thecookscottage

Passion Fruit Jam

My sister brought some passion fruit from the farm having picked them this morning.They were the yellow type, which grow more commonly in India, with an average size of a small orange or, to be exact ,about 8" around the circumference of each fruit. These were organic and too precious to eat just like that. In any case I find the fruit too tart, a bit like eating a green lime.

Some of them had already begun to crinkle and that was a sign that they were getting ripe. The ones that are really crinkled and rather rotten looking are just perfect for eating.

Its structure is very interesting when cut and the seeds and pulp remind me of fish roe or something a bit alien,out of "The X factor",with a life of its own and a rather carnivorous one at that...…. not completely plant like. However, vegetable it is and rich in potassium, Vitamin A and C. It is believed to have healing properties, one of which is to calm the nerves.

Passion fruit keep fairly well even at room temperature which, in Pune, is now around 25 degrees C . Did you know that if you cut the fruit and remove the pulp, mixing it with half its weight in sugar, it will keep for ages in the fridge and for up to a year in the freezer?
Passiflora edulis var flavicarpa, the yellow fruited variety, is not to be confused with Passiflora foetida or Vel Ghani as it is rightly known in Maharashtra, for its stink or foetid smell. Several varieties of Passiflora exist, in fact about 400, but the 50 odd varieties with edible fruit are prized.Some of these have different coloured flowers and the ones with blue flowers are called Krishna Kamal here for obvious reasons.
Passiflora got its name in Brazil where it is indigenous. The story goes that Spanish missionaries were struck by the similiarities the flower had to signs of the Crown of Thorns and the Passion of Christ on the Cross.The word Passion comes from the Latin passio. The Brazilian variety, also called the granadilla,or the Maracuja, is purple in colour and is different from the Indian yellow fruited one but both have the same orange pulp and seeds.The yellow passion fruit is pretty acidic compared to the granadilla and its skin is rich in pectin so it makes a very good jam. The point is, how does one get the pectin in without having to eat the brittle, papery skin? Here's how.

Ingredients

6 passion fruit: (makes 2 1/3 cup of pulp, fruit pulp and seeds)

2 cups water

¼ cup water

2 1/3 cup sugar

Juice of 1/2  a lime

Wash the fruit thoroughly.Then cut  in half and scoop out  the fruit pulp and seeds.  This makes 1 and 1/3 cups of fruit pulp. Keep covered in the fridge. Take half the shells and put in a bowl with 2 cups of  water and let it soak for 24 hours in the fridge.

Next day boil the shells for 12 minutes till almost all the water is absorbed. Now the fruit should peel easily . Reserve the inner part of the shells and blend to a  pulp with a quarter cup water. Return the pulp to a stainless steel pan and add  the juice and seeds. This makes 2 and 1/3 cups of pulp,seeds and juice. Add an equivalent amount of sugar, juice of a 1/2 a lime and boil briskly  for about 15 minutes till set.

Now transfer to dry sterilized jars . Fill till ¼ inch below the lip of the jar.Let cool for 10 minutes. Seal. Makes about  750 gms of jam. 

The nice thing about this jam is that it has the texture and bite of a good thick cut marmalade with the bits of inner pulp forming the equivalent of an orange rind.

Anjali Wagle's Tomato Lonche

Meeting Anjali is a delight. At sixty she is just as enthusiatic about cooking as she was when she began many years ago.
Anjali Wagle's interest in cooking began in childhood. She helped her aunts in the preparation of food for the joint family in which she was brought up.  They would all work together from early in the morning to get the meals ready for ten families! Anjali insisted on helping, even though it was not expected of the  children. In spite of many remonstrations to be careful, as the cooking was done on coal fired  'chulahs' and could be dangerous for an inexperienced young person, she hung around the kitchen picking up her culinary skills along the way.
She was married at the age of 18 and came to settle in Pune. Her mother in law was a doctor and had no time to attend to the kitchen, relying on several bai's to produce the meals for the forty family members. Anjali insisted on taking on the kitchen and managed the cooking for her huge, new family.To their amazement, she did this with relative ease. Her in laws insisted that she finish her education and enrolled her in classes which she was initially reluctant to attend as she was not used to moving about freely with strangers in institutions where women and men studied in the same class.. But she did study and learned to become used to her new world. She remembers her mother and father in law gratefully for all their encouragement.
She tells me she has won innumerable prizes for her cookery and has taken part in many events. At a recent cooking competition she attended, where the chief guest was Sanjeev Kapoor, he gave her a lot of credit for sharing her recipes so generously with him. She had refused to take any payment for the many recipes he has used in several of his books. He said, she quotes " You are unusual. Most people today are after money. And you refuse even when it is offered to you.
" What use do I have for money", she says to me "its here today and gone tomorrow. If people remember me with gratitude or treat me like a mother, as Sanjeev does, that is far more valuable to me."
Anjali is known for her tried and tested recipes which appear in several Marathi magazines. She loves to experiment and  has adapted an amazing  number of Indian recipes to  microwave cooking. She gave me several wonderful pickle recipes to try and was happy to allow me to post them here.

 

Tomato Lonche/ Pickle

Ingredients:

15-16 firm, large, red tomatoes
1/4 cup red chilli powder
1/2 cup mohri / black mustard seeds
100 gms lasun /garlic
100 gms adrak/ ginger
100 gms green chillies
2 spoons jeera / cumin seeds
1 spoon methi / fenugreek seeds
1 cup salt
2 cups dark vinegar
1 handful of karipatta / curry leaves
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

Wash tomatoes and cut into large pieces. Mince the kari leaves. Chop the ginger, garlic and green chillies into fine bits.Put the chopped, ginger, garlic and chillies into 1 cup vinegar and blend ito a paste n a mixie . Heat oil in a large pan and add all the garlic, ginger and chill including the minced curry leaves. Add the cup of masalas. Stir well . Now add the tomato pieces, salt and the rest of the vinegar. Cook the achar on a low fire for some time. Keep stirring till the oil seperates from the rest of the mixture. This pickle keeps for a long time.

If you like these recipes do give me your feedback which I would love to share with Anjali.

Piccalilli

Pickles and relishes are a great way of preserving fruit and vegetables, to be enjoyed long after their season is over. Most Indians ( including Arundhati Roy. Remember 'Paradise Preserves and Pickles '"too thin for jelly too thick for jam" in "The God of Small Things" ) must have a collective memory of large scale pickling going on, involving a fair number of the women of the house. I have always liked the idea of pickles even if I have not undertaken the task too often. It smacks of thrift and househusbandry, and, by association, pickle makers must have had all the characteristics of The Good Housewife.
Actually if the family is involved it can now be fun as well.

Remember:

• Use only fruit and vegetable which are in the best condition. Avoid bruised or over ripe produce.


• Scrub the fruit or vegetables to be used. You can use a brush if necessary.


• Drain and wipe it dry with a clean dish cloth.

I have had a lot of enquiries for Piccalilli , which is the name of a relish made by the pound by British Memsahibs in India. It is not as spicy as Indian achaar and is a nice accompaniment to any bland food. A bit like kimchi but without the chilli.

1 kg green tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cups onions, chopped..
1 cup red, sweet peppers, chopped ( Nice colour but you can use carrots instead)
1 cup Simla Mirch, sweet green peppers, chopped.
5 cups of cabbage, chopped.
1/3 cup salt
3 cups white vinegar.
2 tablespoons whole mixed spices.(*Do not use powdered spices)
1 cup honey.

Other vegetables you can use, seperately or in a mix, are french beans, horse radish, button onions, cauliflowers and cucumber.

How to prepare your vegetables
Chop all vegetables about the same size. Mix with salt and let them stand in a ceramic bowl overnight. Drain through a sieve, or muslin cloth, the next morning.
Tie the spices ( you can use whole white pepper, mustard seeds,cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf, cardamom , dried allspice leaves, Kashmiri Lal Mirchi, ) in a muslin bag or put into a stainless steel tea leaf holder. Add the bag of spices to the vinegar in a thick bottomed stainless steel pan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Now add the honey. Add the drained vegetables and bring the mixture to a boil again.Turn heat to low and simmer for half an hour.The liquid should have reduced and should just about moisten the vegetables.
Take out the bag of spices. (If you use garlic, ginger or any other fresh herb, blanch for 2 minutes in hot water before adding to bag of spices). Do not leave the whole spices in the bottled pickle as they can adversely affect the colour and taste of the pickle.

How to prepare your containers:
Since we do not have pickling jars with seals here, and I think bharnis are not very practical nowadays I reuse ordinary large glass jam bottles. Put a trivet at the bottom of a pressure cooker or other large heavy bottomed pan. On top of the trivet place cleaned jars filled to the brim with water . Fill the pan with water, keep uncovered and bring to the boil. Let jars boil in water for at least 15 minutes. Balance well scrubbed lids on jars so they get steamed as well . Remove and let cool. Then cover the inside of the lids with rounds of butter paper. Fill the hot piccalilli into sterilised glass jars leaving a space of 1/4" on top. Cover tightly with lids lined with butter paper, or better still rubber seals, Process for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath in the same pan for 5 minutes.
By the way, taste the liquid before putting it into the jars as spices can vary in intensity and you can correct it if one or two turn out to be too strong by adding a few more of the other spices.

Signs of spoilage:
Slimy or slippery pickles-Do not eat. Using mouldy spices or too little salt can result in spoilage.
Darkening of pickles - result sfrom using too much spice or iodized salt or overcooking but this does not mean your pickles are ruined.

Added advantage- a colourful array of pickled vegetables makes an artful display in your kitchen.

Pickles and Pickling

For three days now I have been dipping into a fabulous book. Rushina, my foodie friend , journalist and author of the blogs A Perfect Bite and Cook it up with Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal gave me an early birthday/anniversary/Christmas/new year/ present...a handful of cook books. I was overwhelmed with her generosity and now, am even more overwhelmed by all the recipes I am dying to try out.

Out of the cornucopia , "Usha's Pickle Digest" , caught my eye immediately. Subtitled "The Perfect Pickle Recipe Book"  it is one of the most comprehensive books that I have ever come across , written on the subject of pickling . It has 1000 recipes.! Any imaginable vegetable, fruit or leaf has been pickled.

And what recipes....yum-mm... from Ripe Olives in a Fenugreek and Onion Seed pickle to Lotus Stem Achaar, to Green Walnuts in Spiced Vinegar. It is an unusually good book. With an easy to read index, a large glossary, a pickling glossary, and a clear contents page , there are all sorts of extra special features that make this a very special book. Pickling techniques are explained. There is a buying guide, a nutrient saver guide and even a microwave oven guide. One chart I found really helpful is the Sprouts Chart !

The recipes sound marvellous- I cannot wait to begin. They read well, with all ingredients detailed, exact measurements and a point by point method of preparation. Written by Usha R Prabhakaran, and published in 1998, it is invaluable, if only as a record of the kind of pickles that have been made and continue to be made by housewives all over India. And for all professional and amateur picklers everywhere ... freak out, this is the ultimate pickle tome.

I really wish I'd found this book years ago, when my mother in law still had her star fruit tree in the garden in Bangalore, or when we had the the drumstick tree in the back of our bungalow in Delhi.

Mango Chutney

  Mango tree

We are well into the mango season.The kitchen counter is covered with rows of alfonsoes awaiting their fate.It is too hot to eat a cereal based breakfast and a bowl of chilled mango cubes is a perfect way to start the day. Since these mangoes have been ripened on the tree they have that especially real flavour. A tang not to be tasted anywhere in the world.
Here is a way of making the mango season last longer:

Ingredients
1 large onion chopped fine
3 " fresh adrak ginger. grated
1 pod of lasun garlic peeled

I kg raw mangoes, grated
5 cups of sugar

1 tsp garam masala
2 tsps red chilli powder
1/2 tsp dalchini cinnamon powder
1 tsp elaichi cardomom powder

3/4 cup vinegar
1 tsp salt

3 tbsp almonds blanched, peeled and sliced
3 tbsp raisins.

Puree the onions, ginger and garlic along with 1 tbsp water. Strain and remove all the juice.
Bring the grated mangoes and sugar to a boil over high heat. Reduce fire and cook for ten minutes.Add the juice of ginger, garlic and onions as well as all the masalas. Cook till the mixture thickens and is almost set. Add the salt and vinegar and continue to cook for a further five minutes.Take off the fire, stir in the almonds and raisins and let it cool.
Bottle in sterilised jars.
Keep for a week before opening. This allows the flavours to combine and develop.

For a lot more on pickles visit http://a-perfect-bite.blogspot.com/ where Rushina interviews Usha of "Usha's Pickle Digest" and gives you a chance to win a copy of that wonderful book.

From Fig Jam to France

Fig and Bayleaf Jam

It could not have been just a coincidence. Here I was making some fig jam* while working out our holiday plans. So I sliced the figs very fine, about 1/8th of an  inch and prepared to do my jam making differently from a fine French recipe. Meanwhile, on the same day the said figs are macerating in the fridge, I find the address of old friends who had moved from Blackheath,London, where we had met them many moons ago. Now they lived in St Remy Au Bois, a tiny village in Nord Pas De Calais, having started life anew, making artisanal jams from organically grown fruits and berries.

It seemed fated that we meet again, to begin our culinary discovery of France from their home.

Farm houses in France are not even faintly like  those in India. The buildings are constructed around a vast central space.They seem quite enormous to us. Something a jagirdar would own. Many farmhouses are so old, made from red bricks or a lovely beige stone called tunneau with red tiled roofs , they were built centuries ago and are still going strong, an integral part of the beautiful landscape.

Francine outside the factory/farm

Part of Judy and Nicks farmhouse is the "factory . Here they make a variety of delicious jams , in very small batches, which are sent to all parts of the globe, their client list reading like a Conde Nast  "Best Hotels Guide". Our own Oberoi and Taj could do well with a breakfast tray holding a few of their confitures..rather than the regular, violently red, coloured jelly generally presented.

Range of Jams

Tea Together is the name of their enterprise and the jam combinations they make are unusual, fascinating and taste just marvellous. Rhubarb with Lemon and Angelica,Mirabelle with Mead, and Wild Sloe with Juniper are just a few of the selections .

Packed and Ready to Go

Judy also sources other artisanal food products from France and Italy. Extra virgin olive oils, biscuits, balsamic vinegars, and a variety of quite inventive concoctions like sugar sprinkled walnuts and tiny iced prune cakes.

View from the kitchen-St Remy au Bois

Being an artist as well , Judy has made their home  a visual feast, filling it with an eclectic collection of pictures, paintings and pieces. Something catches the eye every way you turn.And the centrepiece of the kitchen is the sturdy Aga on which our dinner was made, a marvellous carbonade of beef marinated and cooked in beer, with creamy endives alongside and potatoes, all washed down with copious amounts of wine.

Nick very kindly directed us to several places of interest around, St Valery Sur Mer, Le Crotoy, St Riquier, and we were so lucky to have 'locals' to guide us to some wonderful places to eat.

At St Valery we caught the weeklyorganic  market where local produce is brought and were able to try all sorts of cheeses, some great Gruyere, several camemberts, many different small goats cheeses as well as the sausages for which this region is so famous.

Abbaye St Andre

We stayed at an ancient and beautiful 'Abbaye' in nearby Gouy St Andre but that is another story...

Meanwhile about the fig jam I was making. Well it turned out "too too good" , as we say in Pune. Here is an approximation of the recipe* taken from the book "Mes Confitures" by Christine Ferber.

Wash 1 kg of figs. Dry.Slice fine, into circles. Measure out 700 gms of sugar and 100 gms of honey.Douse the figs in this. Add five bay leaves.Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and keep overnight in the fridge in a covered ceramic bowl.

Next day strain the syrup from the figs and set to a quick boil.When the syrup has amost set add the figs and the juice of 1 lemon. Bring to the boil again and cook at least 15 minutes till the mixture has "jammed" .The way to check this is to put a few drops on a cold plate . A skin should form in a few seconds and even if turned on the side the drops will not slide across the plate. Remove the bayleaves before bottling.

Tea Together: Email:france@teatogether.com

Tel:0033 (0)3021811112 Fax:0033 (0)321812436

Onam Sadhya-A Feast fit for Kings

After fasting the whole day, though not for spiritual reasons, I saw a photograph of someone's feast at Onam. At the sight of those fluffy pappadams my spirit crumbled, my resolve melted, it had to be all..not nothing. We went out for dinner to our local Kerala restaurant.

Leaflet on Onam

Onam was celebrated this year in Kerala from the 5th to the 15th of September and the onasadya / feast is served on the last day. Here the festivities carry on throughout the month and so we had a second chance to enjoy the fare on the 18th. Dance, music performances and other cultural events are held during this time.

Pune has a sizeable Malayalee population, many of whom have lived here for generations. They speak Malayalam and Marathi with equal ease and they have completely integrated into the local population , but their cuisine is as Kerala as it comes. And what a wonderful tradition it has· Quite different from the rest of South Indian food in the use of spices, vegetables, fish and meat.

When Onam comes around , many of them, with their busy routines, choose to have their feast by take away or out at a public venue, either organised by one of the several Malayalee Associations here or at a restaurant, as cooking all the required dishes at home has become well nigh impossible.

There are special caterers for Onam and even the restaurant we went to had taken on cooks and bearers for the occasion. We walked under a garland made of palm leaves and the outside of the restaurant was decorated with a diya and flowers.

As we sat down we were presented with the bill.Ok, so maybe it was a delicate way of saying "This is going to cost you...." We waited, and waited. After a couple of encouraging smiles from the waiters we realised we had to pay up first.Problem solved, the banana leaves were ceremoniously laid out and the feast began.

First a spoonful of salt on the upper left corner of the leaf. Then one by one, in predetermined order, each preparation was served onto a particular place on the leaf. It reminded me, and it is meant to, of the manner in which food is served to the Gods during a puja. With joy , reverance and generosity.

After the salt came the banana chips and a green banana and jaggery sweet mix. Then the achaars..a delicious dark ginger and tamarind one and a orangey red mango achaar. A few Kondatam or curd chillies and then the chutneys, Pavatai / karela with mustard seed, suran / yam chutney on the upper right corner, below which were placed a masala potato bhaji and two types of pachadis/ vegetables or fruit in yogurt, tempered with spices , a pineapple and a bhindi pachadi .

Then came the vegetables. A large helping of beans and coconut vegetable in the upper middle of the banana leaf and an mixed vegetable avial made of drumsticks, lauki,/ bottle gourd carrot, and much more., in a coconut gravy.

In the lower half of the thali came a huge helping of boiled rice with two tablespoons of parappuneyyi / dal ghee. This was just delicious. A small banana was placed on the left side and after some of the meal was eaten, we were offered Kalan/ sambar.

Oh and I forgot those pappadams, for which I ventured forth in the first place. Pappadams in the south are plain, made of urud dal without pepper or chilli , and are scrumptious eaten with rice. Along with this were two cups of tomato rasam and buttermilk made with ginger, chillies and kari patta.

Last of all came the payasams/ desserts, served on the right edge of the banana leaf , one Adapradaman made of rice , coconut and jaggery and the other a Parappupayasam made wiih of moong dal, jaggery and cashewnuts.

All helpings were unlimited . Not that one could have eaten a crumb more after the first helping.

We rolled home , as satiated and pleased as King Mahabali , in whose honour the festival is celebrated.

I enjoyed the ginger chutney / pickle a great deal and wrested the recipe from a Malayalee friend who was only to happy to share it ...thanks a ton Prema.

Ennjipulla / Ginger Chutney

Ingredients:

• 350 gms imli/ tamarind
• 1 cup of water
• 100 gms fresh ginger
• 1/3 cup garlic cloves peeled.
• 1/2 tsp salt.
• 2 tbsp Red chilli powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp methi / fenugreek powder
• 150 gms gur / jaggery
• 3 tbsp til ka tel /sesame oil
• 1 tbsp chana dal -soak in water
• 1 tbsp split urud dal -soak in water
• 1 tbsp rai mustard seed

Soak the tamarind in hot water for 15 minutes. Stir well then bring to the boil.Simmer till tamarind loosens from any seeds and peel. Strain well. Then cook till it thickens into a pulp.

In a blender put the cleaned and chopped ginger, the garlic and the salt. Blend till smooth.

Add the chilli powder and fenugreek powder, the jaggery and the tamarind pulp.

Heat up the sesame oil, remove dals from water and fry along with the mustard seed and add the ground mixture. Stir till well blended.

This makes a substantial quantity and can be eaten with rice, chapathies or poories. The chutney can be bottled and refrigerated for several days.

Kabhi Khatta Kabhi Meetha- Mango Murabba

I just couldnt resist that. The title I mean. K3M. Every Bollywood movie and TV drama has the K word. Why cant I use it in my little blog? And what better place to use it than to describe the subject of this entry Mango Moramba, sometimes sour and sometimes sweet.

 

We are nearing the end of a good season. When the breaks the mango season will be over. All we shall have left is (sob) memories and (yaaayyyyyyy) preserves!

You could take the short way out and go across to Bhavnagari Sweet Home , next to the Jain temple on  Sachapir Street . Their speciality is, in fact, Mango Chhunda.( Update:Sad to say that Bhavnagari's has closed down as of July 2006)

One is hot and one, not.They taste pretty good too. A nice accompaniment to chapathi or rice and dahi, which makes a meal in itself if you are having lunch on the run.

Bhavnagari's is a friendly place and the shop boys always helpful. I am always asked how "Boss" is. You know who that might be! Their products are always fresh and tasty and I have never had a problem with their sweets, salties or dried fruit. Some of their other specialities will be featured in forthcoming posts.

On the other hand if you are a DIY specialist like me, you could quickly make some moramba at home with this super simple recipe. As with all preserves, it is a good idea to make just a small batch at a time. 

Ingredients for Kesar Mango Moramba:

• 2 large green mangoes: weigh after peeling and grating. It should be about 300 gms.
• Weigh up 1 1/2 times the amount of sugar . Approximately 450 gms if mango gratings are 300 gms.
• Saffron.
• Powdered cinnamon.

Wash and soak the mangoes in water for a while.

Then peel

and grate.

Weigh. Spread out on absorbent paper to drain off extra water.

Then weigh up 1 and 1/2 times the amount of sugar.

In a pan melt the sugar with 1/2 cup of water and heat till a syrup is made. See if the syrup congeals on a plate.

Then add the mango gratings

a pinch of saffron and a pinch of cinnamon powder.

Keep cooking on a low fire till the mixture thickens. The scent of saffron rises during this process and the mixture slowly gets a yellowish to orange tinge.This takes about 1/2 an hour - 40 minutes.Test as for jam to see if the syrup is thick enough.

Bottle in clean and sterilized jars. Cover with butter paper and put lids on while still hot.

This makes about 500 gms and keeps very well for a long time without refrigeration.

It tastes very good even if I say so myself. Soooo much better than what you can buy and it has the real colour of saffron.

Jamun Jam

Hand carts are a treasure trove of fruits now. Mangoes are all the rage  but other colours catch the eye. A few pushcart fruit sellers carry what are wild pickings, or gawraan as they call it. These are the tastiest berries and jaams from a variety of trees growing on the edges of gardens and in the forests.

I recall a time when jamun were strewn on the sidewalks in New Delhi, and we tripped our way to catch the school bus, picking up a few of the tart, oblong fruit to eat while skipping over other purple spatters, fruit half eaten by crows who had gorged themselves high up in the branches.

These tall, stout and shady trees still exist on Lytton Road, off  Raj Path where we lived, but not a piece of fruit is to be found on the ground anymore. The trees have all been contracted out and harvested well in time.

In Maharashtra,  Jamun (Sygium cumini L) also known as Myrtus cumini and Eugenia jambolanum  grow  well in the Raigad,  Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts. It is classified as a minor fruit since most of the trees have been planted accidentally by the ancestors of farmers, who are now happy to find a tree or two on their plots of land. They were grown mainly for shade along roads and highways and in coffee estates to provide shelter for the coffee plants. Cultivation has not been actively encouraged by the government and plantations do not exist.

Though indigenous to India it is not easily available in the market and the fruit now costs Rs 160 for a kilo!! To eat, they remind me of the astringency of a good Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.The same inadvertent ch-tack and pursing of the lips after a bite/sip is inevitable ! You develop a taste for it as with all good things.

The harvesting season lasts from the end of March to the beginning of June so, while they were still to be seen , I picked some up and tried making  jam out of it.

What a feast of colour it was right through the process!

Ingredients:

250 gms ripe jamun. About 25.Washed very well.
250 gms sugar
1/4 apple cut in 1/2" pieces
Squeeze of lime.
A pinch of finely ground fennel.

 

In a clean stainless steel pan with a thick base, place jamuns along with the sugar and heat on medium flame

Stir till jamuns start to soften. Add pieces of apple.

Cover for a few minutes as juice is released and the sugar in tinged with mauve. As the jamuns soften mash them a bit to hasten the process.

Within a few minutes the juice will have been released completely and the seeds can be removed. Add lime juice.. about a half teaspoonful. Cook over medium heat till mixture begins to froth. Add a pinch of finely ground saunf  (fennel seeds) as the mixture begins to thicken.

The jam should have reached the non runny stage within 15 minutes.Test a bit of the juice on a plate to see if it congeals .

Take the pan off the fire and bottle immediately in clean and sterilized jars. Keep a quarter inch at the top of the bottle, insert two rounds of butter paper on the lid and cover immediately while hot.

It tastes pretty good right now and I will be able to give a second opinion within two weeks when the flavours will have settled .

Isn't the violet colour out of this world?