Red Little Jewels

It is amazing how mother nature works. It can create so many beautiful things just on its own. Remember the little seed I bought? It has since grown into a "big little plant" and is quickly finding its home around my window grills!



Today Pauline gave me some "red little jewels", another amazing product of mother nature.


They are actually Hibiscus Sabdariffa Linn or Roselle (洛神花). Roselle is rich in protein, organic acids, amino acids and Vitamin C. It's natural bright red color makes it a good choice to be made into jam, juice, wine, etc.



This little jewel tastes sour in nature. But when preserved, it makes a wonderful snack! Pauline let me tried some of the preserved Roselle she had bought and I'm immediately sold. So "sold" that I had to search for the recipe once I got back. And I was lucky enough to find it here.

Preserved Roselle (洛神花萼蜜餞)

Ingredients
Slightly more than 1000g fresh Roselle
60g salt
*800g sugar (divided into 300g, 150g, 150g and 200g)

Method
1. Remove the receptacle from the Roselle. Wash and air the Roselle flowers dry. You should have about 1000g of flowers left.
2. Season the flowers with salt for 24 hrs to soften the flowers. Remember to give the flowers a few tosses in between the 24 hrs.
3. Squeeze out the salt water the next day. You can use the salt water to preserve raddish or young ginger.
4. Season the soft flowers with 300g of sugar. Leave in the fridge for 4 days. Remove from the fridge after 4 days and season with another 150g of sugar. Leave in the fridge for another 2 days. Then season with another 150g of sugar and leave in the fridge for another two days. Finally season with the last 200g of sugar. When the sugar has all melted (about two days later), the preserved Roselles are ready for consumption.

Note:
- Remember to toss the Roselles frequently during preservation to ensure the sugar is evenly spread out.
- Adding sugar in a few rounds help to retain the crunchiness of the preserved fruits.
- Keeping the fruits in the fridge helps to preserve the natural bright red color.
- I've added 200g more sugar (than the original recipe) on the 8th day as the Roselle still taste a little too sour.



I've got a packet of washed and cut Roselle from Pauline (how sweet of her!). It weighs about 110g. I have seasoned it with about 7g of salt at a start followed by 30g, 15g, 15g and 20g of sugar in 4 batches. See the end results here.



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