version, use 4-6 mild red chillies
Method:
1 Deseed the peppers and chillies, chop them roughly and place in a food processor with the lime zest and about half the juice. Whizz to a fine pulp - you will have a vibrant, heady-smelling purée (wear kitchen gloves when handling the chillies to avoid finger burning).
2 Tip the purée into a preserving pan (this mixture bubbles up tremendously so use a large pan) and add the remaining lemon or lime juice, vinegar and sugar. Use the vinegar to swill out the food processor bowl so all the chilli juices end up in the pan. Warm the mixture gently until the sugar is dissolved. If you missed any seeds, fish them out with a teaspoon at this stage.
3 Turn up the heat and boil for 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it though, as it bubbles up like billy-o. Remove from the heat and stir in the paprika and the pectin. If you want a fairly runny jam, use 125ml (4 fl oz) pectin: use more if you want something firmer.
4 Return to the heat and boil for a further 3-4 minutes before testing for a set.* If the jam is to runny, boil again for another 3 minutes and test again. Pot into hot sterilized jars.
*Set - place a saucer in the freezer for a few minutes. Put half a teaspoon of jam on the plate and return it to the freezer for a minute. Remove and push the jam gently with your finger, it will wrinkle if setting has been reached.
