Currant Catsup Recipes

CURRANT JELLY WIENER SAUCE

Steps:

• In a slow cooker over medium low heat, mix the red currant jelly, Dijon-style mustard, ketchup and brown sugar. Place little smokie sausages into the mixture and simmer at least 2 hours before serving with toothpicks.

CURRANT KETCHUP BASTE

Steps:

• Place the currants, water, sugar, vinegar, shallot, ginger, mustard, cinnamon, cayenne, cloves, allspice, salt and freshly ground pepper into a heavy-based saucepan.
• Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring now and then.
• Cool slightly and then blend in a food processor or jug blender, adding a little water if required. Transfer to a warm, sterilised jar, cover with a waxed disc, cool and cover tightly.
• To use the currant ketchup, simply baste the lamb, pork or chicken during the last few minutes of cooking.

CURRANT CATSUP

Steps:

• The currants should be washed and picked over. Leave on the stems, but remove any leaves.
• Boil them with the vinegar until all are 'popped'.
• Strain well; discard seeds and stems. You should get about 5 cups of juice.
• Put the juice in a pot and add the spices mixed to a paste with a little of the currant juice.
• Bring to a boil and add the sugar.
• Boil hard for about 10 minutes.
• Start testing for "gel".
• There are several ways to do this, but the easiest is to put a drop on a frozen surface (like an ice cube) and see if it will wrinkle when pushed with your finger. Alternately, keep dipping you spoon in the mixture as it boils. Once it starts running off in two streams, keep careful watch: when it runs off in multiple streams, or in a sheet, it is done.
• When this is achieved, ladle into sterlized jars and seal with sterilized lids.
• The original recipe did not call for this, but I pop them back in the boiling water bath for 5 minutes just for safety sake.