Strawberry Jam
I bought some strawberries which really had to be eaten last night (I posted this in the summer and am re-posting in a new blog which has solely GF recipes) but in my absence at a book talk in Bath by Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver of St John London, ice cream was eaten by my family with no strawberries. So by the following morning they had to be eaten straight away or be made into something. So this is how they ended and my delayed breakfast was scrumptious.
Ingredients
450g punnett of strawberries
350g preserving or jam sugar
Juice of half a lemon (adds a little zing to an otherwise very sweet jam)
Place a saucer in the fridge.
Hull the strawberries and place them in a heavy based saucepan with the sugar.
Put the pan over a gentle heat and when the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat so that the mixture will bubble.
Allow it to simmer gently for about 10 minutes, until when you stir and prod the strawberries, they give way completely to the wooden spoon. Do not over-stir because it is rather nice to have lumps of strawberry on your toast.
Add the lemon juice and stir well.
You can test whether the jam is ready by putting a little bit of it on the saucer which you put in the fridge in step 1. If the jam ripples a little, and holds it shape just a little, then it is ready. If you simmer it for too long it will be very thick when cooled.
7. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes before decanting into the jar, in the hope that the strawberries will not rise to the top of the jar when cooled.
8. Sterilise a jar by pouring boiling water into it and allowing it to dry. It does not matter if a drip of two of water are left in it.
9. Pour the jam into the jar. Seal and eat on toast or with pannacotta or rice pudding or cheesecake or however you like it.
