I get a lot of flack from fancy food types about my love of pepper jelly. That condiment forever relegated to the 1960’s poured over cream cheese and served on crackers as atomic age chic. And it’s true that the myriad insipid versions out there are about as exciting as a Nixon speech.<\/p>\n
When you take control of the formula in your own kitchen, you can use a healthy dose of chiles to resurrect it from the mundane into all sorts of creative permutations. Ginger and lemon with Thai chiles, Habanero with rum, or good old jalapeno with honey and lime and enough kick that you remember you’re eating chiles instead of green food colouring. Want some garlic in there? Go for it. How about cranberries? Cracked black peppercorns? Sure thing. I once knew a farmer’s market stall that had over a hundred variations on the theme and they always had a queue. There really is no limit once you get the basics down.<\/p>\n
If you wear a beehive hairdo and host retro cocktail parties, knock yourself out with the cream cheese treatment but for my chile’s worth, I use it melted into sauteed carrots, spread thin on sandwiches stuffed with Asian ingredients, painted onto grilled pineapple, and even let the carnivores spread it on their hamburger buns and dunk their chicken wings into the stuff. Reheated and thinned slightly it serves as a dip for everything from pot stickers to spanikopita without having to spend an extra dime on those fancy jars at the market. The time it sits in ‘jelly’ form seems to beautifully meld the tastes together for those of you wondering why you’d make a jelly only to remelt it later.<\/p>\n
When you surf the interwebs for recipes you get all manner of homespun advice lingering from those old days in the back of lifestyle magazines. Most of that can be dismissed as mundane rehashing of pale versions. What you need is a basic formula to get going and then let your imaginations and heat tolerances run wild. You also don’t need to make giant vats of this stuff like most recipes out there will yield. I suspect a lack of heat adventure has made for milder and larger batches over the years.<\/p>\n
I crank the chile volume up on mine and make two small 250ml (pint) jars at a go. That’s plenty to last me a month or two and no big risk for new flavour trials. It also means you’re not lugging giant kettles and canning gear out of the cupboard when you get a new idea. A small saucepan, a blender, ten minutes and you’re done.<\/p>\n
Basic (Chile) Pepper Jelly<\/strong> 1 large red or orange bell pepper, stemmed and cored * Be careful with the hottest specimens. Those habaneros are delicious but can hurt you. Remember it’s “up to” half a cup, not the full measure by mandate, e.g. in my habanero versions, I use two de-seeded chiles and get more kick than normal humans can stand (I have cast iron taste buds). Winter jalapenos, by contrast, sometimes barely make a blip on my heat radar with nearly a cup packed into the blend. Taste and adjust.<\/em><\/p>\n Yield: 2 x 250ml jars<\/em><\/p>\n Prep the bell pepper by peeling most of the skin with a vegetable peeler. This tough skin has a hard time breaking down and should be mostly removed. Prep the hot chiles to your heat preference remembering that the internal ribs and seeds contain more heat than the flesh.*<\/p>\n *Remove or retain as you see fit but I generally use the whole chile since my uber-blender will make short work of seeds and I’ve got a good handle on the heat levels most yield, e.g. one whole habanero usually gives me about as much heat as three that have had the seeds and ribs removed. But that’s not to say you might want more flesh and less heat for flavour reasons. Your mileage will vary with your chile supply and your mood.<\/em><\/p>\n Blend the bell pepper, hot chiles, vinegar, citrus juice, and salt on high for at least a minute. If your blender isn’t quite up to task you may wish to pour this mixture through a fine strainer afterwards.<\/p>\n Place pectin, sugar, and pepper mix into a two-quart saucepan set on medium-high heat. Bring just to a boil adding tablespoons of water if necessary to prevent scorching as the sugar melts and the mix becomes a smooth consistency. The temperature of the mix must reach boiling for at least one minute to activate the pectin but reduce the heat to low immediately afterwards and continue to simmer for five minutes, skimming off any foam that rises to the top.<\/p>\n Fill two 250ml jars with boiling water and allow to stand for two minutes. Empty and fill with the hot jelly mixture. Allow to cool on the counter for two hours before sealing with non-metallic lids and refrigerating. Good for up to two months in my experience but is usually devoured in just a few weeks.<\/p>\n Note: For future flavour experiments, just remember how to activate the pectin, i.e. with boiling heat for at least a minute and a ratio of one cup of sugar to roughly double the volume of fruit. Your experimental flavours can replace some of the vinegar and\/or bell pepper and of course you can vary the type of chiles with the seasons. I generally avoid longer cooking\/simmering times to preserve more of the flavours I’m adding. Play around with various acids in place of the plain vinegar too. Perhaps try cider or wine vinegar or replace some with say, grapefruit juice. Fair warning though – go gently with flavours like ginger, mustard, or horseradish that can build significantly over time in contact with the jelly.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>More Spork Here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I get a lot of flack from fancy food types about my love of pepper jelly. That condiment forever relegated to the 1960’s poured over cream cheese and served on crackers as atomic age chic. And it’s true that the myriad insipid versions out there are about as exciting as a Nixon speech. When you … Read More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[488,72,75,82,83,487,485],"class_list":["post-598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cook","category-garden","tag-chile-jelly","tag-chiles","tag-hot","tag-jelly","tag-pepper","tag-pepper-jam","tag-pepper-jelly","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3139,"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions\/3139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/northfarthing.ca\/spork\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n(Upon which you can tinker with infinite permutations – see note below)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nup to 1\/2 cup of hot chiles, stemmed (e.g. Jalapeno, Thai red, or Habanero*)
\n3\/4 cup white vinegar
\njuice of 1\/2 lime or lemon
\n1\/2 teaspoon sea salt
\n1\/2 package (~30 g) fruit pectin
\n1 cup white sugar<\/p>\n