Rosa Rugosa Rose Jelly

With Felicia Mohan

Felicia (Ciaramitaro) Mohan made both the rose hip and the rose petal jelly for entry into the Topsfield Fair and we will not be surprised if either wins a top award. Felicia has been hard at work for weeks creating the perfect recipe. It is delicious and not at all difficult to make as she shows how to make the rose hip version using the "hips" (or fruit) of the plant in this video. (The recipe for the petal version is also included in the Ingredients and Instruction tabs.) It's a carefree rose and will grow in salty conditions, shade, full sun, and poor soil, so long as it's well-drained. Along the coast it even grows right in the sandy beaches. Looking like clusters of ripe cherry tomatoes, the orange to red rose hips are oval and glossy, lasting until late autumn. Traditionally, roses have long been valued for their culinary, medicinal, cosmetic, and aromatherapy properties. Many perfumes are made from rose oil, and the petals and rosehips are often found in potpourris for their color and fragrance. Rose vinegar was once used for headaches, especially those induced by heat. The leaves also act as a mild laxative, and rose oil is highly antiseptic. Other uses of the rose petals include rose butter - a stick of butter is wrapped in rose petals and sealed in a jar overnight. The next day, the butter has a delicate flavor that can be spread on bread and served with a few fresh rose petals, like a sandwich.

Ingredients

For Rose Hip Jelly: 3 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup rose petals
6 cups cleaned rose hips
6 cups water
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 package fruit pectine
1/4 teaspoon salted butter For Rose Petal Jelly: 2 cups water
3 cups unsprayed pink rose petals, thicker tissue at base of petals removed
2 1/2 cups Rosa Rugosa petal infused sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 ounces liquid pectin
1 tablespoon rose water

Instructions

A day or several hours before preparing jelly mixture mix rose petals with sugar. For Rose Hip Jelly: 1. Cut rose hip's in half and remove all seeds.
2. Place 8 cups of cleaned rose hips in 6 cups turn heat down and simmer for 1 1/2 hours until hips are soft.
3. Using the back side of a slotted spoon "GENTLY" press rose hips, strain rose hips over a bowl, collecting 3 cups of rose hip juice.
4. Use a jelly bag and fine strainer to collect any lose rose hip flesh.
5. Place 3 cups of clear rose hip juice into a sauce pan with lemon juice, the package of sure-jelly fruit pectin. Bring to a rolling boil for 2 min.
6. Add 3 1/2 cups rose petal infused sugar & 1/4 teaspoons salted butter and bring to a boil again for 2 min.
7. Strain through a jelly bag again, then fill sterilized jelly jars. After jars are filled to within 1/2 inch of top, place lid and ring on jar and place in water bath for ten minutes. Water should cover jar by one inch over top of jar.
8. Remove jars carefully from water bath and let cool on on top of a dish towel for 6 hours. For Rose Petal Jelly: 1. Bring the water to a boil,remove from heat. Add rose petals; cover and let steep 1 hr.
2. Strain petals from liquid. Add infused sugar and lemon juice to pan.
3. On medium- high heat bring the liquid back to a boil, and boil for 2 min; add pectin, and boil 2 more minutes.
4. Remove from heat and pour into sterilized jars. Place lid and metal ring on jars and process jars in a boiling water bath for 15 min.
5. Remove jars carefully from water bath and let cool on on top of a dish towel for 6 hours. Serve on top toast or you can glaze a pork roast or even top Brie cheese in mini filo cups. Recipe courtesy of Felicia Ciaramitaro Mohan, 2010.

From "Food For Thought" Column by Heather Atwood: Felicia Mohan lives in a sparkling new house in Gloucester, and has twin 11-year-olds: Amanda, playing 12-year-old tennis and ranked No. 32 in New England, and B.J., a catcher for AAU Baseball who will play in the Gloucester All-Star 11-year-old team. Felicia looks like a beautiful, modern mother, struggling to get her kids where they need to go while keeping up with life at home, but Felicia is also adamant about preserving her family's Sicilian heritage, particularly the dishes her grandmother, another Felicia, prepared. Felicia Mohan's grandfathers were named Joseph Salvatore Ciaramitaro — both of them, spelled the exact same way. One Joseph fished first from his boat The Benjamin and Josephine, which was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Maine, and then he fished from his Benjamin C, named after his father-in-law, Benjamin Cucuru. Later he founded Capt'n Joe's Lobster Co. on the wharf in Gloucester, now run by Felicia's brother, Joey, and cousin Frankie. Felicia's other grandfather owned Pat's Center Grocery, that not only sold groceries but provided all the fishing boats with food for their long trips, delivering the "speza," as the supplies were called, to each boat before it left port.
Grandpa with the wharf was married to Felicia's namesake. Holidays at this Felicia's house began a full week ahead as all the women in the family gathered at her home, which had two full kitchens, to cook together. When school let out at 3, the children went straight to Grandma's house that week because that's where their mothers were cooking. Not only were these women making all the traditional Italian holiday foods, from appetizers such as octopus salad, a standard which the men insisted upon at every holiday, to a wealth of Italian cookies, homemade bread, and New World foods such as pies, but the women were also making ordinary dinners those weeknights for all their husbands and children. Felicia and Joseph have passed away. Now, holiday meals are at young Felicia's, where 35 to 40 people come to celebrate. Felicia, like her grandmother, still sets a formal table with china and linen; her custom-built table seats 25, with two more tables in the great room for overflow, replacing her grandmother's enormous table that started in the kitchen, extended through the dining room, the hallway and ended at the living room. In her large, creamy, new kitchen, Felicia still makes dishes like braciole, spiedini, and olive gonzathe. She makes videos for this newspaper showing how to prepare her grandmother's special bread crumbs, "mudiga," with chicken and steak. This past December, Felicia gathered all the cousins together to make their great-grandmother's Santa Lucia dessert, "cuccia," a vanilla pudding made with wheatberries which the playful great-grandmother had always encouraged the children to eat in a race. Contact Heather at heatheraa@aol.com. Her blog is at gloucestertimes.com/foodforthought