late night jamming

A bit of late evening strawberry jam making. I let this batch boil over whilst I was ferreting in the shop cupboard. The strawberry man came around the other day, a January Fitzroy tradition, where the growers send their excess stock out to be sold door to door. Back in my restaurant days you never knew what produce would walk on the door during harvest time. Quite nice when the fruit comes to you!
They weren't the prettiest strawbs but just perfect for boiling up with a bit of sugar and this time I resorted to pectin. It was late and strawberries are notoriously temperamental with their set. Normally I avoid pectin, it's not bad or anything, I just like to get all experimental and see how well I can set with out it, a bit of lemon juice, getting the boil right, reducing the syrup, but at 10pm in a hot kitchen it makes life a little more predictable. Licking the spoon and I was immediately transported to the dry floury taste of fluffy scones and creamy cream. Really strawberry jam is the only way to go with scones. A taste made in heaven.