1. chilli jam

on finding new flavours

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Welcome to the first episode of kitchen diaries! I’m super excited to be launching this newsletter and hope you enjoy all the recipes shared. If you have any cookbook or recipe suggestions my DMs are always open @natcrx.

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Each year I grow several chilli plants - jalapeños, bird eye, ornamental, cayenne, and royal black chillies. This time of the year, particularly with the long-lasting hot weather, the chillies have grown quickly and in abundance. New leaves jut out in a chaos of green. Un-bloomed flowers are primed and ready to burst with fruit. The plants, usually small and taking up little footprint, now stretch and knock into each other.

I spend the early weeks of February and March sowing tiny seeds into small pots of soil that sit by my kitchen windowsill. Seeds are incredibly finicky things and temperature plays an important role in getting it to sprout; too hot and the soil dries out, too cold and the seeds won’t grow. Finding the right temperature, at times, feels like a science.

As we move from March to April to May, the seeds move from a sprout to a seedling to a vegetative, all the while developing longer, thicker roots. I transplant them from one pot to the next until their final destination - a little garden bed where they’ll remain for the rest of the season. From a distance it looks like a small bushel with lots of little leaves, but up close you can see the white flowers with green stamen and pistil inside. You’ll hear the bees and wasps and you’ll see the butterflies and small spiders that make their webbing among the branches.

Typically the season is done by mid-August, however, this year, we’ve been lucky. Summer has been long and hot, stretching into late August with high temperatures; the rain is holding out on us. Though I may complain, the chillies are happy - growing taller than in previous years.

When I’ve got enough chillies, I continue my annual tradition of making sweet jam. When I tell my mother what I’m doing, she claps with joy. She loves chilli jam. I lay out the core ingredients: two jars of roasted peppers, the ten chillies, two cloves of garlic, white wine vinegar, and jam sugar.

I slice chillies in half, being careful not to rub my eyes while I de-seed them; occasionally I step away as the pungent tanginess make my eyes water.

Blended together and scraped into a pan, I let it simmer for an hour. The recipe says 25 minutes, but it’s always too watery. I check on it every 10 minutes until it reaches peak jam consistency.

For the next few weeks, I lather it onto toast with soft cheeses, dollop it on pulled pork and stir fries for a sticky, sweet combination. I share it with my Colombian neighbour across the road, she thinks its a tad too spicy but her husband enjoys it. I pass it onto friends and gift it to my boyfriend. Just as summer has its short-lived months, chillies can only be grown during a certain time of the year and for a brief period. With each year being a practice to improve as a gardener, I’ve come to understand that consistent effort in the early months breed wonderful things that can be enjoyed - even for short moments - later in the year.

Chilli Jam Recipe (adapted)

Ingredients

• 10 fresh red chillies

• 4 cloves of garlic

• 2 jarred roasted red peppers

• 500 g jam sugar

• 500 ml white wine or cider vinegar

Method

• Trim, halve and deseed the red chillies (use rubber gloves to protect your hands, if you like), and peel the garlic cloves, then place in a food processor with the peppers and pulse until finely chopped.

• Scrape the chilli mixture into a high-sided pan over a medium-high heat, add the sugar and vinegar, then give everything a good stir.

• Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer gently for 20 to 25 minutes, or until thick, glossy and reduced by half.

• Pour into jam jars and store in the fridge - or gift it to your friends, family and neighbours!

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