Jammin' session

Ok, bad pun, but it was time to turn the remaining Friar's Hat chillies into jam.  I did an extensive five minutes search on the web and  and came up with a recipe, ignored any bits I didn't like and set to work.

Friar's Hat (or Bishop's Crown) chilli

Ingredients:
150g Friar's Hat Chillies
1 large red pepper
1 kg of Jam Sugar
600ml of cider vinegar

The plan is to dissolve the sugar in the cider vinegar over a low heat (without stirring apparently),  Meanwhile, blitz the pepper and chillies in a food processor until nice small chunks.  The original recipe called for deseeding the chillies first but that seemed like a waste so I left them in.

The blitzed chillies and pepper

Once the sugar is dissolved then add the chilli & pepper mixture and bring to a 'rolicking' boil for ten minutes. Once this is done, allow to cool for forty minutes and then ladle into sterilised jars.

The syrupy mixture after boiling.

Couple of important notes at this stage.  Firstly, you need to boil without the saucepan lid on.  I know this would seem obvious to seasoned jam makers but to a novice like me it wasn't immediately clear.  Secondly, you really do need to have the jam going on a good boil and even then, ten minutes might not be long enough.

As it was, my original batch didn't set when cool so I poured it back into the pan, re-boiled it for longer and this time it set.

Save any old jam jars you can, they'll come in handy

As for flavour, well, it's got a great heat. Not volcanic but a creeping heat at the back of the throat which is what I really like. It's very sweet with all the sugar in there and really very tasty.  I think in the next batch I would add some more flavourings, maybe some ginger, garlic or even some apple would be nice.

All I now need do is think of a name for this concoction.

Altogether, despite having to reboil the jam, it's turned out a success and certainly a great way of using up and preserving those extra chillies at the end of the season.

As for news on the growing front, well with the addition of a new (and even bigger) growing light, the seedlings are doing well.  The LED light didn't cover a large enough area for the number of plants I've got so with a hastily rigged light box (thanks to Bacofoil) my new CFL light is keeping the little plants very happy, with many, particularly the Loco and Tabasco seedlings shooting away.

The new CFL unit

The LED light has been (somewhat precariously) balanced on top of the aquarium propagator so that the new seedlings germinating in there are immediately treated to a blast of light as soon as they emerge.  So far things seem to be going well there with a very high germination rate, particularly with the Chocolate Habanero and Chilhaucle Negro seedling with 100% success.