First accept (most graciously) the carton of elderberries handpicked somewhere near here by Roger and Tim on their excursion to the English Borders. Weigh (11 ounces), and find a recipe and ingredients to make a small amount of jelly. Thankfully, this does not need to be another rhubarb and ginger marathon, where the neighbourhood had to be canvassed for spare jars.
Get the stockpot out and wish again that I had a proper jam-making pan.
Use some of those cheap but so-useful hooks from Ikea and a wooden spoon to hang the jelly bag to drip overnight. Hope that Millie isn't too interested when alone and unsupervised. Note from the photo that the cupboard door needs wiping clean of juicy fingerprints.
Not bad - almost a litre of dark, dark juice. Resist squeezing the bag for more. Now for sugar, lemons, boiling up, and cold saucers....
And there we are: three little jars. Elderberries, apples, lemon juice and sugar. Wonky labels.
Easy. Thank you, Roger and Tim.
10 comments:
I love the labels ... very cutting edge they are. Uh Huh ! Minimal and utilitarian is tres hot at the moment. kisses to M. Millie xo Oliver
How delicious ! I defy anyone to wait long enough to notice wonky labels before they dig in .
Yes, that'll be right, Isabelle. (My friends and neighbours would laugh like drains if they saw this!)
May I never be as slurpy as a certain celebrity cook though.....
So THAT'S how you make your delicious jelly then! All looks v impressive.
If I gave you 11 ounces, we must have had nearly 2kg! Our's was boiled with a star anise, mashed and then pushed through a sieve. It's more syrupy than jelly-y but was really delicious on some grilled lamb the other night!
I bet it's yummy! And who cares what the label looks like as long as it tastes delicious. I've never tried jelly making.
Hmm, what a good gift.
Gosh, that looks just gorgeous. You get a blue ribbon for being proper. My mom used to turn a kitchen chair upside down to hang the jelly bag from all 4 legs!
Elderberries will be on my list of Must Do's next year. You know one never sees them at farmers' markets here?
I dont know how you resisted squeezing that bag, I wouldnt have been able to.
I came by to get an update on your (or was it Roger's) soybeans. How did they do? One of you was growing them this year, weren't you? Im just about to trial some chick peas - they arent the same at all of course, but anyway I was curious about the soybeans.
Best draw a veil over the labelling.... But if you squeeze a jelly bag, you'll get a lot more juice, but also cloudy jelly, not the lovely jewel-like treat that you're aiming for.
You don't buy them here either - thankfully elders are very common, and so long as you stay away from busy roadsides, thus avoiding pollution, you can pick them pretty much anywhere, and use them by themselves or combine with different fruits.
Gosh, you have a jelly bag (and know what to do with it!), I'm impressed. There's a cat here who wouldn't have been able to resist hanging from that wooden spoon.
So Ikea does have its uses!
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