Low-Sugar Nectarine Preserve // Nectarine Murabba
Pickling, drying, making preserves and jams or murabbo/chundo as we Gujaratis called it, are some traditional style of preserving seasonal produce that I have come across most commonly. Murabba is a sweet preserve made predominantly of seasonal unripe summer mangoes.
I too for the love of seemingly quickly ending summer wanted to preserve it in a bottle. Instead of mangoes as they use back home, I decided to combine the Murabbo making method that mom uses, on bright summer California grown produce of nectarines.
First step is to let the fruit - nectarines in our case, macerate in sugar overnight. If I followed mom's recipe to the T, the fruit would then be 'sun-cooked' for a few days until the fruit, pectin and sugar have combined and cooked well. But due to lack of patience, and consistent weather, we will cook this on the stovetop!
The best thing here is the use of less sugar - I am using only 30% sugar to fruit ratio (by weight) to make this preserve, so it’s lowest you can probably go. But it still tastes wonderful, keeping the fruit in limelight.
This low-sugar Nectarine Preserve or Nectarine Murabba goes well on toast/bread, you can it spoon over yogurt or smoothie bowl, cake fillings, and can be used in a sweet-savory appetizer by smearing over goat cheese on a crostini and finishing with finely chopped basil - so good!
NECTARINE MURABBA // LOW-SUGAR NECTARINE PRESERVE
fills 2 0.25 L mold weck jars
YOU WILL NEED
1.17 kg diced nectarines (5-6 nectarines)
350 gm granulated white sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
WHITE NECTARINES
NECTARINES MACERATING IN SUGAR OVERNIGHT
NECTARINE MURABBA/PRESERVE FULLY SET
METHOD
Wash and dry about 5-6 nectarines, dice them bite sized while discarding the pit. Do NOT peel the nectarines; their skin contains pectin which will help set the preserve/murabba. Weigh them to about 1.17 kgs. Transfer the diced nectarine to a large bowl. Add 350 gms sugar to it and mix well. Leave it overnight.
Give the macerate mixture a good stir and place it in a large dutch oven/non-reactive cooking pot over medium-high heat. Bring it to boil by stirring frequently and ensure the fruit doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
You will quickly see foam and impurities floating - skim them off.
Continue cooking and stirring occasionally until the Nectarine Murabba reaches setting point (see SETTING POINT notes below)
Add the lemon juice and stir to combine. Turn off heat. Do not skip this step - lemon juice helps with preservation esp. since this nectarine preserve is low in sugar. It also brightens up the flavor and doubles as a color protectant.
Transfer the Nectarine Murabba to clean glass jars and refrigerate.
SETTING POINT
Option #1 - Place a small plate or bowl (steel or aluminum) in the freezer. As the preserve starts to reduce, place a small quantity on the chilled plate/bowl and let it cool. When you push your finger through it, it should wrinkle up and change shape, not return back to original form. See my video showing how-to.
Option #2 - Take a spatula full of jam and tilt it vertically. The preserve should not run off quickly and completely. There is should be some that stays stuck on the spatula and bits that take a while to drip. You can check the video to see how the final product should look like.
INGREDIENT RATIOS
You can scale up or scale down the amount of Nectarine Preserve you make by knowing the exact sugar to fruit ratios and other proportions.
Sugar to fruit ratio - This recipe requires 30 grams of granulated white sugar for every 100 grams of chopped fruit. There you have it - a template for making practically any low-fruit stone fruit preserve.
Lemon juice - I use 2 tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice per 5 stone fruits.
Final quantity - 5 nectarines filled up two 0.25 L weck jars. So adjust the fruit according to your needs.
NECTARINE MURABBA // LOW-SUGAR NECTARINE PRESERVE