Blackcurrants

[Flossie]

In about 2 weeks the blackcurrants on my 5 blackcurrant bushes will be ripe, yielding 20+ pounds of fruit. Can anyone please suggest some desserts to use these up? I will probably make one batch of jam and maybe some blackcurrant gin or vodka but I'm at a loss to know what to do with the rest. I can't make them all into jam as I've done in previous years. I will probably make a mousse and some ice cream but after that?

[Wendy DeBord]

Lucky you. I've never actually gotten enough at one time to ever make something out of them. Personally, I love to give my extra homegrown goodies away and share with freinds that don't garden............thats my first way of handling obscene amounts of food.

Then I proceed to the lazy way and freeze fruits whole (cleaned and diced) but not processed into anything, freezing in heavy weight zip lock baggies. That way I can take it out and use it all through the year. Granted you'd need a good sized freezer for you hull.

Your list of things you can make with these is pretty much endless. It could be used in countless applications. What do you like to eat? Sorbet, granites. souffles (hot or cold), upside down cakes. muffins, coffee cakes, sauce, napoleons, truffles, gellies, cobblers.

Are you in need of specific recipes........ is it helpful to explain how you can treat it as anyother berry and switch it into any recipe? Or are you just bored and looking for something different?

[andiesenji]

When I can get them, I dry them because the flavor concentrates and they can be used in so many baked items.

I also make juice which I process and can in quart jars for later use. Saves me having to do so many labor intensive things at one time.

I have a steam juicer that is great for extracting juice from seeded fruits, much easier than cooking the fruit then straining, and you don't have to stand over the pot and stir constantly.

my juicer

I have a friend in Sweden who turned me on to this several years ago. She processes all kinds of the various berries that grow wild near their summer home.

It comes in two sizes, I have the 10 liter but the smaller one is fine for smaller batches.

Edited July 8, 2004 by andiesenji (log)

[Flossie]

Wendy - thanks for your thoughts. I do give a lot of stuff away - I grow raspberries, black, white and red currants, red and yellow gooseberries, etc, etc. But a lot of people look askance at me when I hand them a pile of produce and I just know that my beautiful fruit goes to waste. If I hand them a dessert, however, I know they will enjoy it and that the fruit will have been used to good effect. I usually make pounds of raspberry jam and freeze a lot as well but I don't have a huge freezer. The problem is this year that I'm recovering from a broken ankle and don't want to/can't stand for hours making preserves. I could make some blackcurrant jelly as then I wouldn't have to 'top-and-tail' the fruit. I don't think I need recipes as such - just need to get my head around a way of dealing with all this fruit efficiently and painlessly! And I like ALL the things you listed (and more!)

Andiesenji - I like the idea of drying the fruit. I've never tried this - can you explain how I would do it, please? And your mention of Sweden reminds me: I have a book on Scandinavian baking, must have a look in there for ideas. Thanks, both!

[kitwilliams]

Bake off and cool a tart shell of pate sucree, fill it with a mixture of pastry cream and lemon curd and cover the top with a mixture of your red, white and black currants. Just generously toss them on. It's a beautiful looking tart. Throw on some of your raspberries too.

[Flossie]

Thanks, Kit, I'll try this one soon. I really like lemon curd and it will make a lovely contrast to the berries. Where I live, people rarely eat these berries uncooked (raspberries, yes, but not the others). Perhaps I'll poach the fruit lightly first...

[Bicycle Lee]

try a blackcurrant crisp...

or maybe black currant sorbet, or black currant panna cotta...ooh that sounds nice...

or make some syrup out of them...

[andiesenji]

Andiesenji - I like the idea of drying the fruit. I've never tried this - can you explain how I would do it, please? And your mention of Sweden reminds me: I have a book on Scandinavian baking, must have a look in there for ideas. Thanks, both!

I have a couple of very large dehydrators because I dry a lot of fruit, veg and herbs.

However you can dry fruit in your oven if you have a very low setting and a convection oven works even better. There is a good explanation on this site:

Drying fruit

red or white currants do not dry well. blackcurrants are a different thing entirely, they do.

You don't need to buy any fancy equipment.

A cheap unfinished wood picture frame with inexpensive nylon (or whatever) mesh from the fabric store tacked or stapled to the front, to make a mesh-bottomed tray, that will fit in your oven.

If you have a standing pilot light in your oven you can put the fruit in at 140 degrees and keep it at that temp for about 8 hours, then just leave it in the oven with the pilot light only or the electric light turned on which will keep it at about the same temp if you don't have a standing pilot light.

First dip the berries in boiling water for 30 seconds, no longer! let them drip dry then transfer to the drying tray.

Just check on the berries about every 8 hours and when they have shrivelled to 1/2 to 1/3 the original size (2 to 3 days, depending on size) and give a little but do not squish when you pinch them, they are done. You can leave them with no heat for another day to make sure but they should be o.k. Taste also as they progress. You will find that the sugar concentrates and they will be much sweeter dried than they are naturally.

The regular home dehydrators are very inexpensive and do a fairly good job. I have two of the Excalibur dehydrators and they do a great job.

Excalibur

I dry everything from berries to mango slices to figs, tomatoes, apples and of course apricots, peaches and nectarines, herbs, celery, sliced onions, sliced shallots, sliced garlic.

It also is handy for drying candied peel and ginger. (I make big batches) like this recently finished 12 quarts of ginger.

[Flossie]

Andisenji: this is great. Thank you so much. I have an Aga and it would probably be very good for the process you've described. Unfortunately we've turned it off for the summer.... I'm going to print this off and keep it for future reference and I'll certainly try it in the autumn with plums. Thanks again.

[kitwilliams]

Thanks, Kit, I'll try this one soon. I really like lemon curd and it will make a lovely contrast to the berries. Where I live, people rarely eat these berries uncooked (raspberries, yes, but not the others). Perhaps I'll poach the fruit lightly first...

Where are you located, Flossie? In the UK, red, white and black currants are used fresh...I suppose there are different types.

[Flossie]

Kit - I'm in Northern Ireland. Locally, it's very rare to have these berries uncooked - we like very sweet things here and add sugar to nearly everything! While I enjoy them uncooked, most people would turn up their noses if I served them 'raw'. Perhaps part of the reason for this is that we don't have very hot summers to sweeten fruit.

[ewindels]

Flossie,

Last summer Martha Stewart Living had a recipe for making your own cassis, which I can't seem to find on their web site but I'd swear it was in their June or July 2003 issue. My friend Mark who grows both black and red currants tried it. If I'm not mistaken it was just black currants, sugar, and good brandy, but I can't remember the proportions, and then you let it ferment in the refrigerator for a month. The result jelled considerably, which made it tough to pour and distribute, but it sure was tasty. No doubt someone else on the gullet would have cassis recipes.

Now all you have to do is make your own champagne and you're set!

[Flossie]

Thanks for this, ewindels. I have a couple of Martha Stewart books so I'll have a look and see if she mentions this anywhere. I do a similar thing with sloes, gin and sugar and I had thought of trying blackcurrants instead. Today was beautifully dry and sunny - my husband and sister pulled 11 pounds of raspberries and 4 of gooseberries. The raspberries are all dealt with, the goosegogs will have to wait until tomorrow!

[curlywurlyfi]

well if you're in Northern Ireland you're probably having the same delightful [read: rain, cold, snow, hail, sleet, plague of locusts] July weather we're having in London, and if you'd like a hot pudding to do with your blackcurrants, you could make good old Lemon Surprise Pudding (the one which turns out to have a layer of sauce, layer of sponge when baked) and toss in handfuls of blackcurrants to the mixture - they work beautifully with the lemon and give little explosions of hot blackcurranty flavour.

Other thoughts:

- flourless chocolate cake with blackcurrants instead of raspberries (this freezes well. Nigella's recipe is great.)

- could you adapt a cranberry loaf/teabread recipe for blackcurrants?

- Eton Mess with blackcurrants instead of raspberries. You could add a dash of kirsch and freeze it, or use crumbled amaretti biscuits instead of meringue?

- chocolate log with cream + blackcurrants, like a grooved-up Black Forest

- mulch them up + use as a sauce for plain cheesecake or a couple of tablespoons when deglazing the roasted duck breast pan

- send a couple of punnets to grateful eGullet types??

Fi

[Flossie]

Nope, Fi, for Norn Iron we're having reasonably good weather. Dull, grey, overcast today, no rain and so far no locusts. Thanks for the great ideas - I like them all. I often make lemon surprise pud - it was a set piece for my Domestic Science 'O' level many years ago - and never thought of adding berries/currants to it. Familiarity breeds contempt and all that. I've an American cousin-in-lawcoming to visit next week and the blackcurrants should be ripe by then so I'll try a few of your suggestions. I took Jane Grigson to bed last night (so to speak) and found that she has a recipe for creme de cassis so I'm definitely going to give that a whirl. Thanks again.

[foodie52]

Fool......blackcurrant fool.....

It's been years since I've had that.

[tryska]

mmmmm....dried currants mixed in shortbread or used in oatmeal cookies.

[rickster]

Patricia Wells has a recipe in one of her books for an apple and black currant tart that looks good. Never been able to try it since black currants are impossible to find in my part of the US.

[Flossie]

In the end I made:

4 pounds of blackcurrant jam;

4 pounds of blackcurrant jelly;

froze another 4 -5 pounds;

made a blackcurrant mousse, served in tuiles d'amande with blackcurrant coulis;

made a batch of creme de cassis;

gave several pounds away.

Thanks to everyone for their ideas, which I've noted carefully for next year when I'll hopefully be more agile.

[Redsugar]

Many years ago, I baked a Blackcurrant Cheesecake. (I must ferret out the recipe.) Redcurrant Relish makes a delicious sauce on ice cream, although I prefer it as an accompaniment for roast lamb, pork, or chicken.

Redcurrant Pie

Crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup granulated sugar

½ pound uns. butter

1 large egg

2 Tbsp milk

Fit into deep, 9-in. round pan. Sprinkle w/ sieved biscuit crumbs.

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Whisk 6 large egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add 1 cup granulated sugar, and whip to loosely stiff peaks. Stir in 1 cup ground almonds. Then fold in 4 to 5 cups of washed-&-rinsed, stemmed redcurrants. Turn mixture into prepared shell and bake until puffed & golden.