Have you noticed the new looks of my blog?
Do you like it?
The new “autumn” look so to speak and
what would suit it better than an autumnal recipe?
I picked the worst possible weather to harvest some grapes (uva americana or American grape, in Italy it is also called uva fragola as it has a taste reminiscent of strawberries, in Switzerland we also use a not so friendly name which I will not divulge, only on special request) at my friends’ garden. I got soaked as it was raining so hard and then I had to listen to some lovely remarks such as „there is no bad weather, there is only unsuitable cloths“ – thank you very much and I did wear suitable cloths but there is a limit to what anything or anybody can take.
I currently use a Juice Extractor
And I was severely tempted to drink the juice as it had a heavenly taste of honey as well.
Lovely purple grapes together with
my home grown chillies
and some more ingredients will make some really nice gelée.
I took out last year’s grape gelée recipe and my notes and decided to cook it in two different ways as it was not really satisfied with last year’s results: one with sugar and separate pectin and one with gelling sugar.
I was far happier with the first batch as it turned out to have the desired consistency. Sorry, of course I forgot to take pictures of the cooking process again! But here is the recipe:
Late Bloomers Grape Gelée Recipe
Yield
8 x 2 dl jars
Ingredients
2 l grape juice (= 5 kg grapes)
2 limes, juice and zest
1 vanilla pod and 2 TS brown rum *
5 cm cinnamon
3 cardamom pods, slightly crushed
pinch of salt
2 fresh chillies
75 – 80 g pectin
1.5 – 1.7 kg sugar
* I keep my vanilla pods from El Vanillo in a bottle filled with 5 – 6 cm of brown rum, thus keeping the pods moist and the rum heavenly flavoured.
Preparation
Prepare your jars and lids: either put them in the dishwasher or steamer to sterilise. I recommend using new lids when reusing glass jars.
Method
Thoroughly wash grapes and put the berries in a juice extractor.
Place the pomace in a sieve to collect the extra juice.
Put the juice in a big pot on the stove. Heat grape juice to a boil and pass juice through sieve again.
Add limes, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, chillies and sea salt. Mix it with organic pectin (made from organic apples, you will find it at all major distributors these days) and bring it to a full boil.
When the grape-pectin mix is happily bubbling, add the sugar and boil for another 5 minutes. Add brown rum just before filling your hot jars.
Testing for „jell“ (thickness): use a cold metal tablespoon (either put it in the freezer for 5 minutes or keep it in a glass of ice water), take half a spoonful of the mixture and let it cool to room temperature. If it thickens to the consistency I want, then it is ready for filling the jars.
If not, add some more pectin and bring it to the boil for another minute.
Fill your jars and sterilise in steamer or in the boiling water canner.
Some physics: is it not amazing that altitude plays an important role in sterilising your jars? The higher you live the longer it takes. This reminds me of our early family holidays when we boiled tea water on top of a mountain: it took ages and I never understood why.
I put the jars in the steamer for 10 minutes at 100° C. They should keep for ages, I allow them 1 year; once open, keep them in the fridge.
I love my Weck jars
This jelly is divine eaten by the spoonful; it is heaven with bread and butter. And try it in a sauce with your red meat roast and tell me of your experiences. Or serve it with your venison in a halved boiled apple or pear.
Do you have some recipes you would like to share?
What do you do with your home grown produce?
Eat it on the spot, preserve it, freeze or dry it?
Comments 45
Consider this the special request to give us the Swiss name for the grapes!
If only I had grapes to harvest, as I have the chillies.
@lucylastica1 I had my suspicions you would ask for it. Yes, of course, it is my aim to please: Katzesaicher. Figure it out!
We cannot have it all, can we? You need friends who grow them! A win-win situation as they have too much and you do them a favour, plus you have organic produce at low costs (a share of the finished product!).
Barbara,
I love the look of your site. It is awesome!
Thanks for the recipe. I will try it out with my wife. I like the idea of a hint of spicy in a grape jelly.
I need to get by here more often.
Again. Awesome look and feel.
Ralph
@rdopping Hi Ralph,
Wonderful compliments, thank you so much!
Tell you a secret: I do not really like jams and jellys, too sweet for my taste, this is the reason I started experimenting with spices and spicyness. And cardamom is good for so many other things as well (digestion), in Asia they recommend chewing a cardamom pod for killing the urge to smoke!
By all means, come more often to my place, always welcome. There is always a seat at my table and plenty of food and wine!
Have a great day, Barbara
Hey Barbara,
A little spice is always nice. My mother is always whipping up some jam, so I’ll have to send this her way. I call it jelly, ’cause she won’t know what Gelée is ;)-
Site looks great, but you know I’m partial to a clean, spartan look.
@Craig McBreen Hey Craig,
A poet! Never underrate mothers, dangerous grounds here! Tell your mother you found this jelly recipe in a blog of a German speaking Swiss, using French words in her recipes and writing in English. How’s that?
Thanks, appreciate you like the new look, followed your advice as well and there are less clicks!
a. I love the new look of your blog. (I loved the old look too) You have great taste.
b. I LOVE the chillies – Oh, I want to grow them too!
Your recipe sounds yum. Takes me back to the time when certain days would be set aside at home to make the preserves, pickles, jams and marinated-and-sun-dried vegetables for storing in tins and deep-frying whenever we wanted as accompaniments to meals. I no longer make any of these – but the memories of those days is unforgettable – and it is a mental happy place for me.
My Granma was a super cook and could use anything. She even made stuff with the peels of veg/fruits. So was my Mom. Hardly surprising that I just love to read recipes (and tweak them for my own convenience :D). I saw some really gorgeous peaches at the market today and thought of you, thinking of what you might have done with those.
Thanks for such a delightful post, Barbara. Currently I think I am an eat it on the spot or cook and eat type 😀
@Vidya Sury Good morning, Vidya! For us in Europe it is early morning whilst you have been up for hours, hope, you had a happy day so far.
Thank you so much for your lovely message, heartwarming like a bear hug as always.
My daughter does the same your Granma did: she roasts potato peels, amazingly yummy taste. I have a huge pot of tomato sauce (vegan and gluten-free) cheerily bubbling away, it is tomato season and I love to have some bottles ready, it is a time saver and I can either use them “au naturel” or add some more vegetables or minced meat to it.
Peaches fresh from the market: eat one (two, three, I am not counting) on the spot, peach chutney, puree and freeze for later maybe for some spicy ice cream with cardamom, pistacchio nuts and chillies? I have become more economical lately: I puree ripe fruit as they need processing right away, and ripe fruit on the point of turning overripe are best in flavour, no?
I am showing this to my mom! She loves the little bit of spice in everything and we have home grown green chilies! We just used them for a chilly pickle!
@Hajra Hi, Hajra, good morning to you! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe – feel honoured! The grape gelée is really very sweet, I’d add less sugar but the same amount of pectin, and some more spices (cardamom and maybe even some coriander seeds to juxtapose the flavours of vanilla and cinnamon) and chillies. What else do you use your chillies for? I am always happy to learn something new!
@Late_Bloomers We eat them raw… 🙂
@Hajra Haha, learnt something new! Raw is fine depending on the capsaicin (is that the word) or level of spicyness contained.
@Late_Bloomers Well for my mum and I, the spicier the better! Man, I am too used to too much spice….
@Hajra LOL, only in food?
@Late_Bloomers Almost everywhere! 😉
@Late_Bloomers P.S. Love the new look of the blog!
@Hajra Love you! And I have not forgotten your shoe size, will have a look around!
You have such a wonderful blog Barbara!
Oh yes…I love that recipe, though have tried out a different version that my Mom used to make, but that was long time back when Mom was around. Haven’t really got down to making anything ever since she passed away.
I wish we had the space to grow our own chilies, which look so red and fresh in this picture, so do the yummy grapes! My kids would’ve just loved eating all of them up. 🙂 And you surely look like an awesome cook as I can make out from the recipe you shared here. :)Thanks for sharing and looking forward to reading more of such goodies here. 🙂
@Harleena Singh Good morning, Harleena!
Lovely to see you here, come and join us at the table, there is always enough food and drinks, lovely conversation and happy laughter to share!
Thank you so much for your lovely message. So kind of you and I really appreciate it. Is this not a blogger’s reward for all the love poured into our posts?
Is it not natural that our mothers influence and shape us? My mom does not like too much sugar and so do I. Honestly, I could do with less sugar in the grape gelée as well!
It does not take much space to grow your own chillies, my red ones are in a rather small pot. I have another chili pot with Thai chillies, they have grown to 2 meters, rather impressive. They are still green and I wait for them to turn red before harvesting. Big question then: dry, freeze or process them?
Looking forward to seeing you here and at your place, I am very impressed with your post “love teacher”, it has a permanent place in my memory (and heart)!
@Late_Bloomers – Thanks so much for the invitation Barbara! I wish I was living nearby to run across. 🙂
I think our Mom’s were truly special in all aspects and we learnt a great deal from them. Treasure the moments spent with her as I know how it feels to not have one around now.
You are absolutely right, and I think I should start doing just that and grow my own chilies and a few other herbs too. I just have to be careful that my dog doesn’t get after them though!
Glad you liked the post and nice that we connected. Hope to see you over at my blog and of course, I would stop by too. 🙂
@Harleena Singh Running across – what a lovely idea, yes, this would be great as I love having company, cooking for family and friends!
I know I take my mom for granted, I should really treasure the moments with her (long moments I tell you as she lives in the same building!).
My dog Chica will not eat any of my plants, but it really depends on the dog’s character. We used to have a dog and he loved curries, the spicier the better, and he would do roll-overs for them!
I am glad we are connected on our blogs as well, I always looked (and will look, of course) forward to your Friday tweets, they are so cheerful and “tasty”. And I am sometimes not so consistent in replying … 🙂
Sounds Yummy…
@CarlyAlyssaThorne Thanks, Carly, have just been visiting your site and left a comment, lovely post and I adore the baby picture!
@Late_Bloomers @CarlyAlyssaThorne Thanks…
We should meet one of these days so I can taste such a yummy juice. I love your blog new look
@ffab Hi, Fabrizio! Definitely YES to meeting, maybe sooner than thought? I will send you DM. Thanks, I am very happy as so far everybody likes the new look.
My mouth is watering!!! The site looks absolutely wonderful … well done to you and Kittie.
@LopezMichelle Good afternoon to you, Michelle! Early yet here in Europe but you will be preparing for your weekend now! Thank you so much, Kittie Walker has done a wonderful job and my daughter was responsible for the original design, kudos to her.
Gosh, Barbara, you make me hungry and wish for about 20 hours/week to go back to gardening and cooking! Once upon a time, before 5 kid sand two dogs, I too was a gardener and had my own veggies and herbs. I too made jellies and gelees. I guess nothing like having something to look forward to! Give me 11 years before we are kid-free! 😉
@MoreInMedia Hi, Dorien! And do you not have another day job as well? It is crazy how many things we juggle! There is a time for everything and even if you have to wait another 11 years … Thanks so much for stopping by, always appreciated! Have a wonderful Friday and a relaxing weekend (well, with 5 kids and 2 dogs)!
This reminds me of my childhood. My parents and grandparents always cultivated gardens and loved to preserve food! You made me hungry and nostalgic!
@MarthaGiffen Hi, Martha, yes, it reminds me of my childhood as well. It is highly meditative for me, both the gardening (maybe not in rain) and the cooking, and I have found that I can only cook when I am calm and not under time pressure, so I have to create that atmosphere and in the end I am sitting here looking at my filled jars and start writing.
What a lovely yummy chile plant
@SolidHappiness Hi, Kate, a very good morning to you! You should see it now: I harvested most of the red chillies but it still has green ones coming up so there might be a second harvest! Truly blessed! Have a great Friday!
It looks really yummy! Would love to taste it…
@JSJ2020 A lovely Sunday to you, Muriel, I got back from a 2 week holiday in Tuscany last night, a holiday which was also a (much needed) social media blackout, my heart is still in Massa Marittima and my head is trying to adapt to normalcy (or whatever you want to call it)!
I took some of my gelées to Italy and made everybody taste it, everybody loved it (it partners nicely with pecorino stagionato) but I am already planning a different recipe for next year with fresh ginger and more chillies, and less vanilla …
I will be catching up with your posts and PBAU in the following days!
How I adore grape jelly. i think I should take your example and make some! I have often heard to that saying about being inappropriately dressed for the weather! But I envy you for being able to harvest the grapes!
@MeetaWFLH Good morning, Meeta! I enjoyed a two weeks’ social media blackout in Southern Tuscany, hence my late reply! Tanking sun for the grey months to come, playing on the beach with Chica, my dog, throwing sticks into the sea for hours and swimming in amazingly warm water, going to the market and buying lovely fresh produce: moscato grapes and datterini tomatoes, wonderfully sweet white onions and those shining deep red onions with which you could dye textiles judging from my fingers’ state after slicing them for some lovely sugo!
Oh, harvesting the grapes in rain will stay eternally in my memory and the feeling of the water finding its way to the last dry spot on my body …
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Strawberry-like grapes?! Heaven! Two of my favorite fruits. =) I must try those AND your grape jelly. =) I’ve been eating too many peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches, so I definitely need more variety. You are truly an expert with recipes. I would never have thought to include chilies!
@Samantha Bangayan Is it not amazing what nature gives us so freely, I have to admit I never liked this kind of grape as a child, the peel was too thick and sour for my taste and then the pips … but the juice is sheer paradise on your palate! I found another juice extractor that works with heat and I am looking forward to next year to try it out. Thanks, Sam, my dear friend, for your lovely compliment, this is our blogger’s award!
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@Entrepreneurs Blog Hi, Chris, thank you for stopping by and writing such a lovely comment.
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