Jalapeño Raspberry Jam - Simple Delicious and Good For You

Consider the humble Jalapeño pepper.  It's a mild-to-medium hot pepper native to the state of Veracruz in Mexico.  It derives it's name from the town of Jalapa whose name comes from the Nahuatl words for "sand and water".  Even people new to hot peppers have usually heard of Jalapeños, which have become some of the most popular of all hot peppers because they grow abundantly and have a tolerable amount of burn (i.e. "hot" but not too hot).  They are especially popular in Mexican and Tex-Mex foods, but have also expanded into many other dishes in the American diet.  One of the most interesting is the recent craze for Jalapeño jellies and jams.  These are simultaneously piquant (spicy hot) and sweet with a wonderful "bloom" of tastes on your tongue.  They are often served on crackers with cream cheese, but can also be enjoyed on meats, or eaten just like any jam on toast.

I created a simple Jalapeño Raspberry jam that is very easy to make, absolutely delicious, and mild enough to be eaten in place of regular jams.  Don't be scared off by the burn of the chilies.  The heat is mitigated and balanced by the sweetness of the jam and the raspberry flavor.  The heat from the peppers is also tempered by removing all the seeds and the membranes, and by cooking them.

Why bother with Jalapeño jam?  Well, first of all it's a yummy alternative to those bland run-of-the-mill fruit jams.  However, you also get some unique nutritional advantages.  Jalapeños are good for you. They are full of healthy vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants like most other fruits, but they also contain capsaicin!  Capsaicin is the powerful antioxidant that gives hot peppers their burn. It's a flavorless, odorless, colorless compound found in varying amounts in peppers. Fiery habaneros contain the most. Jalapeños have some. Bell peppers have none.  Recently capsaicin has captured the interest of many researchers and is beginning to unveil a few of its secrets.  Here, according to WebMD, are some the health benefits being shown by recent research:

• Weight Loss - capsaicin is both an appetite suppressant and also burns extra calories by raising the body's core temperature.
• Disease Prevention - Research published in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" and the "British Journal of Nutrition" indicates that eating capsaicin-rich hot peppers like jalapeno peppers may prevent type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
• Anti-inflammatory - Dr. Nicholas Perricone, adjunct professor of medicine in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University, includes hot peppers in his top 10 list of superfoods. According to Perricone, the capsaicin in peppers like Jalapeños may lessen migraine and arthritis symptoms and help lessen inflammation and sinus congestion that can lead to bacterial infections.
• Fighting Cancer - Several studies have looked at capsaicin's impact on cancer cells. H. Phillip Koeffler, MD, director of Hematology and Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and professor of medicine at UCLA, has studied its effects on prostate and breast cancers.  How it works is not entirely understood, says Koeffler. But it appears that capsaicin may fire a lethal blow at cancer cells by affecting the activity of a protein complex called NF-kappa Beta. This makes it more difficult for cancer to dodge programmed cell death (apoptosis). In the prostate study, capsaicin caused the death of about 80% of prostate cancer cells in mice, making tumors shrink by about one-fifth the size of untreated tumors.

Here is how to make your own Jalapeño Raspberry Jam:

•  4 cups pureed Jalapeño peppers
•  4 cups white sugar
•  6 ounces raspberry flavored gelatin mix

Sterilize canning jars and boil the lids so the rubber is soft enough to seal quickly.  Put on some rubber or vinyl gloves (this is important or your hands can start burning pretty badly), wash the Jalapeños, then slice them in half long-wise, remove the stems, seeds, and the white membranes inside (that's where most of the burn comes from, pulse them in a food processor or blender until they become the consistency of a coarse salsa.  Combine the Jalapeños and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir and cook about 10 minutes. Add the gelatin, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes.  Pour the mixture into hot, sterilized jars and seal or you can pour it into freezer containers and freeze. This makes a little over 5 cups of jam.  Let sit overnight to completely set.

Try this on a piece of whole wheat toast spread with cream cheese (or yogurt cheese, or even kefir cheese).  Enjoy!