Susan Jung’s recipes for Christmas preserves - perfect for gifts
Thoughtful, unique and bound to make the receiver feel special, these gifts in a jar are the ultimate stocking fillers
The gifts I hand out at this time of year tend to be home-made ones: jars of very boozy mincemeat to make mince pies with, chocolate truffles, tin boxes of cookies, and Christmas pudding or stollen. This year, I’m giving away home-made preserves.
In an ideal world, we would work with whatever fruits are grown locally and available fresh but, in Hong Kong, we often have to rely on what’s being sold at a reasonable price in the frozen-fruit section. Keep your eyes peeled for good deals on unusual fruits – this year, I was pleased to find frozen lingonberries.
Cooked lingonberry preserves
Researching lingonberries after finding bags of them in the frozen-food section at Great, in Pacific Place, Admiralty, I learned that the fruit is nutritious and high in pectin. I also learned that in Scandinavian countries, the simple way to make lingonberry preserves is to just mix the fruit with sugar, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves – there’s no need to cook the mixture before putting it into jars. I used some of the lingonberries that way, but also made a batch with the usual technique of cooking the fruit and sugar together. The simpler technique better retained the fresh flavour of the fruit – but it needs to be refrigerated, which isn’t good if you’re giving it as a gift. If you want to make it this way, use a fruit to sugar ratio of 2:1.
For cooked lingonberry preserves, simmer the mixture briefly. If you overcook it, the jam will get too thick, and the fruit will end up tasting more like cranberries, to which lingonberries are related. This jam doesn’t use as much sugar as most of my preserves recipes (I usually use 4:3) so the tart flavour of the fruit is preserved. It also makes it a delicious preserve for serving with savoury dishes, as is done in Scandinavian cuisines.
