I doubt I would have posted this recipe in itself if I weren’t happy with the pictures I took. I happened to chance upon this recipe on one of my rabbit hole chases in Instagram, admiring photographs of food and sighing at the lack of own skills. The credit for this in particular goes to @itheloveofcakes who has repeatedly emphasized the deliciousness quotient of this jam in her profile. Since I had a whole box of strawberries waiting for me in the refrigerator and I happened to have all of the 4 ingredients, it was a no-brainer. Although one of my American friends refused to acknowledge it as jam (hey, don’t get discouraged – jam was there way before Uncle Sam came into the spotlight), I think it will go pretty well with your white bread and butter. If you’re currently addicted to whole wheat or multigrain bread like me, then I strongly recommend using something like cream cheese to accentuate the flavours.
I would have loved to bore you more with the history of jam but I will save that for another recipe where I can cover more on fruit preservatives. For this post, I will leave you with a super simple recipe with a few interesting facts thrown in.
Note: The instructions may seem to consists of unusually long sentences if you’re one of those who just skim articles to find the actual recipe (I am one of those too). But have a little patience, and I promise to humour you! In case you’re still not convinced, the words in bold should be an easy way out.
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 cups (~ 1 lb) fresh, red, ripe whole strawberries
- 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
- 2 1/2 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1
Do you know what happens when you apply heat to strawberries? No? Maybe you should find out for yourself! Chop up the strawberries, removing the leaves and hull and heat them on medium heat in a heavy bottom vessel. Soon, the strawberries will start to become mushy and syrupy. I recommend slicing them into smaller pieces beforehand to minimize your effort. As they start to soften up more, mash them gently with a potato masher or fork to break them down further.
Step 2
This is an extremely surprising and controversial fact I chanced upon only recently, but honey is not adviced for cooking. While I think the adverse effects might not be manifested in this case at all, since we are cooking on quite low temperature, I would still suggest using maple syrup or agave syrup as a natural sweetener.
So, what makes honey bad for cooking? Is it even bad?
Most of us buy processed (and pasteurised) honey instead of seeking out raw honey. This means, the honey we are using has already gone through significant amount of heat to reach the current stage. Heating honey lowers its antioxidant properties as also kills many of the enzymes and probiotics present that renders it so beneficial for health. According to Ayurveda, heated honey can also cause sticky mucus, that sticks to the mucous membranes in the digestive tract producing toxins that can contribute to ill health (trigger: weight gain and blood glucose imbalance!). But being a woman of science, I went on to investigate a bit further to see if there’s scientific research to back up the claim. Well, let me clarify – HEATING HONEY DOES NOT MAKE IT TOXIC– at least it hasn’t been proven yet. But as mentioned before, the taste as well health benefits deprecates. Other than that, there is a rise in the amount of hydroxymethyl furfuraldehyde (HMF), which is a compound found in many other foods and is associated with heating high-sugar-containing foods in general. At which level it becomes toxic to humans is still unknown, and whether it does at all is also debatable. Recently, HMF has even shown some positive effects on humans. So you may feel relieved and go back to enjoying that bottle of honey on your shelf.
Now that we are done with the science geek, let’s go back to chef mode. When the syrup starts thickening, add the maple syrup and lemon juice. You can stir in the vanilla extract too at this point. Let the mixture simmer until thick.
Step 3
Try not to thicken the syrup too much, since the chia seeds themselves will be absorbing a lot of moisture. Remove the strawberries from the heat. I added 3 tablespoon of chia seeds to my first batch and they turned out as in the picture. For my second batch, I added 1/2 tablespooon less and was happier with the texture. So put in according to your preference – thick and chunky or a little flowy.
Step 4
The step 4 is to just cool down the jam in an airtight container and wait!
Enjoy it as a yogurt topping, in thumbprint cookies, on your morning bread or hey, nobody stopped you from just eating it on its own!
References for scientific facts: