Currants
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All year round
Currants are small black grapes (often Zante or Corinth varieties) that have been dried. The same technique is used to make raisins and sultanas: the grapes are coated with a harmless drying emulsion and left to dry in the sun. When they are done a production line of sieves, combs and air jets removes the stems and any fragments of leaf or twig which, in the tough old days, the conscientious cook would have to pick off herself before she made her cakes and puddings.
Serves 4Spiced Bread and Apple Pudding
This is a bread-and-butter pudding really, made with the addition of apples - useful if you have windfalls or a glut in the fruit bowl! A cheap and easy pud that proves you don't have to spend a fortune to eat well.
Makes 12Breadmaker Hot Cross Buns
These are so good we reckon you won't want to restrict them to Easter eating: moreishly spicy, packed with dried fruit and with a freshness, softness and flavour that puts bought hot cross buns in the shade every time.
Serves 4Turkish Stuffed Tomatoes
Eat these hot or cold: with plenty of Mediterranean flavours - cinnamon, pine nuts, thyme - these wonderful summery stuffed tomatoes are a good way of using up a glut from the garden and will please vegetarians no end.
Serves 2Stuffed Cabbage Leaves with Toasted Pistachios and Pine Nuts
Redolent of Greece, Turkey and the Middle East where stuffed vegetables are de rigueur, this lovely vegetarian recipe is a flavourful way to eat cabbage in the winter months.
Makes one 8 inch (20 cm) round cakeVirtually Organic Christmas Cake
There are so many ingredients in a traditional Christmas cake that it's almost impossible to get organic versions of them all. But this cake from Fiona Beckett gets as near to it as possible. Organic dried fruits, in particular, have an amazing flavo
