Summer Fruits

What can you do when your neighbour asks if you could possibly help him out by taking 1.5k of freshly picked blackcurrants of his hands?
Creme de Cassis!!!

This comes from Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book – much better than the expensive stuff you buy over the counter. We used it for kir, kir royale when the piggy bank was full, with sparkling mineral water in the summer, with boiling water in winter to fight off colds.

Black currants          1kg
Red wine                   1ltr
Sugar                         1.5kg
Vodka                         c 0.75ltr (or available spirits)

Soak the black currents in the red wine for two days (you don’t have to be fussy about twigs and a few leaves).

The easiest way I have found of carrying out the next step is to strain off the wine and then to process the black currents in batches with enough wine to lubricate the processing. Then, in relatively small amounts, squeeze the pulp through a clean tea towel.

Add the resulting liquid to the wine. Measure. Pour into a large heavy pan and add 1kg of sugar to each litre of liquid. Heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Using a jam thermometer bring the liquid to what she describes as “above blood temperature but well below simmering and boiling points”. Not wanting to think about blood, that means about 80C to me. Maintain it at around this temperature for about 2 hours stirring from time to time until it is reduced a little. Allow to cool.

Place a measure (cup, mug, whatever) of booze in a large bowl. Add three measures of the cool syrup. Repeat until the syrup is used up.

Bottle (if you save your spirit bottles there isn’t even any need to wash). Ready in a couple of days; will keep for months – if allowed.