Amy recipes for these?!
I do jars of things for gifts.
For chutney I use equal amounts of pickling vinegar and sugar and then add fruit or veg and simmer until you can make a line tot he bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon and it stays there.
A jam jar needs about one and a half mangos and a few sultanas. Leave the skin on the half mango.
Dried and reconstituted apricots and yellow pepper.
Tomatoes.
For other 'jars'
Get a jam jar and fill with:
1 whole peeled garlic clove
sliced olives, sliced mushrooms, sliced peppers, capers... see what you have in your kitchen, a sprig of rosemary looks good too.
Once full pour olive oil into the jar tot he very top and tap the jar to get any air bubbles out. It's best after a week.
Another jar.
1 piece of feta cheese
dried mixed herbs
olive oil
cut the feta into largish chunks, just smaller than a matchbox.
Pour the herbs on the counter or a chopping board and press the fetta into the herbs on all sides, put the pieces in the jar and fill with olive oil.
These are all simple and the last 2 are quite quick but look really nice in a jar.
Sometimes though, I think the cost of the materials and ingredients often comes to so much, it would actually be cheaper to just buy a gift
That depends, I tend to save jars and I have also posted on freecycle and received a box full of jars and lids. I don't care if they say 'Sainsbury's jam' on the lid.
B and M do cheap jars too, for a workplace secret Santa I got 4 small jars and made chutney and the two 'jars' listed above and a pickled egg that looked like a fish, it cost me less than the £5 budget.
It's also worth thinking about the recipient. My brother is in Cornwall which has to be the least ethnically diverse county, I'm in the west midlands where I can easily get Asian and Caribbean ingredients.
I have been known to buy the large bags of spices in one of the Indian supermarkets and packaged it to look nice, and it has actually become a tradition that I send a bag of vegi samosas which are 20p each in the local sweet centres.