Sunday, June 12, 2011

june berry "jelly"

The other day I went over to my friend, Kazumi's house.

She recently renovated her kitchen and invited me over for lunch.

In her front yard, I noticed a june berry tree, which is also known as amelanchier.

I had learned about june berries when I went to buy some cake for Satoshi's birthday.

The patissier had some cuttings of this plant near the register and it had lots of berries on them. I asked him what kind of berry it was and he explained that it was a june berry.

So, when I went over to Kazumi's and saw the berries I asked her if they were june berries.

She said the were and went to pick some. They were a little tart, look like a blueberry and had tiny seeds like raspberries.

When the berries are ripe, they turn a dark purple.

After a delicious lunch of tuna and onion cake salé, lox and bagels and some tossed salad, she let me pick about half a pound of these berries.

I washed them then cooked them in some water for 15 minutes.

Then I strained the juice out in some cheesecloth.

After straining, I ended up with 1.75 cups of juice to which I added 1.75 cups of sugar and cooked it for about half and hour (or maybe it was longer).

I ended up with three half-cup jars of "jelly".

The taste sort of reminds me of blueberry...The next morning, I checked on it, but it didn't gel so well because I didn't add any pectin and didn't have any lemons to add some lemon juice.

So instead of jelly, it is a very thick fruit sauce.

This is great on yogurt and I'm almost certain it is great on pancakes too...

Yup, they were good on pancakes, I just need to tweak my pancake recipe and cut back some sugar in that to balance everything out.

Oh and I gave Kazumi two of the three bottles, I hope she liked it...(Thank you!)

10 comments:

jalna said...

What a pretty-looking berry! Never heard of them before. Your sauce looks yummy.

Japan Australia said...

I have never heard of June berries either, but they look really good and make a nice sauce.

Japan Australia

K and S said...

Thanks Jalna, I've never seen them in Hawaii for sure.

Take care.
Kat

K and S said...

definitely delicious as a sauce, J-A :)

Take care.
Kat

Rowena said...

I like the little jars (reminds me of baby food jars)- perfect size!

K and S said...

someone I know always gives me jams in these bottles, so I have been saving them for times like this Rowena :)

Take care.
Kat

Anonymous said...

I honestly don't think I've had june berries before, what can they be compared to?

K and S said...

I had never tried them before myself Elle, they had seeds like raspberries but the fruit itself tasted like a blueberry, a little tart.

Take care.
Kat

Nami | Just One Cookbook said...

Oishisooooooooooooo! I love berries. Any kind of berries. I miss eating with yogurt!

K and S said...

Thanks Nami! I also put store-bought preserves onto my yogurt, you should try :)

Take care.
Kat