Cumberland sauce - without port

[jennym]

Thought some might like to try this version, which I knocked up the other day, and tastes very good:
Make a stout redcurrant jelly using 1200g redcurrants and 500g crab apples, but don't jar it, just leave in a covered pan, keep warm so it doesn't set. Meantime, cook 350g diced shallots in 200 ml malt vinegar and the juice of 3 oranges and 2 lemons until soft, about 10 mins. Zest the oranges and lemons and boil the zest up in 500ml water for about 15 mins and drain off the water and throw water away.
Add cooked diced shallots & vinegar,  and the cooked lemon & orange zest to the redcurrant jelly, together with a teaspoonful of ground ginger, half a teaspoonful of mustard powder and quarter teaspoonful cayenne pepper. Bring quickly up to 104 deg C and jar.
I know it doesn't have port in like other recipes, but it really does taste good.

[jennym]

[manicscousers]

sounds great, and no sugar so ray can have it !   :D

[trojanrabbit]

Sounds good, though I fear we really don't have cupboard space - I might have to board some more of the loft!   ;D

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I really don't understand: why are you boiling the zest (which will tend to extract the flavour) then throwing away the water (and implicitly some of the flavour you just extracted)?
Why not just put them directly into the jelly, or in with the shallots?
I'm not knocking it as it works - just very curious!

[jennym]

trojanrabbit - I boil the zest to soften it and any bitterness left in it will be thrown away with the water. There still plenty of flavour in it, and no chance of stringy zest.
manicscousers - very sorry, I've misled you, I think. When I say make a stout redcurrant jelly, I should have gone into more detail - there is sugar in the redcurrant jelly - I'd use roughly 1300g of sugar. I suppose you could use a sweetener, and continue with the recipe minus the sugar. Then, to get the jelly-like consistency, maybe you could add gelatine or vege-gel? This would be at right at the end and you'd have to let it cool a bit. Not sure about the keeping qualities though, if there's no sugar, but expect you could do smaller quantities to use up as you need them, or maybe freeze portions.

[manicscousers]

never mind, I'll knock it up a bit at a time without the sugar, just add sweetener, wonder if it'll freeze ?
anyway, sounds good  :D