Chillies for Chilli Jam

Our answer

Nigella's Chilli Jam uses a combination of red (bell) peppers and red chillies. These are blitzed in a food processor until very finely chopped and are then added to the sugar mixture before boiling. Pectin is the natural chemical that is used to set the jam and sometimes comes from the fruits in the jam. The effectiveness of pectin can diminish if the fruits have been frozen. However in this case the jam is made using a sugar that has pectin already in it (jam sugar) and so it does not matter so much if the chillies are frozen.

If you are using frozen chillies then we would suggest that the seeds are removed and the chillies rougly chopped before freezing. You should then be able to chop the chillies in the food processor almost directly from frozen. If the chillies are whole then try to remove the seeds and chop them before they defrost fully, as they will become soft and more difficult to chop once they thaw.