A jar filled with a red chilli jam nestled in a pile of red, orange and black chillies.

The soil of a growbar on a small black plastic tray with little green sprouts growing out of it, a packge of an orange growbar in the front and a wooden board in the background with small red, orange and yellow 'Sweetie', 'Gardener's Delight' & 'Yellow Pear' tomatoes.

An orange Tiny Tomato growbar on white background surrounded by cherry tomatoes on the vine and loose.

A grow your own chilli sauce gift box surrounded by a selection of vegetables, fruits and herbs, red chillies, yellow chillies, Habanero. Jalapeno, Serrano chillies, Medlar fruits, dried leafs, twigs with red berries and black berries

Sweet and spicy chilli jam

Savoury jam is so easy to make, and you don’t need to worry about setting points or getting the perfect consistency, as it tastes great whether it’s fully set or a little loose.

We made a big batch of this tasty jam to give as Christmas presents this year. It was the perfect way to use up some of the ripe fruit produced by our Red Hot Box and Tiny Tomato Growbar.

The jam keeps very well in the fridge, but it’s so good you might just need another batch for Boxing Day. The recipe makes around three medium jars of jam.

250g ripe tomatoes, cored and chopped in quarters, seeds left in
250g ripe tomatoes, finely chopped into 5mm dice, seeds left in
4-6 red chillies
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons chopped ginger
2 tbsp fish sauce
300g caster sugar, golden if you have it
100ml red wine vinegar

In a food processor, blend the roughly chopped tomatoes, chillies, garlic, ginger and fish sauce to a fine puree.
Place the puree in a strong saucepan and bring it to the boil slowly, stirring all the time.
Turn down to a gentle simmer and add the chopped tomatoes. Cook gently for 60-70 minutes, stirring frequently so that it cooks evenly.
Don’t be tempted to let it boil furiously, as the perfect jam takes a little patience.
When you reach a lovely, thick, jam like consistency, pour the mixture into sterilised jars and allow to cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge.
Once sealed, it will happily keep for a few weeks.