'Willpower & sheer idiocy combine in harmony'
More uses for blackcurrants and berries. One of them certainly isn't Ribena. In fact, they all go surprisingly well with vodka.
Grown-up blackcurrant recipes: all go with vodka
Clear-out crumble
A CRUMBLE is a fine way to dispose of odds and ends of fruit and jam. This one ended up with red gooseberries, Granny Smiths apples and the end of a jar of sunberry compote, plus Fairtrade coconut shavings in it.
Filling:
Apples (cooking or dessert) - approx half a pound
Any suitable mixture of soft fruit/compote, equal to the quantity of apples
Sugar to taste
Crumble:
3oz butter or marg
4oz sugar (I used demerara)
9oz flour
1oz oatmeal
1oz coconut
Poach the fruit until soft with
the sugar, then put it in an
ovenproof bowl.
For the topping, sieve flour
into a bowl, rub in butter until
the mixture looks like
breadcrumbs, then stir in the
sugar, oatmeal and coconut.
Spoon on top of the fruit and bake at 200 degrees C, Gas mark 6, for 45 minutes.
Serve with custard, vanilla ice-cream or double cream.
Crusty-topped blackcurrant cake with vanilla
6oz/150g soft butter
6oz/150g golden caster sugar
9oz/225g SR flour
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
Topping:
6oz/150g blackcurrants (or redcurrants/whitecurrants, etc)
5oz/125g ordinary sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C, gas mark 4. Grease a round 8"/20cm cake tin with a loose bottom and line the base with baking parchment.
In a mixer, put the butter, caster sugar, flour (sieved), eggs and vanilla into the bowl and beat for about 5 minutes, until pale and creamy.
Spread one third of cake mixture into tin and sprinkle with one third of berries.
Add another third of the cake mixture and do the same with the berries. Finish off with the remaining mixture and place cake in centre of the oven for about an hour (check after 50 minutes). Cake is done when a skewer comes out clean.
Put the rest of the currants in a bowl with the sugar, add lemon juice and mash with a fork. With a skewer, poke holes all over top of cake (don't go mad or it will fall apart. Remember what the probation officer said). Spoon fruit mixture over the hot cake evenly and leave to cool completely before removing from tin - the top should be crisp.
NB - if you're freezing this cake, don't put the topping on - only do this after it has been defrosted.
Red berry compote
UNOPENED jars will keep for a year or more. You can make it with tayberries, loganberries, sunberries, or raspberries (or any combination). You can use blackberries if you don’t mind the bigger pips.
It’s not as firm a set as a jam, which makes it more versatile.
My favourites? Stirred into home-made rice pudding or mix it with a tot of vodka over vanilla ice-cream.
Proportions: 2lb of fruit to 2lb of sugar, plus 2 tablespoons of lemon juice per lb
1 packet of pectin powder
Put the sugar and lemon juice in a preserving pan and stir over a very low heat until it becomes a syrup, then slowly bring to the boil. Pour the hot syrup over the fruit and leave to stand for a few hours.
Put the fruit and sugar mixture back in the preserving pan, add the pectin and heat very slowly until boiling (don’t worry if you have “toffee-like” bits – they will dissolve).
Bring to a rolling boil for 4-5 minutes, then test for a set (put a drop on a cold saucer, push it with your finger – if it wrinkles, it’s done, if not, give it another minute). Leave to cool for 15 minutes, then skim off any scum. Pour into clean jars, sterilised on a very low heat in the oven for 10 minutes.
Add a disc of waxed paper to the top of each jar, seal and allow to cool thoroughly. Store in a cool, dark place unopened, then in the fridge once opened.
Blackcurrant liqueur
“A WASTE of good vodka,” my other half said. He doesn't even drink it! I don’t think so.
Take a half-full bottle of vodka (or brandy) and add blackcurrants until the bottle is full.
Leave for six months.
I opened mine after eight months and it is stunning - the smell and taste of blackcurrants is unbelieveably good.
Blackcurrant & gooseberry compote
THIS gorgeous combination of tart berries is the perfect partner to vanilla yoghurt, ice cream and rice pudding. It even makes ultra-healthy breakfast cereals that taste like cardboard palatable.
As you can see, the colour varies according to the proportions of fruit - the top picture (new batch) is much paler than the original, as it has lots of gooseberries.
It’s a doddle to make (basically an unset jam). Take a mix of blackcurrants and gooseberries, place them in a non-stick pan with sugar to taste.
Heat slowly, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved and the fruit is cooked. Pot up into sterilised jars (wash thoroughly, then put in a cool oven for 10 minutes. Keep in the fridge.
