Apricot Jam

Getting ready for winter: a jar of golden apricot jam.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb apricot (sweet and still firm)
• 2 lb sugar
• juice of 1 lemon

Instructions:

1. Halve the apricots and pop out the pits. Toss the apricots with sugar in a wide pan. Cover the pan and set aside at room temperature overnight. The sugar will dissolve and the mixture will get watery.
2. KaCrack the apricot pits open with a nutcracker to get the almonds inside. Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat, and put in the almonds. Let rest for about thirty seconds, then transfer to a colander and rinse under cold water. The papery skin of the almonds will then slip off easily. Reserve the peeled almonds.
3. Put the pan over medium heat and cook the apricots and almonds until the mixture thickened slightly. Add the lemon juice and cook 5 more minutes.  Let the jam cool completely in the pan and then transfer it to glass jars. Refrigerate the jam.

Notes:

• Apricots will foam a lot while cooking; so make sure you use a large pan.
• The apricot almonds gives the jam a particularly good flavor, and makes for a few lovely crunchy bites per jar.

Tags: apricot, jam