Redcurrant Jelly

Once upon a time our garden was full of fruit bushes.

With a small boy to amuse we had to pulled up the fruit bushes so that he had a lawn to play on. There is only one redcurrant bush left and this year I built a fortress around it to stop the blackbirds eating the berries.

They are so pretty, but I am never sure what to do with them other than stick them on top of things.

Exhibit A

I sent a query out on Twitter. What shall I do with all these redcurrants?

There were a collection of answers including cheesecake topping and muffins, but in the main the call was to turn them into redcurrant vodka or gin.

Now I liked this idea, mainly because it sounded nice and easy.

Then reality kicked in, when am I realistically going to drink them?

I returned to my ‘Sensational Preserves’ Book and plumped for what is called a ‘no cook’ recipe. This is a bit of a lie as you do cook it, so not sure what they class as cooking.

You blend the berries in the food processor, then sieve and strain them through a jelly bag overnight.

Next day you warm the juice in the oven with 12oz of sugar per pint of juice. You then ‘cook’ the warm sugar and juice on the hob until you get the set you want.

It’s made just over a jars worth of jewel coloured tangy jelly that’s good with biscuits and cheese.

My favourite is to spoon it over vanilla cheesecake.

I’d have put a photograph of that in too, but I appear to have eaten it all.

Oops.