Papaya and Beetroot Jam

My father-in-law loves gardening. And his hard work with the papaya tree was bearing fruit - literally! Three weeks ago found us with so many papayas that we couldn't possibly eat them all straight as fruits. It was also mango season and papayas automatically got relegated to second place, despite being homegrown. So i needed an idea to consume the papayas. Only a few days earlier had mom sent me some home-made mixed fruit jam when i began my bread experiments. Ever since i had wanted to make my own jam. These papayas presented the perfect opportunity.

I called up mom and asked for the recipe and found that it was really really easy. And it was her idea to add a beetroot to give my home-made jam a natural yet appetising colour of store bought jams. The recipe is almost no recipe at all because you have so few ingredients and the process is so easy. The only downside is that since we are not adding any preservatives, it may not last as long as store-bought jams. But it has less sugar, so we can eat more of it :-)

Ingredients

• 2 Medium sized papayas
• 1 small beetroot
• 1 cup sugar (approx) - see notes below
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method

Peel and deseed the papayas. Peel the beetroot. (Wear kitchen gloves if you do not want to colour your hands pink with the beetroot, i don't mind pink hands for a day). Cut the papaya and beetroot into small cubes. Place the fruit pieces in a bowl and pressure cook  without adding any water in the bowl. Turn off the pressure cooker after 3 whistles. After 10 minutes take the fruit out of the pressure cooker. If any water gets collected in the bowl at this time, drain out the water. Puree the cooked fruit pieces in a blender. 

Transfer the puree to a pan. (Use any cup to measure the puree when transferring to the pan. Use 1 cup of sugar for every 2 cups of puree). Add the sugar and lemon juice.Place the pan on stove with low to medium heat and stir continuously until the water evaporates, about 20 minutes. Transfer the hot jam to a sterilised glass jar. Close jar and refrigerate only after completely cool.

Note: Papaya has relatively high amount of 'pectin' which makes it easier to form into jellies and jams than other fruits. Try this for a quick jelly. Puree a cup of ripe papaya with 1 tablespoon sugar (or even without if your papaya is already very sweet) and a little water. Store it in a cup in the refrigerator. The next day you will have jelly ready!
Linking this to Sobha's Just 4 fun event at Good Food.