Berries
Gooseberry Facts and Ideas
Gooseberries have high nutritional value. They contain vitamin A and potassium and are a good source of fiber.How To Top and Tail
Most chefs top and tail gooseberries for muffins and pies. Using scissors to snip is a little easier. For years, I invited my elderly aunts to visit during July and August. They were more than willing to sit watching golf with Mike and help with the gooseberries. Their reward was, once a season, gooseberry pie that reminded them of their youth. Now, I avoid the topping and tailing but using the gooseberries primarily to make gooseberry sauce or a puree. Clean and cook with a little sugar, using a sieve to remove pips. Actually, I found a small potato ricer at Piper’s. Use puree to make gooseberry fool, sorbet or add to other fruit to make crumbles and gooseberry crumble. When the zucchini is overly plentiful, instead of yet another zucchini bread or cake, I use zucchini for the texture and add the puree for flavour, to make squares.
Bravery in the Kitchen
If you have not used gooseberries before, it is worth a little time and effort to learn how to use them in ways that your family will appreciate. I learned early on, that they didn’t appreciate the effort in topping and tailing for a gooseberry pie; the other recipes were just as interesting and less work.
Raw gooseberries are hard and sour, but cooking with sugar or honey releases their full taste. Cooking gooseberries should be hard, shiny and green. A little later in the season, when skins become almost transparent with a light rose colour, they will be sweeter and can be added to fruit salad. When they begin to ripen in this fashion, we eat them off the bush like grapes and display them on the table for eager hands.
Gooseberry Recipes
A Simple Treat!
Cooked berries can be used in sweet dishes and for savoury sauces. Remove head/tails and place the prepared berries in a pan with a little water and 1 tbsp. sugar per 100g. (1/2 cup) fruit. Taste and add more sugar if you need to. Cover and cook gently for 10 or 15 minutes until soft. Use with yogurt, spoon over cooked or uncooked cereal or ice cream
Gooseberry Sauce
Green gooseberries like the ones you will get early in the season ( i.e. July in Newfoundland) will be tart and make a sensational sharp sauce to serve with mackerel, salmon, lamb or pork. Cook the berries, adding a little water and a little sugar. (You be the judge about how much sugar, depending on dish.) Add a chopped onion. Puree and serve warm or cold. One of our Veggie Coop members, reported making a wonderful gooseberry sauce to serve with roasted chicken; she promised to send us the recipe, but the season ended without the recipe.
Gooseberry Fool (From "out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens")
This is the classic gooseberry dish. Make the puree as you would the sauce above, adding more sugar. Sieve to remove pips, chill puree, then fold in whipped cream, using 250 ml (1 cup) puree to 250 ml (1 cup) cream before whipping. Chill and/or freeze. This can be served as a soft serve, over fruit or cake or fully frozen like ice cream; keeps in freezer for weeks.
Gooseberry/Apple Crisp
Head and tail gooseberries (about 1 cup). Peel and slice 2 cups of apples. Using a bowl, mix together 2 or 4 tablespoon of sugar (if berries are green, you may want/need more sugar or honey). Add, a tablespoon of flour, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt (if desired).
Toss together and place in a buttered, 8 inch square baking pan.
Topping:Combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup flour, 1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until golden and until fruit is bubbly. Serve with cream or ice cream.
Gooseberry Soup (Contributed by Kathy Mackey)
Serve ice cold on a hot day or at room temperature in the winter.
About a quart of ripe gooseberries (yes, good and pink) just rinsed but no need to top or tail. Bring to a slow boil in equal amount of water for 6-8 minutes. Put through a course sieve to get rid of seeds but press as much pulp as you can.
Add the juice and finely grated rind of a lemon, a dash of cinnamon and cloves and let cool. Add sugar to taste (add sugar once it's cooled because it will taste more acid when it's warm and you may end up with too much sugar). Blend in fresh cream.
Chill and serve with a dollop of sour cream and a mint leaf for decoration. Sometimes when serving to adults only, I add a cup or two of white wine.
Gooseberry Sorbet (Contributed by Kathy Mackey)
Stew gooseberries in water. Pass through a sieve to develop a pulp. It should be the consistency of thick pancake batter. If too much liquid, put pulp back on stove to simmer a bit longer. Let cool.
Add finely grated lemon rind and sugar to taste. Do not make it too sweet, allow it to be a bit tart, after all this will be used to cleanse your palate between courses.
Put into freezer till well crystalized. With melon baller scoop out into wide glasses or small dishes, garnish with mint leaf or lemon balm and serve. If you want a deeper colour (gooseberries will be a dull pale pink) then add a few partridge berries when you begin. It will be a beautiful deep rose colour and much more appetizing. Enjoy!
Gooseberry Relish (Contributed by Joyce Hansen)
1 quart gooseberries
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 inch length cinnamon stick
3/4 tsp whole cloves in bag or tea egg
Wash and stem the berries. Add other ingredients. Boil 20-30 minutes until thick. Pack in sterile jars.
Gooseberry Pie (Contributed by Joyce Hansen)
1 quart gooseberries
1 cup white sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp lemon juice
3 tsp butter
Pastry for two crust pie (I use the recipe on the Tenderflake Lard box). To avoid soggy bottom crust, brush the raw pastry with egg white. Moisten the edge of pie crust with milk. Put in the berries mixed with flour, sugar, and lemon juice. Dot the top with butter. Put slits in cover crust for steam to escape. Bake in hot oven (400 F) for 15 min.
Reduce heat to 350 F for 40 minutes.
Gooseberry Tart (From Chuck Davis and The New Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook)
Pastry
1/2 C sugar
1 C flour
1/2 t baking powder
1 T butter melted
a small bit of milk just to moisten with
1 egg beaten
Filling
1 egg
1C sugar (scant)
1T flour
2C gooseberries
Mix pastry and roll
1/2 for bottom crust
1/2 for lattice top
Directions
Mix filling and pour in crust.
Lattice strips on top.
Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes.
Gooseberry Pickles
Soak Overnight:
6 quarts cleaned gooseberries
6 cups chopped onions
3 cups sugar
1.75 cups vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
In the morning add:
2 Tbsp pickling spice
2.5 tsp cinnamon
Bring to a boil and simmer until soft. Pour into hot sterilized jars.
Easily makes a half recipe.
Blueberry and Gooseberry Pie (Contributed by Maureen Volk)
If you'd like another gooseberry recipe, I tried a variation on my blueberry pie recipe, using approx. half blueberries and half gooseberries. It worked well. It's a little more tart than just using blueberries. Here's the recipe:
Prepare pastry for 2-crust 9-inch pie.
Combine:
2 cups of blueberries
2 cups of gooseberries
1 cup sugar (use a bit less if using only blueberries)
3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
2 (generous) teaspoons of cinnamon (less generous if only blueberries)
dash of salt
Line 9-inch pie plate with pastry. Fill. Dot with one tablespoon of butter. (If using only blueberries, also sprinkle with 1 tsp of lemon juice.) Adjust top crust, cutting slits for escape of steam. Seal. Bake at 400 F for 35 to 40 minutes.
Other Berry Recipes
Summer Pudding (Contributed by Emily Sopkowe)
6 cups berries (raspberries, blueberries, etc)
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar
1 brioche or other soft sweet yummy bread
Cook fruits, lemon juice and sugar 5 minutes. Drain most of the juice(don’t throw away) and chill.
Wrap a bread pan in plastic wrap. Slice the bread ( no hard crusts) into thin little slices. Soak the bread in the drained off juice 5 minutes or so, then layer the soaked bread with the fruits into the lined pan.
Cover, and put a light weight on top of everything. Refrigerate for eight hours. Flip over before serving. Serve with (what else) whipped cream.