Chili Pepper Jam
Canning the season’s bountiful harvest is a great way to enjoy local food throughout the winter when you’re feeling sick of the same old potatoes, carrots, and parsnips. Home preserving is easy, fun, and you can get creative with all sorts of great combinations.
I love to try and make recipes that utilize the fruits and vegetables we grow in our garden, and here’s a sumptuous treat that is a must-try: a spicy and sweet chili pepper jam that pairs fantastically with cheeses on crackers or toast.
Enjoy it with eggs, as a glaze on chicken or tofu, or indulge yourself with making your own mole sauce by adding it to melted chocolate. All of the ingredients for the jam can be sourced locally (extra points for making your own pectin from local apples!)
Ingredients:
1 pound of spicy chili peppers (any kind will do, mix and match for added flavour depth)
4 red bell peppers
7 cloves of garlic
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 ½ cup honey
1 packet of pectin (or about 60g of homemade pectin)
pinch of salt (optional)
Canning equipment:
1 large canning pot with canning rack
5 pint sized mason jars and 2-part lids
jar tongs
non-metal chopstick
lid lifter (or regular tongs for lifting lids)
1. Get your canning pot ready by filling with water and heating it to a boil on the stovetop. Wash all jars and lids. Place jars inside the canning pot when the water is boiling and sterilize for at least 20 minutes. Keep them in the canning pot until ready to use. In a small saucepan, heat water to a simmer. Place the circle part of the lids in the pan and simmer. Keep them simmering until ready to use.
2. Wash peppers and slice them lengthwise, removing the veins and seeds. It is helpful to wear plastic/latex food-handling gloves for this step, to avoid contamination as things are going to get spicy. If you don’t use gloves, wash your hands immediately after handling the chilies. The jam will be plenty spicy on its own without the seeds, but if you feel like having a very spicy jam, keep one or two peppers worth of seeds.
3. Place peppers along with the garlic into a blender (or food processor) and pulse with the 1 cup of apple cider vinegar until they are finely chopped. Transfer to a pot on the stovetop and add honey and pinch of salt, bringing to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes, then add the pectin. Boil hard without stirring for 1 full minute. To check and see if your jam has set, dab a small amount on a small, cold, clean plate and tilt the plate to see if the jam runs. You can keep a small plate in the freezer for this purpose while you’re making your jam. When it slowly oozes downward, it’s ready. If it hasn’t reached this stage yet, keep boiling. Stir, and keep at a low boil until ready to fill the jars.
4. Working one at a time, carefully take out a jar from the canning pot with the jar tongs and place it on the counter. Using a wide-mouth funnel, ladle hot jam into the jar leaving ½ inch headspace. Use your chopstick to insert in the jam and run it around the inner edge of the jar to release any bubbles trapped in the process.
Using the lid lifter or regular tongs, lift a sealing lid out of the saucepan, being careful not to touch the underside. Place on top of the rim of the hot jar and screw the band top until just barely fingertip tight. You need this lid to be on but to allow enough looseness for air bubbles to escape during processing.
Using the jar tongs, place it back into the canning pot making sure it stays upright. Repeat this step with all jars until each has been filled. Bring the canning pot back up to a full boil with the lid on and process for 15 minutes, making sure there’s at least 1 inch of water above the jar lids while processing.
When finished, remove each jar carefully with the jar tongs and place on a clean towel in a draft-free area. Leave the jars undisturbed for 24 hours. Test the seals of the jars by pressing down gently in the middle. If any of them are not concave or if you can hear and feel them popping when you press, then re-process with a new lid. Label and store as you like. This recipe makes about 5 pints of jam.
