Spice Tea Jelly

I decided to make a foray into jelly making on the weekend.  I have a preserves book and I was taking a gander at jelly recipes.  I decided to modify the recipe a bit.

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5 cups of water
8 cinnamon sticks
2 tbsp of allspice berries
12 cloves
6 green cardamon pods
2 chai teabags (optional)
4 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1 Package of Certo Liquid Pectin

Combine all the spice except the cardamon pods, boil in the water for about twenty minutes add the cardamon pods after ten to fifteen minutes.  If you're using the teabags then let the tea steep in the boiled spice mixture for 10 minutes (strong tea).  Combine two and 1/4 cups of tea with the lemon and pectin, bring to a boil and then add the sugar (use a large pot with lots of room because it will boil quite high).  Bring the solution to 220C and then jar as you would any jam or jelly.

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The recipe provides enough tea for two batches so I recommend making one batch without the tea and one with the tea.  It'll take a couple of days for the batch made without the teabag to take on it's full flavour and even then it's best served on its own.  The batch with the teabags has a rich dark brown color and the batch without has a pale amber color.

My mother was quite taken with the batch made with the tea, to the point that she stole a jar and wrote down the recipe. (Yes my elbow is still sore from patting myself on the back).

Try This At Home

I occasionally have bad timing.  In this case it's not my fault, really.  I decided to make bread from a recipe in the Pan Chancho Cookbook on Saturday.  The recipe is for the wonderful pain ordinaire that I've enjoyed many times at Chez Piggy and Pan Chancho.  Why was my timing bad?  I started on Saturday and the recipe takes three days to prepare.  You make the starter on Saturday, feed the starter on Sunday and bake bread on...you guessed it Monday.  Since I work Mondays that meant that Mrs. Bugbear had to bake the pain ordinaire.

The recipe also made a copious amount of dough.  Mrs Bugbear at my suggestion divided the dough and made a pizza for supper.  The pain ordinaire made for an amazing pizza crust and I heartily recommend that you try it at home!

Great Cookbook

Mrs Bugbear and I picked up a copy of The Complete Middle East Cookbook (ISBN 978-0804819824) by Tess Mallos. I highly recommend it. Its organization is kind of quirky but there are many good recipes. Mrs. Bugbear and I took it for a trial run last night, potato salad, hummus with flatbread, beans in oil, and lamb pie. Overall it was a lot of fun!