Just infuse the mixture with lemongrass while boiling but remove it before adding the pectin. There's no risk regardless of the recipe if you remove the lemongrass before jarring the jelly up. All you want is the flavor anyway since lemongrass is so fibrous.

Carol

The NCHFP recipe for mint jelly has you steep your mint leaves in water to make a tea. Then it has 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice added. But the corn cob jelly recipe has no added lemon juice. Based on that, I think if you have vinegar to acidify your peppers, you will be fine with your lemongrass tea.

I've also seen recipes for mint jelly using apple juice for the steeping liquid.

All that being said - I think you may have to experiment with quantities of lemon grass to get the flavor you want in your tea, keeping in mind that the lemon grass will be competing with the peppers and vinegar. And maybe it is worth using half apple juice half water for your steeping liquid?

Ellie Topp has a Mint Jalapeno Jelly that uses a fair amount (over 1 cup) of water that the mint has steeped in. Also a lot of vinegar, but a lot of peppers too. I don't think I'd use that many low-acid ingredients (except that I don't know about the lemongrass water).

I was thinking 2 oz (1/2C?) of Thai peppers might be more than enough, that's how many jals I used for a batch and the Thais are much much hotter. May find that's too hot and have to cut it down. Then anywhere from 1-4 oz of lime juice (4 oz if not using vinegar), and a cup of rice vinegar (4%)? Or would I have to use 5% vinegar?

That leaves about 3C of other liquid to make 4.5C of liquid to get 4-5 halfpints - I'd like to boil it and steep the lemongrass and ginger in it, then strain them out before putting it in with the peppers and lime juice/vinegar.

Water, vinegar, or apple juice? Mix of water and apple juice? How would apple juice taste in this combo? I don't want it competing with the lemongrass and the lime citrusy tastes. But 4-4.5C of vinegar seems too acidic.

Ball Complete has a Thai Dipping Sauce that could be converted to a jelly simply by adding pectin (and making a half batch at a time since it calls for 6C of ACV and 6C of sugar). But no lemongrass (or ginger) in it. I supposed I could just boil them in the vinegar as Carol said, but it's hard to adjust the strength then, I'd rather steep the lemongrass in the liquid and then use it full-strength or dilute it as needed. Has anybody ever made that? Does the sugar really cut the vinegar taste?

Thanks

I would make the smallest amount possible to test out the flavors and issue of strength.

Another option I forgot to mention is to crush lemongrass stems and bury them in sugar a while then use the infused sugar in the jelly. More subtle and easier to manage in terms of other ingredients (and also nice to use for spritzers, lemonade, etc.)

As far as the vinegar is concerned, you might find a 5% white vine vinegar is far less assertive.

Carol

Thanks Carol! Yes, I do think the lemongrass-infused sugar would be easier to manage. I can try making a cup of jelly with only 1 or 2 peppers (they're tiny), and grated ginger so I can more easily control the amount (though the jelly will have bits of ginger in it unless I make a tiny cheesecloth bag).

Did you mean the WWV is less assertive than ACV/apple juice (I agree), or rice vinegar? I've only ever used rice vinegar in small amounts, don't really know how strong it is but at 4% I figured it wasn't that much.

Hmmm...I'd make a lemongrass tea to which you'd add the sugar for the jelly. For the acid, I'd make an infused pepper vinegar by letting the peppers marinate for a week or two. Strain, then use the vinegar with the lemongrass tea. Add grated ginger and use liquid pectin.
I was the person who made the Thai Basil Pepper Jelly and it is AMAZING! Infused vinegars are fantastic for jellies.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog: Just the Right Size

Thanks gardengrl - I saw the thread on Harvest first, then looked at your blog (bookmarked it) but I want to use lemongrass, not something as tender as basil, and also wanted to make it within the week not wait a couple of weeks (was going to try to sell this at market next week - the last market is Sept 30).

I'm still struggling with how much lime juice, vinegar (and what type) and "tea" if I do it that way. I do think lemongrass tea would be faster than lemongrass sugar, though I will still experiment with the sugar on my own next month.

BTW, I did see another blog (something about Kitchen Gardeners) that used the tea rather than the vinegar, that's what I was wondering about, I guess it's safe as long as you acidify the peppers, though she didn't post a recipe. Your method is definitely safe, just was going to take too long for me. Though I don't mind having some pepper vinegar around the house either! What type of vinegar do you suggest for the infusion (may mix it with a different type in the jelly)? I figured I'd whizz the peppers in the vinegar to chop, they're too tiny to chop by hand and definitely can't deseed. Maybe add a teeny bit of garlic to the vinegar though I don't want TOO much going on in terms of flavor. I'd like to keep it nice and clean and fresh-citrusy tasting with that heat from the peppers. Like my favorite Thai chicken soup.

I used the powdered pectin for the jalapeno jelly, it worked fine (though set up a little fast - may try only 3 Tbsp next time instead of almost 4 but I just used what I had left in the box). One of the jars has little bubbles coming up from the pepper pieces - it set up too quickly - must have been the last jar.

I generally try to avoid commercial pectin, but wanted to try this and get something that set up quickly enough to sell within a week. Plus save my homemade apple pectin for fruit jellies. For the Thai pepper jelly (which I'm thinking would be great as a glaze on chicken or a dipping sauce for coconut shrimp) I'm trying not to introduce the apple flavor.

Check out this link. Might give you some ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://blog.photographybylulu.com/2007/09/lemon-grass-and-ginger-jelly.html

ajsmama,
I sent you an email.
Melly

with tomatoes

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/chilli-jam-with-ginger-and-lemongrass

Thanks Melly.

Decisions, decisions! Might not start this tomorrow, but definitely going to play around with test batches this w/e.

I'm interested to hear how this turns out.

Just took them out of the canner. All the peppers and cilantro (bad idea, it shriveled when I brought the pot to boil for the pectin) is on the bottom. Kinda cloudy (didn't put juice through my fine muslin cloth, just used a cheesecloth bag for the lemon pith, lemongrass, and ginger, simmered it in 6C of water then let the bag drip for a few hours). I was trying a sort of take-off on the link you sent me for Lemongrass Ginger jelly but only had 11oz of lemons and since I was using pectin decided to save the zest and flesh for marmalade, and I only had 1 oz of ginger not 2.

I stuck a tiny bit in the fridge on top of the inch of jalapeno I had left over. I'll let you know how it is tomorrow. Tasted it out of the pan and just hot (12 Thai peppers, less than 1 Tbsp and I tried to puree them in lime juice, by the time I strained the seeds out and tried to just get bits of pepper, it was maybe 1 tsp). Needs more lemongrass (I used 3 stalks but they were small) and ginger.