Jill’s Grill
Jill’s Grill
Jilly Jam with Local Berries
With the thermometer hitting 35C today the last place I wanted to be was in the kitchen. Once I’m there though, the time just flies and it’s my favourite place to be. Fruits and veggies are growing so quickly with the hot temperatures in Berlin, sunny days and evening showers. This is the last weekend for local strawberries and I needed to preserve some of that summer goodness in jars. Last week I froze a lot of strawberries and blueberries and, after a trip to the Mexicoplatz market, I made a batch of strawberry jam. Here’s a link on how to freeze your berries.
My sous chef came home with lots of little cucumbers that are perfect for pickling. He loves my spicy Jilly Dills so I also made copious jars of those today too.
Here’s today’s recipe for making delicious strawberry jam. Most recipes call for butter if the jam starts to get foamy and I used coconut oil instead. It really made the jam soft and added a delicious, subtle flavour. I like to add herbs and spices to my preserves and today I used fresh ground black pepper and basil from the garden. You can experiment with any complimentary flavours - be creative!!
Strawberry Jilly Jam (yields 4 cups)
3 pounds washed strawberries, hulled and sliced
4 cups sugar (I prefer raw brown organic)
⅓ cup lime or lemon juice
1 tablespoon apple pectin
1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional)
several tablespoons of basil, chiffonade slice
several grindings of black pepper from the mill
4 pint jars with lids, sterilized or any combination small jars to hold the jam
small pot of hot water to hold the lids
Put the berries in a non-reactive 4L pot. Crush lightly with a potato masher. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time. Set aside ¼ cup of sugar and mix it with the apple pectin. Add remaining sugar and lemon/lime juice and simmer approximately 2 minutes while sugar dissolves. Bring the mix to a full roiling boil, being careful not to burn the bottom of the pot. Stirring it will stop it from bubbling over but because because the liquid is HOT. Slowly add remaining sugar/pectin to the pot, stir well. Make sure there are no sugar/pectin lumps. Let it cook for 1 minute. Stir in basil and fresh ground pepper. Remove from the heat. Sometimes a foam forms on the surface. You can remove the foam with a spoon or you can add the coconut oil and stir well. Most of the foam will dissolve back into the jam. If some remains, just skim it off. (It was my favourite part to eat when Mom was making summer jams.)
Ladle the jam into the jars, top with a hot lid. Let them sit undisturbed for 12 hours. Wipe jars and label. Be sure to include the date on the label. Enjoy!!
Saturday, August 3, 2013