Last year when making wild garlic oil to use the last of the decent leaves from my garden it occured to me that a jelly could be a reasonable alternative way of preserving. After all mint is only available in summer but people who like a mint taste with their lamb in winter buy mint jelly (or sauce). So why not preserve other herbs in an apple jelly?
I thought I would do an experiment with the last of my decent wild garlic leaves. I took a kilo of bramleys chopped them and boiled them in a pan with a shallow amount of water until they were mushy. I then drained the lot through a muslin covered colander letting it drip for 6 hours. This yielded a bit more than half a litre of apple liquid. I then took sugar (rule of thumb: 800 g sugar for every litre of liquid) and dissolved it into the apple liquid then boiled it until it reached 105 °C. Meanwhile I took about 100 g of wild garlic leaves and made them into a paste in a food processor. I then mixed the wild garlic through the apple/sugar mix and then poured the mix into sterilised jars.
I am not an expert with preserves so need to try a few variations next time round. However the end result is a rather sweet, garlicy, chivey tasting jelly. Something to have in small quantities with certain meat dishes.
http://menomamauk.blog.co.uk
2008-05-19 @ 00:08