A recent mishap, something to do with not closing a freezer door properly or some such nonsense and the impending arrival of better weather (complete and utter nonsense ) requires the malfunctioning writer to get a shift on with converting the remaining sullen contents, mostly an overburden of fruits from last year.  Sort the remaining disarray and dismay of freezer being ones mantra of the week.

The frosty red currants retain a wanten look, still clinging into their little sticks and stems. One ponders the prospect of just stripping them and whizzing them with some icing sugar or vanilla syrup, surely worth a punt per punnet under the circumstances? Anyway it works for bananas and they look similar don’t they?

Fiddle about with boiling, straining and stock syrups if you wish but this is an insta-win.  Adding a tablespoon of icing sugar and a dash of elderflower cordial to one batch. The zest of an orange a decent squeeze of juice ( a lie it was Grand Mariner  ) and a tablespoon of icing sugar to the other.  Whizzed in two separate batches, quality control checked for sweetness and the alcoholic verve of the latter. The texture is great! Not icy, not slushy or overly fibrous. Seedy yes indeedy but sharp and rather grown up. I found both trial batches to be too sugary sweet and used maple syrup to sweeten the larger batch and it was nectarous.

Life imitating art ? Is this a contemporary under-currant?

Ordinarily I wouldn’t condone the following but it’s so good please consider.  Inspired by a gift box which has been spuriously spirited/hidden in the kitchen since Christmas. I refused to part with it but remained reticent yet intrigued to try. The rocky road to alcho-pop-u-la-la culture.

The perverse and seemingly disparate act of combining fruity sugary jam with the awesomeness of Gin?

Now some of you may have already acquired this boozy habit, together we may question the psyche of the person who came up with the notion and then sold it on as a ‘must have’ to Hendricks?  (See you Jimmy, Oops sorry wrong Hendricks and who types in a Scottish accent after all? ) but I took a moment to put a twist on the Gin and Jam by adding some store-bought red current jelly lightly warmed (10-20 seconds in the microwave )to soften and about ⅔ jelly to ⅓ gin.    “Wow!” said the tea boy. “Umm, so now you’re glad I kept the box?” Gloat to self. The simple sorbet, the swirl of “the sauce” are an absolute winner.

With the proliferation of lactose intollerance, allergies, diabetes ( et al ) the red currant route is an opportunity to express and experiment without an ice cream machine. There is also the option to sweeten to personal taste and dietary requirements. Booze notwithstanding.

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