This morning I made chilli jam. This time I used the long red chillis but you can also use small red chillis as well. Both work beautifully.

Chilli jam keeps for a long time if you sterilise your jars and keep it in the refrigerator.

Chilli Jam

Ingredients

15 long red chillies or 40 small hot chillies, stems removed and roughly chopped

2 organic red capsicums, stems and seeds removed, roughly chopped

4 brown onions, peeled and roughly chopped

6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

20 fresh dates, pits removed

1 cup lemon juice

3 cups filtered water

juice of two limes

2 tbs Redboat or Son fish sauce

Method

Place a large pot on the stove filled with water and bring to a boil.  Place several small jars in the water and let them boil for about 5 -10 minutes.  Take them out of the water with tongs and put them on the counter to air dry without touching the insides of the jars or lids. Turn the heat off and put the lids in the hot water for 5 minutes. Remove the lids with tongs and place on the counter to air dry inside facing up.

Wash the chillies and capsicums. Remove the top stems and chop them in half leaving the seeds. Peel the onions and roughly chop. Peel the garlic and slice. Take the pits and caps from every date. Place the chillies, capsicum, onions, garlic and dates in a food processor and run until you have a smooth mixture. You may need to do two batches.

Place the contents of the food processor into a large soup pot and add all the liquid ingredients.  Stir and bring the jam to a boil. Take out a spoon full at this point to taste and adjust flavours if needed. Let the jam cook on a rolling boil for 45 minutes to one hour. . A rolling boil is when the jam boils and even when you put a spoon in to stir, it continues boiling, but doesn't boil over.  Stir frequently so that the sugars do not collect at the bottom of the pot. Be careful when stirring as the jam will spit and sputter. When the jam is cooked and thickened, ladle into sterilised jars. Put the lids on straight away and secure. Leave out overnight and when they're completely cool, label and store them in the refrigerator.