Tuesday 12 July 2011

Gooseberries galore

gooseberry June 11

We have gooseberries galore at the moment. So far we have had a large number of crumbles:

gooseberry crumbles Jul 11

I've also made some gooseberry vodka though I have friends asking me to make some for them, so more will have to be made (it's a hard job but someone has to do it!)

I've also made gooseberry and elderflower jam and summer fruit jam. But what am I going to do with this lot, and what's fruit still to be picked?

gooseberries Jul 11

Well, I'm in search of a good gooseberry chutney recipe. So if you have one, feel free to email it to me at jonathanwallace@compuserve.com.

6 comments:

elfriide tramm said...

elderberry jam? that's interesting! though elderberries doesn't grow here...

but i love gooseberries...hmm.. don't know this word in english :)- compote. boil water and add sugar (take sugar appr 50% or a bit less of berries weight). let it cool down. put berries into jars, pour the sugarsyrup on. shake a bit so the air can raise up.
take a big bowl or something, put some cloth to the bottom. put jars into bowl, put lids on, but don't close them. then pour water to bowl so that water level is a bit lower than lids. turn the heat on and let it boil ca 30-40 minutes (quite a peacefully, not very "bubbling"). after that close lids.

i love it as a desert just like it is, but some love it with ice cream or whipped cream or vanilla-cream.

the same method we use for apple-perry-plum compote and also cherry compote.

elfriide tramm said...

and do you put these crumblers also into freezer or just eat them fresh?

Jonathan Wallace said...

Some crumbles eaten fresh but we made so many that some had to go into the freezer.

We have compote here as well. The recipe you gave has similarities to bottling fruit, somethng of a disappearing skill in Britain.

elfriide tramm said...

i found recently one gooseberry-onion chutney receipe i would like to try. look youtube user allotmentdiary and it's one of his latest post. actually i have never made chutneys, these are not common in our area. we have a lot of different vegetable salads stored in jars, but not chutneys. so if you have some good recepies, please consider upload the instructions to youtube :). thanks!

elfriide tramm said...

jesus! this "perry" in my first comment should be pear! :D

pickleandpreserve said...

Hi

I've used the same gooseberry chutney recipe for several years now and it's always turned out well.

1300g gooseberries
250g onions
500g sugar
280ml water
15g salt
570ml vinegar
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Top and tail the gooseberries.
Finely chop the onions and cook with the gooseberries in the water until they are soft.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer , stirring occasionally, until the chutney becomes thick.
Pot in sterilised jars.
Leave for 3 months to mature before using.

I've written a blog post about making it here: http://www.pickleandpreserve.co.uk/index.php/blog/gooseberry-chutney.html