I finally made my first jam and now I am hooked and wondering why ever did it take me so long. Not having grown up at my mother’s apron strings in the kitchen, I always felt a little intimidated by homemade jam and chutneys, and it wasn’t until my French neighbour’s gift of her homemade quince jam made with fruit from our tree, that I put it on the to do list.

Our fabulous fig tree in the City garden fills our fruit bowl in late summer with its spoils and this year it has been a particularly abundant harvest. We have eaten straight from the tree, tossed on top of a salad of rocket, goat’s cheese and pear, and for apero drizzled simply with honey and topped with a slice of sharp cheese. But with an entire bowl ripening at the same time, I thought I’d mimic my fabulous neighbour and finally give it a go.

I used the most simple recipe I could find, Food & Wine’s Fig Jam, and only added a curl of lemon rind (next time will add some zest).

The Easiest Fig Jam Recipe

Ingredients

1 kg or 2lb of Fresh Figs

1 & 1/2 Cups of Sugar

1/4 Cup plus an extra squeeze of Fresh Lemon Juice

1/2 Cup of Water

1 Curl of Lemon Rind

Method

Remove the top stems, wash and cut the figs into bite sized pieces. Add to a copper jam pot or stainless steel saucepan along with the sugar and mix, leaving for approximately fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally until the sugar has mostly dissolved and the figs look swollen and juicy.

Add the lemon juice and water and bring up to the boil, stirring occasionally, then turn the heat down and simmer for twenty-five to thirty minutes until the figs are soft and the sauce thickened.

Cool a little and pop into stearilzed jars and enjoy!

(I sterilised my jam jar lids by boiling in hot water for 10 mins, removing with tongs straight onto a freshly laundered tea towel, the jars I put on a tray and into a preheated oven of 180 degree celsius for 10 mins, removing with tongs onto the fresh tea towel).

My favourite way to use this jam is with fresh crusty sourdough and a slather of Roquefort cheese, the sweetness of the figs with the strong tangy blue cheese is just happiness. My wingman prefers simply dolloped on toast with a generous spread of salted French butter.

xxSara