Method

1) De-straw, hull, rinse, and halve strawberries.

2) Mix the halved strawberries with 3 table spoon of sugar, and let them sit for about an hour (I was doing this at the room temperature of ~30 degree C). After that hour, a large portion of sugar will melt, the strawberries will be soften while having some juice collected.

3) Briefly blend all strawberries, juice and any residuals of sugar with a food processor, then transfer them into a pan. I did not use saucepan but a 26cm flat-based frying pan because it helps me better in thickening the juice with fruits.

4) Put lemon juice and all other ingredients in the pan. Bring them to boil, then constantly stirring them over gentle heat. In about 15 minutes, you shall start seeing the mixture forming clumps and is no longer in liquid state. Then it is time to add in the remaining 1 table spoon of sugar, after which you might have to increase the frequency of stirring to avoid sticking to pan. Having added the sugar in the final step, I find it faster and easier to thicken the jam and have it become a jell-like substance.

5) Unlike most professional cooks who use a cold plate to test the setting point, I simply execute my judgement to decide when the jam is done, which I have to admit is not perfect at all but suits personal preference (that is part of my fun in cooking).

6) Enjoy! I truly enjoyed having this fresh jam for my breakfast, bringing me a happy feeling … a feeling like just falling in love.

In case you are too busy to prepare this jam when your berries are still fresh, try to preserve them with a syrup freezing method as suggest by Doris and Jilly Cook, ‘… the method is foolproof. Those berries are AT LEAST a year old, possibly two, and they taste like they were picked yesterday.’

Note

1) About the setting point method: Have a plate chilled in advance, put in a drop of jam to test until wrinkles appear on the surface with a slight push.

2) If you are making a greater amount of strawberries, do use a larger saucepan as the mixture will boil up. My procedures shall be good for cooking a smaller quantity of strawberries – two cups strawberries yielded less than half cup of jam!