The grass not currently being grazed by the sheep was, until Simon mowed it, full of dandelions, and never one to see something go to waste I decided to make dandelion jelly. Now this was not the quickest of jams to prepare but bearing in mind it was extremely cheap, I am down to my last jar of last years home-made jam and it is really delicious, I may well be making it again soon.
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| Image from Wikipedia |
So if you are interested how, read on.
Dandelion Jelly
Ingredients:
Dandelion heads - LOTSBoiling water
Preserving sugar
Lemon juice
Pick the dandelions when they are in full flower and dry. Carefully pull off the petals. It is best to pick a few at a time, de-petal them and then pick some more as this is rather time consuming and they wilt quite quickly. Better still, get an army of small children to do the picking for you. 400 flowers should give you about 1 litre of petals. Place these in a pan and cover with boiling water. Bring back to boil, then cool and then leave overnight in the fridge to infuse. The next day strain the liquid into a pan and discard the petals. Measure.
For every litre of liquid you will need the juice of 1 lemon and 800g preserving sugar.
Heat to boiling point, add the sugar and lemon juice. Stir to dissolve the sugar, bring back to boil then hard boil until setting point. Skim off any surface scum and pour into hot, sterilised jam jars. Cover straight away or when totally cold.
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Apparently dandelion jam or jelly is made in the French and Swiss Alps where it is sold as "Confiture de petales de pissenlit". Pissenlit is the French for dandelion meaning literally, bed wetter. All parts of the dandelion plant are edible and a quick internet search comes up with a plethora of recipes for the flowers, leaves and roots. I'm now toying with the idea of dandelion flower fritters. However if eaten in excess dandelions can live up to their french name and have diuretic properties.
definitely going to have to try this one next year - we did dandelion wine and I dont think I can face any more dandelion picking and de-petaling until next year.... sounds interesting though.
ReplyDeleteI've eaten dandelion leaves in a salad and even had an ersatz coffee made from the roasted root, but never in my born days have I had dandelion jelly.
ReplyDeleteWe're OK for jam and marmalade at the moment, and with a mountain of rhubarb and what looks like a good cherry harvest to come I'm not sure I need to add more jars to the store. In any case, our dandelions look to be past it. But I am going to have a go at this next year. Sounds intriguing.
Does sound very interesting, maybe one day I will give it a go!
ReplyDeleteDo - it is well worth it :)
DeleteWhat does it taste like? We feed our tortoise dandelions but never tried them ourselves
ReplyDeleteIt's a very delicate taste and some people think it is like a mild honey.
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