This sweet and savoury bacon jam was inspired by a discussion on a Facebook food page. I never thought of savoury jam, I have also associated jam with fruits. The past few weeks I have been making some fruit jams and marmalades for Christmas, this bacon and tomato jam with cocoa powder will add to that jam collection for this year!

I was surprised how a small teaspoon of the cocoa powder could lift the flavour of the jam to a different level! I can imagine this jam will work wonder in sandwiches....yum..I think they are really delicious..a bit smokey, slightly sweet, and a hint of sourness...

Ingredients: (make large 2 jars)

1. 300g smoked bacon (roughly cut into chunks)
2. 200g carrot (finely diced)
3. 2 shallots (finely diced)
4. 1 bulb of garlic (finely diced)
5. 2-3 tbsp olive oil
6. 500g cherry tomatoes (whole)
7. 1/3 cup unrefined can sugar
8. 4 generous tbsp golden syrup
9. 1 tbsp cinnamon powder (could be nice with smoked paprika)
10. 1 red chilli (cut into rings with seeds)
11. Juice of 1 lemon
12. Zest of 1/2 lemon
13. 1 tsp cocoa powder

Firstly, heat the oil in a pot, gently fry the shallots, and garlic until soft and colourless. Add the bacon pieces and fry the bacon until nicely caramelised.

Add the cherry tomatoes and stir well and cook it lid on until the tomatoes almost disintegrated. Add the golden syrup, sugar, carrots, cinnamon powder, zest of lemon, and lemon juice. Then cook the mixture under medium heat until the sauce is lightly darken and thicken. Finally stir in the cocoa powder and mix it well very well.

Store the bacon and tomato jam in sterile jam jars. Seal immediately and label them when cooled.