Tomato rhubarb jam

Some time ago I "stumbled over this recipe on tomato rhubarb jam, which I found to be a very interesting combination for a jam. Yes, everyone knows rhubarb jam or the classic combination of strawberry and rhubarb, but a combination of tomato and rhubarb !!!! This combination facinated me enormousely. So I had to make this jam. Luckily enough my good girl friend in Horsens was able to help me out supplying both the tomatoes and rhubarbs for this jam from her kitchen garden.

I more or less made this jam according to the oirginal recipe adjusting the volumes of rhubarb and tomatoes to what I received from the kitchen garden in Horsens. And on top of this I added in pectin for texture adjustment.

I noticed that, when the jam was being more acidic in the taste, the taste of rhubarb was more dominating, while a more sweet taste was bringing the taste of tomato more into the jam. So you can use the sweetness level to adjust the final flavour profile of the jam, should it be rhubarb alone or a combination of rhubarb and tomato ?

Tomato rhubarb jam:

• 300 g rhubarb - in thinner slices
• 300 g tomato - in squares
• ½ vanilla pod - both corns and pod
• 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 220 g sugar
• 8 g pectin

1. Put tomato and rhubarb pieces together with vinegar and vanilla into a small cooking pot.
2. Heat up the ingredients to 80'C.
3. Dry-mix pectin and 50 g of sugar. Add this dry-mix slowly to the jam stirring  very well to avoid lump formation.
4. Let the jam cook slowly for another 5 minutes. Stir on a regular basis.
5. Add in the rest of the sugar. 
6. Bring the jam to the boiling point and let it boil for 2 minutes.
7. Taste the jam. If you find it too be to sweet/matured in taste, you can add some more vinegar to bring freshness back to the jam. I normally do this in smaller steps, so I can fine tune the flavour profile to my preference. It is more easy to add some extra, than to remove an overdose of something. 
8. Prepare the jam glasses by filling them with boiling water. I do not use any preservatives in my home-made jam, so this is important to increase shelf-life of your jam. Another thing you can do is to store the jam cold afterwards.
9. Fill the glass with jam and when close the glass.
10. Store the jam cold.