450 currant recipes

A traditional British Easter fruitcake with a hidden almond paste layer, golden raisins, currants, and candied cherries. Topped with 11 marzipan balls for the Apostles.

Boudin blanc de Liege, a delicate homemade white pork sausage. Lean pork and fat pureed silky with eggs, Port and aromatic spiced milk, dotted with currants, poached gently then browned in butter.

English cheese pie with sieved cottage cheese, cream sherry, rosewater, and currants in a from-scratch butter pastry crust. A fragrant Tudor-era custard dessert.

Sicilian-style jumbo shrimp in a sweet-and-sour Marsala sauce with pine nuts, currants, capers, and fennel. A rustic Italian seafood main baked in an earthenware casserole.

Saffron-laced pastina salad with pine nuts, currants, fresh mint, and orange blossom water. A fragrant Middle Eastern-inspired room temperature pasta side dish with turmeric and cumin.

Maple-apple oatmeal cookies with real maple syrup, fresh apples, applesauce, currants, and a crunchy oat-brown sugar topping. Soft, cakey fall cookies baked low and slow.

Sicilian-style jumbo shrimp baked in Marsala wine with plum tomatoes, pine nuts, currants, capers, and fennel, finished with grated pecorino. A rustic Italian seafood dish in 35 minutes.

A rich Scottish cloutie dumpling studded with currants, sultanas, grated apple, and carrot, boiled in a cloth for 4 hours and served with a warm ginger wine cream sauce. A proper celebration pudding.

Roast pheasant stuffed with toasted rice, mushrooms, and herbs, draped in bacon and basted with a currant jelly and port wine sauce. A classic wild game dinner.

Old-fashioned mince meat with calf tongue, suet, dried fruit, candied citrus, brandy and whiskey. The traditional pie filling, aged in a crock for at least 7 weeks for deep holiday flavor.

Baked marinated tofu over saucy cabbage with tomato paste, dill, currants, and minced pickle, served on rice. A hearty vegetarian main with Eastern European flair.

Entenmann's-style apple crumb cake with a yeasted braided dough filled with Granny Smith apples, cinnamon, mace, and currants, topped with a pecan crumb topping.

Mother's fruit cake is a brandy-soaked holiday classic with cherries, apricots, pineapple, peel, raisins, and currants bound in a spiced chocolate-scented batter. Baked slow and aged for two months.

Old-school dark fruitcake soaked overnight in brandy and orange liqueur with figs, apricots, currants, walnuts, and pecans. Makes four loaves; ages beautifully.

Savory cabbage strudel wrapped in crispy phyllo dough with sauteed mushrooms, bok choy, fresh dill, and currants. A vegetarian main or side with flaky, golden layers and a tender vegetable filling.

Roast venison loin marinated 24 hours in olive oil and aromatics, seared in clarified butter, and served with a savory wine sauce made from the bones, port, sherry vinegar, and currant jelly.