Chilli Jam

With about ten pots of chilli plants (most of which have at least two plants growing in them, many have three), plus my five pots of tomatoes (and the two little ones which have grown from 'windfall' tomatoes, I have had quite a glut of fruit sitting in the fridge. Whilst John may beg to differ, there are only so many chillies that you can put into a dish without it becoming inedible. And so, I took a look on the internet for a recipe which would use up the chillies and tomatoes and be something which we both could eat (John not liking the taste of tomatoes, and me not liking my chillies to be overly hot).

I found this recipe over at BBC Good Food, but it called for ingredients which I didn't have (red wine vinegar for a start - who leaves their red wine open long enough to go sour? ;-) ). So, I decided to have a play (using the Good Food recipe as a basis) and got together a 'take some' recipe for Sweet Chilli Jam which didn't turn out too badly, even if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes (I used cherry, as that was what I had growing)
Chillies (There are at least three different types growing in the garden - some of which I think are more of a sweet chilli (i.e. less hot) than the others) - approx three - four times the amount of tomatoes
Capsicum / Salad pepper - I used one large and one small - orange and red look nicer than green, but I don't think make much difference to the overall taste.
Ginger - I used a couple of teaspoons of pre-grated stuff, but fresh would have been even better
a few cloves of Garlic
Red Wine
Sugar - Approx 100g for every 150-200 ml of Wine
a squirt of tomato ketchup

Roughly chop up the solid ingredients (leave the seeds in for the tomatoes and chillies) then blitz them in a food processor - they don't have to be puree, but should be reasonably runny.

Add into a thick bottomed saucepan with the liquid ingredients - the amount of wine should be enough that the solids can easily move around, but aren't too 'sloshy'.

Bring to the boil, and simmer for 50 mins, stirring every 5 or so so that it doesn't stick on the bottom of the pan. After 50 mins, the mixture will have reduced enough that it starts to go thick - keep stirring until thickens and looks like molten lava. (about another 10 minutes)

Decant into sterilised jars (I found it easier to pour into a glass jug first). Half a bottle of red wine made about 600 ml of finished jam.

Goes very well with cheese and cold meats...