Tomato Chilli Jam

When you go to a cooking class at Ruth Pretty's Cooking School, more often than not you’ll be served her delicious Tomato Chilli Jam with morning tea. It is one of those perfect flavour combinations – slightly sweet but tart tomatoes over creamy cream cheese, atop salty rice crackers, garnished with a fresh snippet of coriander. YUM! It is not dissimilar to the very popular American styled jalapeno jelly.

This past summer, my father-in-law gave me some homegrown tomatoes – big juicy orange ones. I diced them up, put them in the freezer and earmarked them for tomato chilli jam. When I cooked them I was a surprised and even a little disappointed to see that they turned red, like regular tomatoes. The tomato chilli jam calls for ginger, fish sauce and surprise, surprise - chillies. I was a tad generous with everything to the point where I would have had to label my preserves as “rip yer lips off tomato chilli jam with a hint of fish”. My solution was to make a second batch without the fish sauce, ginger or chilli and mix the two together in the final stages. I've ended up with a slightly more caramelized version due to the extra cooking but it's at least edible. So edible in fact that I've polished off the jar I kept for myself jar and need to make some more.

You can buy Tomato Chilli Jam at Ruth's shop and the recipe appears in Ruth Pretty's Favourite Recipes. However, Ruth has generously shared her recipe with the world on her website and I urge you to make use of your summer tomatoes and try the recipe for yourself.