With Christmas around the corner, this year, we’re lucky enough to have convinced (with lots of groveling and promises to clean her kitchen) the amazing Miss Molly to share her hints, tips, and recipes for Elsie Creek’s fabulously famous rosella

Not only is she famous for her impressive brolly collection, but Miss Molly is also the five-time winner for the best rosella jam in the outback—until someone cheated. But that’s another story, for another day.

What is a rosella?

Welcome everyone, let’s begin with the question everyone asks—what is a rosella?

Not to be confused with the famous rosella bird, the rosella is a bright red flower, with a unique flavour that is like a combination of tart raspberries and plums.

High in vitamin C, they’re also rich in antioxidant properties that many labels as a superfood. They say this fabulous fruit offers Ayurvedic health benefits to fight against the common cold and other health issues. But, hon, as I’m only a hairdresser, do see a doctor for any medical advice.

via GIPHY

Where does the Rosella grow?

Everywhere in Elsie Creek. It’s a bush, or shrub, that Billy and his cantankerous brother Micky, who mow the town’s airstrip, call it “… a flamin’ weedy thing!’

Just ignore them, I do.

The fabulous rosella is common throughout parts of Queensland and where we are in the Northern Territory. They love the sun, and sandy soils, and can grow up to 2 metres.

It’s a non-native gone native!

You won’t believe this, but the rosella isn’t native to Australia!

Introduced thousands of years ago, the rosella is found in India, Jamaica, Egypt, Italy, Iran, Iraq, and even in Russia.

Although there are 35 species of hibiscus native to Australia, there are over 250 species worldwide. I believe we should class it as a Territory native.

The indigenous in our region would agree, as they’ve taken full advantage of this marvelous plant for their bush tucker and bush medicine. The aboriginals use the fibrous bark to make Dilli bags and nets. I’ve even used it for my dragon fruit garden when I couldn’t find any twine nearby as it grows along the fence.

The rosella grows so wild in our area that we hold an annual Rosella Festival to celebrate our last softball game of the year. It’s a hoot. You should come.

Harvesting the rosella

Even though some locals call the rosella a weed — a weed is only a weed when you have no use for it. And we have plenty of uses for the rosella fruits. As I said, we have a festival celebrating its fabulousness.

To grow them is like taking care of… Um… Dare, I say it… a weed.

Really, we do nothing to the rosella. It just grows like a lanky shrub.

Then it flowers.

Oh, how marvelous they look when the shrub is in full flower.

That’s when we harvest the calyx. That’s the flowering part of the plant that protects the bud and supports the petals as they bloom. Otherwise known as those little knobs of red, that a cheeky stockman called sunburnt barbed wire!

The flowers are delicate crimson seed pods that are hand-picked and sun-dried.

With our outback sun, it only takes a few hours.

But we’re wary of the many birds eyeing off the delicacy, so be careful where you dry it.

8 ways to use fresh rosellas:

1/ Washed and de-seeded, chop fresh flower buds and throw them into a pot with some sugar and lime juice to make for an amazingly sweet yet tarty jam. Sorry, but I just can’t share my secret family recipe, but I don’t mind sharing this one found here >>

2/ Of course, if you can make a jam, you can turn it into chutney by adding ginger, chili, sugar, and some apples to the pot of rosellas. The vibrant red of the rosella chutney makes quite a dramatic appearance on any white meat dish.

3/ They’re perfect for tossing raw into salads.

4/ Boiled as a vegetable for something dynamic at your next dinner party.

5/ Poach a handful of fresh rosellas, with equal weight in superfine sugar and a squeeze of lime, and simmer in a small saucepan until the fruits soften. Spoon it over some vanilla ice cream and it’s just sublime.

6/ One of the local lads makes syrup to add to his family-favorite spiders.

7/ Rosella (Or Roselle as it’s known in parts of the world) also makes a bottle of amazing wine and even champagne like the Rosella Brut champagne.

8/ And skip the strawberry for your next champagne, or sparkling wine, and add a rosella flower to the glass. It looks quite spectacular the way the petals unfurl in the glass’s bottom that they end up making the liquid pink! It’s divine.

via GIPHY

4 ways to use dried rosellas:

1/- Steeped in hot water to make a hot or cold tea, or any of your favouirte herbal teas as a lovely antioxidant treat.

2/- Be sure it’s the good kind of rosella, not the Hibiscus heterophyllus that makes people sick, and that, dried, makes for a good potpourri.

3/- Make a powder out of dried rosellas to add to dishes for the exotic kick like your kangaroo casserole, beef stew, or even your bolognese sauce.

4/-Using that same powder, you can mix it up like a cordial or a twist on your cocktail sugar syrup, that the fabulous bush-pilot, Monet makes. It’s delicious. If only she’d share the recipe with us.

The Christmas Rosella Glaze worthy of any celebration

For Christmas, I make the following glaze for our ham. It’s so simple. You decide on how big a ham you’re going to use.

For the Christmas Rosella Glaze, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• 1 cup rosella jam (Cranberry jam/jelly) is a great alternative
• 1 tablespoon of honey mixed with 1 cup of apple juice
• 1 cinnamon stick halved or ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• ½ tablespoon of English mustard powder
• A decent pinch of all spice powder (½ teaspoon)
• And a tiny pinch of cloves (¼ teaspoon)

Method to the madness

Plop it all into a saucepan until it simmers into a lovely syrup that makes your sinuses want to dance in delicious delight.

Feel free to add a dash of honey for consistency. I do.

It needs to be thick to just coat the ham, like the rich syrup it is.

Or you can cheat, like I do. After it’s simmered enough for the fruit to soften, I whack it into the blender after it’s cooled for a bit. Then I pour it over the top of the boiled, scoured, and clove-studded ham.

Cover it with foil, then pop it into the oven at 160-180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit). My oven runs a little hot, so you’ll know what’s best.

Now, for the next 1 ½ hours, every 15 minutes I baste the ham with more of the rosella glaze. Then back into the oven. You want it to heat all the way through. But keep repeating this process until the rosella glaze has wonderfully caramelized over the ham.  Is your mouth watering yet?

Then let it rest for 20 minutes before serving, cutting, and devouring.

Tip: put the ham on a rack and into a deep oven dish. Have some water at the base of this dish as it’s an absolute nightmare getting the sticky syrup off your dish later.

Oh, and you can do this same glaze for turkeys, Territory Turkey (the Magpie Goose), and pork. It’s a glaze that’ll make any roast amazing.

Happy Christmas, hon.

** You can read more about the fabulous Miss Molly from the Elsie Creek Series, in Diamond in the Dust. Found here >> 

**All still images relating to this post’s topic are via CANVA.com 

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