Chunky Strawberry Jam

Strawberries are in season and they flood the market , with fresh produce coming from the hills of Mahabaleshwar. I have gradually fallen for this fruit over the years until this year where I am head over heels (or hills!)  in love with the luscious juicy red berry. I have spent most of the early summer, gathering the best crop - handpicking off the batches I purchased, cleaning them with baking soda, pat drying , chopping off the stems and cutting into halves then flash freezing them - before packing it into a bag full of frozen goodie to last the real summer. 

I also make a lot of dessert dishes using strawberries. The most famous way to eat them in Mahabaleshwar is chopped strawberries with whipped milk cream - the strawberry cream.

Today I made a fresh batch of my kid's beloved chunky strawberry jam. It is a simple 3 ingredient mix recipe, with efforts less than or equal to making tea. 

Ingredients

2 cups chopped fresh strawberry 

2/3 cup sugar (You can use a little lesser)

1 tspn lemon juice 

Clean jar 

Method

1) In a nonstick pan , add fresh strawberries 

2) Add sugar and stir lightly using a non metallic spatula 

3) Do not add any water

4) As the mixture starts becoming thicker, add the lemon juice

5) Keep stirring and lightly mashing the strawberries

6) Try drawing a straight line with  the spatula in the centre 

7) If the liquid remains seperate for few seconds, the jam is ready ( you will take 10 min max to get to this stage)

8) Store in a clean jar and enjoy

9) Refrigerate upto a month and for longer duration follow a canning process