chilli jam (last minute Christmas gift)

This week I am also making chilli jam, I make this every month all year long. My son can't eat enough of it or my friend Kimmi! So here is the recipe because it makes a great last minute gift that unlike chutney does not need to be left months to mature, you can eat it as soon as its cooled down. Taken from Nigella Christmas and via her web site

Ingredients

• 150 grams long fresh red chilli peppers (deseeded and cut into 4 pieces)  I buy mine from Morrisons and it works out about £1 for 150 grams - much cheaper than buying in packets at 50g each                           
• 150 grams red peppers (cored, deseeded and cut into rough chunks)
• 1 kilogram jam sugar
• 600 ml cider vinegar (stores own label is perfect)                                                           

         

You will need 6 x 250ml / 1 cup sealable jars, with vinegar-proof lids, such as Kilner jars or re-usable pickle jars, old clean jam jars. A quick tip I sterilize my jars in the dish washer and start the cycle just before I start to prepare the ingredients. That way they come out warm when the chilly jam/jelly is ready to pour into your jars.

1. Sterilize your jars and leave to cool.
2. Put the cut-up chillies into a food processor and pulse until they are finely chopped. Add the chunks of red pepper and pulse again until you have a vibrantly red-flecked processor bowl.
3. Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar in a wide, medium-sized pan over a low heat without stirring.
4. Scrape the chilli-pepper mixture out of the bowl and add to the pan. Bring the pan to the boil, then leave it at a rollicking boil for 10 minutes.
5. Take the pan off the heat and allow it cool. The liquid will become more syrupy, then from syrup to viscous and from viscous to jelly-like as it cools.
6. After about 40 minutes, or once the red flecks are more or less evenly dispersed in the jelly (as the liquid firms up, the hints of chilli and pepper start being suspended in it rather than floating on it), ladle into your jars. If you want to stir gently at this stage, it will do no harm. Then seal tightly. Label when cool and add pretty fabric tops cut with pinking sheers. I use a saucer as a template.