For D’s birthday I thought I’d make him something homemade among his presents. We had a big bag of Fresno chillies hanging around from our weekly vegetable box so I put them to good use for this chilli jam/jelly – a sweet and very spicy, chilli flecked ruby jelly. D seems to add some form of chilli to most things, so I knew this would be welcome. It’s very quick and easy to make, but watch out for it boiling over and covering the top of the hob with sticky spicy jam, which is what happened to me – it was a total mess!
Chilli jam is delicious in sandwiches, ploughmans platters, cream cheese (soya or dairy) and crackers and in many Mexican dishes. This recipe is inspired by and very similar to one that comes from Nigella.
Sweet Spicy Chilli Jam (dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soya-free, sesame-free, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan)
Makes one large jar full or 2-3 small jars
- 100g red chillies (I used Fresno), deseeded and roughly chopped.
- 50g red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 500g jam sugar that contains pectin
- 300ml cider vinegar
– In a food processor, blitz the peppers and chillies until very finely chopped
– Meanwhile, in a saucepan melt together the sugar and vinegar
– Once the sugar is dissolved, add the blitzed pepper and chilli mix
– Bring to the boil and simmer for ten minutes, skimming off the bubbly scum.
– Leave to cool in the pan, it will start to thicken due to the pectin.
– Meanwhile, thoroughly wash and sterilise the jars in the oven
– Pour the chilli jam into the warm jars, place the lids on and leave to cool.
