Рецепт Red and White Wine Jelly – Cherry Cabernet and Lemon with Rosemary Chardonnay
by Barbara Kiebel

You know I love my cocktails right? I love making them as much as any dish; they are creative and fun and add something special to a get together with friends. But want to know a secret? I drink wine more. It’s true! Cocktails are special but require some planning and often special mixtures and preparation and well, wine is easy. So perfect with food and the truth is, I’ll have a glass of wine with a salad or a simple grilled burger but I only enjoy cocktails if I’m having company.

So while I’m sharing secrets? You also know how much I love to add some booze to dishes don’t you? I especially like using bourbon or rum in desserts but most often it’s wine that goes into so much of what I do on a regular basis. I’ve prepared Julia’s Beef Bourguignon which is a fabulous beef dish with red wine and I LOVED this Cranberry and Croissant Bread Pudding which included some champagne in the dessert sauce. I doubt there is a salad dressing that goes on my table that doesn’t include either red or white wine.

When I was asked if I would like to develop a recipe that included wine; I knew I was up to the task but I have to tell you; once I started thinking about it, nothing seemed unique enough; maybe because I seemed to have already been there and done that. As often happens, and I’m not kidding, I had a thought come to me in the middle of the night. I wasn’t sleeping, Tivo had something playing that I hoped would put me back to sleep and I was playing out what I had to get done the next day (I’m not alone right…please tell me I’m not!). Develop a wine recipe, cut the grass, do laundry; just a simple list and then it happened.

Somewhere in that nether world between sleep and awake I had enough consciousness to actually formulate a plan. It was as if the cherries in my fridge were calling to me, ‘Use me, use me!’ and I was helpless to disagree. I haven’t made jam or jelly for many years so I knew it would be a challenge. Not that jams or jellies are hard to make but I decided to go ‘old school’ and can my efforts. I remembered enough to know that jam and jellies develop their texture because of the pectin in fruit; I wouldn’t be using enough fruit for a good result so I was heading into somewhat uncharted territory but once I got that idea in my head there was NO stopping me.

I decided it would be unfair to not make something using a white wine; I didn’t want Chardonnay feeling lonely! I am not a Chardonnay drinker; much preferring red wines to sip but I love cooking with whites and I just knew I would have to incorporate a fresh garden herb. That decision wasn’t settled until I peeked around in my herb garden the next morning and rosemary won…adding lemon was a no brainer; the two are so compatible and I knew they would taste fantastic with the Chardonnay wine. I wasn’t wrong and it was delightful with some fresh fruit and a nice white cheddar cheese.

I have to tell you though…this? This Cabernet Sauvignon with Bing Cherries? Oh my. Served so simply with just cream cheese and my favorite crackers; nothing more was needed. I finished this right before fresh cherry season ended but I’m making it again using frozen cherries; this is going to be a standard in my pantry; come on over for a bite…and a glass of wine while you’re at it.

Many years ago when I lived in North Carolina, we had some property and a huge garden and I spent the better part of a week each summer processing all sorts of goodies for our family stores. We didn’t have berries though so my friend Janis and I would go to berry farms and pick berries for hours to use for jams. I used to have a ton of equipment but today I just do a couple of jars here and there and having equipment is a thing of the past.

I borrowed my friend Holly’s canner because I was doing a couple of dozen jars but it’s larger than I need for everyday use so after I returned it to her I thought about how I could use my stockpot for more (Merlot was sad) without purchasing specialty equipment. A stockpot, an open mesh rack used for cooling cake pans and a contraption for lifting jars out of the hot water is all that is needed. I have a special tool for lifting those jars but I also saw this video last week from Melissa Clark with the New York Times and Cathy Barrow from MrsWheelbarrow.com that I think shows how easy canning can be for the ‘casual’ canner like me!

I love making holiday food gifts; if you are a recipient pretend you didn’t see this; I assure you there will be some wine jelly in gift baskets this year!

Many thanks to Holly for loaning me her equipment and to both Rebecca and Wendy for their canning expertise…very much appreciated; you have helped unleash canning Barb!

Red and White Wine Jelly - Cherry Cabernet and Lemon with Rosemary Chardonnay

Ingredients

For the Cherry Cabernet Wine Jelly:
2 cups of bing cherries, roughly chopped
4 cups of wine
4-6 cups of sugar depending on how sweet you want it
2 pouches of liquid pectin
For the Lemon and Rosemary Chardonnay Jelly:
4 cups of wine
4-6 cups of sugar depending on how sweet you want it
2 pouches of liquid pectin
Zest and juice from one lemon
Rosemary sprig, leaves stripped and finely chopped
Preparation
To Make the Cherry Cabernet Wine:Jelly:

Put cherries and 3 and 1/2 cups of wine into a medium saucepan with sugar. Heat over medium heat until the cherries soften; 10-15 minutes.

Add liquid pectin and remainder of wine and cook slowly until thickened.

Once the pectin is thoroughly stirred in; skim off any foam; continue to cook on medium heat until jelly dropped on a plate kept in the freezer firms up and 'wrinkles' when you gently push it with a spoon.

Ladle the jelly into hot jars; leaving 1/4 inch headspace, apply seals and screw on rings and process in hot water bath for 10 minutes at sea level or 15 minutes at 5000 feet if you are using half pint jars or smaller. Increase processing time by 5 minutes if using pint jars.

Remove from pot and allow to cool. Store for up to one year in the pantry.

To Make the Lemon and Rosemary Chardonnay Jelly:

Measure 3 and 1/2 cups of wine into a pan and heat gently over medium heat.

Add 6 cups of sugar when wine warms and stir until completely dissolved. I know it sounds like a lot of sugar but it’s just right for a dry wine.

When tiny bubbles form on the bottom of the pan stir in the lemon juice, lemon zest and rosemary along with the two 3 oz pouches of liquid pectin and the remainder of the wine.

Remove from pot and allow to cool. Store for up to one year in the pantry.

Notes

Some more ideas:

Vanilla Bean Paste in white wine, 1 tsp cracked black pepper in a dark red or even cranberry liqueur in a rose. I've even thinking about bacon and wine jelly...crazy sounding but I bet it would be good!

2.0

http://www.creative-culinary.com/2012/09/red-and-white-wine-jelly-cherry-cabernet-and-lemon-with-rosemary-chardonnay/

If you are planning to pair a wine with either of these recipe ideas; I suggest that you serve the same wine to accompany them. I’ve featured the 14 Hands Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay wines in this post; they have additional wines and more information is available on their website. Their wines are a great price point and we enjoyed them with both appetizers and dinner.

Disclaimer: 14 Hands Vineyards sent me a selection of their wines and compensated my expenses

for developing these recipes; all commentary is my own.

Рецепт Red and White Wine Jelly – Cherry Cabernet and Lemon with Rosemary Chardonnay by Barbara Kiebel

Рецепт Red and White Wine Jelly – Cherry Cabernet and Lemon with Rosemary Chardonnay
by Barbara Kiebel