Monday, October 15, 2007

More canning
--Habanero Gold



Habanero Gold
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving Copyright 2006

1/3 cup finely sliced dried apricots
¾ cup white vinegar
¼ cup finely chopped red onion
¼ cup finely chopped seeded red bell pepper
¼ cup finely chopped seeded habanero peppers
3 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch (3oz) liquid pectin

1. In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine apricots and vinegar. Cover and let stand at room temperature for at least 4 hours or overnight.
2. Prepare canner, jars and lids.
3. Add red onion, red pepper and habanero peppers to apricots. Stir in sugar. Over high heat, stirring constantly, bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Stir in pectin. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and quickly skim off foam.
4. Quickly pour hot jelly into jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
5. Place jars in canner, ensuring that they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove jars, cool and store.
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I canned a few things earlier in the summer and then I took a break for a while. I enjoyed it but it's pretty easy to get carried away with canning. I'm only comfortable with canning things in a water bath and there are only so many pickles and preserves we can eat so after a few pickles and jams, I decided to cool it.

But (there's always a 'but') I had heard a lot about this recipe in canning circles so when I came across some habanero peppers, I had to make this even though I had several jars of hot pepper jelly on the shelf already. I'm glad I did since this was definitely deserving of the hype and it wasn't really as hot as I thought it would be. The apricots added nice flavor - much better than just sugar and peppers.

I didn't do any cooking this weekend. I didn't miss it either. I need a break every once and a while. I managed to catch up the recipe archives. I was falling way behind. Dial-up sucks! I'm going to upgrade to something faster.

My cookbook guy was back at the auction. Yay! I wasn't going to give up on him until his stand was empty but he still had merchandise sitting there even though he was MIA 3 or 4 weeks in a row. He said he had vehicle trouble. He warned me that next week he won't be there - he'll be going to a prison to do ministry work. He laughed and said 'I'll be in prison' and I said that I thought maybe that's where he's been the past few weeks lol.

Blast From The Past: Balsamic Red Pepper Jelly from July 2007. That was equally as good as today's recipe, I thought. And with using a whole jalapeno, seeds and all, it had the same kick as the habaneros which I seeded. I don't think I could chose one over the other.

Question of the Day: Any ideas on what I can do with all of this hot pepper jelly?

6 comments:

Randi said...

xmas gifts!! Red pepper jelly poured over a bar of cream cheese is very popular around these parts during the holiday season!!

Anonymous said...

Here's a great snack - wheat thins with cream cheese and pepper jelly on top. We go through a jar of it in nothing flat. And we have to buy ours!

Jan

Anonymous said...

another vote for the cream cheese with pepper jelly.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

DancesInGarden said...

Use it to dip your chicken or pork in instead of plum sauce.

Anonymous said...

.....or, use it as a glaze for baked chicken, pork, ham, etc.?

Jan

Anonymous said...

Too late for these jars, but Cooks Country has an easy recipe for Sweet and Sour Sauce that they developed for chicken nuggets or chicken fingers. I used apple cider jelly which made it kind of weird, but as written I'm sure it is good :)

Sweet and Sour Sauce
From Cook's Country | October/November 2010

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
White wine vinegar and soy sauce provided a nice sour contrast to sweet jelly without overpowering any of the other flavors. Some tasters liked a little extra spice in their Sweet and Sour Sauce, so we found we could substitute hot pepper jelly for apple or apricot.

MAKES 3/4 CUP

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup apple jelly, apricot jelly, or hot pepper jelly
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
pinch ground ginger
pinch cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Whisk jelly, vinegar, soy, garlic powder, ginger, and cayenne in medium bowl until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.