My lovely friend let me pinch a whole bunch of lemons and limes off her trees on Sunday. So I thought I’d make some sweet preserves for a change. *I have managed to fill up a good part of a cupboard at my parents place with relish, chutneys and sauce… They just don’t eat it with everything like I do – So at this rate, their earthquake supply is : Chutney
Now lemon honey is a favourite of mine – and dead easy. But the jelly was a completely new experience for me. I had a bowl full of little apples left over from the last chutney I made, so it seemed a good use for these before they went soft. Apple and Lime jelly seemed like a great idea, and it is quite delicious – Though you can’t taste any apple in it. Pity the end result ended up looking like pond slime. So I thought it needed more appropriate labels than my usual traditional sort of preserving ones.
Next time I think I will leave out the end part of the recipe which said put mint leaves in the jars!
Lemon Honey recipe :
4 large lemons, or 6 med – small.
125 g butter.
2 cups sugar.
4 eggs, beaten.
1Start by sterilising clean glass jars in the oven.
2Finely grate the rind from the lemons and place in a stainless steel bowl or double boiler. Juice the lemons and add to the rind along with the butter and sugar.
3Place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and stir while heating until the butter has melted and sugar has dissolved. Add beaten egg and stir over the heat until it starts to thicken. It takes a bit longer this way than if you do it over direct heat, but you are less likely to end up with egg white through the mix. However if you do, just pour the whole mix through a sieve before bottling.
4Remove from heat and pour into clean sterilised jars. Easy as that!
This is great served on toast or scones. And absolutely amazing as cake or pie fillings… think little neenish tarts mnnnn! Because of the fresh ingredients it needs to be refrigerated, even before opening. But will keep for 4 – 6 weeks.
You can also make it in a microwave – Place all the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and heat on medium heat for 8- 10 minutes stirring after each minute. But I quite like slow cooking that is done by hand and with much love involved.
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Lime jelly recipe :
Day 1 :
1 kg apples – Crabapples or Granny smiths are good because they are tart, I just used the ones I pinched from the neighbors tree before the birds got them all
1 lemon, juiced.
Day 2 :
6 limes – Peeled with a potato peeler, avoiding as much of the white pith as possible, and juiced.
1.6kg sugar, you can use jam sugar if you want, but the apples and citrus have enough pectin to set on their own anyways so this sugar would make for a really set set sort of jelly.
1Rinse the apples and cut them coarsely into chunks, then put them and the cores and seeds, into a very large stockpot along with the juice from the lemon.
2Add the water, cover, and bring to a boil. When bubbling, reduce the heat a bit, leave the lid askew, and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until the apples are tender and cooked through.
3Line a colander with a piece of muslin cloth or clean tea towel and set it over a deep bowl, then ladle the apples and the liquid into the colander.
4Let stand overnight, or at least three hours. *No matter how tempting, do not press down at any time on the apples to extract more juice, or the jelly will go cloudy… This is not what you want!
5The following day, measure out the juice. Pour it into a stockpot and add the sugar, lime peel and juice. Bring to the boil, and stir constantly. During cooking, if any white scum rises to the surface, skim it off.
6Cook for 5-10 mins until jelly starts to thicken. At that point, lower the heat and begin testing the jelly on a chilled plate from the fridge or freezer – Spoon a small amount on and let cool slightly. Push your finger through this to test when set – When it wrinkles and holds its shape, it’s done. If not, continue to cook and re-test it at intervals a couple of mins apart.
7Pour into clean glass jars that have been sterilised in the oven. If you want you can leave some of the rind in for decoration, or else sieve it out before hand.
I adapted this recipe from an apple and mint jelly recipe I had. The original recipe calle for placing fresh, washed mint leaves in the jars before you poured in the jelly and I thought hey this must make it look good. I opted for this rather than leaving in some of the lime rind, wich by this time had cooked off to a yellowish tinge. Next time I dont think I’ll add the mint leaves to the jars, as it fully just looks like pond slime… Ah well, works with the labels I guess!
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I love love love chutney – This time I made an apple and smoked paprika one, with roasted fennel seeds. Its a really interesting flavour, and came out this gorgeous deep pinky red thanks to all that spice. The fennel seeds smell amazing when you roast them, but you really don’t need very much as the flavour could be quite strong.
Actually, I did do a tiny bit of writing for the sticky labels… Straight after lunch once the pain stuff I’ve been taking kicked in.
Here’s the recipe if you’re interested :
Hmmm… looking at the collection of chutneys I’ve made and stored so far, I think I may need to give a few more away this time!
Vin
