Chilli Jam Without Sweet Peppers

Asked by Hutters. Answered on 30th August 2017

Full question

I have a chilli plant that is producing more than we can use, so would love to make the Chilli Jam - but I absolutely cannot stand bell peppers. Could I perhaps substitute these for tomatoes? In which case, would that impact the other quantities/method?

Chilli Jam

By Nigella

Our answer

Nigella's Chilli Jam (from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS) is made with a combination of spicy red chillies and sweet red bell peppers. The chillies give the jam some heat, whilst the sweet peppers provide mostly colour. Unfortunately it would not be a good idea to use tomatoes instead of the sweet peppers as the tomatoes will break down too much during the cooking process and will give a cloudy preserve. You could probably omit the sweet peppers and use a total of 200g (7 ounces) chillies instead but the jam will not look quite as vibrant and could be quite spicy, depending on how hot your chillies are. The method will be the same with this adjustment.

Nigella has several recipes that use chillies and the Halloumi With Chilli uses chillies to make a chilli oil. You could make extra amounts of this oil and store it in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months. The oil will not freeze solid so you can spoon out as much as you need, when you need it, and it will thaw in just a few minutes at room temperature.