I am honestly not sure where I got this from, my best guess is that at some point I had a strawberry basil cocktail of some kind. But it’s strawberry and basil jam. Fantastic on pretty much anything. I’ve gotten multiple requests for the recipe so I figured I’d just throw it here. I do have it on my list of fruit preserves experiments, but it was good to write it out explicitly.
A note on the measurements: these are approximate. I usually go to the grocery store and get one package of basil and one thing of strawberries and use that. But I think these are right.
Also, the preparation of the strawberries is up to you. I’ve done this many ways, from using quartered strawberries down to throwing them in a blender. The only real difference is that the larger your pieces, the longer it’ll take to cook down. Using a food mill or a blender takes the shortest amount of time. Frozen strawberries work just as well, but make sure to reserve the juices while they defrost, you’ll want all of that.
Also, use a much larger pot than you think you need to. You’ll see when you cook it, but the fruit foams up like crazy while it’s cooking. Otherwise it boils over and you end up with strawberry caramel on your stove.
Oh, and it takes a lot of stirring.
Ingredients
1 pound strawberries, trimmed and chopped up as small as you want
1 good sized lemon, juiced, or 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice
1 ounce basil, finely chopped
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1 pint jar or tupperware container or whatever else you want to eventually put the jam in. As long as it can tolerate heat.
Directions
Chop your basil up very finely and put it in your jam container, whether that’s a mason jar or some other thing. If you’re using a glass container, put it in a hot water bath when you get close to using it.
Put your strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar in a pot or large saucepan. Heat over medium, stirring frequently, as the sugar melts and the strawberries release their juices. Bring to a boil, still stirring pretty often. You don’t have to stir it constantly, but every couple of minutes.
You should see it start to foam up like crazy. Congratulations! You’re making jam! Still stir it periodically here, making sure nothing sticks to the bottom, and wait for the foam to subside. Eventually it’ll look more like it’s just boiling, that means it’s close to done. If you have a thermometer, you want to hit above 215 (I think 220 is what you actually want), but at this point you have to stir it pretty much constantly to keep it from sticking.
Remove your jam from the heat and let cool for five minutes, then pour it into your prepared container, and stir it up to mix in the basil. Put a lid on it and pop it in the fridge to cool.
Enjoy!
eatbensmeat 