Today, the weather in Pretoria was dreary and cold. (But of course it did not start to rain until I was halfway home whilst walking my dog!) Seeing that I did not have to go in to work today, and the weather was keeping me indoors, I became inspired to get busy in the kitchen.
Seeing that we had a big punnet of rather tasteless strawberries, I decided to make some strawberry jam. I got inspired by a few recipes on the internet. Being very keen on trying to cook with lavender, I decided to make lavender infused strawberry jam.
Here is the recipe:
Rustic Strawberry and Lavender Jam
[For every cup of hulled strawberries, use a cup of sugar (I find caster sugar works well). For this recipe I’m going to use two cups of strawberries.]
2 cups of hulled strawberries
2 cups of caster sugar
Several fresh cut lavender flowers and stems (about ten plus to infuse plus three to cut up in the jam)
Juice of two lemons
Tie the lavender flowers.
Cut the strawberries into chunks. In a saucepan, mix together the strawberries and sugar. Using a sieve, strain the lemon juice over the strawberries and sugar, removing any lemon pips. Heat the mixture over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
Tie the lavender. Add the lavender to the strawberry mixture and bring to a rolling boil (this means that the bubbles should not subside when stirred vigorously). Cut a few of the loose lavender flowers into small pieces, adding to the jam (do not add the green stems, only the purple flowers).
Continuously stir for about 10 -15 minutes. To check if the jam will set, place some jam onto a plate. If the jam wrinkles after a few seconds, it will set. Another option is to dip a wooden spoon into the jam. If, after cooling the jam for a few seconds, the mixture doesn’t instantly drip off of the spoon, it will set. Remove the tied lavender from the jam.
Transfer the warm jam to a hot, sterile jar and seal.
Enjoy!
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