Bhut Jolokia Jam from the Chilli Jam Man

Simon aka The Chilli Jam Man very kindly agreed to send across a sample of his Bhut Jolokia Jam. To fill you in a bit about the Chilli Jam Man’s approach to making Jams is a refreshing process as they are kept as pure and simple as possible.

The ingredients are all locally produced and there is no use of preservatives, colourings or anything remotely resembling an E-number.

The box arrived the day after we spoke (so you can be sure that postage is quick) and the box was stamped with the Chilli Jam Man logo. Upon opening there were 2 sauces and the one I am looking at today is the Bhut Jolokia Jam.

The label is minimalist in design, saying what it needs to, the logo stands out and it covers of the stuff you’d expect – the ingredients, a heat rating, best before date and a few other bits and pieces.

The ingredients are tomatoes, sugar, red wine vinegar, garlic, chilli, ginger, nam pla (fish sauce) and balsamic vinegar.

When you open up a jar and take a big deep breath and you get this wonderful garlicky almost oriental smell – and looking at the ingredients that would come from the fish sauce which has been added.

This is a fairly runny jam (it has no chemical gelling agents in it), it has small bits which add texture to it.

The taste is sweet to start off with and after two or three seconds a fair old kick of Bhut Jolokia heat comes in – it definitely gives a decent burn.

Here we have used it in a stir fry

We got some baby courgettes, extra fine beans, babycorn and salad onions and chopped them up. Stirred for 4 minutes. Added some chopped herbs and added 2 large spoonfuls of Bhut Jolokia chilli jam and hey presto – a Bhut Jolokia stir fry – which certainly had a bit of poke in it!