Grapes Jam

I got some juicy fleshy grapes from Swapna chechi and she suggested to make jam with it. I was hesitating in the beginning but then decided to try it. Now I'm completely sure I'm not going to pick any jam jars from supermarkets anymore. These homemade ones are easy to make and yummy too. My son loves it. My mother used to make these jams at home. I took the snaps when jam was hot. So it was a bit loose in texture. This is the consistency when you've switch off the flame. It will become thick as it cools. Sorry I was too lazy to click and upload then. :)

Ingredients

• Nice fleshy grapes - 500 gms (eat and see, you need really big fleshy and sweet ones)
• Sugar - 7 tbsp 
• Water - 1 cup
• Lemon - 1 small
• Red colour - optional (1 drop)

Method

• Clean and cook your grapes adding water in pressure cooker. It takes 2-3 whistles. Cook well. 
• When the cooked grapes cool, run it in a blender.
• Pour the blended grapes into a strainer and get all the pulp you can.
• Pour this into a thick bottomed vessel. Add sugar. Put on flame. 
• Allow it to simmer and reduce. Stir in between. The whole process of reducing takes about 20-30 minutes. 
• The jam thickens as it cools. So you've switch off the flame when the consistency is a bit loose in texture. 
• Towards the end before switching off add the lemon juice and simmer for 2 minutes. Add a drop of colour at this stage if you want. 
• Switch off the flame. 
• Pour into clean glass vessel before it starts thickening. 

Papaya Halwa/Jam

My son is not a big fruit fan. This time it was papaya and he was running around not even trying to taste it. I tried to disguise it as a halwa/jam and gave him in a piece of bread. He loved it. This can be stored in fridge for a week. It is yummy and 100 times better than store bought jams. Some add rice powder in this to make it thick(as in the case of halwa), but I wanted to use papaya as jam too, so I avoided it. Try this for your dear ones.

Ingredients

• Ripe papaya scooped  - 2 cups
• Sugar - 1/2 cup (reduce sugar if your papaya is very ripe)
• Cardamom - 5
• Ghee - 1/2 tsp

Method

• Powder sugar and cardamom seeds
• In a thick bottomed non-stick pan, put the scooped mashed papaya. Switch on flame.
• Add powdered sugar and cardamom powder to this and allow to simmer on medium flame. 
• Add ghee. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally until the mix starts to leave from sides of vessel and becomes thick. 
• Grease a plate and transfer the halwa to it.