The season for japonica jelly and celery pickle

Press, 18 April 1979, Page 17

The season for japonica jelly and celery pickle

Tf you have japonica (chaenorneles) in the garden, you may notice japonica apples hidden among the leaves in the autumn. The japonica bush is closely related to the quince and japonica apples may be used to add flavour to apple jelly, or used alone to make a tart, well flavoured jelly that is good served with meat, and delicious served on bread, buns, muffins or pikelets with cream cheese, or with mild Cheddar cheese. The fruits of different japonicas are different colours — some are cream, some are green, arid some are bright golden yellow. The jelly should be made from the fully developed. ripe fruit, rather than from green immature fruit. I have never seen japonica apples which soften or get sweet as they ripen, so it is a matter of watching the fruit, and using them when you think they are ripe, when the seeds.’are brown. Because the fruit doesn’t soften much as it cooks, I like to chop it up finely, or mince it before I turn it into jelly. If you have a blender you can blend the roughly chopped fruit with the water in which you are going to boil it. Ingredients: 1 kg japonica apples, minced or chopped finely 4 cups (1 litre) water about 4 cups sugar Chop or mince the japo-

nica apples, without removing the seeds. Boil the minced fruit with the water for 10 to 15 minutes. Boil the mixture briskly, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Pour the mixture through a sieve. Because the liquid is clear and the minced fruit stays fairly hard, you do not have to use a jelly bag for this jelly. Do not stir the residual pulp in the sieve. Measure the juice and add a cup of sugar for each cup .of juice. Boil briskly, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Adjust the heat so that the centre bubbles nicely, and froth and bubbles collect at the side of the pot. When this froth is solid enough, remove it with a shallow spoon and start testing the clear liquid to see whether it has cooked enough. Put teaspoon lots of jelly on a saucer by an open window. After this has stood for one to two minutes run your finger gently over the surface. When a definite skin, which wrinkles, forms on the sample, remove the pan from the heat, and remove any remaining surface froth. Pour the hot jelly into small, cleaned and heated jars. When set, cover with melted paraffin wax and cellophane tops. CRUNCHY CELERY PICKLE I like to make pickles from vegetables from our garden. Recently I found

that I wasn’t using our celery quickly enough, and the ■ outer stalks were starting to discolour and go pithy. I didn’t want to freeze it, since I buy fresh celery right through the winter, so 1 experimented with pickle recipes instead. The celery in this pickle stays very crisp and crunchy, so it is a good pickle to serve with soft textured cheese on crackers or in sandwiches. It is good with cold meat — especially poultry, and it tastes different from many other pickles, with a celery flavour that is not as strong as some pickles which include celery seed. For this pickle you do not salt the vegetables first, because celery does not go mushy and soft when boiled in vinegar. It is worth noting that you can make this pickle at any time of the year when celery is available. It doesn’t matter if you leave out the green peppers but the red peppers make the pickle look much prettier. If you can’t find cheap red peppers when you want to make this, and you haven’t frozen • peppers for winter use, buy a small can of capsicums. Drain them, slice them fairly thinly, and add them to the rest of the ingredients just before you thicken the pickle. Ingredients: 4-5 cups finely sliced celery 4 medium onions, sliced 1 green pepper, sliced

1-2 red peppers, sliced lj cups sugar I cup water 4 teaspoons salt II tablespoons mustard seed 1 tablespoon (15 ml) glacial acetic acid j-1 teaspoon turmeric 2 "tablespoons cornflour J cup water Slice the celery very finely. (Remember that a one litre measure holds four cups.) Slice the onions and seeded peppers into pieces about the same size as the clery. Pour boiling water over the mixed sliced vegetables so they are just covered, and leave them to stand in the water for ten minutes. Meanwhile, measure the. sugar, water, salt, mustard seed, glacial acetic acid and turmeric into a large saucepan. Use the smaller amount of turmeric if you merely want to intensify the colour of the vegetables.

Use the large amount if you want a bright yellow

pickle. (Use level standard measuring spoons for all measures.)

Bring the liquid to the boil, and add the drained vegetables. Bring to the boil again, stirring constantly, and boil for five minutes. Mix the cornflour and water to a paste, and stir it into the pickle.

Boil for two to three minutes more, then pour the pickle into jars which have been well washed, then heated in a low oven.

If sealing jars with plastic screw on tops, let tops stand in boiling water while pickle cooks, and screw tops onto jars while pickle is hot.

OR, since vinegar evaporates through cellophane tops, pour melted paraffin wax over the cooled or barely warm pickle before putting on cellophane tops.

For best result make sure the sides of the jar are dry and wiped clean of pickle, so that the wax will seal to jar sides.