Currant Recipes

"The day I created this chutney, the ingredient list grew and grew because I just kept adding things," says chef Minh Phan, who loves to improvise when creating pickles. Adjust the vinegar brine's flavor until it tastes good, then add the fruit and continue to tweak the flavor. "The main components to play with are sweet, tart and salt. There's really no messing up: You can always add more sugar, more salt or more vinegar. If you like a particular herb or spice more than others, just add more of it."

F&W's Melissa Rubel Jacobson loves chicken cutlets, but they always benefit from a little flavor boost--in this case, a simple, piquant pan sauce that combines salty olives, tangy capers and sweet currants.

Don't step away from the stove when making brown butter--it can go from nutty and fragrant to burned in a flash.

Boiling kale before sauteing it is key to making it tender. If the stems and center veins are very tough, Marcia Kiesel advises removing them: Fold the kale leaves in half with the vein side out, then pull up on the stems. Other creative ideas for braised greens are Kale and Water Chestnuts in Curried Cream and Kale with Shiitake Mushrooms.

Superfresh baby squash is terrific raw in this simple salad from chef Jimmy Bannos, Jr., which is studded with tangy-sweet currants, toasty nuts and salty ricotta salata cheese.

Tahini, sesame oil and sesame seeds combine together in these deliciously nutty dome-shaped cookies. Dried currants lend a nice texture to their soft and crumbly insides, while sesame seeds coat the exteriors and add a pleasant crunch. These are excellent with a cup of green tea.

Christy Timon opened her bakery in 1982, hiring Abram Faber to help with deliveries. The now-married couple are revered as early champions of classic European baking. They continue to hunt down rare recipes, like these light doughnuts adapted from Robert Jorin, a third-generation Swiss baker at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone.

Antioxidant-rich apples are one of Clark Frasier's staples for healthy winter desserts. "My father had a problem with high cholesterol, so my mother always baked apples for dessert," he says. Here, he doesn't need to add any fat--just a sweet splash of Sauternes infused with thyme--to enrich the dish.