Red Currant Jelly

The community garden is an Eden in my urban neighborhood. Inside its gates, honey bees hover over flowers, powdered with pollen. Squirrels scurry across tree branches that gardeners once wove into fences. Rabbits appear out of nowhere, silent and watchful.

The garden is particularly magical by mid-June. Tiny pale blossoms cover the red currant bushes. Within a week, the blossoms transition into the caps of green berries that dangle from branches in loose strands. By mid-July, the berries ripen into a breathlessly regal red. Somewhat translucent, they pick up the sunlight and glow like the uncut rubies once worn by the Nizams of Hyderabrad.

In some ways, I feel silly harvesting such dazzlingly beautiful fruit to make jelly. The berries seem more fit for the hands of jewelers. (Perhaps that's why pastry chefs across Paris use them to crown tarts and tortes and other masterfully crafted confections.) Are there novel ways to incorporate their tart flavor?

RED CURRANT JELLY

Makes about 3 1/2 cups

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds red currants
1/2 cup water
.5 ounce dry pectin
3 1/2 cups sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

Gently wash berries. Pull from little branches and place in a saucepan. Crush with a potato masher or the bottom of a cup.

Add water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Place a 12 x 12 piece of cheese cloth over a bowl. Using a spoon, place 1/3 of the cooked berries over the cloth. Squeeze berries to release juice. Repeat with the rest of the cooked berries.

Pour juice into a saucepan. Mix in sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add pectin. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 2 minutes. Carefully remove from heat. Skim off foam with a spoon.

Cool and transfer to glass jars.

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Beetroot and Carrot porial/ curry - Steamed and seasoned beetroots and carrots

BEET ROOT AND CARROT CURRY/ PORIAL

Mother ruled out cooking beet root in her kitchen because of its colour. As her grand children grew up and they took a liking to the vegetable she slightly relaxed her rules and agreed to prepare only porial or curry using beet root. Henceforth beet root curry or porial became an oft prepared dish at home. But she still shuns it in koottu or pachadi.
My grand children like beet root porial when I add a handful of pea nuts to it. Here I have also added carrots to enhance the colour of the porial and the children enjoyed it more than ever. It is a very simple but healthy and nutritious dish which can be savoured as a side dish.

INGREDIENTS
Beetroots - 2
Carrots - 2
Peanuts - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Split black gram dal - 1 tsp

METHOD
1. Wash and pressure cook whole beet roots and carrots without adding water to the vegetables. The steam in the cooker is enough to cook the vegetables.
2. Cool the vegetables thoroughly and then peel as you would peel potatoes.
3. Chop them into small cubes and keep aside.
4. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
5. When the mustard seeds splutter add black gram dal and roast till golden in colour.
6. Add pea nuts and roast till they crackle.
7. Add chopped vegetables and salt, and keep stirring till the curry/porial becomes dry.
The sweet taste and the attractive colour of the vegetables, and the aroma of the seasoning is sure to attract one and all to the dining table.