Peach-Mango Jam with Vanilla

What do you do when there are only 2 adults (and one kid who doesn’t eat fruit AT ALL) and crate full of peaches and mangoes to eat before they go down south into the garbage. First thing I would do is to bring some sense into the people who are buying these excessive fruit. But come on who can resist those sweet smelling mangoes in Indian grocery – one fruit is definitely not enough and the next best (cheapest) is the crate with a dozen of them, I picked up the latter. Also peaches had a $2 coupon at BJs, so they came home too.

After eating the fruit for a week, I started thinking of options of consuming them in bulk. Some of the peaches went into this yummy summer soda that I made for the BBQ – very summery and refreshing. With the rest of the peaches I made this peach-mango jam and added some ground vanilla as flavoring. I still have a couple more mangoes that I’m planning to make mango lassi with – don’t want to end the summer without enjoying an ice cold lassi.

Traditionally whole vanilla beans are used to flavor the jam, but I used pulverized vanilla (ground vanilla??) instead. I added pectin to the jam to get a more jam like consistency. I also used a hand blender to make a smooth jam instead of chunky.

Here’s how I made the jam.
Ingredients:
Peaches – 3 medium, peeled, pitted and chopped (about 3 cups)
Ripe Mangoes – 2 medium, peeled, pitted and chopped (about 3 cups)
Sugar – 1cup (use less if you want not-so-sweet jam, we like it sweeter, so I went with 1cup of sugar)
Ground Vanilla – 2tsp (use Vanilla bean if you have it, wondering if vanilla extract would work here??)
Orange Juice – ¼ cup (freshly squeezed)
Pectin – 3tsp

Method:

• Add the chopped fruit, sugar and orange juice (and vanilla bean if using) to a heavy bottom saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil; lower the heat and simmer the mixture until the fruits start to break down. 
• Add the ground vanilla and mix well. You can blend with a hand mixer for a smoother jam at this stage or mash with a potato masher for a chunkier one. 
• Finally add pectin, make sure to mix it very well otherwise pectin forms papery residue in the jam. Simmer for 5-10 minutes or until jam thickens. Check this cool tip by Suma @ Ecurry on how to determine whether your jam is ready or not.

I’m not much into canning/ preserving, so I spoon my jam into clean jars and promptly refrigerate them once completely cooled.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up for Day 3 of BM# 8.

Sending this over to Valli's Condiment Mela.