January 30th, 2006 - Currants
Jen wondered if I could make my currants more palatable, and pointed out how many recipes she found at Epicurious….. It’s a good idea, but unfortunately, the vast majority of “currant” recipes call for dried currants. Which aren’t currants at all! They are dried grapes! [Silly English. Why can’t we use the same word for the same thing??? grumble grumble grumble] I did print out a bunch of non-dried currant recipes once, but they are all desserts, like pies. And we never eat pie. So it just wasn’t worth making something with them.
I did, however, get through a box last week. I sugared them up (actually, used Stevia) and used a small 4-oz container to make up a serving. It was so much easier to eat 1/2c rather than staring at the entire box each time. I also knew that it would take me only 4-6 servings to get through at that rate. They would be much better if I made them much sweeter. But I don’t think the added calories of sugar is worth it. (And I find the Stevia has an odd taste if I go heavy enough to be sweet enough.)
I am going to dry currants this coming summer, but I’m not sure how good they will be. Currants have one big seed in them, kind of like a grape seed but the currant is far smaller than a grape. I’m afraid the seed will still be large after drying. But we’ll see. If they were dry, I’d easily use them in trail mix (GORP) and fruit breads. And scones.
Speaking of which, I made them again this weekend. Cut back again on the sugar and the butter and Eric still liked them. Whoohoo! I also made some cheese crackers for Maggie and me. I liked only one of the two recipes, but Maggie likes them both. Later in the evening, I got the wonderful idea of adding dried veggies to them. Now I’m looking forward to the next time. The only problem is that the recipes were drastically too dry to come together. I had to add water and oil to both. And it still wasn’t enough on the good one. They were supposed to be sliced very thin and that was just impossible. As it was, they were falling apart sliced just under 1/4″ which is pretty thick for a cracker! Both recipes are from Super Baby Food, so maybe I should go look for others and compare…..
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