Jam! Who does not love a good jam? Whenever I think of jam, I immediately go back to watching friends, where Monica has lost her marbles and becomes a jam making machine. Jam is so easy to make and is the perfect solution to when you have a large amount of fruit and have no idea what to do to with it, but cannot eat it as is, and it’s about to get bad. Make jam. It’s so simple and a small amount of fruit will go a long way.
My mother in law has a big fig tree in her garden, and these figs were so juicy and tasty I could not pass on the opportunity of taking some home. However, as I was going on a business trip and knowing that if you do not force my husband to eat fruit by sitting next to him and cutting it in small pieces, he will not eat it, and it would go bad. I was not going to let this happen with these figs. So, I decided to make jam.
Figs are sweet, but not overpowering, so with the lemon juice and lemon zest it balanced the sweetness out perfectly.
When making jam you can also heat your glasses in boiling water in order to conserve your jam for a couple of months, I did not do this as I was only making a single batch with the figs I had, so this should hold up for a couple of weeks in the fridge, but if you have a much large quantity of fruit you should definitely take this step, and you will have fresh homemade jam all year long. I mean, what else would you want than in winter going to the pantry and realizing you still have some strawberry jam leftover from those warm summer days you now long for?
Fig Jam
800 g fresh figs, cut in fourths
2 lemon, juice and zest
2 1/2 cups white sugar
In a medium sized pot on high heat add figs, lemon juice and zest, and sugar and stir. Once sugar is melted reduce the heat to medium high and allow to cook for about 1 hour. Stirring every 20 minutes to avoid the sugar from burning at the bottom of the pot.
Once the mixture has thickened, reduce the heat and stir consistently until it continues to thicken and has reached a jam like thickness. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
