Taste Summer Blackcurrants

blackcurrants, a taste of Summer

AD// This feature is part of a collaboration with the Blackcurrant Foundation, founded in 2005 to raise awareness of this great British super-fruit. Working together has recalled my childhood memories, of a fruit which I am incredibly fond. So, allow me to take a trip down memory lane and also share my new recipe for Blackcurrant Yogurt Cake to celebrate this beautiful berry. It is a rich mellow-yogurt cake, made with plenty of eggs and butter; to counter-balance the zingy flavour of the blackcurrants. It makes the perfect Summer treat and would be a lovely recipe to cook with kids this Summer holidays.

my childhood memories

Mimi’s Bowl really began with the desire to teach my children of love of food, to provide them with memories of sharing good food, as a family. I was incredibly lucky that growing produce, eating home cooked food and cooking, were all part of my childhood. I want to share my love of food, with my own children. Food has the power to jolt us back to times, places and people in our lives. For me, blackcurrant is just such a taste, transporting me back to long Summers in the Northamptonshire countryside, where we would de-camp for the school holidays. It is not a flavour that can really be replicated: sharp, zingy, sour and sweet all at once. Like elderflower, freshly picked broad beans, home grown cobnuts, or potted shrimps (made from shrimps we caught off the British coastline) ~ blackcurrant is a food memory which I cherish.

I recall Summer puddings my mother made, at home in batches. Or, picking fruit in my grandmother’s kitchen gardens in Kent. A patch of produce she oversaw being planted after the war, at a time when produce was scarce and food waste would have been seen as sacrilege. Later these would be made into Blackcurrant Fool and eaten with langue des chats biscuits. Today my Granny still grows them at the ripe old age of 100 years. She was born in 1920 and having lived through World War II blackcurrants were a Summer food staple for her generation.

I have memories of making and eating my mother’s Summer Puddings, stuffed with blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries. The berries stain, so we would pull on gloves and stand on wooden chairs in the kitchen and make batches of Summer Puddings with her. The puddings freeze well and she accumulated a variety of pudding shaped Tupperware to accommodate the “pudding marathon”, we could then enjoy them over the Summer months. If you haven’t tried this classic recipe the result is a pink pudding, with soft bread sides - jam packed full fruit. Best, served with vanilla ice cream.

Sitting outside my grandmother’s house in Kent

Later, when I was a teenager my parents started a fruit and vegetable garden of their own, with a fruit cage growing blackcurrants, netted away from prying birds. Perhaps picking them there is a memory my children will cherish one day.

blackcurrant season

Blackcurrants tend to ripen in July, some of the latest varieties will fruit into August and a few very early varieties may be ripe by late June. So it is possible to have a 6 week picking season for Blackcurrants. I encourage you to have a go at cooking with this beautiful seasonal berry and if you can’t get hold of fresh blackcurrants (I couldn’t at the time of writing this recipe as they aren’t quite yet available), then they are easy to find frozen.

& if you would like to know more…

please go to https://www.blackcurrantfoundation.co.uk/