Chilli Jam

I thought that I would share my chilli jam recipe. I have been growing chilli peppers on and off for about 10 years usually a variety called Apache which is a medium hot chilli (about 75,000 on the Scoville scale if you are interested) and as they provide a lot of fruit this lets me use up the ones that don't get used in cooking.  This is not an act of random kindness though as it ensures that I can find it myself in future.  I've lost the book with the recipe before and probably will again so if its on my blog I know where to look!

This chilli jam is great with cold meats, it makes a great alternative to apple sauce with roast pork.  I like it with sausages too.  The original recipe came from Allotment Garden.org in the Val's Preserves bit of the site.  I changed the recipe the first time I made it as I didn't have enough red peppers but I liked the result so I have stuck with the change.  Below is the original recipe my changes are shown further down the page.

Ingredients
8 Red Peppers.  De-seeded and roughly chopped.
5 Medium size Chilli.  Roughly chopped.
1 Finger sized piece of fresh Root Ginger.  Peeled and chopped.
8 Cloves of Fresh Garlic.  Skinned and chopped.
400gms canned Tomatoes. Chopped.
750gms Castor Sugar.
250ml Red Wine Vinegar

Method
1. Blitz the Peppers, Chilli, Ginger and Garlic in a food processor.
2. Place these in a heavy bottomed pan with with the can of tomatoes, sugar and Red Wine Vinegar and bring to the boil.
3. Skim off the scum that rises and simmer for 50 minutes.  Stir regularly (it mustn't stick as it will burn). 
4. Continue to simmer for 10 - 15 minutes stirring continuously.  Check if will set by dropping a little of the mixture onto a cold saucer.
5. Allow to cool slightly and bottle in sterile jars.

I swapped 3 Red Peppers for the same weight of fresh Tomatoes leaving the seeds in.  This has the bonus of making the resulting chilli jam look a lot like raspberry jam!  Not that I would ever take advantage of that fact.

The finished article

I use Apache chilli as I grow these.  One plant usually provides all the chilli's I need for cooking and making this jam.  Apache Chilli's are reasonably hot (75,000 on the Scoville scale about three times hotter than Jalapeño's).  This produces a jam with bite but not unpleasantly hot.

Make it between now and the end of November and it will be perfect as a gift for Christmas.

Enjoy.