jam

I love community, I love local and I love sharing. I especially love when it leads to awesome Jam! I'm very lucky to live just a few doors down from a great honest, specialty coffee place. There is just something great about walking in, leaving your money on the counter, having a great chat and leaving with your coffee without even having to order it. It's that thing I guess, we all need to feel we belong somewhere. 

So towards the end of stone fruit season my (yes my) awesome local coffee man gave me a huge box of organic plums from his tree, after discussing our mutual love of making jam. In desperate need of a bit of down time after a busy holiday eating my way round Europe, this called for a Saturday night in with a bottle of red, a box of plums and a whole lot of expectant empty jars, all ready to be filled with thick rich plum jam!

The first time I made jam with (cough) stolen figs from my neighbour's tree hanging over my back fence, I had no idea what I was doing. I asked my nana for a few tips, she gave me a basic formula of fruit, sugar and lemon. I basically just simmered the hell out of it and amazed my self with the ease of how it set. I'd heard all these stories about issues with getting the right consistency, using jam setters, pectin additives but this was so easy! I was all over this jam! Ok, so eventually I realised I wasn't some sort of jam making rain man and that lemon has natural pectin in the skin and that's why you use it, to set your jam. Yep, embarrassing. Regardless, I'm not really a fan of jam setters and gelatins and the like so I like to go with the old school method. And really if it works with a piece of fruit, why would you add something created in a factory?

So my plum jam. I wanted to go spicy with a sweet, savoury balance. First choice was to try a different citrus. After a bit of internet research to make sure lime did the same pectin magic as lemon (as I am clearly no scientist), I decided on the little green ball of magic to see how it changed the flavour of the jam (and used a bit of lemon too just in case). Spice wise I went with vanilla bean, cinnamon, some all spice and cardamom. The cardamom didn't really come through but the others had a really nice balance with the lime juice cutting in with some nice acidity.

and then craploads of sugar.....

Since becoming interested in making jam I've done a bit of reading up on different recipes and methods, timing, frozen saucers and the like. I like to just go with my first time naive fluke of just simmering long time! When my wine bottle is empty and I finish season 3 of Sons of Anarchy, my jam is done! Not a very jam making person's television show I know but I'm strangely addicted to it. I've just finished season 4 as well, Gah! But no jam with this one.
The old long slow boil just seems to work every time, and it makes my house smell amazing for days!!

I've heard a couple of times from a few different sources that filling your jars hot and letting them cool upside down creates the seal and removes the need to boil your jars, so armed in rubber gloves and tea towels I transferred somehow all that piping hot jam (note previous mention of one consumed bottle of wine) into each little and not so little jar! And thus... plum jam for all!!

The jam didn't last long, I am a compulsive food gifter (lets face it I need to be, I'm baking constantly and live alone), but I have one big jar I am halfway through. I've found mixing it with BBQ sauce also makes an awesome dipping sauce for chicken meatballs! uh huh.

so super yummy plum jam...

adapted from my nana's basic formula

1 cinnamon stick

1 vanilla bean

2 tbl all spice

6 cardamom pods (I have doubled what I originally used)

1kg of chopped plums 

(ie take out the seed before weighing so you're not weighing the seed and getting your proportions wrong)

500 gms sugar

2 limes, zested and juice

1 lemon, zested and juice

All in a pot, (heavy bottom or it will burn) stir and dissolve down the sugar, let simmer.

Open wine, distract yourself for many hours checking occasionally. You will know when it looks sticky and gloopy - it is done. Somehow transfer into your jars while hot, leave to cool upside down. (possibly an old wives tale but who's gonna tempt fate? this is damn good jam)

The above, without the lime and only using the cinnamon and vanilla bean makes an awesome fig jam as well..... my other, other one true love. Super to over ripe figs make the best jam. Save the fresh ones for salad, pizza, fruit salad, moussaka, in fact everything your can imagine! I like figs!

BAM!