The basic recipe from Stephanie Alexander:
500g red currants
2 1/4 cups sugar (I used 1 3/4 cups and will reduce it even further next time)
Bung washed red currants (stalks and all) and sugar into a pot. Bring to a hard boil. Then boil for 8 minutes. Strain through sieve. Pour into clean, sterilised jars.
It is as easy as that. Mind you, my first batch didn't set and I have no idea what went wrong. Made another batch and it set beautifully.
Anyway, here is my batch. I added dried orange peel, black pepper corns, dried chilli and cinnamon sticks to the berries and sugar.
Bring to a boil, then boil for 8 minutes.
Strain through sieve.
Pour into clean, sterilised jars. There was a smidgen left and that ended up in a cup.
Set beautifully, as you can see.
I am already looking forward to pork spareribs, etc. as this is great for marinating anything porky.
what would we do without Stephanie? You can always use it as red currant sauce...over pancakes, or with ice-cream. Yum!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Hazel! Stephanie rocks!
ReplyDeleteHmm... tempting suggestions. Thank you! :)
Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThe first time I made this was with the red currants you brought to Sydney for us. I've been trying to grow them here and the first plant turned out to be white currents - the jelly was lovely. Now we have planted cuttings from red currents so I'm very impatient.
looks yummy ,when you sieve it do you line the sieve with anything ,or just leave it to filter through the sieve
ReplyDeleteRobyn, Happy New Year, to you, too! Fingers crossed that your cuttings do well and you have a bumper crop soon!
ReplyDeleteA, I didn't line the sieve with anything. The recipe calls for the sieve to be lined with muslin, but I couldn't be bothered. Good luck!