Organic Sauvignon Blanc grapes from Petroni Vineyards.
In my last post on our visit to Petroni Vineyards winemaker’s lunch event, I noted that I left with a large bunch of Sauvignon Blanc grapes which Drinda Petroni packed in a pretty paper bag.
Clint and I enjoyed eating quite a few of them each time we passed our kitchen island. However, with a couple days passing and the heat wave in the Bay Area, the poor grapes weren’t going to make it for very much longer. I decided I needed to make them into something special. I searched on the web and didn’t find many recipes that call for grapes; not that grapes need additional redeeming qualities beyond their ability to make great wines.
I finally settled on a grape jam recipe and substituted “Concord” grapes with our beautiful Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Quite the wine country twist to a classic jam recipe…delicious!
Removed the stems from the grapes to get them ready for extracting the juice from the grapes.
I used my pestle to essentially “stomp” the grapes to perform an initial extraction of the grape juice. I used a sieve to strain the results of my effort.
I continued to extract all the juice from the grapes, pushing the juice through the strainer.
I had just finished a jar of fig jam (which was delicious…partially because it reminded me of my trip to Rome) that I purchased from a grocery store in Rome, Italy. Decided to use the empty jar for the Sauvignon Blanc grape jam. Make sure whatever jars you use, to boil them in water to sterilize them before pouring the finished jam product into the jar(s).
Clint and I discovered a new feature of our digital camera – this is the result of our experiment. Notice the accent of the color of the grapes against a black & white backdrop.
The recipe I used called for 1 1/2 cups of grape juice, which is exactly how much I was able to extract from the grapes. How serendipitous!
The recipe also called for a teaspoon of lemon juice which I extracted from lemons grown on our front porch. It also required half a cup of cold water with 2 teaspoons of gelatin. I skipped the sugar substitute called for in the recipe because I thought the grapes were sweet enough and I wanted their true character to shine. I was happy with this decision.
Final result. The Sauvignon Blanc grape jam on top of a cracker with a wedge of triple cream cheese. How divine!
