zxcvbob wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Chopped up some Aji Limon de Peru chiles today seeds and all, bright
chrome yellow little devils, about 2 inches long. Added a couple of
chopped up yellow bells to the mix. Brought them to a boil in 2 cups
water, simmered for 15 minutes then strained through cheesecloth. Got
the exact amount of juice needed, 1.5 cups. To that I added 1.5 cups
of white vinegar. Put in one package powdered pectin and brought to a
boil and boiled 1 minute. Added all the sugar, 4 cups, and brought
back to the boil and boiled hard for 1 minute. There are 5 and
one-half pints of it sitting on a folded towel at the moment and I've
heard three of them "ping" so far. Oh yeah, BWB for 5 minutes.

From a taste of the tablespoon of jelly I didn't jar it is going to
be fairly hot. Has a pale yellow color to it, right purty as we would
say in East Texas. I've made green (jalapenos), red (various hot
chiles) and now yellow. Guess I'll have to find some purple hot chiles
next. If this is as good as the others I've made it will be good with
cream cheese and crackers, as a glaze on a ham, as a condiment for
pork or beef, and probably fairly decent on toast on a cold morning.

Life is good.

George


I never can get pepper jelly hot enough. The apricot - habanero jam I
made a few years ago is almost hot.

They sound hotter than the aji peppers I grow -- mine are about 4 to 6
inches long, and I pick them still green (yellow green). If I leave
them on the plant long enough they turn orange. The bushes get about 5
or 6 feet tall here in Southern Canada. I made Ross Reid's "Rings of
Fire" with them 2 years ago. I didn't get enough of *anything* this
year to put anything up. I'm experimenting with odd jellies this year
from whatever fruit I can get free or cheap. The can of cheap cranberry
sauce I added to the wild pears added a lot of pectin did a good job of
giving the juice a rosy color.

I should have stopped while I was driving through Oklahoma and picked
some 'simmons. I've never seen wild 'simmon trees so loaded down with
fruit. But they might not be ripe yet. There's not much that's worse
than an unripe persimmon; unless maybe it's the unripe baby red bananas
I bought at Fiesta supermarket a couple of weeks ago.

Bob


Lots of chiles are called Aji this or that, just means old in Spanish.
the Aji Limon de Peru is also known as Hot Lemons in this country.
Largest I've grown have been about 3 inches.

To make the hot jelly you have to leave the seeds and placenta in the
chile, chop them up, cover with water, simmer for about 15 minutes and
strain through cheesecloth. If you want the bits of flesh in the jelly
you need to deseed, cap, and chop some and simmer to tender stage and
then add to the clarified juice. I think I can cut the amount of the
Limons down to about a cup and go to three cups of yellow bell and it
would be just about right. Tried some of the stuff today, just plain on
a cracker and had to eat a piece of bread to cool off. Tonight I grilled
a couple of 1.5 inch thick sirloin strips and put the jelly on them as a
glaze while cooking. Came hot but not so hot you couldn't eat it.

My Dad loved wild persimmons. When we were deer hunting he always wanted
a stand next to a grove of simmons and then would spend the rest of the
day in the outhouse.

Fiesta Stores, ahh, love those things. When we visit Houston we always
make a point of stopping at the one in Channelview and go through the
ethnic section. They have an aisle for Arabic foods, another for
Mexican, etc. I buy about 100 bux worth to bring home and write down the
brand names for the Kroger store manager here. He's a neat person and
realizes that this area is full of oil field trash that have traveled
the world and want some of the stuff they ate while traveling. He now
has an ethnic aisle with foods from all over the world. I always take my
shopping and cooking class down that aisle.

George