Summer is already delighting us with many, many fruits. And especially those who grow their own fruits and vegetables in the garden are often overwhelmed by a large amount of fruit, which of course can not be consumed right away. Therefore, ways to preserve are required to preserve everything that cannot be treated immediately. At the moment, among other things, the currant bushes are bursting with delicious fruits that will be harvested. Therefore, we have gathered some ideas and recipes for you that you can use to process white currants, so that you can still nibble on them even in winter. So what do you do with currants?
Prepare compote with fruit from the garden
Compote is probably the fastest and easiest way to process black currants, among other things. Not only can you drink it right away or use it for a cold, refreshing drink, you can also store it for a long time in glasses. If you want to preserve currants, do the following:
Fill the fruit into sterilized canning jars (up to 4-5 cm below the edge), fill with sugar water (be sure to leave a space of up to 2 cm from the edge), close the jars and cook at 150 to 150 degrees. 160 degrees for about half an hour. For this purpose you can use the oven or a special canning unit.
For 1.5 kg of fruit (washed and picked berries), simply heat 1 liter of water and 600 g of sugar in a saucepan and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Then let the sugar water cool a bit before pouring it into the jars with the berries.
Tips: If you want to enjoy compote immediately, you can also cook the fruit in a saucepan.
White currant jam
Even if you ask yourself “what can you do with currants”, the jam has definitely already appeared. After all, jams and marmalades can in principle be made from any type of fruit. Here is how to prepare currant jam, if you want to treat white currants as follows:
- 1 kg white currants
- 500 g canned sugar
- ½ cup of water (you can choose any fruit juice instead)
- 1 organic lemon
- 1 packet of vanilla sugar with Bourbon flavor
Put the jars in the oven at 120 degrees for 10 minutes to sterilize them. You can boil the lids in the pan. It is best to heat the jars so that they are still hot at the end of the cooking time so that the glass does not break when you fill it with the hot jam.
Squeeze the lemon juice. Wash the berries and bring to the boil with water / juice, jam and lemon juice. You should stir constantly as the liquid is still small and the products may otherwise burn. As soon as the contents boil, reduce the heat and let the currant jam cook for 5 minutes. The mass should slowly gel. Only finally, when the jam is ready, stir in the vanilla sugar until it has dissolved. Pour the currant jam into the prepared jars and screw on the lids.
Check the lids after an hour: they bend slightly inwards, are airtight and can be stored. Eat those that are not well sealed first.
Currant jelly recipe
Do you prefer seedless jelly? You can also process wonderful white currants for this and just need to remove the seeds from the currants. To do this, first just boil the fruit, simmer for 5 minutes and pass it through a fine sieve and collect the juice. Then you can prepare your seed-free white currant jelly as described above.
Currant chutney recipe with red pepper and lemon
You can also use your currants by making chutney. Strip 500 g of berries from the panicles, boil them with half a liter of water and 50 ml of orange and lemon juice each and before the fruit through a fine sieve. Boil the collected juice again, this time with jam sugar. Add another 500g of berries, cook over high heat for 4 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of red peppercorns and grated zest of a lemon. Place the chutney in sterilized jars and screw well on top.
Process white currants into syrup
You only need three ingredients if you want to prepare currant syrup and process white currants in this way, namely the berries, water and sugar. If you want the syrup to be even more fruity, you can simply replace the water with apple juice. And the currant recipe is really very simple in other respects: you just need to clean or wash the currants and remove them from the panicles. Then boil one and a half liters of water and / or juice and 2 kg of sugar (dextrose can also be used) until a syrup is formed. Then add 1 kg of berries.
If you want, you can take the sour taste out of your syrup with lemon juice from four lemons and citric acid (1 packet). While this sounds paradoxical, it’s actually the point of lemons in sour fruit recipes. Boil everything for about 5 minutes, take the pan off the plate and let the liquid cool a bit. Then strain them through a fine sieve or kitchen towel into sterilized bottles.
You can use the syrup to prepare refreshing drinks such as lemonade or cocktails, aromatic sweet desserts, top ice cream and enhance your breakfast (eg pancakes or muesli).
