From St. John's Day, June 24th, the season for delicious and healthy currants begins. The grapes can be harvested until August. Since they perish quickly, it makes sense to strain the berries and possibly freeze them.

The seeds of the small berries get in the way in sauces

The varieties of currants

There are three different varieties of currants:

  • Red currants
  • white currants
  • black currants

All berries grow in the form of grapes and ripen in summer. Apart from the colour, the differences are in the taste. The red currants are relatively acidic. They can be eaten raw, are an ingredient in red jelly, are suitable for jam, desserts and as a cake topping.
The white berries are rarely found on the market. They have more sweetness and aroma than their red sister.
Blackcurrants are slightly larger than the red and white berries. They have a bitter taste and a slightly sour aroma.

Currants pass

Since currants usually ripen in large quantities and they don't keep very long even in the refrigerator, it is advisable to puree the berries and freeze them. In any case, the many small seeds that have to be filtered out are annoying in the puree. To do this, you can pass berries through a sieve.

  1. First wash the currants and drain them.
  2. Pluck the berries from the stalks. The easiest way to do this is to use a fork and scrape off the berries.
  3. Discard shriveled and unripe berries carefully.
  4. Now put the berries in a sieve and pass them through with the help of a spoon or a ladle. The result is a rather runny, seedless mush that can serve as the basis for a dessert sauce or be stirred into a quark dish.
  5. If you would like to prepare a currant jelly or jam, briefly boil the berries and then strain them.

Use crushed currants

The thin puree gives quark and yoghurt a delicious aroma, thickened with starch, the strained currants become a tasty sauce for a fruit salad. It is also suitable for making jellies, syrup or lemonade or liqueur.

Category:

Vegetable garden