Lady Lunchalot

I’ve been feeling guilty that everyone at work keeps bringing in their empty jars for me and it’s been a while since I reciprocated with some jam, so I picked up a kilo of apricots on the way home from work tonight.

There’s something so soothing about making a few jars of jam. It’s such an old-fashioned ritual that takes no time at all. Tonight I managed to make a few jars of apricot and brandy jam in about 40 minutes while I pottered around in the kitchen.

Ingredients

• 1kg of apricots. Don’t choose ones that are too ripe - you want some hard ones as they have a good amount of pectin
• 1kg of sugar
• Juice from half a lemon
• A couple of generous slugs of brandy
• A vanilla bean
• A cup of water

Halve the apricots and remove the stones. Put the apricots in a big pot with the water and lemon juice. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the apricots are mushy. Keep stirring - otherwise the apricots will catch on the bottom and burn and your jam will be dark brown, not apricot-coloured.

While this is happening, take as many stones as you have jars. Wrap the stones in a tea towel and crack them gently with a hammer. Throw away the shells and keep the kernel - the part that looks like an almond. Put them in a bowl with the brandy and set aside.

Once the apricots are ready, add the sugar and opened vanilla bean (scrape out the seeds and put it all in the pot) and bring it all to a rolling boil. Let it go for about 15-20 minutes until you get a set. Then add in the brandy and kernels.

Pour into sterilised jars and seal, with one kernel going into each jar. The apricot kernel lends an almond tang to the jam which goes very well with the vanilla. Believe it or not, the almond flavour actually comes from cyanide, which is often found in stone fruit pits, so don’t get tempted to sit down and eat a few kilos of kernels!