Fruit recipes: banana jam, cranberry jam, raspberry jam
'Tis the season to start jamming. Creating home-made preserves is easier than you think - and they make great gifts
Text Susan Jung / Photography Jonathan Wong / Styling Nellie Ming Lee
As always, right before the winter holiday season, I dust off my jam kettle and get into gear for a preserve-making frenzy. Jars of colourful fruit jams and marmalades, along with the occasional savoury item (such as XO sauce), make lovely gifts when going to house parties during Christmas, New Year and Lunar New Year.
If you're giving away preserves as gifts, though, you need to use proper canning jars with lids that form an air-tight seal - old jars you've collected over the past year and which once held mayonnaise, mustard or other condiments just won't do. The jars and the lids should be sterilised: fill them with boiling water and leave for a few minutes; pour out the water and invert the jars to air-dry. The lids should be put in a metal bowl and covered with boiling water, then left until it's time to seal the jars.
As much as I like the combination of bananas and chocolate, I would never have thought of making jam out of the two ingredients, until I tasted the version made by Christine Ferber, at her shop, Au Relais des Trois Epis, in Alsace, France (see Truc on page 78). The recipe for banana chocolate jam is in her book Mes Confitures. I've adapted it slightly, by decreasing the amount of sugar and adding vanilla beans, the tiny seeds of which give a lovely, subtle crunch.
I use small Thai bananas, which are much more flavourful than many larger varieties. Be sure to weigh the bananas after peeling them; you'll need to start with about two large bunches.
