Wild About - Ground Cherries (Ground Cherry and Guajillo Chile Jam)

I was so very excited to find these ground cherries (Physalis sp.) while out on a bike ride one day last week. They're all wrapped up in a husk like a tiny tomatillo present. I'm glad to have found this new patch of ground cherries because I've been wanting to make the recipe for ground cherry preserves out of the Little House Cookbook.

I started out by faithfully following the recipe, removing the husks and cleaning the fruit. I boiled up some sugar syrup in the ratio of 4 c. sugar to 2 pounds of fruit (I had much less fruit), until it was quite thick. Then I added the cleaned ground cherries, and let them boil until they became translucent. At that point, I removed them from the heat and let them sit in the pan, covered, overnight.

The next day, I started out as instructed, bringing the fruit and syrup back to a boil, and had intended to preserve it that way. But then I tasted it, and it was really lacking something. I opened up several cupboards, looking for inspiration. It was finally the scent of chiles that stole my attention. I quickly pan-toasted a guajillo chile, and tore it into flakes to add to the jam. I let the mixture simmer long enough for the chile to rehydrate. The flavor was just right - both the ground cherry and the guajillo chile had wonderful fruit character, and there was just a slight edge of heat. And the resulting jam was pretty as a picture, too. Welcome to the flavors of my little house on the prairie.



This post is appearing as a part of Foodie Friday and Vegetarian Foodie Friday, which are great places to pick up new recipes, so go have a look.