Ok, some may not know I have 3, 10 foot horizontal runs of grape vines out back in the coral, which each run winds back and forth at lest 4 times, where the total line length of the runs is just over 120 feet of wild concord grape vines.
this year bounty yielded (after the birds and the squirrels)2 plastic grocery bags of grapes...so one thing you need to do is find something to do when you have approximately 10 pounds of grapes, is -A- make Jam/jelly and some pies...
Concord Grape Pie, yep you read that right.
here's how.
cold soak wash/rinse grapes in sink.
you gonna want to have a 5 cup measuring "bowl" another bowl for rejects and stems and another for "skins"
you pinch the grape opposite of the "vine-end" and put that in the 5 cups bowl, the skin that remains you put that in your skin bowl. your going to want to watch the grape for discoloration and defects as you put them in the 5 cup bowl.
once the 5 cup bowl is FULL of "grape pulp" you cook it in a soup pan, bring it to a boil on med to low heat, let slow boil for 5 minutes.
pour the hot grape pulp (seeds and all) back in to your 5 cup bowl, Have a metal sheaf Colander that will fit over your pan and pour the pulp in to the sheaf. use a spoon to push the pulp through to extract the pulp from the seeds. once 99% of the pulp is removed dump the seeds in the trash.
as of right here you will have some really good tasting grape juice like you never ever had.....
the Skin Bowl, if you have a food processor, a blender or a magic bullet you will have to process the skins.
I use the processor or the bullet, prefer the bullet because of it's bottom blade design and it's high rpm leaves very little to be wasted in residue and is simple to clean out with a frosting spreader.
with the "little Cup" fill that with the skins and a little bit of the pulp juice, and run with the mixing blade for about 30 sec to a minute, repeat with the blending blade and add a little more pulp to help in skins lugufi. what you will see is the the skins have turned in to these little shards in the cup, pour this in to the pulp pan. repeat till all the skins have been processed and added to the pulp pan. let stand in the refrigerator over night covered
this year I further the process with additional "blending" in the food processor the next day.
this year batch sat in the refrigerator for two days, both days I reran the pulp in the food processor, this completely blended the skins into the pulp turning the pulp into a bright purple color verse looking goey green.
when your ready to bake the pie, your going to add to the pulp:
1 1/4 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup All purpose Flour
A PINCH OF SALT
3/4 teaspoons of Lemon Juice
1 1/2 Tablespoon of Butter
mix with whisk in a mixing bowl:
pour in pie dish with crumb cookie crust or pie dough
yields: 3 normal 9 inch pies
Crust: crumbly top
1/2 cup Quick Cooking oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup All purpose flour
1/4 cup butter
scatter cover on top of grape pulp
preheat oven to 425 degrees
cook
cover pie with foil for 15 minutes, remove foil let cook for 25 more until "golden brown"
remove from oven let stand for two hours or till cool allowing the pie to firm.
your gonna love it.
this recipe is a old generation recipe handed down from Richard's Grandmother, Genny got this from his wife Kim and I enjoy growing the grapes (basically watching them) and making the pies with Genny's help.