Thai Basil Pepper Jelly

So canning season has pretty much rapidly drawn to an end for me. Sad, I know. But I wanted to make one last thing before all the homegrown peppers and such are gone from both the curb market and my fledgling pepper plants.

In my travels along the information superhighway, I found this great recipe for Thai Basil Pepper Jelly. I really wanted to try it since I've got this huge thai basil plant that I don't use all that often.

This is a simple recipe, it just takes a little planning ahead. The majority of the planning ahead comes in the form of making your own Thai basil vinegar.

Gather up the following: 2 cups of fresh Thai basil, cleaned and roughly chopped, a quart of white vinegar and a jar to store it all in. Once you've got the basil and the vinegar in a jar together, give it a good shake and store in a cool, shady place. I made sure to shake it up again every few days over the next TWO WEEKS. Yes, you read that right... it needs to sit for two weeks to properly infuse.

 And thru the magic of the interwebz, here is what it will look like after two weeks.

Strain the vinegar/basil mixture and toss the leaves.  You'll end up with this:

Roughly chop and measure out two cups of green peppers, one cup hot peppers (use any kind you like) and one cup red onion.  Add them to the food processor.  

Pulse until not quite pureed.  You still want a little texture, but not much.  It should look like this:

Transfer to a large pot, add dried basil, thai basil infused vinegar and sugar.  Mix well.

Bring mixture to a full boil and then add 3 pouches of liquid pectin. (If you want the jelly to have a less natural color to it, this is the time to add your green food coloring or food gel.)  Return to a hard boil and stir constantly for 1 full minute.  

After a minute is up, turn the heat to low while you fill your prepared canning jars.

Place jars back into hot water canner (like the one below) and process for 10 minutes.

On a side note, I found this monster canner at an estate sale for $4.00!  It's a little rusty and nothing super fancy, but it does the job very well!  Before you run out an buy a canner, check out estate, garage and yard sales or even a flea market.  They can also be a great place to find jars too!  

Once processed, remove the jars from hot water and place on a dish towel at least 6 inches apart from one another and allow them to cool.  If you've sealed them properly, you will hear several loud metallic pops coming from the kitchen over the next hour or so as the jars cool and the seals suck themselves in.

I had a little leftover that didn't fit into a jar and let me tell you... it is amazing!  It's got the familiar look of pepper jelly but when you taste it, it's got this depth from the thai basil and then this creeping heat.  Oh man, this is a definite keeper!

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Thai Basil Pepper Jelly

Thai Basil Vinegar

2 cups freshThai basil, cleaned, roughly chopped

1 qt. white vinegar

glass jar for storage

Jelly

2 cups green pepper, roughly chopped

1 cup fresh hot pepper, roughly chopped

1 cup red onion, roughly chopped

1/2 tsp dried basil

1 1/2 cups thai basil vinegar

6 cups sugar

3 (3 oz.) packets liquid pectin

Instructions for Thai basil vinegar

Put fresh Thai Basil and white vinegar in a jar. Place lid on jar, give it a good shake and let vinegar mixture sit at room temperature (in a cool, shaded spot) for 2 weeks. Shake the infusion up a little every couple of days.  After two weeks, strain vinegar and discard basil.

Instructions for Jelly

Put vegetables in food processor and pulse until minced well.  

Pour into a large pot and add dried basil, 1 1/2 cup of thai basil vinegar and sugar in a large saucepan. 

Bring to a rolling boil and then add the pectin. 

Return to a rolling boil and stir constantly for 1 full minute. 

Turn heat to low and ladle hot jelly into prepared canning jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.