Hot Pepper Jelly

With yet another snow storm on the way yesterday and the house running on empty in the bread and milk department as always, I decided on an impromptu stop at Whole Foods. Going without a list can be very dangerous... So while picking up this and that in the produce section, especially fresh celery root and a vast collection of mushrooms for Risotto, my eyes fell onto these beautiful hot peppers. I bought a whole selection, hoping I can remember what was what. I had recently read a recipe that used cranberries in a hot pepper jelly instead of pectin (they contain natural pectin) and as it happend, they had wonderful organic cranberries as well.

So when it was time to go to bed, I always get the urge to get productive instead and this is what I did. I diced 3 red bell peppers and 1 green bell pepper and halved and cleaned 3 Serrano, 2 Jalapeno, 4 Habanero and 3 Chile peppers and sliced them really, really fine. I combined that with a pound of cranberries, 4 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar and boiled it. Actually I started with 2 cups of each, but adjusted during the process. I kept this simmering for probably an hour (who keeps track) or more. Next step was the foodmill, which left me with 3 cups of thick, red, hot liquid and 2 cups of hot pepper solids, which I will use to make Salsa. I boiled the liquid for maybe another hour or less until it seemed the right consistency (too liquid, but perfect once cool). I had no recipe and have never made jelly in my life and I was surprised how well this came out, it is sweet and aromatic at first and about a second or two later, wham, it is hot! I did not make this a preserve, it will just sit in the fridge and probably not surviving very long, as DH and I both absolutely love it (with Neufchatel cream cheese on crackers).

My fingers are still peppered and no amount of scrubbing seems to get the pepper off. Every food I touch is instantly hot and I do not recommend rubbing your eyes, ouch.