Rosella In My Garden

These vivid ripe rosella fruit were in my garden back in April, and while I’m not so familiar with fresh rosella, I am familiar with the dried version. Rosella, also known as hibiscus is commonly used in herbal teas, and in Bahrain, Karkade (made with dried rosella leaves) is a popular iced drink with the local community. As this was my first time using fresh rosella, I searched for recipes other than drinks and found that rosella jam was a popular recipe among Australians…so decided to make some. 

I had about thirty rosella fruit to work with, and as it turned out, you can make as much or as little jam as you want because the same method (found below) works with any quantity of fruit, and it was also the approach that everyone seemed to use on the internet with some adding a squeeze of lemon juice or adding a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Some recipes cooked the whole fruit, using the strained liquid to make a jelly rather than a jam, I preferred the latter.

I did note that a few people forgot to mention that you should carefully wash the fruits and also when removing the leaves from around the seedpod as little insects can be found, you don’t want to include those in your jam…I was quite particular when doing this as I am sure you would be too.

The resulting rosella jam had a beautiful ruby-red color and a very pleasant tart-sweet flavour which I really loved…reminding me of cranberries. I did reduce the sugar by about a quarter as I prefer jams that are not tooth achingly sweet. I haven’t included the weight of the ingredients as you only need weigh the cooked rosella mixture and use the same weight in sugar. However, I would suggest you not use less than thirty rosella fruit, the quantity I made was small and the resulting yield was almost two jars (125ml each) of jam. 

If you are interested in making preserves I have a lovely doughnut peach (in season now) conserve and an uncooked raspberry jam which you might prefer. Hopefully this post provides a little inspiration and if you are a master at making rosella jam, do let me know if you make something special using rosella fruit? Also, I believe you can eat the leaves too…but will have to try next season. I’m off now to make some scones!

Rosella Jam

Ingredients:

• Ripe Rosella Fruit
• Granulated White Sugar
• Cold Water

How to make:

• Remove the fleshy red leaves (calyxes) from the seedpods then wash and rinse very carefully, making sure all insects (if any) have been removed. Also, check the seedpods too, wash and drain. Keep the seedpods and rosella leaves separate.
• Using a small knife make a small incision in the seedpods, place them into a small saucepan. Pour in cold water until the pods are just covered. Bring to a boil and cover and cook the seedpods for 15 minutes or until soft. Strain and reserve the liquid (which contains pectin), discard the seedpods.
• Pour the reserved liquid back into the saucepan and add the prepared rosella leaves. Top with fresh water if the rosella leaves are not submerged. Boil uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes or until the leaves have softened and mixture has thickened.
• Remove from the heat and measure the weight of the cooked pulp. Return this to the saucepan and add the same volume of sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil and cook for 10-20 minutes or until the jam has thickened and set.Transfer the cooked rosella jam to clean sterilized jars, cover and when cool, store in the fridge.