STRAWBERRY JAM

Making jam is such a pleasurable experience. Nothing beats home made jam with fresh seasonal fruits personally picked and processed for making jam. This is the best way of preserving seasonal fruits and relishing it for a long long time. I have a variety of jams in my pantry that I made some time ago. Once you make jam at home, you will never like the store bought version that generally has  loads of preservatives, artificial colour, pectin, flavouring agents etc etc…..

Last week during a weekly trip to the fruit mart we got two packs of strawberries and made Jam. It is a spread able jam with loads of fruit pieces bursting with flavour.

STRAWBERRY JAM

Ingredients

Strawberries

Sugar (depends on quantity of fruit)

Lemons

You will also need-

A plate kept in the freezer

Method

Wash the strawberries; keep them for sometime to dry.

Hull the strawberries and chop them.

Measure the chopped fruit and transfer to a heavy bottom steel wok.

Measure equivalent quantity of sugar.

Mix sugar and fruit well and let it rest for two hours. The strawberries will become soft and release juice.

Add juice of half lime for every cup of chopped fruit.

Cook over medium flame stirring at short intervals to avoid jam from sticking to the bottom and burning.

When the quantity of jam reduces and starts attaining jam like consistency, reduce the heat and cook on low flame stirring constantly.

To test doneness, drop some jam on the cold plate. Return to freezer for a minute. Run your finger through the jam on the plate... if it doesn't try to run back together, it is done. If it is runny, it needs to be cooked for some more time.

While the jam cools, sterilise the bottles. Place the washed and dried bottles with the lids in the oven. Set the temperature to 100 degrees and set the timer to 10 minutes. Remove the bottles and their lids from the oven. 

Ladle hot jam into the jars leaving ¼ inch head space. Secure the lids tightly.