I will indeed be yummy on breakfast toast...

At the market a while ago, I picked up a kilo or so of fresh, fragrant, sweet apricots from the western part of China. They are slightly smaller than normal ones but they are truly juicy and delicious. Unfortunately, a nasty summer stomach bug hit the household before we could eat a single one and in the fridge they stayed, untouched and unloved.

As I was cleaning out my fridge yesterday, I came across these little golden lumps of goodness and thought, I must do something with them before they go bad. Perhaps a juicy, warm, golden sauce to pour over a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a tangy, sweet condiment to an anise flavoured duck leg. But you can only eat so many duck legs and we had already saturated our ice cream quota for this month by scoops. So I thought, “what would grandma do?”…

My grandma is an extreme over achiever with way way too much energy. She sews her own curtains, gardens, makes her own clothes (very cute and fashionable ones at that), keeps her house impeccable and bakes, jams, pickles and even makes her own blackcurrant cordial at the end of summer. It all seems to go at lightning speed when she does it too, as if a domestic wizard just blew through her house in a whirlwind of kitchen cleaner and embroidery.

Anyway, looking at my apricots and thinking of grandma, inspiration came and I decided that they would make a fabulous, sticky, golden jam to have with crisp waffles and lightly whipped cream. Well, actually, the waffle part Jonas thought of… I was too concentrated on the jammy side of things. That way, I could cook up the whole lot and the jam would keep even if we didn’t manage to eat the lot at our feast of waffles. Perhaps I could even give some away and show off my kitchen prowess!

I have always thought making jam was a painful and long process of boiling and stirring, measuring and pouring, but it turns out that it is dead easy. China has made me think that about lots of things I thought were difficult as a matter of fact. Store bought jam no more! Or mayonnaise, or brioche or pickles. Oh my… I am turning into my grandmother… But let’s get back on topic.

The jam was dead easy to make and it turned out just as I had imagined, a golden, lumpy, sticky goo of goodness. A little looser than the store bought variety but still stiff enough to enjoy on waffles, ice cream, scones or in the Swedish tradition, on top of a sharp cheese sandwich. Yum.

Ingela’s apricot jam:

makes about 1 liter of jam

800g washed and pitted apricots, 4-5 pits reserved
1 dl water
400g caster sugar

1. When you have pitted the apricots, smash about 4 or 5 of the pits with a pestle and mortar (or a heavy rolling pin, pot, hammer… whatever you have) and remove the almond looking thing from inside. Finly chop the almondy thing discarding the hard outside of the pits and add to the apricots. This will add a little bitter zing to your jam and make it a little more adult.

2. Bring the apricots chopped pits and water to a steady boil and cook down for about 15-20 minutes until the fruit pulp is completely soft.

(If you want to check for pectin, the stuff that makes the jam thick, drop a very small amount of the mixture into strong alcohol, like vodka or something similar, if it turns into a firm lump after about a minute it’s done. I skipped the pectin test and had no problems. If it isn’t pectin-y enough for you, keep boiling.)

3. When you are satisfied that it has boiled for long enough, turn the heat off and slowly mix in the sugar while stirring.

4. When the sugar is completely dissolved, bring to the boil again and boil for another 15 minutes. Make sure you stir the bottom of the pan so it doesn’t burn! Skim the foam off the top.

5. When the jam is done, fill a couple of jars with the piping hot mixture and seal.

Let stand in room temperature over night. Done! Enjoy!