Mango and Vanilla Jam

I think some people should look for their inner child more often, it would make everyday life much more fun. My inner child is alive and kicking, I actually have to be carefull not let it take over. Because playing hide and seek in the supermarket, stops being cute when you're not a toddler anymore or using an IKEA shopping cart like a kick scooter, to race thru the aisle can be dangerous (believe me...).

Grown up life is full of advantages, but has it's share of duties aswell. I try to keep them to a minimum, but certain things just need to be done. Like filling your tax forms (just got mine today...), go to some doctors appointment or mop the floor every now and then.
At least as a child, when you did a chore, you got a reward from your parents or a teacher. But as a grown up nobody congratulates you for doing the dishes anymore or the dentist does not give you a lollypop anymore, ahhhh the injustice.

That's why sometimes, I reward myself when I did something I just had to do, though I didn't wanted. A few weeks ago, I had one of those doctor's appointment, that I went to because my mum wants me to (and I can't say no to her).
So when I was finished with it, while doing my errands, I stumbled upon a nice copper pan to make jam and decided that I've deserved it. Plus with all the jam I'm making thru the year, it's really more of an investement (yes, I'm good at convincing myself).

And for a new utensil, I thought a new recipe would be nice. I've never done jam with exotic fruits so far, I tend to do it with the fruits that are abundant around here (prunes, blackberry, cherry...). Mango was my choice of the day with a bit of vanilla.
I like the result just like this, where you can really taste the fruit. But I think it would go well with pineapple aswell, or maybe replace the vanilla with some ginger, to give it more "zing" as Nigella would say.

Mango and Vanilla Jam

4 Mangos (which made 1,2kg of flesh)
800gr Sugar
1 Vanilla Pod
1 Lemon

Peel, remove the pit and cut the mangos into cubes. Place them into a bowl with the sugar, the lemon zest and juice, mix with a spatula so the sugar is everywhere. Leave it like this for at least 2 hours.

After that rest, you should have some juice from the fruit that combines with the sugar on the bottom of the bowl. As I didn't want to have too big chunks in the jam, I used a plunging mixer to make it into smaller pieces, but not a soup either.

Pour the mixed mangos into a big pan, cut the vanilla pod into half, scrape out the seeds and add them to the mixture aswell as the pod itself.

On a medium to high heat, cook the jam for about 20 minutes, stir often. Place a plate in the fridge when you start cooking it, and check if it's done by placing some jam on the cold plate, when you tilt it, it should not be too runny.

When cooked, pour immediatly into glass jars that you have boiled, place the lid on and leave them to cool upside down.