Chilli jam! What’s not to love? A sweet and spicy condiment that enhances so many dishes. I’ve tried it in restaurants before and it is absolutely delicious. I really wanted to try and make it myself so I decided to give it a go. It’s surprisingly easy!

I’ve been so busy recently that it was nice to take some time out to make this chilli jam. It really didn’t take long and once everything was blitzed together, it just simmered away on the stove for about an hour.

I used a great recipe from Tesco that was really easy to follow and involves store cupboard ingredients. This jam is made of up roasted peppers, tomatoes and of course, red chillies. I decided to put my own little twist to it for a little extra flavour so I added some Szechuan peppercorns, star anise, and cinnamon. This gave a lovely warm Asian flavour to the chilli jam, it was heavenly.

Here’s how I made mine:

You can find the link for the Tesco recipe here. I used a mix of fresh chillies as well as some frozen ones, I always have lots of chillies in the freezer and seem to forget about them so this is a great way to use them up if you’re anything like me.

I cooked the peppers and chillies on a grill pan until blackened and charred. You might want to open the windows for this!

I then placed them in a bowl, covered it with cling film and let the veggies steam for a few minutes. This helps to peel the blackened skin off. I kept some of the seeds in as I wanted to keep the heat.

In the mean time, I toasted the whole spices in a frying pan to bring out the flavour. I left the star anise and cinnamon whole, but I crushed the peppercorns once toasted.

I placed the chillies, peppers and fresh tomatoes in a blender and blitzed until finely chopped but still had some texture to it, as I didn’t want the jam to be too smooth.

I placed the mixture in a pan, added the remaining ingredients, whole spices and simmered on a low heat for about an hour, stirring frequently. After an hour I was left with a sweet sticky chilli jam that coated the back of the spoon without running off too quickly. This meant that it was just the right consistency.

And that’s it! I placed the jam in sterilised jars and sealed them well. Of course I couldn’t resist eating it straight away, so I served it alongside some grilled prawns and I nearly fell off my chair it was so good.

I simply cooked up some whole, shell on king prawns in garlic, chilli flakes, lemon and coriander and used them to dip into my chilli jam. The taste of the sweet prawns with the spicy jam was divine. This is great to serve at a party or for friends/family when they come to visit. You could even make a whole batch of jam and give it out as gifts! Who would like some? :p

Thanks for reading! I hope you give this a try and if you do send me a message, I’d love to know!

My name is Bhavisha Surti and I am a food photographer and stylist based in Milton Keynes. Please subscribe to my blog below and check out my website to see more of my work at www.jbimagery.co.uk. Thank you!