I found some bright red currents at the grocery this past week, and I could not resist bring some home. Then came the process of figuring out what to do with them. I hit my jelly quota with the rose hip jelly I made earlier in the month, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the black current sorbet being served up at a local restaurant, I was to lazy to mess with reorganizing my limited freezer space to create my own sorbet. Yes, I suffer from selective laziness – I am too lazy to reorganize my freezer, but I spent the last three days painting the lawn furniture. Then the idea of creating a red current curd began to take root, and once the thought crossed my mind I just had to follow it through to its end. It turned out splendidly! A beautiful velvety pink curd with a delicately bright taste.
Ingredients:
- 6 oz Red Currents
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 cup Water
- the juice from 1 Lemon
- 1/2 cup (1stick) cubed Butter
- 2 Eggs + 1 Egg Yoke
Directions:
- Place the red currents (sticks and all) into a sauce pan along with the water and the sugar.
- Slowly boil the currents until they have cooked down into a syrup (~ 15-20 minutes).
- Allow the syrup to cool slightly before passing it through a strainer to remove all of the stems and seeds.
- Place the current syrup back on the stove top, and melt in the butter.
- Meanwhile, in a separate bowl beat the eggs and the egg yoke together.
- Add the lemon juice to the current/butter mixture.
- Once the butter, currents, and lemon juice have been fully combined reduce your heat to slightly below boiling.
- This is the tricky part, you want to cook your eggs into the curd without curdling them. The key to doing this properly is to keep a constantly eye on your heat, making sure that your pan doesn’t get to hot, and to stir/whisk the mixture constantly until you are ready to remove it from the heat. Gradually add your eggs into curd, a little bit at a time, while continuing to stir.
- Continue to stir your curd until it begins to thicken – this should take several minutes.
- Remove you curd from the heat, and allow it to cool.
- Store your curd in the refrigerator for up to a month. I do not recommend canning it due to it’s dairy and egg content. I also suggest using a clean spoon to scoop it out of its jar before serving. This helps prevent it from getting contaminated and prolongs its shelf life.