Rosella Jam

This jam is delightful on toast and makes an ace relish to go with a cheeseboard too, and it’s swell in jam tarts. You’ll need four one-cup sterilised jars.

Rebecca Sullivan and Damien Coulthard's First Nations Food Companion recipe for Rosella Jam

Muntrie jam and Rosella jam (bottom). Photograph: Josh Geelen/Murdoch Books

Makes: 1 litre (4 cups)

Ingredients

• 2 kg rosella flowers
• Fresh 6 lemon myrtle leaves 
• 1 cup white sugar per cup of pulp (220g)

Method

1. Separate rosella petals from seed pods. Keeping them apart, wash and shake dry. Place pods in a heavy-based saucepan and cover with around two litres of water. Boil over medium-high heat for 30 minutes. Place petals in another saucepan. Strain juice from boiled pods directly over the petals, then discard pods.

2. Add lemon myrtle leaves, and bring slowly to the boil over medium heat, then boil for 20 minutes until reduced by one-third. Remove from heat.

3. Measure the petal pulp, and add one cup of sugar (220g) for every cup of pulp, stirring to dissolve. Place over high heat and boil for 20 minutes or until setting point is reached (see note).

4. Cool briefly, then remove lemon myrtle leaves and transfer jam to sterilised jars and seal. Jam will store in a cool, dark place for up to two years.

Note: To test for jam setting point, the easiest thing to do is buy a jam thermometer and when it reads 105C, your jam will set. Or you could try the saucer test. Place a few saucers in the fridge before you make your jam. When the jam has been cooking for the time stated in the recipe, drop less than a teaspoon on a cold saucer, leave for a minute then gently push your finger through the middle. If the jam crinkles, it’s reached setting point; if it doesn’t, boil for five minutes more, then test again with another cold saucer.

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