St Lucia Inspired Pineapple Jam
If you were to ask my husband what his favourite part of our trip to St Lucia was, you would imagine his response to perhaps include the incredible warmth, the view of the sea from the little house we had rented, the great snorkelling, the fresh fish available at the local restaurants. All good guesses, yet every single one of them wrong.
His answer quite simply would be 'the rum punch'. Even I have to admit that it was the PERFECT thirst quenching drink on days where the weather climbed into the mid 30's.
One evening as an apertif, I ordered their local coconut rum and my tastebuds were very pleased. It is that little glass of coconut rum served with a wedge of fresh pineapple that inspired this recipe.
Pineapple Jam with Rum
1 ripe pineapple, cored and chopped into small pieces
3 cups sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp unsalted butter
3 oz liquid pectin
1/4 cup rum (you can add up to 1/2 cup)
Start by peeling, coring and cutting up the pineapple into very small pieces. Place it into a wide bottom non reactive pot. Add 3 cups of sugar and set aside for an hour, stirring once or twice. You will notice this brings the juices out in the pineapple and help dissolve the sugar.
After an hour transfer the pot to the stove and turn the heat to medium and add 2 tbsp of lemon. Stir the mixture until the sugar has completely dissolved and then add the butter.
Turning the heat to med high ,bring the pineapples to a gentle boil stirring constantly, add the rum and then reduce the heat, cover the pot and let them simmer for 10 minutes. By now you will notice that the pineapple chunks have begun to reduce in size and the mixture has gotten quite liquidy.
Turning the heat once again to med high bring the pineapple mixture to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Added 3oz of liquid pectin and stirred again constantly until the mixture returned to a rolling boil and let it boil for 60 seconds and then turned off the heat.
Leaving the pineapples to cool for several minutes so your fruit doesn't float (stir once or twice) and then ladle into sterilized jars leaving 1/4" headspace and put in water bath for 10 minutes.
My plan is to make this cocount cake, heat some of the jam in a pan and pour over the slices of cake as served. Is it wrong to have that for breakfast?