Louise and Laura cleaned up the competition in the People’s Choice Award this year, with their delectable ‘Summer plum & manuka honey jam’. The votes were decided by who had the most iceblock sticks placed in a pottle in front of their jar, and this delicate plum jam was the winner by a long shot. The duo won a year’s subscription to Good Magazine, and a $20 voucher to spend at Edible Garden.

Without sounding too ‘over-the-top’, this jam was absolutely sensational! Loads of people have requested Louise & Laura’s recipe, and they’ve very sweetly shared it below:

INGREDIENTS
1kg Black Doris plums
450mls water
1kg sugar
1 Tbsp Manuka Honey
knob of butter
1 Tbsp lemon juice

METHOD
1. Place the plums and water in large saucepan and simmer gently for about 30mins until the fruit is very soft and the contents of the pan well reduced.

2. Remove from the heat, add the sugar, stirring until dissolved, then add the knob of butter, honey and lemon juice.

3. Bring to boil and boil rapidly for 10-15 mins, stirring frequently, or until setting point is reached. Take pan off heat.

4. With a slotted spoon, remove the plum stones and any “scum”.

5. Then it’s all ready to be put into your hot (a.k.a. sterilized) jars and label. Easy

Sarah was one of the judges’ five finalists in Sunday’s competition. She entered an absolutely gorgeous red chilli jam – just look at that colour! – which Lois noted was “perfectly conceived and executed”. Sarah posted the recipe on her blog, and has very kindly let us reproduce it here – thanks Sarah!

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Deep down inside of us all lies a competitive streak. I just know it. And whilst I don’t often physically compete, I can’t help but find myself saying “I could do that” every time I watch MasterChef… So, when the opportunity to COMPETE in the Jam Off {Wellington’s Premiere Jam Competition} held at The City Market happened upon my inbox, I simply couldn’t refuse.

To be honest, I knew straight away what I was going to make. There was simply only one choice…a delectably sticky Red Chilli Jam. In a word – YUM! This recipe was given to me by a friend, Nikki, who lives in Dubai – I am sure she got the recipe from a mystical souk spice trader. We worked together for a while and she used to use this jam as a ‘bribe’ for people that we worked with…and it worked every time!

Absolutely delicious on Vogel’s toast with avocado and simply stunning to accompany a soft brie or Kapiti Kikorangi Blue on crackers. This jam is best made when big red chillies are in season, as you need quite a few and trust me, it’s not so fun making this jam with tiny little chillies…it takes FOREVER to deseed them!

And just in case you are wondering…I am pleased to report that this jam made it to the TOP 5 FINALISTS off the Jam Off 2012!

Here’s Nikki’s recipe for Sweet Red Chilli Jam….

SWEET RED CHILLI JAM

Ingredients:

1 kilo Red Capsicums (deseeded and cut into chunks)
700g Tomatoes (roughly chopped)
400g Red Chillies (deseeded)
250mls White Wine Vinegar
880g White Sugar

Method:

Place the capsicum, tomatoes and chillies in the food processor and blend until reasonably fine. Put mixture in a big pot, add the white wine vinegar and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer. Add the sugar and stir until it fully dissolves. Bring the jam mixture back up to a boil. Boil continuously until the jam is “ready” (this can take up to one hour). Make sure you stir occasionally to ensure that the mixture does not catch and burn on the bottom of the pot.

Makes about 4 small jars (250mls each)

There are worse ways to spend Sunday mornings. You could replace your leaking hot water cylinder, clean out your chicken coop or head to the City Market and sample 30 glorious jars of sunshine. Many Wellingtonians opted for the latter choice last Sunday, and headed to third Great Welly Jamoff, welcoming it in style.

Thirty jampetitors also made their way to the market. They gently placed their precious jars on the judging table and collected their goodie bags from the Jambassadors (jam-packed with swag from Trade Aid, Mad Millie, NZ Gardener, Commonsense Organics and Ponoko).

The table glistened with jewel-like glass jars laid end-to-end; the Jamoff crew donned black aprons splattered with red logos; Richard carefully practised his best jam joke; and Lois and Duncan steeled their palates for the onslaught of fruit, sugar, pectin and bacon that sat before them and began the careful task of pre-judging all thirty entries.

At 10.30amish, Richard officially welcomed everyone to the Jamoff, introduced the judges, and revealed that he had a half-finished pot of plum jam on the stove at home.

While Lois Daish and Duncan Galletly quietly narrowed the field down to five finalists, Richard invited the crowd to step forward and sample all of the flavours before them, in order to determine the People’s Choice Award. An orderly queue formed as the crowd surged forth to taste, and Richard had to direct the traffic jam to weave and wend in the opposite direction in order to get things flowing:

The crowd voted by placing iceblock sticks in front of their favourite flavours, and a clear winner was selected: Louise & Laura’s ‘summer plum and manuka honey’ jam. For their sweet efforts, the duo won won a year’s subscription to Good Magazine, a $20 voucher to spend at Edible Garden, and a little spoon trophy.

The finalists were then called up on stage: Sarah with her ‘Red chilli jam’; Joe with ‘strawberry, mint & black pepper jam’; Demelza with her “wildcard” entry of ‘bacon & chilli jam’; and Rachael with ‘rhubarb & ginger’ jam. (All received a tea-towel from Dishy, perfect for cleaning up any jammy dishes and a copy of Good Magazine.)

But there could only be one winner.

And to rapturous applause, Rochelle was awarded the prize for the most Jamtastic Jam with her ‘peach & walnut conserve’. Lois said she was “impressed with the colour, the set, the cleaness. It was beautiful – the walnuts were so fresh… and the aroma of golden queen peaches hit you as soon as you opened the jar”, while Duncan said “… it was seriously lovely – and subtle, with just a hint of walnut”.

Rochelle won lunch for two at Nikau Cafe, and a City Market and Gaggeneau intimate cooking class (and we’ve asked her to share her recipe with us, so keep an eye on the blog!)

Finally, we had a special award for the Small Fry in the competition. Siblings Henry and Bella each entered impressive culinary efforts: apple & rosemary jelly, and quince & cardamom jam. As well as collecting a jam-splat trophy, Henry and Bella took home Margaret Mahy’s book ‘Jam‘ donated by Parson’s Bookshop; ‘The Giant Jam Sandwich‘ by John Vernon Lord and Janet Burroway donated by Random House; and ‘Marmaduke Duck and the Marmalade Jam‘ by Juliette MacIver, donated by Scholastic.

It was a sweet, sweet morning all-in-all. Congratulations to the winners! We think it’s important to celebrate good food, and the *jamtastic* efforts of everyone who took the time to make and share their special preserves with us. Thank you to our generous supporters, and ka pai if you came along on Sunday and made the Great Welly Jamoff 2012 such a fun event – we salute you!

P.S. We still love you Craig.

P.P.S. You can check out more photos from the day here – many thanks to Yana.

We’re super excited because there’s only one day left until the Great Welly Jamoff 2012! Keep your Sunday morning free and come along to the City Market at 10.30am and check out the spread of the competition.

You’ll be able to sample everyone’s jams, jellies and marmalades as part of the People’s Choice award. And hopefully our contestants’ nerves will have simmered down by the time Lois Daish and Duncan Galletly announce the winner of the most Jamtastic jam.

There are great prizes up for grabs, kindly donated by our wonderful supporters.

Although our lips are sealed as to all of the competition flavours, we can reveal that out of thirty preserves, only a few are the same flavour – which is pretty extraordinary!

So head along to the City Market at 10.30am on Sunday 25th March for a morning jam-packed with flavour and fun. We’ll even leave the door ajar for you: