COOKBOOKS GALORE

 Am having a clear out of last year's fruit from the freezer, and found a bag of blackcurrants lurking in the depths. I have to say that they're not my favourite fruit - not sweet enough for me, but OH loves them. What to do with them? Didn't want another crumble or tart, so had a look in one of my cookbooks and found a recipe for an apple clafoutis - I was sure that blackcurrants would work just as well. What is a clafoutis? A batter pudding/flan with fruit, usually cherries. I 've seen many recipes for the batter, including one using yeast; I read through this one, then did it the wrong way round - beating the melted butter and sugar together instead of the sugar and eggs, but it didn't seem to have made any difference. I was a bit worried that the blackcurrants would be too tart, but in the sweet batter they were fine. Preheat oven 220C/gas7 and grease a gratin dish with a little butter. Put 500g of fresh or frozen blackcurrants [or cherries...

I'm desperately trying to use up the contents of the freezer before we move. Just before we came here, I ended up running down the road to my friend with an enormous plastic bag full of food from the freezer! I want to do a better job this time, so it's 'use up some blackcurrants' day! I love teabreads and loafcakes, so was very pleased to find this recipe in a little book I bought ages ago from a NT shop. There's no author's name, and the book is called 'Favourite family teabreads and other delights'. Here's the recipe which I've adapted. 100g fresh blackcurrants 275g sr flour [plus a bit for tossing the blackcurrants] 100g butter or margarine 100g caster sugar [and a bit for sprinkling on the top] 2 large eggs, beaten a little milk Preheat oven 160 fan/180C/350F/gas4 Grease a 900g [2lb] loaf tin Rub the fat into the flour. Add the sugar then the eggs and stir together. The mixture should be fairly dry, but if it won't come ...