It’s January, and I’m already learning my lessons; both in the kitchen and otherwise. Don’t beat yourself up. Learn to pray. Think happy thoughts (the toughest). Believe in yourself a bit more. And, yes, don’t forget to make your bed, every morning.

Moving to my food experiments, there are so many YouTube chefs that I follow; I have been wanting to try their recipes. One of them is Maangchi, who makes Korean dishes and shares the authentic recipes on her channel. I keep looking for the vegetarian part of her videos and make notes of the things that I can create in my kitchen.

My husband, the other day, said that one of his friends can get reasonable strawberries from some place. So, I asked him to get me two packs of fresh strawberries. Well, that was after I saw Maangchi’s video of strawberry jam. I was really keen on trying it; and my fridge was out of jam anyway.

The jam turned out to be yum, and since the day I made it, I haven’t been able to put the jar down. Believe me, guys, homemade jams are delicious, and way, way better than the store-bought ones that are filled with endless ingredients.

With this one, I kind of wish to make a fruit jam in every season. You can have this jam with any kind of toasted bread or even crispy roti or paratha for that matter. Spread it generously on a crispy slice of bread and enjoy the goodness of the berries.

Recipe: Homemade Strawberry Jam

Ingredients

Strawberries (2 packs – normal ones that are available in most food markets)
Sugar – 5 tbsp (or as per your wish; I wanted to use as little as I could)

Method

1. Now, first things first, wash the berries and remove the tip of each piece.
   2. Dump them in a big, solid vessel with the sugar.
   3. Put this on low to medium flame for about 15 minutes with the lid on.
   4. Switch off the flame and start mashing it with your potato masher. Keep the jam aside to cool.
   5. Store in a clean jar.

Note: All right, so here’s the deal with this jam. When I kept it on the flame, and closed the lid for a few minutes, I noticed that the strawberry mixture was bubbling and coming out of the vessel. Then, I shifted the mixture into a bigger vessel and put a heavy kitchen item on the lid so that the mixture doesn’t come out. Well, guess what, my stove was red with the bubbling jam mixture still escaping from the vessel. So, if you want to avoid this from happening, use a big vessel and after about 8 to 10 minutes, keep a watch on the jam; stir it to avoid the spill. Also, a lot of people use lemon juice in their jams; I didn’t, because the strawberries that I had were citrus enough.

Make this jam at home and get ready to put smiles on people’s faces. A good start for January, no?