Habañero Gold

First harvest is high season for the home canner, but the urge to preserve first resurfaces in spring. Spring vegetables are at their most tender, and many of them, from spring peas to green beans can be blanched and flash-frozen. Early and hothouse cucumbers may not take well to hot- or cold-pack pickling, but a batch of fresh pickles enlivens many a lunchtime relish tray. There may even be enough of a variety of organic produce at the farmer's market to can a popular batch of giardiniera. Peppers, especially chiles, are widely available year round. New Mexico's famous green chiles adorn the regional specialty green chile cheeseburger. Serve your burger with a side of pico de gallo. Jalapeños are a key ingredient in a hot and tart Cuban-inspired chicken soup. With so many green chiles in the kitchen, there is temptation, and time, to pickle some jalapeños.

One of the favorite ways to preserve peppers is to make pepper jelly. Pepper jelly is one of the stars in the canning and preserving pavilion at the county fair. Ribbons adorn jars of robust red pepper jelly and vegetal green pepper jelly. These savory jellies are not for everyone, but non-initiates who try them on a cracker with a smear of queso blanco or a triangle of cheddar often find themselves converted on the spot.

 

And then there are hot pepper jellies: savory jellies made with chiles. It surprises some that chiles take well to canning, but they do. Canning focuses flavor but sometimes flattens it out. With hot peppers, the heat will be somewhat mellowed by processing, but it will also be more concentrated. So the key to a successful hot pepper jelly is juxtaposition: though hot pepper jellies whose flavors focus on the heat from the peppers do exist, hot pepper jellies perform best when that heat is cushioned against a sweet or savory flavor.

 

Habañero Gold may sound like a tequila, but it's not. It's a hot pepper jelly made with habañeros, the tiny Mexican peppers which register 100,000 – 350,00 on the Scoville scale when raw. (To learn more about the Scoville scale, click here). Upon cooking, habañeros mellow while focusing their heat. This makes them ideal for canning, especially when contrasted against the lush flavor of apricots. This jelly is easy and satisfying to make, beautiful to look at shimmering red-flecked and golden in jars, and delicious to eat. Habañero peppers are widely available in supermarkets and specialty grocers including green markets, the farmer's market, and Latin grocers. However, if you want to mix up the flavors and the colors of this jelly, use a mixture of habañero and scotch bonnet peppers. Whatever mix of peppers you use, don't skip using the gloves!

 

Habañero Gold

It is essential to follow safe canning practices. For instructions on safe canning, click here: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html, or here: http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started.aspx.

 

1/2 pound dried apricots

3/4 cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon silver or reposado tequila

1 small red onion

1 medium red bell pepper

1/2 pound habañero peppers

3 cups granulated sugar

1 1.75 ounce box powdered pectin

 

Four hours before canning

1. Place the dried apricots onto a clean cutting board reserved for fruits and vegetables and use a small, sharp knife to cut the apricots into thin ribbons. Cut across the ribbons to form tiny dice.
2. Tightly pack the diced apricots into a measuring cup to equal 1/2 cup. Reserve extra apricots if any for a second batch of jelly or for apricot bars.
3. Measure the vinegar and the tequila into a large non-reactive saucepan. Swirl the mixture to combine.
4. Add the measured, diced apricots to the vinegar-tequila mixture. Use a wire whisk to gently stir the mixture so that the apricots separate and float out into the mixture. Place the lid on the pan and let the mixture macerate, covered, for four hours.
5. While the apricots are macerating, peel the onion and remove the root and stem ends. Place the onion on a clean cutting board reserved for vegetables. Halve the onion from root to stem; halve each half. Cut each quarter into thin crescents. Cut across the crescents to form dice. Measure 1/4 cup diced onion into a large mixing bowl.
6. Place the red pepper sideways on the cutting board. Chop the stem and cap ends off of the pepper and then slice the pepper in half lengthwise. Remove the pith and seeds from one pepper half then flatten the half. Slice the half-pepper lengthwise into strips, then cut along the strips to form dice. Measure 1/3 cup diced red pepper into the bowl containing the diced red onion.
7. Put on a clean pair of food-safe rubber or latex gloves. Keep the gloves on the entire time you are contacting the habañero peppers, and don’t allow the peppers, their oils, or your gloved hands to contact your eyes or skin.
8. Working a few at a time, place each hot pepper on a clean cutting board. Cut away and discard the stem of each hot pepper. Cut each hot pepper into dice, retaining the seeds and pith. Scrape the diced hot pepper into the bowl containing the onion and red pepper as you go.
9. While still wearing the gloves, use your hands to mix the onion and peppers together.
10. Cover the bowl containing the pepper-onion mixture with plastic wrap. Allow the mixture to sit undisturbed while the apricots macerate. 

When ready to can

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids.
2. Remove the lid from the pan containing the apricot mixture. They should have absorbed a great deal of the liquid.
3. Put on a fresh pair of food safe latex or rubber gloves.
4. Remove the plastic wrap from the bowl containing the pepper-onion mixture. The mixture should be very pungent.
5. Use a silicon spatula to gently scrape the pepper-onion mixture into the apricot mixture. Use the spatula to mix all of the ingredients together.
6. Place the saucepan containing the jelly misture onto the stovetop. Turn the heat to medium-high. Use the wire whisk to stir the jelly mixture as it heats. The mixture should start bubbling and expressing more liquid. It will be very pungent, so keep your eyes clear from the steam.
7. Stir the jelly mixture constantly, turning down the burner heat if the mixture starts to steam too much, until the mixture reaches a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, approximately three minutes.
8. Once the mixture reaches a full roiling boil that cannot be stirred down, empty the envelope of pectin into the mixture. Use the wire whisk to incorporate the pectin into the mixture; two to three stirs of the whisk should suffice.
9. Add the sugar all at once to the jelly mixture. Use the wire whisk to incorporate the sugar into the mixture, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Readjust heat to medium-high and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture reaches a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down.
10. Once mixture reaches full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, use a slotted spoon or skimmer to skim foam off of jam and into the bowl that contained the sugar. Turn off the heat.
11. Place a clean towel on a counter near the canner.
12. Use canning tongs to remove hot jars from water bath. Do your best not to touch the hot jars; let the tongs do the work. Place hot jars mouth up on the clean towel.
13. Clamp a jar lifter around a hot jar. Use the jar lifter to transport the jar to the pan containing the hot jelly. Place a clean canning funnel into the mouth of the jar. Use a clean spoon or ladle to fill the jar with jelly to the ½-inch mark.
14. Repeat step 13 until all of the jars are filled. It is okay if there is jelly left over; refrigerate it for use within 1 month.
15. Check for and remove air bubbles if any (see instructions).
16. Use a clean, damp sponge to wipe the rim of each jar. Center a clean, hot lid (see instructions) on each jar. Screw a band down on each jar until it meets resistance; increase just until tight.
17. Use canning tongs to return the jars to the boiling water bath. Add more water if necessary to ensure that the jars are completely covered by boiling water by 1 inch. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
18. After jars have processed for ten minutes in the boiling water bath, turn off the heat. Remove the canner lid and set aside. Let jars sit in hot water ten minutes.
19. After ten minutes, use the canning tongs to remove the jars. Being very careful of the hot jars, lids and liquid, place jars upright on the towel. Allow to sit 24 hours. After 24 hours, check for a vacuum seal (see instructions). Label each jar with the contents and the date prepared. Safely prepared, stored and sealed, the jelly will keep for one year from date of preparation.