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Everybody with a garden should have a currant bush in it somewhere. Currants, which are at the peak of their season now, in early August, are ridiculously easy to grow, packed with flavour and vitamin C, and have no thorns or bad habits. All they need is a little space and a reasonable amount of sun. They don’t need a trellis, they don’t need to be pruned carefully, you don’t have to water them once they are established, and they don’t get too big.

I don’t put any nets on my currant bushes to protect them from the birds. I think birds have a tough time perching in currant bushes to peck at the dangling berries (or maybe they are too busy ruining my apples and strawberries), so you get delicious currants every year without any trouble at all. They are easy to pick and any child can do it without a ladder. No need for seeding, stoning or peeling! You don’t even have to cook currants - unlike rhubarb, which has little to recommend it. The currant is altogether the world’s most obliging fruit. So why has everybody forgotten about them?

Until the last war, currants were a common English fruit, grown in great quantities and used in puddings, jams and home-made wines. Now you can’t even buy them in shops. I have seen little punnets of imported currants in the covered market, for three or pounds each, as if they were an exotic delicacy. Supermarkets only sell them as dried currants or as a sickly-sweet cordial for children.

I think it is time to re-discover the currant. There are three types, the black, the red and the white. The French, who eat them with cream cheese, have always favoured the white currant, but I like the rich colour of the red and the black. The latter is really purple when you burst it open, and it can grow almost as big as a small grape. Fresh red or blackcurrants served with sugar and cream are in my opinion more scrumptious than strawberries. They are ideal for making ice-cream, cheesecake or summer pudding.
If you want some more adventurous ideas, what about making a preserve with currants and serving it instead of cranberry jelly at your next Christmas dinner? The only reason we serve cranberries with turkey is that the turkey came from America, where wild cranberries were one of the few fruits that the early settlers could find. Currants are just as tasty, have a similar texture and would make a pleasant change.

Or you could try duck with currant sauce. There are classic recipes combining duck with bitter oranges or morello cherries, both of them sharp fruits, so why not fresh currants? Take four ounces of fresh currants, wash them, drain them well and then simmer them gently for ten minutes in red wine or a mixture of water and port. There should be enough liquid to just cover them. Stir them and squash them slightly. Then take two boneless breasts of duck, and sear them in butter in a heavy pan. (I use one of those wonder-cookers so that you don’t need to use any fat at all). Add the currants, and a few drops of soy sauce, re-cover and cook the meat to your taste - red, pink or brown inside, any of which are safe with duck. Taste the sauce and if it is too sharp for you, stir in a teaspoon of honey. Before serving, cut into diagonal slices with a sharp knife.

Clafoutis

If you like summer pudding, you will also like the French pudding called clafoutis, a sort of cake baked with fresh cherries or plums inside it. It can be adapted successfully using fresh currants instead.
You need as ingredients

1½ lb of fresh currants, 4 eggs, 2½ ounces of flour, 2½ ounces of butter, 9 fluid ounces of milk, a pinch of salt, 4 oz of sugar (I am being generous with the sugar as currants are less sweet than dessert cherries), and a little more for sprinkling.

Preparation

You start by heating the oven to gas 6, or a medium high setting. Then generously butter a wide, shallow baking dish. Put 2/3 of the remaining butter on a low heat to melt. Arrange the currants evenly in the dish. Beat the eggs lightly in a large bowl, whisk in a pinch of salt and most of the sugar. Sift in the flour gradually, still whisking, and then whisk in the melted butter. Finally, you add the milk, and stir it all together to make a runny batter. Pour this batter over the currants and dot the rest of the butter on the top.

Cooking
Bake the pudding for 35-40 minutes until set, and then sprinkle with a little more sugar before serving. You can add cream if you like. The clafoutis will be light and springy, more like a Yorkshire pudding than a cake, and the fruit will be buttery and delectable.
Enjoy!