Pam Corbin
LATIN NAME
Ribes uva-crispa
SEASONALITY
May–July
HABITAT
Wild gooseberries are not common but may be found in hedgerows, wood margins and river gorges in most parts of the British Isles
MORE RECIPES
Fried salmon with cucumber and gooseberry salad; Black pudding and gooseberries on toast; Roasted grapes; Rhubarb crème brûlée; Strawberries with lavender and honey
It’s easy to be smitten by gooseberries and, thankfully, it’s love in a cold climate. These bewitching little fruits prefer the cooler, moister climes of the northern hemisphere – the further north the better – where they thrive in the wild as well as in gardens.
The European gooseberry comes early in the year, the first of the summer berries. Fresh, sharp, crisp and exhilarating, this fruit divides into two camps. The tart culinary variety is best for pies, jams and cooked things, while dessert berries are sweet enough to be eaten straight from the bush. However, many varieties double up for both duties and generally, the longer any gooseberry is left on the bush, the sweeter it becomes. If you grow your own, a good ploy is to pick and thin out the small early berries for cooking, then leave the rest to sweeten and mature in the warming sun.
Supermarkets are increasingly selling gooseberries and you can find the fruit on shop shelves in June and July, but I prefer to buy locally grown berries. Lots of pick-your-own farms sell them and they’re always worth looking out for at roadside stalls.
These fruits come in all shades from yellow, white and pink to dark, damson red, but are still most commonly gooseberry green. Semi-translucent, slightly hairy and protected by vicious, thorny spines, the berries are usually grown on broad, spreading bushes that can make gooseberry picking a painful affair. It’s much easier to harvest them from cordons or lollipop-shaped ‘standard’ trees. Their main predators are children (and adults) who thrill and shrill at their sourness – as well as blackbird thieves who quite sensibly wait until the berries are riper and sweeter.
Worcesterberries, which are small and red-black, are a form of gooseberry well worth trying, though the bushes are unpleasantly spiny, making picking a little tricky. Jostaberries – the result of a splicing of gooseberries with blackcurrants (sister fruits from the Ribes family) – are joyfully spineless, and have a delightful, tangy sharpness. Both these have bags of flavour and plenty of acidity, making them first-class jamming and pudding berries, although, in my eyes, the gooseberry is still the finest of the lot.
Aside from those pop-in-the-mouth, straight-from-the-bush dessert berries, most gooseberries need a bit of softening and sweetening up. But first of all, the flower and stem ends need to be snipped off. This ‘topping and tailing’ is easily achieved with a pair of scissors – a job best done with cup or glass to hand. (There’s no need for this chore when making a purée that’s to be sieved, or jelly juice that will be strained).
Once topped and tailed, put the berries in a pan with a splash of water – just enough to stop them catching (gooseberries are very juicy and more than a whisper of water dilutes their lovely liquor). Put the lid on and lightly poach for as few minutes as possible, until the skins and flesh are soft but the berries still whole. To cook evenly, without breaking up the fruit, shake the pan rather than stir it. Add 100g sugar per 1kg fruit to start with (you can always add more). A compote can be made with frozen gooseberries in exactly the same way, but you won’t need to add any water as the defrosted berries release lots of juice.
As gooseberries begin to grow and swell in mid- to late May, fragrant hedgerow elderflower is also ready for gathering. There is no greater gooseberry friend. A spray or two placed on the poaching berries will give them a soft-sweet muscat radiance. At other times, a drop of rose or orange blossom water is an alternative way to keep the fruit fragrant and sweet. A simple gooseberry compote, perfumed in any of these ways, is excellent folded through cream or yoghurt with a classic vanilla custard for a tangy fruit fool. Crumbles, pies, tarts and cobblers are all happy destinations for a gooseberry compote too.
Gooseberries’ clean, sharp qualities work incredibly well with fatty meats and oily fish, the lively tartness lifting the richness vigorously. The French term for gooseberry, groseille à maquereau or ‘mackerel berry’, is no accident. For a quick gooseberry sauce to serve with fresh or smoked mackerel: mix 150–200g lightly poached gooseberries with 1 tbsp caster sugar, 1 tbsp cider vinegar and a pinch of salt. Pep it up a little if you like by adding 1 tbsp horseradish. Similar tart gooseberry sauces can be made to accompany pork, goose or duck – and the whole berries can be added to stuffings for roast meats where their sharp fruitiness will be welcomed.
Alternatively, for a crisp, fresh salsa, roughly slice raw gooseberries and toss with a little sugar and vinegar, and 1 tbsp finely shredded mint or other fresh herb. Allow an hour or two for the flavours to mingle. This works beautifully with feta and young creamy cheeses; it is also brilliant served with a hot curry.
But of all gooseberry’s clever tricks, it’s in the preserving pan it performs the best. Full flavoured, acidic and packed with pectin, gooseberries have an exceptional jelling ability. They transform easily into heavenly jams and jellies, their sharp-tart qualities holding the sugar in perfect balance. A proportion of gooseberries added to recipes for strawberry jam will enliven the flavour and lend a hand in setting the jam.
And you can use surplus berries to make fruit cheese (a solid, sliceable preserve) to serve as a stylish delicacy with good English Cheddar and soft cheese. Alternatively, sieved gooseberry purée heated gently with fresh eggs, butter and sugar turns into a deliciously soft, smooth fruity curd. The gooseberry can also do sterling service in tangy ketchups, chutneys and pickles to accompany cold meats, smoked fish, cheeses, sausages… almost anything.
Gooseberries freeze well too, so if time is short when they are ready to pick, bag them up and freeze to use later – but do top and tail them first. And, still in the cool zone, gooseberries make gloriously refreshing ice creams and deliciously tart granitas.
GOOSEBERRY, CREAM AND HONEY PUDDING
This delicate pudding is a kind of thickened gooseberry custard. If you have some to hand, throw in a few heads of elderflower while the berries cook, for a floral hint. The recipe also works well with frozen gooseberries, with an optional dash of elderflower cordial. Serves 6
500g gooseberries, topped and tailed (or frozen gooseberries, defrosted)
2 medium eggs
2 medium egg yolks
200ml double cream
1 generous tbsp clear honey
125g caster sugar, plus extra to finish
75g white breadcrumbs, plus extra to finish
Put the gooseberries in a large pan with 2 tbsp water (defrosted frozen berries won’t need this extra water). Bring to a gentle simmer, put the lid on and cook for about 10 minutes until the fruit is broken down and soft. Rub the gooseberry pulp through a sieve into a large bowl, to remove the seeds. Leave to cool.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170°C/Fan 150°C/Gas 3 and butter an ovenproof dish, about 25 x 16cm and 5cm deep.
Lightly beat the eggs and egg yolks together, then stir into the cooled gooseberry purée, along with the cream, honey, sugar and breadcrumbs. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and sprinkle with a little more sugar and a dusting of breadcrumbs.
Stand the dish in a roasting tin and pour in enough hot water to come two-thirds of the way up the sides. Bake for 35–40 minutes, or until just set.
Take the dish out of the tin and leave to cool. Serve the pudding at room temperature or chilled, with cream.
