Blackcurrant and cherry soup
Ingredients
- 100g of blackcurrants
- cinnamon stick, or a star anise if you prefer
- 75g of sugar, (you may not use all of this, you may need more)
- cassis to taste
- brandy to taste
- 1 pinch of vanilla paste, (a quarter of the seeds from a vanilla pod or half a teaspoon of vanilla extract will work, too)
- 1 ripe nectarine, or peach
- 20 cherries, dark - halved and pitted
- 10 raspberries
- lemon juice, squeeze of
- edible flowers, (for decoration, optional)
Instructions
- Heat the blackcurrants with 300ml of water in a small saucepan over a medium heat (there’s no need to strip them from their spindly stems)
- Let it bubble until the fruit has collapsed and the liquid is a deep, purple-red, the colour of a good Chianti. This will take about 5 minutes
- Drain into a bowl and press the pulp through a sieve to extract as much flavour and liquid as possible. Discard the fruit and return the liquid to the saucepan
- Add the cinnamon stick or star anise and most of the sugar. How much sugar depends on the fruit you use and how sweet it is – start with 50g as it’s easy to add more. Add a splash of cassis and another of brandy
- Heat the liquid until the sugar fully dissolves. Taste it, but remember that the sweetness is numbed a little when it is chilled. The fruit may be more or less tart, so it’s impossible to give more than a guide
- Add sugar until it’s a little bit sweeter than you want it to be, let it dissolve, then remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the vanilla paste and lemon juice
- Cut a cross in the bottom of the nectarine, cover with boiling water and leave for 2 minutes. Drain, cover with cold water, drain again and pull off the skin
- Cut the nectarine in half and remove the stone – it will be slippery to handle but it’s worth doing. Cut into pieces that aren’t too big for a spoon
- Add the cherries and nectarine pieces to the liquid. They will soften slightly as it cools, but not enough to make a piece of unripe fruit soft
- Allow to cool, then place in the fridge for 30 minutes before you want to serve it. You want it to be chilled, not icy
- Ladle artfully into bowls and dot with raspberries. Arrange flowers prettily, if using
