Fiona Egan of Cloughan Farm and Cookery School in Abbeyshrule talks about jam and jelly making with Joe Finnegan on Monday's Joe Finnegan Show. Listen to the interview in full and see Fiona's special Cloughan Farm Crab Apple Jelly recipe below:
RECIPE: Cloughan Farm Crab Apple Jelly
Ingredients: Makes 4x 330g pots
2kg crab apples, halved and roughly chopped
Bunch of fresh Mint or Lemon Balm
Granulated or caster sugar ( 450g sugar per 600ml apple juice).
Method:
Wash the apples, halve and roughly chop. Add to a large heave base saucepan along with your fresh herbs and cover apples almost to the top with cold water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer, cook until fruit is reduced to a pulp.
While your apples are stewing set the jelly bag or spotlessly clean white pillowcase into a basin or large saucepan leaving the neck wide open.
Once the apples have turned to a pulp, switch off heat and gentle spoon into the bag. Tie a strong piece of string around the top of the bag and suspend over the basin. Be careful at this stage not to squeeze the bag as you don’t want to end up with cloudy jelly. Allow the bag to hang over night to extract all the juice.
Before you start to make the jelly, place a saucer into the fridge.
Measure the juice into a clean saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, add the correct amount of sugar and stir until dissolved. Bring back to a rolling boil and boil rapidly for 15 minutes. To test if the jam is set. lower the heat and drop a teaspoon of the hot jelly on to the chilled saucer. Return the saucer to the fridge for 5 minutes. Remove the plate from the fridge once again and tilted slightly. If the jelly runs down the side of the plate whiteout breaking its seal it has formed you have reached setting point. If not just simply bring the saucepan back to the boil for 5 more minutes or until setting point is achieved.
Using a jug, pour the jelly into warm sterilized jars. Cover with a lid and remove any dribbles from the outside of the pot with a clean damp cloth.
Best to label while pots are still warm.
Delicious served with freshly baked scones or as a filling for a cream & jelly sponge cake to name but a few.
