(no subject)

[kelliem]

I'm just a posting fool lately, but I had to share this. The northwest corner of our yard is overrun by concord grape vines-- they've climbed up and around every tree and bush within reach, and this year they are bearing like crazy. Usually I leave them for the critters (of which we have many) but there were so many this year that I went out the other day and picked a couple of pounds of them for myself, and there was still a lot on the vines. Then I realized I had no idea what to do with them.

I didn't want to make jelly since the one time I tried that before I failed miserably (I got grape syrup, pretty much), so I went online and looked for non-jelly concord grape recipes. Well, there are about a million recipes for grape pie, which, um, sounded kind of nasty to me. But scattered in amongst the pie recipes I found one for a chutney and one for a conserve. The chutney sounded good but called for an ingredient I didn't have on hand and I didn't feel like going out for. The conserve, on the other hand, I had all the ingredients for except Ruby Port, but I had a bottle of Dubonnet which is kinda-sorta similar so I went with that recipe, but added a couple of ingredients from the chutney recipe (more spices) just because they sounded good.

It was kind of a pain slipping the skins of 2 pounds of grapes but OMG, so worth it! The fragrance of the conserve as it cooked was like perfume, and it tastes amazing, too. Tonight I need to make some fresh bread to eat it on, though the original recipe was supposed to accompany duck. Anyway, just in case some of you have concord grapes you need to do something with, here's the recipe:

Maple-Grape Conserve

2 pounds Concord grapes, rinsed
1/2 cup dried currants
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup ruby port wine (I used Dubonnet instead)
1/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
2/3 cup chopped pecan pieces, toasted

Stem and slip skins off grapes; reserve skins for later use. In a medium saucepan over low heat, cook grape pulp until softened, about 10 minutes. Place a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl and pour in grape mixture. Press pulp with the back of a spoon to separate seeds from pulp; discard seeds.

Transfer pulp back to saucepan. Add reserved grape skins, dried currants, maple syrup, wine, brown sugar, vinegar, and spices. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer 15 minutes; stir occasionally as mixture thickens. Let cool slightly and then stir in pecans. Cool, cover, and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before serving.


Also, I took that Flesch-Kincaid thing that I saw over at aukestrel's and now I feel like I ought to be using more and bigger words or something. ;D

kelliem's Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 9
Average number of words per sentence:	19.91
Average number of syllables per word:	1.42
Total words in sample:	1573
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Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

We don't have concord grapes, but I think the recipe would work with other types. Last year we had more grapes than we could handle, but this year we didn't have any. We'd trimmed back the vine (it was going wild and taking over), so we're wondering if maybe it's going through a re-growth phase or something like that. Lots of leaves (must make dolmades this weekend :), but no fruit.

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

I think it would work with most grapes, but better with a slipskin grape like a concord. Otherwise peeling them would be a pain. Though I suppose if you blanch them, the skins of any grape might slip fairly well.

I read somewhere that grapes only fruit on the current year's vines so it may be that you trimmed back to old vine and it will take a while to grow new fruiting vines.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense. He did trim it back quite a bit, but it needed it.