I remember going on PYO expeditions as a family, when we were kids and eating more strawberries and raspberries than ever reached the punnets. Such great memories of scorching summer days, the fragrance of walking through strawberry fields and playing hide & seek through the sweet corn. The thing with strawberries, even when they’re as fresh as that, they don’t last very long and we would pick kilos! My mum would spend the next day making jam and chutneys from our harvest.

All this came to mind last weekend because Dave’s mum came round laden with a glut of strawberries, heaven! I didn’t really fancy making jam, but I have been craving jelly (of all things!). So with some left over rosé wine from the BBQ, I made a very grown up version of something I adored as a kid - strawberry jelly.

Mum also used to freeze what she could in order to preserve as much as possible - mange-tout, spinach, broad beans, sweet corn cobs. Even after reserving some for the jelly, there were still strawberries left over, more than I could eat before they went bad. So I’ve tried freezing some; I put them in an ice-cube tray inside a sealed freezer bag. I’m going to leave them frozen for a couple of weeks as an experiment, to see how they de-frost - I’ll keep you posted!

But, back to the jelly!

Strawberry and rosé jelly

500g Strawberries
4-5 Tbs brown sugar (depends how sweet your wine is)
300ml rosé wine
100ml Cranberry juice
4 leaves of gelatine

Macerate the chopped strawberries with the sugar in a bowl and leave for 20 min.
Mix the strawberries with their sugary juices into the wine and juice in a saucepan.
Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for 15-20 min - to reduce and cook off the alcohol.
Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 30 min.
Pour the mixture into a juicing/muslin bag hung over a bowl to catch the juices as they drain through. Or if you haven’t got one of those bags - line a sieve with a couple of sheets of kitchen roll and stand it over a large bowl.
Leave it to drain until all the liquid has collected in the bowl - do not be tempted to squeeze the bag/ push the pulp through the sieve, it will make the jelly cloudy.
Put 4 leaves of gelatine into a bowl of cold water, to soak for 10min.
Put the drained liquid back into the pan and warm gently. Add the soaked gelatine and mix until it has dissolved completely. Don’t let it boil.
Pour the liquid jelly into a greased jelly mould or what ever container you wish and leave to cool to room temperature.
Finally cover the jelly and put in the fridge until completely set (over night in my case).

That’s one of the things about making jelly, you have to be patient, you have to wait for your prize!

Light, wobbly, fruity and simply delicious, a dazzling jewel worth waiting for!

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