Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

11 years ago we bought a house with an all but abandoned veg patch.  There were three large rhubarb clumps.  When I made three raised beds around the crudely dug earth, I divided the rhubarb and replanted it in several places in my revitalised veg patch, presuming it would not all survive.  It did, and so now I have more rhubarb than I know what to do with.  Usually I chutney it, marmalade it.  But this year in addition to selling it for a pittance, I have made jam with it.  To be followed by rhubarb syrup to have with prosecco.

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

Makes 4x 450g jars

1kg rhubarb (forced pink rhubarb would give this jam a nicer pink colour!)
1kg sugar
1 lemon
40g root ginger

Trim, wash and chop the rhubarb into 1cm wide pieces.  Place in a large plastic or ceramic mixing bowl, grate over the zest of the lemon and the ginger, or puree the ginger with the lemon juice and a little water.  Keep the lemon pips!  Add the sugar and mix well.  Leave for 2 hours, stirring from time to time, for the sugar to dissolve into the rhubarb juices.

After 2 hours place the contents of the bowl, together with the lemon pips tied inside a piece of muslin, into a large saucepan.  Bring to the boil then simmer quickly for 20-30 minutes until the jam as reached setting point.  Test this by placing a little jam on a saucer that has been in the freezer and seeing whether it wrinkles when you push it across the plate with your finger.

The recipe I based mine on said use jam making sugar, which has added pectin which helps jam set,  as rhubarb is low in pectin and only simmer for 10-15 minutes.  But I simply used white granulated sugar and setting point seemed to be after about 30 minutes of simmer, and the jam is still slightly runny.

Pour into sterlised jars when both the jars and jam are still hot and seal immediately.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry