Much ado about tomatoes
I love making jams – I always have. As a little girl, I used to help my grandfather in our massive vegetable garden – we simply had loads of fig trees and rows of various vegetables. There is nothing that equals the taste of a ripe, sun-kissed fig freshly picked from the tree. Or a self-grown strawberry. And then there are tomatoes. It is the easiest of all to grow – in our own garden we are awed at the persistence of these little plants. Just scatter a few seeds, and in a few weeks you have results.
I made tomato jam according to my grandfather’s trusted recipe – it is very easy to follow. The fresh ginger can be substituted with bottled or even powdered, but as with everything, at the cost of taste. I used bottled lemon juice this time. Our lemon tree has caught a bug, so we are unable to use fresh lemons. I would recommend fresh lemons though. What you’ll need:
5kg tomatoes
5kg sugar
5 finger-sized peeled chunks of ginger (cut into smaller pieces)
250ml of lemon juice
Cut a cross-section in the top of each tomato, then put the tomatoes in boiling water. This will make it easier to remove the skins. After removal, put the tomatoes in your pots. Add the ginger to the pots, and then share the lemon juice between your pots (quantity depends on the size of your pots). Top off with the sugar (again shared equally between the pots). Let the pots stand for two hours. This is what it should look like:
After two hours, put the heat on low until the sugar has melted. Now turn the heat on high, and the mixture will start bubbling, boiling away happily. This is what it should look like:
Continue boiling until the water from the tomatoes have evaporated, and the mixture starts looking a glossy red and translucent. Drop a teaspoon of the liquid into a bowl and tilt. If the liquid runs like jam, then you know that you are ready to bottle! Remember to remove the ginger before bottling, and to pre-wash the bottles and lids in boiling water.
Finally, the finished product – hope you enjoy!
