Gooseberry Fool

We've had our allotment for nearly two months now, and it's amazing what you can grow in that time. We've so far harvested leeks (left over from the last owner), a cauliflower (albeit a very small one), 3 good sized courgettes and piles and piles of potatoes. We've also managed to get hold of more courgettes, raspberries, strawberries and gooseberries from some very generous allotment neighbours - I'm not one to turn down free veg and will always find a use for it.

When I was around 8 (maybe even younger) I used to go to my Great Grandma's and top and tail the gooseberries from her garden with a pair of nail scissors. I used to love doing this, but I now realise that it was one of those tedious jobs that the adults would rather someone else did.

Three years ago another friend game me some gooseberries which I used to make gooseberry jam. I was pretty surprised at the time that the jam turned out to be quite red, instead of the green that I thought it would be. I think this is down to how ripe the gooseberries are at the time of picking, and these were very ripe. The more recent batch I had were ripe, although still quite firm, and when I cooked them with a little sugar they stayed green.

I left things simple with these, and used the cooked gooseberries to make some gooseberry fools.

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Gooseberry Fool - makes 4

150ml double cream

150ml Greek yogurt

4 heaped spoonfuls of cooked gooseberries*

• whisk the cream and yogurt together until thick, but not firm
• gently fold through the gooseberries, reserving a little for the top
• spoon into glasses and serve
• top with a little of the cooked gooseberries

*gooseberries cooked in a lidded pan - 7 parts gooseberries to 1 part caster sugar, cooked until they burst, and left to cool

    

I love the sharpness of gooseberries and also used some of the cooked gooseberries in a Mojito, which was amazing - despite looking a bit like pond slime!