Local blackcurrants are in the shops in the moment. If you feel like an afternoon in the fresh air you can pick your own at a fruit farm or you may be lucky enough to have a bush in your garden.
Blackcurrants are tricky to pick because the berries are small and it takes time to get a 250g punnet full to the brim. Then they need to be stripped from their stalks which is fiddly but worth the effort.
These jewel like berries are are small bombs of flavour and their stunning colour can be swirled through meringues or icecream making them look a million dollars.
Sugar is best friend to blackcurrants as they are as tart as hell. But I have stumbled across a use for them that does not need sugar or fiddly stripping from stalks.
Beetroot juice tastes beautiful with fresh apple juice but just a little on the sweet side. Add a few blackcurrants and the sweetness is toned down and the flavour deepened. This is one of my top five juices ever.
If you have a juicer abandoned in the cupboard somewhere I urge you to get it out, dust it down and get juicing this drink.
Making juice is a great conjuring trick if you have children around or visitors who need reminding how wonderful it is to prepare a really stunning simple drink using humble ingredients grown in the UK.....I wonder what it tastes like with a shot of vodka ....umhhhh?
Beetroot, apple and blackcurrant juice
2 generous glasses
Ingredients
2 beetroots, washed and scrubbed to remove any grit or sand
2 apples, rinsed in cold water
50g black currants, rinsed in cold water
100ml cold water, still or sparkling
Cut the beetroot and apples into chunks small enough to feed into the funnel of the juicer. Place a 500ml jug beneath the lip of the juicer. Turn the juicer on and begin to feed the apple and beetroot pieces into the machine. Press the plunger into the funnel of the juicer to press the apple and beetroot against the grating drum. Finally feed a little cold water through the funnel of the juicer to flush out the remaiming juice. Taste a teaspoon of the juice and if you need to adjust the flavour by adding more of any of the ingredients.
