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!

Gooseberry Jam

One of my friend's has an allotment and they had an excess of gooseberries and asked if I would like some. I had big ideas of making jams, cakes and fools but in the end only found the time to make jam. When I was younger I remember being given the tedious task of topping and tailing my Great Gran's gooseberries with a pair of nail scissors but unfortunately I had no children around to pass this onto this time so I had to endure it myself. Apart from that, the jam making process was very easy. It's just a case of weighing your gooseberries and using the same weight of granulated sugar. I had just under 1kg and this produced 3 jars of jam.


You just need to bring the gooseberries to the boil with a couple of tablespoons of water and when they've softened add the sugar and simmer until thick. At this point I thought I'd added too much water as it looked very liquid but as it bubbled away it got thicker and thicker. The best way to check to see if it's ready, if you don't have a jam thermometer, is to place a plate into the freezer for a minute or so and then spoon some of the jam onto it. It cools very quickly on the plate and you can tell if it's the right consistency, if not keep simmering.


I was quite surprised that the end result was this colour, I half expected it to be green even though I know gooseberry yoghurts aren't.