Currant affairs

Rules are made to be broken, right? One of the aims of my self-sufficiency campaign was to cut my food miles to food metres... by refusing to eat any food that had been flown here and only eat food out of my own backyard this year. Well, I have a confession to make: I sometimes fly to my food instead!
I was recently invited to scoff my way through a tasting menu of blackcurrant-based treats in Wellington, as a guest of the NZ Blackcurrant Cooperative. The fabulous Harriet Harcourt (uber-foodie in the film industry, she made most of the culinary props for the Lord of the Rings) hosted us in her commercial kitchen in Berhampore, where we ate blackcurrants with lamb, blackcurrants with beef, blackcurrants with venison, blackcurrants with spices and blackcurrants with salmon. For good measure, we also scoffed down a few frozen blackcurrants, quaffed a few glasses of blackcurrant cordial, nibbled at blackcurrant and red onion jelly with cheese and finished off with a round of Christmas tarts filled with Blackcurrant & Honey Fruit Mince, courtesy of tv cook Anne Morton from Good Morning. Get her scrummy recipe here.
Charles Noville, the executive chef at Bellamys at Parliament, wowed us all with his utterly delicious blackcurrant and chocolate-flavoured sauce... I guarantee that it's a winner if you're planning a posh bbq this summer! When Charles made it for guests at Parliament, it was offered on the menu as Cedar-smoked Young Venison with Blackcurrant & Cocoa Infusion and Spiced & Whipped Root Vegetables. But it would be just as tasty with plain old bangers and mash! You can get Charles' recipe here.
And if you're looking for a sensational fresh salsa that's so delicious you could eat it in on its own as a salad, you must try this recipe from UK foodie Sophie Grigson. It's my new favourite summer dish... I just can't wait for my beefsteak tomatoes to get down to business so I can make it every night!
To make Sophie Grigson's Blackcurrant Salsa, you need: 200g of frozen blackcurrants, 4 tsp of caster sugar, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, a handful of fresh mint leaves, 400g of tomatoes, 4 spring onions and salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer the blackcurrants with the caster sugar and vinegar for about three minutes, then take off the heat and cool. Add the tomatoes (you can skin and de-seed them if you feel like it, or simply chop them roughly if you're not fussed), finely sliced spring onions and finely shredded mint. Stir and leave to sit for at least half an hour. Add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with more mint. It's delicious!
Finally, I should point out that I do grow blackcurrants. I bought two plants on my way back from Wellington.... so technically I was still "eating only food that I grow in my backyard". Hehe. I've planted the Incredible Edibles variety 'Magnus'. In 14 months time, I'll be able to harvest my first crop, but in the meantime I don't think it's cheating if I buy the odd bag of NZ-grown SuJon blackcurrants at the supermarket.