Black currant:

Black Currant Italian Sodas & Black Currant Brownies. Put the finished sauce from above through a fine sieve or food mill. The juice/syrup can be added to soda water to create something that resembles an Italian soda. Save the resulting paste to flavor brownies by replacing an egg with two tablespoons of currant paste. Store the syrup in a sterilized glass bottle in your refrigerator as you would fruit pancake syrups. The paste can be refrigerated for several weeks or frozen in a freezer bag.

Black Currant Sauce

Wash currants and measure. Place currants in a heavy, non-aluminum sauce pan. Add sugar in an amount equal to half or all of the currants, depending upon your preference. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally to mash berries and make sure they don't stick. When the mixture becomes a thickened sauce after about 10 minutes, remove from heat and let cool. If mixture is not sweet enough, add more sugar and reheat until sugar is dissolved.

Use sauce over vanilla ice cream and serve with chocolate brownies. This sauce also is good over poached pears or pear ice cream. Alternatively, you can mix this sauce into your favorite barbecue sauce and add some chili pepper (a single chipotle works well) for a spicy, sweet sauce that is great on poultry and seitan. You may also add a pinch of cinnamon, a dash of cloves, and/or a few gratings of whole nutmeg to this sauce.