Pear & Chai Tea Preserve

The pear season has started! With those amazing William pears so delicious to make great jams ! I’ve started making jam with few fruits at a time: no need for a copper jam pan, nor for very sophisticated stuff to make home made preserves, a great pan, knife and sealed jar will be enough to prepare low-sugar and long-lasting preserves. I make small quantities at a time whenever I have time and feel like a special home made flavor but you can also change the quantities for your own massive production. I’ve tasted this jam on a spelt bread slice with a spread fresh goat cheese and some rosemary I had just found at the market… divine! Ingrédients:

  • 6 William pears, peeled and cored, then diced
  • 1/3 of the fruits’ weight in sugar (agave syrup or cane sugar)
  • the juice of one lemon
  • 1 tsp agar agar (you can mix the agar agar powder in the cold lemon juice)
  • 1 chai tea bag, infused to the max in one boiling water cup (the chai tea needs to be as strong as possible)

Recipe:

  1. Place the fruits in a pan with the chai tea, the lemon and the agar -agar
  2. Let the mixture simmer on high and then low heat
  3. Retrieve from the fire when the mix has become kind of syrupy (careful it does not burn, it will become even more syrupy when cooling down) )
  4. Pour the hot jam in a sealed container and close the lid tightly. Place the jar upside down till it cools down, you will hear a ‘pop’ when you open it again