Spiced redcurrant & red onion relish

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Spiced redcurrant & red onion relish jar and label

Last week we brought you a sweet, baked redcurrant recipe. This week, some more of our redcurrants are being used in a savoury preserve – spiced redcurrant & red onion relish. We’ve slightly altered a recipe we found on the BBC Good Food website.

We’ve not tried out our relish yet – we’re giving the flavours some time to steep and develop. It’s meant to be really good teamed with a creamy goat’s cheese or charcuterie.

Have you tried this recipe? Let us know how you get on.

Spiced redcurrant & red onion relish

Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 450 ml

Ingredients
  

  • 2 medium red onions peeled & sliced into ½cm square pieces
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp dried crushed chillies
  • 2 large garlic cloves chopped finely
  • 1 small knob of fresh ginger grated
  • 200 ml red wine vinegar I used some of our home-made blackberry vinegar
  • 140 g muscovado sugar
  • 1 tsp Chinese five spice
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 200 g redcurrants de-stalked
  •  

Instructions
 

  • In a heavy bottomed frying pan, cook the onions and dried crushed chillies in the olive oil over a medium heat until softened
  • Remove from the pan and set aside
  • Without washing out the pan, add the garlic and ginger with half the vinegar, bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes
  • Add the cooked onion & chilli mix, sugar, Chinese five spice, salt and the remainder of the vinegar
  • Bring back up to the boil then simmer for about 5 minutes until thickened
  • Add the redcurrants and simmer for another 5 minutes, or until some of them have burst and the liquid has become syrupy
  • Remove and pour into a sterilised, 450ml heatproof jar
  • Screw the lid on tightly while still hot. Once opened, it keeps in the fridge for up to 3 weeks




Cakes & Bakes: Redcurrant muffins

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Redcurrant muffin with a cup of tea | H is for Home

So far on our allotment, the only things that have come to fruition are the currant bushes that we inherited. The last time we were there we did a little bit of weeding but we spent the vast majority of our time picking shiny, jewel-like blackcurrants and redcurrants.

Home-made redcurrant muffins | H is for Home #recipe #redcurrants #muffins

We harvested almost a kilo of the latter – that’s over £10-worth from a supermarket! 125 grams of it was put towards making a batch of redcurrant muffins.

Glass bowl of fresh redcurrants and silicon muffin mould

We acquired a silicon muffin tray in a boxed lot at an auction many moons ago that we surprisingly, have never used. Fished out, dusted down and washed; it turned out 6 big, beautiful muffin specimens!

Wet & dry muffin ingredients

Silicon is a revelation – baked goods ease out of it with no cajoling whatsoever. If you’ve not tried it before, Lakeland does a good range of affordable silicon baking tins, pans and trays.

Muffin batter in a mixing bowl

The redcurrant muffin recipe used here was found on the Abel & Cole website.

Putting muffin mixture into muffin tray

The rest of the redcurrants have been put into the freezer temporarily, waiting to be turned into jam, jelly and relish; so keep a watch out for some more redcurrant recipes to follow!

Cooked reducurrant muffins in a muffin tray

Home-made redcurrant muffins | H is for Home #recipe #redcurrants #muffins

Redcurrant muffins

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine British
Servings 12 small or 6 large muffins

Ingredients
  

  • 60 g Stork or butter
  • 175 g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 120 g caster sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 120 ml milk
  • 125 g fresh redcurrants

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 180°C/350ºF/Gas mark 4
  • Grease a 12-hole muffin pan (We have a 6-hole silicone muffin pan that makes lovely large, tall muffins!) or insert paper muffin cases
  • Put the Stork/butter into a microwave-proof bowl or measuring jug and heat on a low setting for 20 seconds. Set aside to cool
  • Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium-sized mixing bowl
  • Add all but 2 tbsp of the caster sugar - this is being reserved to sprinkle over the muffin tops prior to going into the oven
  • In a small measuring jug, beat the egg a few times until the yolk & white is just combined
  • Whisk in the milk and melted Stork/butter
  • Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, stirring quickly and gently until flour is just dampened
  • Gently fold in the redcurrants, being careful not to burst too many of them
  • Spoon the batter into prepared muffin , filling each slightly more than half full
  • Sprinkle the 2tbsp of reserved sugar over each muffin
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes away clean
  • Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes prior to serving
  • Keep in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 3 days
redcurrant muffins ingredients
Keyword muffins, redcurrants