Blackcurrants

kittycat07

To those who don't have their own - I've just got back from out local PYO - £3 per kilo for blackcurrants which I thought was pretty good... though no doubt I stand to be corrected LOL!

thriftlady_2

retiredlady wrote: »

I know this might seem like a stupid question, and I have googled it, but can anyone tell me or point me towards a site that would show me how to recognise a blackcurrant growing wild? In the woods by our house are a couple of bush/tree which have lots of shinyblack berries growing in bunches and I don't know if they are safe to eat or not?
Would really hate to poison my family!

Googling 'images' gets better results http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/images/media/blackcurrant.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/media/pressreleases/06_08_01_blackcurrants.html&h=514&w=793&sz=206&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=mgYP1ktlv-9iWM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dblackcurrant%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DISO-8859-1%26sa%3DG

THIRZAH

Individual yorkshire puddings filled with stewed blackcurrants and served with single cream are lovely.

DH took out our large blackcurrant bush earlier this year-it took up a lot of space and was difficult to pick as it was in a corner-I used to have to climb into the bush to reach the back. One year we had 17 lbs of fruit from the one bush which was just too much to cope with.

thriftlady_2

thriftlady wrote: »

I've made this recipe from my blackcurrant harvest http://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette.cfm?num_recette=1644

A rough translation is

700g blackcurrants
5 gelatine leaves
250g sugar
125ml water
250g crème fraîche
50g icing sugar

Push the currants through a fine sieve to extract as much pulp as you can. A juicer or a mouli-legumes will do the job quickly.

Put the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water to soak.

Heat the sugar and water to just boiling and stir until a clear syrup.

Add blackcurrant pulp and the soaked gelatine leaves one by one.

Allow to cool. Whisk crème fraîche with icing sugar and gently whisk into the currant mixture.

Chill for 24 hours.

Mine is chilling as I write, it is looking good.

Update -it was delicious. I recommend the recipe

kazmeister

Thank you for all your replies.

Have so far just cheated and put some in a sponge flan case with a quick jel but kids loved it.

Decided am going to try and make jam but lack jars as took all the glass to recycle last week Grrrrr. Need to go over to mums tomorrow to borrow her jam pan and sugar thermometer and maybe she's got some jars I can use.

Would like to try and make blackcurrant sorbet as well if anyone has a recipe.

Will also make a blackcurrant sauce for ice cream etc. I made a lovely passion fruit one a couple of weeks ago just be adding a little water and icing sugar to the fruit then thickening it with cornflour so will try with the blackcurrants.

Seakay

Black Currant Juice

3kg black currants
30ml pectin-destroying enzyme (home brew shops)
150g sugar to each litre of juice

Yield - aprox 2.25 litres

Remove damaged fruit. Crush the fruit with a wooden spoon in a large glass or earthenware bowl and mix in the enzyme. Cover the bowl and leave in a warm room for two to three days, stirring each day. Strain and press the pulp and measure the jice. Add the required amount of sugar to the cold juie, stir until dissolved. Bottle and heat process or use 300g sugar per litre and Campden solution.

Campden solution:

crush Campden tablets in a glass or earthenware bowl with a spoon and dissolve in 15ml warm water per tablet.
Add solution at rate of 30ml per litre before pouring prepared juice into sterilised bottles.
No need for heat processing.
Will easily preserve contents for six months, sometimes longer.
Very little sulphur dioxide is present and preserves may be used straight from the bottle.

Black Currant Syrup

3 Kg black currants
1.75 litres water
600g sugar to each litre juice

Yield: 4-5 litres

Remove damaged fruit. Heat the fruit and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil quickly, stirring all the time. Boil for one minute, crushing any whole fruit with a wooden spoon. Strain and press the pulp and measure the juice. Add the required amount of sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Bottle and heat process, or add 800g sugar per litre and use Campden solution.

Seakay

sorbet recipes:

http://cyro.cs-territories.com/recipes/blackcurrantsorbet.htm

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3108/blackcurrant-and-mint-sorbet.jsp

And if you have your own blackcurrant bushes:

Blackcurrant Leaf Sorbet

We also use this recipe to make an elderflower sorbet - substitute 4 or 5 elderflower heads in full bloom.

2 large handfuls of young blackcurrant leaves
8 ozs (225g /1 cup) sugar
1 pint (600ml /2½ cups) cold water
Juice of 3 lemons
1 egg white (optional)

Crush the blackcurrant (or the elder flower heads) leaves tightly in your hand, put into a stainless steel saucepan with the cold water and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar, bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Add the juice of 3 freshly squeezed lemons. Strain.

Make the sorbet in one of the following ways.

Pour the juice into a stainless steel or plastic container and freeze for about 4-5 hours or until semi-frozen. Remove from the freezer and whisk until smooth, then return to the freezer. Whisk again when almost frozen and fold in one stiffly beaten egg white. Keep in the freezer until needed.

If you have a food processor simply freeze the sorbet completely in a stainless steel or plastic bowl, then break into large pieces and whizz up in the food processor for a few seconds. Add one slightly beaten egg white, whizz again for another few seconds, then return to the bowl and freeze again until needed.

Serve in chilled glasses or chilled white china bowls or on pretty plates lined with fresh blackcurrant leaves.

rhiwfield

We've cropped lots of gooseberries (made into jam and granita) and we picked 7kg of blackcurrants at the weekend which we made into loads of jam and pies. Trouble is our freezer is playing up and so pies were sent to dd1 for freezing.

Our problem is that we have another 5kg of blackcurrants to pick and about 2kg of jostaberries. We cant freeze them or make granita or sorbet until the freezer is sorted so has anyone any suggestions for blackcurrant recipes that will store for a long time. Cordials/syrups looked interesting at first but they appear to only last a couple of weeks in the fridge. Might use a few for blackcurrant vodka but that wont make a dent in the crop.

Penelope_Penguin

My favourite fruit - I'll look after them for you Is there anything in this thread on blackcurrants I'll add this thread to that one later.

Penny. x

rhiwfield

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

My favourite fruit - I'll look after them for you Is there anything in this thread on blackcurrants I'll add this thread to that one later.

Penny. x

Thanks Penny, but I cant see a long lasting use in those threads other than jam..and we've got 26 jars of that and have run out of jars!

A long-lasting cordial recipe would be great as we have plenty of bottles. Another thought is dried blackcurrants, I've googled and read that they are available at unbelievable prices, but how do you dry and store them?

Perhaps also a fruit bar that could be stored in airtight containers for a few weeks?

All else failing we may have a wine making session but I still havent bottled last year's efforts