Mint Jelly

I love mint jelly. I could eat it on everything, and sometimes I do. I have a feast of it, in sandwiches, meats, on the side of my plate with a curry. Anytime, anywhen as far as I am concerned with Mint Jelly. So. I bought the River Cottage book of preserving, and also Val Harris'  fabulous book  Easy Jams, Chutneys and Preserves from the fantastic and incredibly helpful allotment growing website, and set to.

First,  you need mint, and a good lot of it, which luckily I have in my garden, oh and apples, lots of them too, which luckily, I also have in my garden.

The great thing about adding the apples is, you don't have to core or peel them, nope, it all goes in and adds to the tang of the jelly, Mmmmm.

Mint and apple together looks so good, and smells divine. I used three different types of mint here. Apple mint, which is soft and fluffy, spearmint, which is not a strong flavour, but adds a nice menthol fragrance, and peppermint, which gives the jelly the mintiness (is that a word?) that I require in a mint jelly.

Bubbling nicely away in the pot, but it was a little thick, and as this was the first time I had ever made it, I wasn't sure if I should add more water. So I didn't.

Then I popped it all into the jelly bag, and hung it from my kitchen cabinet to drip. Well, I waited and I waited, and a day later there was probably an inch of juice dripped out. So I consulted my books, and the wonderful people on the allotment website, who suggested that I reboil, with more water, so I did, with the result that I had a lot more juice come out, but still not pints, but heyho anything is better than nothing in my view.  After boiling up the dripped juice with the appropriate amount of sugar, I had a gorgeous jelly, to which I added more chopped mint, and then popped it into jars, all two of them!. But like I said, anything is better than nothing. And, it tastes gooooood.

This is the finished product, which has already been gotten to by the Mint Jelly fanatic, (that would be me!), and for my first go at it I am very pleased, but do think I maybe boiled it a little too long, as it is quite solidified, more than jellified.