After I
posted looking for more ideas about what to do with our currants,
Julie said that they had been making Italian Cream Sodas from cordials this year. It just so happened that I had picked up some heavy cream anticipating making raspberry scones this weekend! I picked another batch of currants and made up a quick batch of cordial and voila, ready for soda. Sidney said it was like drinking clouds; I'd say that is an endorsement!
Currant Cordial
A batch of currents, de-stemmed (as much as you have patience for, a few stems won't matter)
1 C Water
Sugar
Lemon
Wash and mostly de-stem your currants. What is nice about cordials, is that you measure ingredients based on your volume of fruit juice, not the volume of fruit. So pick as much as you can. Yesterday I had about 5 cups. Place currants and water in a pot on medium low and simmer about 15 minutes or until the fruit is very soft and breaking down. I place a sieve over a large measuring cup and pour the hot fruit into it. Smash the fruit in the sieve until all of the juice has been extracted. Add the juice of one lemon. This left me with 2 cups of liquid. Place the liquid and half that volume of sugar (1 Cup) back into the pot and cook until the sugar has fully dissolved. Bottle, cool, and refrigerate. It should last 6 months, but I doubt it lasts that long!
For the cream soda add cordial to taste (I normally do about 2" in the bottom of a glass of ice), pour in soda water, top with cream and mix it all up. Fruit cordials are a big summer favorite around here and very easy to make, try it!
