Recipe
Simple and easy way to make jam from this wild and indigenous African fruit.
Ingredients:
2.5 cups of Kei Apple fruit, washed and roughly chopped if not soft enough to hand crush approximately
2 cups of brown sugar
1/2 cup of water
pinch of salt
Instructions:
1. Put 3 small white or light colour saucers in the freezer before you begin cooking. This will be important later.
2. If you have a blender jump to step 7
3. Wash your fruits thoroughly and either chop roughly or if they are soft enough, hand crush them in an appropriate size pot with the water.
4. Place the pot over medium to high heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally to break down the fruit.
5. Once the mixture reaches a boil reduce to a simmer and continue cooking until broken down. Took me about 3 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve to separate the skins and seeds and save them for later.
7. If you have a blender you can skip this first cook and blend the fruit in the least amount of water necessary to get a puree. Strain as before.
8. Measure out your volume of strained fruit and combine it with an equal volume of brown sugar and a pinch of salt. If you are using way more fruit (about 1/4 tspn salt per l or so of fruit) before returning to a boil on the stove.
9. Once the mixture reaches a boil, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened. Skim any foam that forms on the surface during the cook.
10. To test for jam doneness, grab one of your prechilled saucers and drop a teaspoon of jam on it and watch how it runs when you tilt the plate. It should be viscous and flow slowly when its ready.
11. If it does not flow at all you may have cooked it too far and can just add some water back in to thin it out again.
12. Once the desired consistency is reached, remove the saucepan from the heat and let the jam cool for a few minutes, while covered.
13. Pour the hot jam into your still warm sterilized jars, leaving about 1 cm of head-space at the top.
14. Seal the jars tightly with lids and let them cool completely. Store the Kei Apple jam in a cool, dark place for up to a year. You can freeze jam, or store in the fridge if you are not yet confident in your sterilisation techniques
JAR STERILISATION
1. While your jam is cooking you are also going to sterilise your jam jars inspect your jars and lids for chips and cracks and do not use any that have such defects.
2. Wash them thoroughly with soap and rinse place jars upright in a large enough pot and cover with room temperature water.
3. Warm up and bring to boil maintain boiling temp for 10-15 minutes and then remove from heat and cover the pot with a lid while your jam finishes cooking.
4. Grab your jars and lids from the pot using clean, heat safe tongs and allow to drain upside down on clean cloth.