Mixed Fruit Jam

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother ~ Abraham Lincoln

Like I said in my previous post, to celebrate my mom’s birthday I chose to share a couple of recipes that she was an expert in. Today would have been her 58th birthday and we terribly miss her absence. I always wanted to be like her in all aspects of life-whether in behavior, looks or in cooking skills…. I really don’t know how successful I have been in following her footsteps… Today on her birthday I am sharing her Jam recipe with you…..We never used store bought Jams at home…. Mom always used to make Pineapple Jam, Pazham /Banana jam (my favorite) and Mixed Fruit Jam depending on the season and availability of fruits…. Recently I also made Mixed Fruit Jam …so here is the recipe for Mixed fruit Jam…




Mixed Fruit Jam

Ingredients:

Mixed Fruits-2kg (You can use a mix of any well ripe fruits that are available, like Apple, Banana, Ripe Papaya, seedless black grapes, Pineapple, peach, strawberry etc)
Sugar-2kg
1” long Cinnamon sticks-6
Whole cloves-24 nos
Citric Acid-1 tsp



Method:

• Clean and chop fruits. Put them in a heavy bottom pan along with just enough water to cover the fruit pieces. Boil till the fruits are tender.
• Turn off the heat and cool the fruits completely and puree this in a blender and strain. (If you like to have some fruit bites in your jam you can completely omit this process and continue cooking by crushing the fruits with the back of a spoon).
• Add sugar, cloves, cinnamon and citric acid to the fruit pulp and boil the mixture.
• Remove any scum that may appear on the surface.
• Stir constantly with a wooden spatula till it thickens.
• Turn off the gas, cool slightly and pour into sterilized glass bottles placed on a wooden planks to avoid the breakage of bottles.

Note:
How to find out if the Jam is ready:

• A drop of jam put into a glass of cold water will gel.
• If you lift the spatula and allow the jam to pour, it should flow together.
• Pour a few drops on to a plate; if it spreads easily, then the jam is not ready; if it stays firm without moving,the jam is ready.