Jam with a kick

Friend Julia Newton and I were chatting the other day, and she told me about a new recipe she should send me.

She and her husband, Will, had been experimenting with strawberry jam and had made a batch mixing in sriracha chili garlic sauce. Sriracha is also known as rooster sauce. Julia said she enjoys the combination of sweet and spicy, and thought strawberries would be a good complement to the sriracha.

Sriracha is a type of hot sauce and features chili peppers and garlic. Julia said she buys it in the grocery store’s ethnic food section.

I asked Julia if I could share her recipe with my readers, and she agreed. I don’t cook with chilies at all, so it was nice to have a recipe that will give my readers more variety.

The Newtons did multiple taste testings, they said, before adding just the right amount of the chili sauce to a simple batch of strawberry jam.

Will said the end result is “warm, but not spicy.”

They have had their spicy jam on ice cream and shortcake as well as on steak and chicken.

They’ve already made 30 pints of strawberry jam this season — both the plain kind that we all like on toast and biscuits, and the new spicy version.

The Newtons do a lot of food preserving. In addition to canning tomatoes every summer, they also make pickles as well as their own cheese and sausage. Once blueberries and peaches are in season, they will be thinking of ways to preserve them as well.

“We’re all about eating local and in season,” Julia said.


Strawberry-Sriracha Jam

• 2 dry quarts strawberries, rinsed, destemmed and quartered
• 7 cups sugar
• 1 pouch fruit pectin (such as Certo)
• 6 tablespoons Sriracha chili-garlic sauce

Prepare strawberries. Mix with sugar in a large pot. Bring to a full, rolling boil. Add 1⁄2 tablespoon butter or margarine to reduce foaming. Add sriracha and pectin. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove form heat and ladle into sterilized jars. Cap and process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Use within one year.

Julia and Will Newton