Home Grown Chilli and Apple Jelly

This jelly is perfect for this time of year and stores up the sun ripened goodness of the apples and chillies for the cold winter days.
  It's perfect served with cheese or cold meats, can be added to marinades for stir fried meats...even smother sausages with it before frying or baking them to give a spicy caramelized coating.
  It can be as mild or as hot as you like, depending on the type of chili you've grown and the number you put in.


Chili and apple jelly.

4-5 pounds of prepared windfall apples (i.e the bad bits cut off and the good bits roughly quartered)

8 chillies chopped (I use 8 medium hot chillies but if you use mild chillies you will get a mild jelly and hot chillies will give a hot jelly) (you will need an extra 6 chillies later on)

1litre of water

Put the above ingredients in either a slow cooker or a big jam pan and cover. simmer this until the apple is totally mushy.

Strain this pulp through a jelly bag for a few hours or overnight

Measure the strained liquid.

For every pint of liquid you will need 1/2 pound of sugar

Add the sugar and the liquid to a clean jam pan and place over a low heat, stir thoroughly and leave till the sugar is totally dissolved

Prepare six chillies by removing the green top and cleaning the seeds from the insides. Make sure you wear rubber gloves for this. Then very thinly slice the chillies.

Increase the heat under the jam pan and boil rapidly until setting point is reached.

Remove from the heat and add the sliced chillies. stir in well and ladle into sterilised jars. firmly put on sterilised lids

Boiling water bottle for 10 mins.

Label and enjoy