Hot crab apple and chilli jelly recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Hedgerow food, Jam Jelly and Preserves | 113 comments
Everyone seems to be talking about chillies. They are said to trigger “feel good” endorphins and are packed with vitamin A, an immune system boosting antioxidant. Chillies improve the digestive process too as they stimulate the action of the intestine and stomach.
This year I was determined to make crab apple and chilli jelly. My first attempt was so so. There was a chilli tingle when I tasted the juice. I chucked it away. My recipe from Oded Schwartz’s Preserving added 3-4 medium heat chillis. Are these desseded? I’d used three desseded ones. A long foray on the Internet offered no clues. Chop and add your chillis seemed to be the line. So when I simmered my crab apples and chillies a couple of days ago, I left the seeds in. The result was a tasty juice with just the sort of kick I wanted. Hot but not hellish.
Hot crab apple and chilli jelly recipe
Ingredients:
- 600g of crab apples washed and chopped
- 35g of medium red chilli peppers, washed and chopped with seeds in
- 1 litre of water
- White granulated sugar 500g to each 500ml of juice
Method:
- Put the chopped crab apples and chillies in a large heavy bottomed saucepan.
- Add 1 litre of water (they should just be floating). Bring tp the boil and simmer until the crab apples soften and become pulpy (lid on). This took about 45 minutes.
- Strain through a muslin square or jelly bag overnight. (Retain the pulp to make hot crab apple and chilli cheese)
- Add the juice to a large heavy bottomed pan and add the sugar. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the juice and sugar has come to the boil remove from the heat and skim well. Return to the heat and bring to a rolling boil until setting point is reached. This took 15 minutes.
- Skim and pour into warm sterilised jars. Oded Schwartz adds a chilli (stalk removed and split once lengthwise) as the jelly is setting. I really wanted to set chillies in the jelly but be warned this is a nightmare. The jelly needs to be setting firmly otherwise the chillies gently float to the surface again, and again and again. I made two jars with chillies and abandoned the rest.
- Update: Following Sarah’s tip (see comments),I added two firey dried chopped chillies to the jelly. Marvellous.
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Good luck Amanda, I hope that it works out for you!
Thank you, will try again. I did the saucer test and got the wrinkly look, but I will try again and let is boil for longer to remove some of the liquid. Will let you know results.
Amanda
Hi Amanda,
You can put jelly back in the pan if it hasn’t set. But it is better to try and get it to set first time.
The rolling boil is actually removing liquid from the jelly, if you leave it too long your jelly will be rubbery. If you do not give it enough time your jelly will be too liquid. Test for setting point by using a cold saucer for the drips (we have tips and tricks for making jelly at the bottom of this post https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=102 )
I hope that this helps.
Hi
I’ve recently made a chilli jelly using red peppers and lots of home grown red chillies (24 in total). The receipe was in Country living magazine and looked really easy. I might add I have only just started to make jellies, mainly because we have so much fruit in our garden and I hate seeing it wasted. But after all my efforts – the first was a quince jelly, I cannot get them to set. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong and if it does’nt set can you put it back in the pan and try again. I did’nt add any pectin to the quince jelly and used sugar with pectin added for the chilli jelly. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Amanda
Hi Keth,
The great colour is from the crab apples! Apparently the normal colour for crab apple jelly is this pinky amber colour. We love this jelly too. Had it with Spanish lamb tonight – excellent.
Just done the crab apple & chilli jelly.. its come through lovely and clear and a beautiful pink colour (just out of curiosity, never having done a plain crab apple jelly (although i might next year), is the pinkness from the apple or the chilli or both? what colour is normal crab apple jelly?), and has a gorgeous kick to it. Definetly making this again (and i won’t be so scared of jellies now..)
thanks for your support with all this – its muchly appreciated!!
keth
xx
Hi Kethry,
Thanks for the update. I must try the chilli jam. We have almost got through a jar of the crab aplle and chilli jelly already!.
Glad that the pillowcase worked.
Thought i’d let you know how i got on.. the jam is lovely. very spicy, but that could be to do with my choice of chillis (scotch bonnets!) rather than the recipe. Its more like a sweet chilli relish than a “jam” in the traditional sense, its not set or anything. Very nice though.
the crab apple jelly.. well. you can see the link above for the contraption i came up with to get the jelly bag (aka pillowcase) to work!!! it seems to be okay though, i’ll find out tomorrow when i boil it up – will let you know how that part goes!
thanks again!
keth
xx
Hi Keth,
Thanks for the chilli vodka recipe and the link to the chilli jam recipe. I’d love to hear how you get on with the jam.
Our recipe for chilli sherry is here. Great for adding to soup https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=98
actually, speaking of the chilli vodka.. heh.. OH decided he was going to “test” the chilli vodka – it’s been infusing for the last 3 days, in the fridge – to check the chilli spice is going into the vodka. So i let him taste a bit. oh yeah. its goingggggggg in alright.. a tiny sip (as in enough to wet my lips) made my whole mouth burn and i reached for a drink.. the OH reckons it needs a few weeks to mature, when it’ll have a stronger kick – and last for longer. I’m *not* entirely sure i want to taste it then but.. hey. If it floats his boat i ain’t arguing.. LOL. Anyway, to make it, i put 3 scotch bonnets, 2 without seeds, and 1 with seeds, 2 long red thin chillis (without seeds) and 1 fat green chilli (just to give colour difference/depth of taste) in a 250ml bottle (its intended as a gift) and topped it with vodka. very simple.
the chilli jam recipe came from here: http://down—to—earth.blogspot.com/2007/10/becoming-independent.html. You’ll have to scroll down to the bottom of the entry to see it, but its there. I’ll let you know how i get on with it. I’ve a lot of preserving/cooking to do over the weekend – onion marmalade, bread and butter pickle, sloe gin, christmas cake, christmas pudding, mincemeat (for mince pies), and possibly limoncello, not sure yet. It’s gonna be fun, that’s for sure!!
the chilli sherry sounds cool – how’dya make that?
keth
xx