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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We live in the New Forest and have a glut of crabapples, sloes, etc this year (along with far too many home grown chillies). Wow! Wasn’t sure how it would turn out as I’ve never made jelly before and only own standard sized saucepans. It was a doddle. Have got a great ‘set’ consistency and love the beautiful sunset colouring. (And it tastes fantastic with roast pork). BTW does anyone know if I can freeze whole chillies?
Hi Synthia,
Thanks for the lovely idea for crab apples. I shall see how I feel this week-end and decide if I am going to pick any more…
Laurence
Hi Sylvia
That’s a lovely idea for the Christmas table.
hey lawrence! when i was a kid, my mom used to can crabapples in a sweet sugar syrup. i think you might even be able to leave the stem which looks quite pretty. the apples cook / crack a little bit in pressure canning process but the colour is beautiful. and, when i cooked at a hotel as a young woman, we used to use commercially canned crab apples (sweetened) as a garnish on the plates. the colour of the canned crab apples really is pretty — pinks and yellows, etc. might be worth a try to be able to set out a bowl on the Christmas table, huh? 🙂
Hello Laurence
How about crab apple chutney? You’d need to core the crabs but not skin them as you’d have to for jam.
Thank you to all of you – Gosh I love these forums, you feel instantly part of a community!
I had a look at the yahoo website and it was informative enough to reassure me completely.
I will use the pulp, of course. My mother has been making quince and apple cheese for years. It is so good that I have to have it imported from France (I am French and my parents live in France – I am in London…) and it never fails to impress my friends at dinner parties, when I serve it with cheese. I can’t wait to get the kids to pick the ripe apples tomorrow and get down to business! I will let you all know.
I am planning on plain jelly and cheese, chilli jelly and cheese. How about jam? Mixed with other fruits? Any ideas?… I have so many, the branches are bending with the weight…
Thanks again, Laurence3
Hi Raenbow
That’s good news. I love it too.
Don’t forget that you can use the leftover pulp to make cheese
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=3733
I made this last year with an ‘ornamental’ tree I guess, the fruit are pretty small! Wonderful, I gave jars for christmas in a hamper of other goodies to friends, and I have orders for this year already, now the children are back at school I will get busy this week. Fun part? Submerging the chillis!!
Hi Quackerz
That’s good news! Don’t forget that you can use the pulp to make cheese
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=3733
Hi Laurence
s the fruits are so small this sounnds like an ornamental crabapple to me. I’m pretty sure that you can eat them but not 100% there’s quite a bit of information here
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090825142716AAgutZF
Hi, I stumbled upon your website and forum as I was searching for crab apple uses. We have a crab apple tree in our garden and it never (!) occurred to me in the past (!!) that one could actually eat them…
I have recently discovered that they can be eaten cooked and, as my mother is coming to visit this week, and she is a fine cook, I thought it would be brilliant to see what we (she) could do with them – they are just ripening now… and this year, I am not going to leave them to the birds! Now, my question is: are there any varieties of crab apples that are not edible? I have heard of ornmental crab apples, read your blog comments and can’t make out whether mine are ornmental or not and whether they are safe to eat (cooked), and even whether the fact that they might just be ‘ornmental’ would make them unedible or not… They are round, very small (the size of small cherry tomatoes) and yellow and orangey yellow for the ripest ones. Can anybody help, before I poison my entire family?…
I’d love to try your crab apple chilli jelly recipe. Sound soooo yummy.