Kitchen Garden Forum

Me and baby bump are drinking juice by the gallons in this heat, so thought it would be a good idea to make our own. I'd like to make Ribena style juice with my black currants. Any suggestions?

Also can you make raspberry juice? I don't have a juicer. Bought a lovely raspberry apple juice from the shops and it seems a bit silly since I have all these raspberries at the moment.

Instead of a juicer do you have a blender, food processor or electric hand blender - wizz the fruit to mush and then strain through a seive. If no electric gadgets available, mash them with a fork and then push through a seive using a wooden spoon.

I find raspberries on their own done like this do need a bit of sugar, regardless of how sweet they taste whole. But adding the resulting juice to apple juice may negate the need for additional sugar.

Hello Malk (and bump)
We have one of those Braun stick blenders. So we put fruit into the beaker that came with the machine just cover it with soda/tonic water or lemonade and blitz it to smithereens. You've still got the pips but if you're really fussy I suppose you could seive them out.

John

For blackcurrant, place in a pan and put over a low heat until the juice starts to run, leave for a while. Strain out, then sweeten to taste, dissolving the sugar while the juice is still hot/warm, then cool. I've found this gives a better flavour. I leave mine overnight on the cool end of a Rayburn, so longer time is better. You can do shte same with rasps.

Another blackcurrant cordial recipe:

I like this recipe because not only does it taste good, it also doesn't involve boiling the blackcurrants, which destroys the vit C content.
You might want to add less sugar and taste it. I don't use as much sugar as the recipe says.

2lb blackcurrents
1 pint water

Put both in a big bowl. Mash the blackcurrants.
Cover with a clean cloth.
Leave 2-3 days in a cool, dark place.
Place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, let the mixture warm through and stir well to release the juices.
Strain through a muslin cloth.
Measure the liquid and add 12 oz sugar for 1 pint liquid. Heat v. gently to dissolve the sugar.
Pour the liquid into bottles.
Keeps 6 weeks in the fridge or can be frozen.

Having tasted first hand Jenny's blackcurrant cordial I can say that it is absolutely delicious.

Awww thanks Piglet. Good to hear from you. Have you made your own yet?

Not yet Jenny but will be pressing the steam juicer into service when we pick the next load. I am sulking in my stye at the moment as the tusk doctor has just pulled 4 teeth.

Do you dilute the cordial with water or can you drink it straight?

Oh dilute it definitely. About the same as shop bought cordial.

Poor Piglet! That sounds painful!