Summer already delights us with lots and lots of fruit. And especially those who grow their own fruit and vegetables in the garden are often overwhelmed by a large amount of fruit that of course cannot be consumed straight away. Therefore, preservation options are needed to preserve everything that cannot be processed straight away. The currant bushes, among other things, are currently bursting with delicious fruits that are ready to be harvested. That's why we've put together a few ideas and recipes for you that you can use to process white currants so that you can still snack on them even in winter. So, what do you do with currants?
Prepare compote with fruits from the garden
Probably the quickest and easiest option with which you can process white currants, among other things, is compote. You can not only drink this straight away or for a cold,refreshing drinkuse, but also store them in mason jars for a long time. If you would like to preserve currants, proceed as follows:
Pour the fruit into sterilized preserving jars (up to 4-5 cm below the rim), fill them with sugar water (make sure there is up to 2 cm from the rim), close the jars and cook them at 150 to 160 degrees for about half an hour. For this purpose you can use the oven or a special canning device.
For 1.5 kg of fruit (washed and berries picked), simply heat a liter of water and 600 g of sugar in a saucepan and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Then let the sugar water cool slightly before pouring it into the glasses with the berries.
Tipp: If you want to enjoy compote straight away, you can also cook the fruit in a pot.
White currant jam
Even if you ask yourself “what can you do with currants”, jam has probably already crossed your mind. Finally letJam and preservesIn principle, prepare all types of fruit. This is how currant jam is cooked if you want to process white currants like this:
- 1 kg of white currants
- 500 g preserving sugar
- ½ cup water (you can also choose any fruit juice instead)
- 1 organic lemon
- 1 pack of bourbon flavored vanilla sugar
Place the mason jars in the oven at 120 degrees for 10 minutes to sterilize them. You can boil the lids in the kettle. It is best to heat the jars so that they are still warm at the end of the preparation time so that the jar does not shatter when filled with the hot jam.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon. Wash the berries and bring them to the boil with the water/juice, preserving sugar and lemon juice. You should stir constantly as the liquid is still small and the products could otherwise burn. As soon as the contents boil, reduce the heat and let the currant jam cook for 5 minutes. The mass should gel slowly. Only at the very end, when the jam is ready, stir in the vanilla sugar until it has dissolved. Pour the currant jam into the prepared jars and screw the lids tightly.
After an hour, check the lids: If they have curved slightly inwards, they are hermetically sealed and are ready for storage. Those that are not well sealed are the first to consume.
Currant jelly recipe
Would you ratherJelly without seeds? You can also use white currants wonderfully for this and you just have to remove the seeds from the currants. To do this, first just boil the fruit, let it simmer for 5 minutes and strain it through a fine sieve, collecting the juice. Then you can prepare your white currant jelly seedless as described above.
Currant chutney recipe with red pepper and lemon
You can also use your currants byPrepare chutney. Strip 500 g of berries from the panicles, boil them with half a liter of water and 50 ml each of orange and lemon juice and put the fruit through a fine sieve. Boil the collected juice again, this time with preserving sugar. Add another 500 g of berries, cook for 4 minutes over high heat, remove the pan from the heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of red peppercorns and the grated zest of a lemon. Pour the chutney into sterilized jars and screw them tightly.
You only need three ingredients if you make currant syrup and want to process white currants in this way, namely the berries, water and sugar. If you would like the syrup to be even fruitier, you can simply replace the water with apple juice. And that's it tooCurrant recipeIt's really very simple: all you have to do is 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 is also suitable) 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). Although this sounds paradoxical, it is actually the purpose of lemons in sour fruit recipes. Cook everything for about 5 minutes, remove the pot from the heat and let the liquid cool down a little. Then strain them through a fine sieve or tea towel into sterilized bottles.
With the syrup you can have refreshingDrinks like lemonadeor prepare cocktails, sweeten desserts aromatically, top ice cream and use it to enhance your breakfast (e.g. egg tarts or muesli).
