Our bumper crop of redcurrants from the allotment has so far gone into jelly and a tart.
Today I made a bottle of redcurrant cordial or vinbärssaft in Swedish (although when I ran the word through Google Translate it came up with ‘coleslaw’)!
A kilo of fruit only made about 600ml of cordial. It felt like a bit of a waste, disposing of all that fruit pulp.
But once I had that first taste, I felt that the profligacy was worth it.
It was fruity, tart and sweet, all at the same time – almost like cranberry juice but not at all dry. It’s delicious simply mixed with iced sparkling water, but can also be incorporated into cocktail recipes… and a dash in a glass of champagne is wonderful too!
Redcurrant cordial
Ingredients
- 1 kg/2.2lbs redcurrants
- 200 g/7oz granulated sugar
Instructions
- Rinse & drain the de-stalked redcurrants in a colander
- Put the redcurrants and sugar into a heavy-bottomed saucepan or jam pan
- Put the pan over a medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves completely
- Using a wooden spoon or a potato masher, squash the fruit
- Turn the heat up high and boil for about 5 minutes
- Pour the redcurrants into a jelly bag and strain for about an hour
- Decant into a sterilised 1 litre bottle
- Once opened, keep refrigerated and consume within a week or two
