Home Grown Marrow and Lemon Jam

As promised here is the first of the courgette recipes. Over grown courgettes are ideal for this recipe, which uses the flesh's ability to absorb flavours perfectly. The soak over night will result in the little cubes of marrow expressing large amounts of water as they take in the sugar, so no water needs to be added.

This is a lovely sweet but tart jam, it only sets lightly, but it keeps well and tastes great in jam tarts, cakes, and on scones. In the big print i tend to label it without mentioning the word marrow, instead using the variety of courgette that it comes from! Lemon and Little Gem Jam looks so much more appetising i think!

MARROW AND LEMON JAM

2lb. Marrow (weight after preparation)

5 lemons

1½lb. Sugar

1½ pints water

½oz. Ginger root.

Peel the marrow, remove the seeds and cut the flesh into dice. Put into a basin, sprinkle with the sugar and allow to stand overnight.

Cut the lemons in half, squeeze out the juice and slice the peel and pith thinly. Put the juice, shredded peel and water into a saucepan and boil slowly for about 1¼hours, until the contents have reduced considerably, then strain: the extract should measure about half a pint.

Put the lemon extract and the prepared marrow and sugar, into a saucepan, add the root ginger and lemon pulp, tied in a piece of muslin, bring to the boil and boil slowly for about 1½hours, or until the marrow is clear and it's reached jamming temperature on the jam thermometer. Remove the ginger and, wearing rubber gloves, squeeze the muslin bag to express the juice. Pour into warm pots and cover immediately in the usual way.

This will make about 3 pounds of jam.