jam harvest & redcurrant three ways

There is a redcurrant bush in the garden where we are staying at the moment - it's been said that the harvest is left to the birds every year because the fruit is too sour and tangy. When I saw the heavy branches laden with fruit I thought the birds will have their share but this year I'll be filling a few jam jars with that ruby-red.

I love the look of the bunches with the shiny pearl-like berries - they have the prettiest colours even when not quite ripe.

We've been having a very rainy August - the day of the harvest wasn't an exception either. There were rainbows during the quick downpours with big dollopy raindrops pierced by golden sunshine.

I sat in the redcurrant bush to  hide from the rain and to carry on with the berry picking. It was like sitting in a green tent adorned with ruby chandeliers everywhere - I get all poetic yes, but I really felt like a very lucky child.

There was a lot of quiet goings-on in the redcurrant tent - there were spiderweb hammocks and other little tenants like snails and tiny bugs.

Then the day of the jam cooking came. I had a small amount of blackcurrant that I picked off a very sparse old bush - their wild forest taste gave me an idea to make differently flavoured batches of redcurrant jam.

I had about 3 kilos of currants and planned for two big half litre jars of each of the following (recipes and ingredients at the bottom of the post):

• Plain redcurrant jam with blackcurrants
• Christmas spiced redcurrant jam with orange peel, cinnamon and ginger
• Redcurrant jelly with hot chillies 

I got busy with brewing the bubbling lava of jam but didn't get to record much of it. The light wasn't great in the kitchen so excuse the less than exciting pictures (plus the jars I bought turned out to have too bumpy a surface for my vintage redcurrant labels to stick properly...) .

But the cooking process was very exciting - there's something very satisfying about melting these nice berries into a scorching hot sauce of deliciousness while licking jam-coated wooden spoons.

It took me about 4-5 hours to cook the 3 different lots - the preparation time took almost as long, so I watched a couple of movies while picking the berries off their stalks.

The recipes:

Notes:
- The cooking process is the same for all 3 variants of jam. Pick fruit off stalk before cooking.
- Preserving sugar has a natural jelling agent added like pectin or gelatin, for reduced cooking times. You can use regular sugar or raw cane sugar but you will need to cook the jam longer to achieve the right consistency.
- If your jar doesn't have metal parts (unlike mine) you can sterilize them in the microwave. Otherwise use boiling hot water rinses, let dry naturally and no wiping!

- These jam variations contain the seeds and skin of the currants and the other ingredient bits - you can strain your jam when cooked, put back on the heat to boil once more, then fill into jars for a smooth jelly.

- I looked at jam recipes online for inspiration - find the originals in Hungarian here, here and here

Plain Redcurrant Jam with Blackcurrants
Ingredients:
1kg redcurrant
a few handfuls of blackcurrant
1.2kg preserving sugar
a small glass of hot water

Christmas Spiced Redcurrant Jam
Ingredients:
1kg redcurrant
1kg preserving sugar
2 - 3 level teaspoons of cinnamon powder
the peel of 1 orange, cut into small chunks
the peel of 1 lemon, grated
thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
the juice of 1 orange

Redcurrant Jelly with Hot Chillies
Ingredients:
1kg redcurrant
0.5kg preserving sugar
a small glass of hot water
small piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into thin strips
a couple of turns of the black pepper mill
1 red jalapeno chili - seeds removed, vein left in and sliced finely
(if your jalapeno is weak like in this country you can add 1/3 of a habanero chili for a proper kick, like I did)

1. Take 200grams of the sugar and heat it in a big 3litre pot stirring with your clean untainted wooden spoon (couple of minutes).
2. When it melted add the small glass of water/orange juice for the Christmas version and cook into a syrup, stirring continuously (5-10mins).
3. Add half of the berries and cook until they start falling apart (5-10mins); stir steadily to help them along. 
4. Then add the rest of the sugar and melt it into the fruit, stirring all the while (5-10mins).
5. Then add the rest of the berries and any other ingredients - spices, peel, chilies, etc. - and cook into a good consistency. Keep stirring as you go along, and make sure your jam is not catching.  You want your jammy lava to bubble away nicely between frequent stirring sessions but not to catch or burn the sugar in there. Test consistency by letting your wooden spoon cool for a minute - if the jam coating your spoon starts solidifying nicely it's good to go. Redcurrant is high in natural gelling agents (pectin) and will achieve a good consistency quite quickly; 15-30 minutes will do it.
6. Fill into clean sterile hot jars, seal well and put your jars into 'dry steam' to cool off: I take a big basket or a cushy armchair, line it with blankets, old coats, jumpers and put my hot jam filled jars into here, then cover over with more blankets or coats. Leave until it cools entirely (up to 2 days). Once cool, prettify jars to taste and store them in a cool, dry place - a pantry or an allocated cupboard.

We are having some of the chili jam this weekend with some roast Provencal chicken and crushed new potatoes. Mm-mmm!

Have you been preserving anything this season or tried a new jam recipe? I'd love to hear about it!