Sangria Jam

It is tricky trying to throw a fabulous party on a thrifty budget. Sangria stretches your most expensive ingredient (wine), but it does it in a sneaky, deliciously fruity way. Yes, sangria is cheaper than your average glass of wine. But it's also festive, bright and delicious enough to avoid the bad rap that stretching recipes sometimes have. Peak citrus season plus inexpensive red plus a little time in the fridge and voila! Sangria-infused party success.

But then there is a slight problem... what to do with all of that leftover fruit? Sure some of the fruit should be attractively ladled into the punch bowl or pitcher, but there's inevitably a big pile of fruit left over. I might be the kind of person who enjoys eating a boozy piece of fruit or two from the bottom of my glass of sangria. So *ahem* I knew this fruit was still good enough to eat. I threw some of the fruit in the punch bowl, but kept most of it in the fridge in the hopes that I could turn it into something useful.

Turns out, this fruit makes a spectacular jam! Boil the fruit until it breaks down then strain out the peels. Add some sugar, pectin and another quick boil and the jam is done. This jam doesn't need any other flavorings to make it interesting-- the combination of fruit and unexpected spicy notes from the wine make this jam tangy, bright and rather addictive. Now you can have your sangria and eat it too.


Sangria

3 bottles of red wine
1/2 c. brandy (optional)
2 lemons
2 oranges
2 apples
1 lime
half of a pineapple (optional)
1/3 c. sugar (adjust to taste)
soda water (optional)

Slice Fruit: Wash all of the fruit thoroughly. Use a vegetable peeler to cut thin strips of peel off one of the lemons. Set these aside in a damp paper towel for garnish. Squeeze the juice of that lemon into your bowl. Slice the rest of the fruit into 1/4" thick slices, leaving the skin on everything except the pineapple. Pour in all of the wine and brandy. Add sugar to taste (start with less than 1/3 c.)

Infuse: Cover your sangria and leave the mixture to infuse in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, up to one day in advance.

Serve: Use a ladle to transfer the sangria to a pitcher or punch bowl. Throw in a ladle or two of fruit, but keep the rest of the fruit for jam. Serve with a lemon peel garnish and a splash of soda water.




Sangria Jam

6 c. leftover sangria fruit
8 c. water
2/3 - 1 c. sugar
1 t. pectin (low sugar type)*
2 t. calcium water (comes with this type of pectin)
Yield: 2 1/4 c. jam

Boil Fruit: Add water to the fruit and bring to a full boil. Boil, partly covered, for 45 minutes, or until the apples and citrus fruits have completely broken down.

Strain off waste: Pour hot liquid through a strainer. Press gently to extract all of the liquid that you can. Discard the fruit pulp (or reserve for compost). Measure the resulting liquid. You want to have 2 c. If you have more liquid, return the liquid to the stovetop and boil until it is concentrated down to 2 c. If you have too little liquid, add water so that your total volume equals two cups.



Cook/Activate pectin: Rinse any remaining fruit pulp out of your stock pot. Mix pectin together with sugar. Add strained fruit puree and calcium water. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered for ten minutes.


Store: Pour into clean jar. Refrigerate.** Keeps several weeks in the refrigerator.


* Pectin is a naturally occurring gelling agent. With just the right conditions (the right concentration of acid and sugar) pectin will gel perfectly. Unfortunately, the right amount of sugar for gelling might not be the same as the right amount of sugar to produce the best taste. If you can get your hands on a low-sugar pectin (such as pomona's), you can bypass this whole problem. This type of pectin, in combination with a calcium salt solution, will gel with much less sugar.

**Since this recipe makes just one jar, I'm giving the easy instructions for making jam, so this jam is not ready to be stored out at room temperature. You certainly could sterilize everything and process it, but personally, I wouldn't go to that trouble for just one jar. And I'm pretty sure you'll want to eat this right away anyhow.