jelly

I just realised that I never shared my finished chili jelly - from last weekend.
Isn't it pretty there on the window sill, in the morning autumn light?

I have to say, the simmering and draining and overnight dripping, which I thought would be just too fussy, was the least difficult part.
What was really tricky, and demanded a LOT of patience, was the boiling off with the sugar - trying to get my jelly to gel.
I can't even count the number of time I plonked a spoonful of the bubbling liquid onto a saucer and into the freezer then examined it for any reason to expect that it was at setting point.

On seeing these the next morning I figured I should have kept it on the boil a little longer - it seemed to move a lot like liquid when I tilted the jar - but when I dug a spoon in it came out super gel-like =)

The other trickiest part was deciding how much chilli to use - the recipe says "about 15" with no indication at all as to what sort of chillies were used. Similarly, other recipes give a weight measurement, but without knowing what sort of chillies it isn't super helpful.
This tasted really quite spicy as a 'juice', but the addition of sugar and boiling down mellowed it out lots - I'd add more chilli next time.

I'd also halve the amount I made - that might make it easier for trial and error working out the flavours.

Let me know if you try it out! =)

xo