After visiting my Mum a few weeks back, I came home with 2 bags full of rhubarb! I adore rhubarb and was ridiculously excited about trying out some new recipes. First up I thought I’d make some jam by combining the rhubarb with one of my other favourite ingredients – ginger.
I am a big fan of using ingredients you have to hand instead of spending a fortune on specific things, so I decided to use a jar of stem ginger I had in the cupboard instead of buying crystallised ginger.
Ingredients (makes about 3 jars)
1kg rhubarb
1kg jam sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tbsps ginger syrup (from the stem ginger jar)
3 pieces stem ginger
A quick heads up – the rhubarb needs to macerate overnight so start this the day before you want to cook it!
1. Wash the rhubarb and cut into pieces approximately 2cm long. Place in a large bowl with the sugar and lemon juice, give it a quick stir then cover and leave overnight to macerate. The sugar and lemon juice will draw out the juices from the rhubarb.
2. Place the rhubarb mixture in a large saucepan or preserving pan over a medium heat.
3. Put a saucer into the freezer – I haven’t gone mad, you’ll need this later to test the setting point of the jam! Also make sure you have some jam jars sterilised (you can do this in several ways – here are some ideas).
4. Bring the rhubarb mixture to the boil and boil rapidly for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove any scum from the surface every so often.
5. Chop the stem ginger (or use crystallised if you prefer) and add it to the pan with 2 tbsps of syrup from the jar.
6. Boil for another 5 minutes. Test to see if the jam has reached its setting point by dropping a teaspoonful onto the chilled saucer. Push your finger through it and if the surface wrinkles then the jam is ready. If it doesn’t then continue to boil and test again after a few minutes.
7. Once the jam is ready, leave to cool until the jam and the jars are roughly the same temperature. Spoon the jam into the jars, cover and leave to cool. Never put hot jam into cold jars or vice versa!
8. Label up the jam and store in a cool place until you are ready to use it. Once opened, keep in the fridge.
