We've been drinking a lot of elderflower cordial recently, and stocks are getting low, so I've been looking round for other cordials to make.

Using the gooseberries from the garden seemed to make sense, they're just starting to ripen and taste wonderfully fresh.

This recipe also includes lemon verbena, which should add a few citrus notes to the finished drink. Lemon verbena is one of those herbs that grows like crazy in the garden but which I very rarely actually use for anything, so it's nice to feel it's making itself useful.

This recipe is adapted from one on The Independent website.

Click here for the Gooseberry And Lemon Verbena Cordial recipe  in more detail.

Recipe Costs

£0.52 400g gooseberries (PYO cost, mine were free)
£0.36 280g caster sugar
£0.00 1 litre water
£0.00 6 sprigs lemon verbena

£0.36 Total (£0.88 if buying the gooseberries)
£0.36 per litre of cordial (£0.88 if buying the gooseberries - an equivalent cordial at ocado costs £5.78 a litre)

One time saving aspect of this recipe is that the gooseberries don't need to be topped and tailed, just a quick rinse to remove any dirt and insects, then they're placed in a pan with the sugar...

...water (I find a glass measuring jug the easiest way to measure out quantities of liquid)...

...and the lemon verbena.

Interestingly, lemon verbena originated in South America and can grow to 3 metres high, our plants seem to like it here but have never grown more than a metre high, although they do tend to spread sideways rather quickly.

The strong lemon scent is said to keep for longer after picking than other lemon scented herbs, other than for culinary use the herb can be used as a reviving addition to a hot bath.

The herb is crushed under a rolling pin before adding to the pan, as this release the essential oils.

The mixture is simmered for about 10 minutes, or until the gooseberries start to get tender.

It's allowed to cool, then strained through muslin, making sure every last drop of flavour is squeezed out of the fruit pulp.

After bottling in steralised bottles, this cordial will keep well in the fridge for several months, it can also be frozen in plastic bottles.

Dilute to taste with still or sparkling water, or sparkling white wine.

Recipe Timings

10 minutes Preparation
20 minutes cooking
1 hour cooling
10 minutes bottling

Taste Test

A subtle tasting, not overly sweet cordial, but very refreshing. The lemon verbena adds a very slight citrus taste.

The gooseberries are swelling nicely and early varieties are already in the shops. The fresh fruit is not to everyone's taste, but is delicious when used in jam or chutney. Why not try some of these recipies:

 

Gooseberry and Lemon Verbena Cordial
A thirst quenching way of using up a glut of gooseberries.

Gooseberry Chutney
A basic gooseberry chutney.

Green Gooseberry Jam
Quite simply the best thing to do with gooseberries.
An excellent jam for breakfast, tangy yet sweet, a lovely orange colour, can be flavoured with the addition of elderflowers.

Gooseberry and Elderflower Cordial
A combination of early summer flavours in a cordial. Uses elderflower cordial.

 

 

This was a nice quick easy recipe to make to use up the last of the gooseberries.
I only made about half of quantity of the recipe, as the gooseberries in the garden were rapidly being eaten by wasps, and I'd used up a lot making a delicious summer pudding using only gooseberries - highly recommended, if a bit pale looking.

This meant it was quite a quick process as it cut down the time consuming job of topping and tailing the gooseberries. The recipe also appealed as I thought it would be nice to try a chutney without all the additions such as raisins, dates, chilli etc.

The recipe I used was adapted from the one at gooseberryrecipes.org.

See here for the gooseberry chutney recipe.

Recipe Costs

£0.85 650g gooseberries (equivalent cost, mine was free)
£0.09 125g onion
£0.36 285ml vinegar (malt)
£ 0.01 7g salt
£0.46 250g brown sugar
£0.03 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
£0.01 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
£1.81 Total (£0.96 without buying the gooseberries)
£2.87 per kg of jam (£1.52 without buying the gooseberries - 18% of the cost of equivalent at tesco)

The simplest of ingredients to start with, top and tailed gooseberries and onion.

Sugar, salt and ginger and cayenne pepper to give it a bit of a spicy taste.

Cheap and cheerful malt vinegar, I did consider using the more expensive cider vinegar but frugality won in the end (I'm a cheapskate at heart). I find a glass  measuring jug very useful for liquid ingredients when preserving.

Cooking the  gooseberries and simmering to reduce down to a chutney consistency didn't take long at all. The picture below is at the start of the process, before the gooseberries underwent their colour change.

The finished product surprisingly similar to the gooseberry jam I recently made, the colour is the same and the distinctive seeds occur in both. The skins of the gooseberries seem to break down so much that they are not noticeable, which is a relief as I wouldn't fancy skinning them as well as top and tailing.

 

Recipe Timings

30 mins preparation
30 mins simmering
15 mins potting

The variety we have in the garden develops beautiful red markings as the fruit ripen. The gooseberry is to my mind one of the quintessentially English summer tastes along with rhubarb and elderflower. I've not got a very sweet tooth and prefer the sharpness to something like a strawberry or raspberry.

I dug out a recipe from the classic Mary Berry's complete television cookbook, a well thumbed 26 years old this year. TV cooking was cutting edge in those days, I doubt anyone would have foreseen the range and styles of programs we have now.

See here for the gooseberry jam recipe.

Recipe Costs

£5.07 1kg gooseberries (equivalent cost, mine was free)
£1.21 1.3kg granulated sugar
£6.28 Total (£1.21 without buying the gooseberries)
£2.73 per kg of jam (£0.52 without buying the rhubarb - 10% of the cost of equivalent at ocado)

This is a wonderfully simple and quick recipe.

Topping and tailing the gooseberries was the most time consuming part, made easier by having a decent sharp knife. Funny things gooseberries, you could get a bit squeamish about cutting into them if you thought too hard about it.

This is a good volume of jam to make, anything more and you're risking it taking for ever to heat up to setting point. It's never a good idea to overfill a preserving pan, better to cook a large volume in two smaller batches.
At the same time as adding the sugar I put in 250ml of elderflower cordial, Mary Berry had suggested adding 12 elderflower heads in muslin, but we're a bit late in the season for that so a good splash of cordial has to suffice.

Still some lumps of fruit left in this picture, along with a lot of seeds. One of the nice things about this jam is how the gooseberry skins disintegrate when cooking, so there is no need to laboriously peel them. The seeds look wonderful in the finished jam.

Setting point was reached and tested for on a cold plate.

Not the best photo, but I think you can see the wrinkling. Amazing how the green gooseberries turn a lovely orange when cooked.

Recipe Timings

0.5hrs Preparation
0.5 hrs simmering
10 mins boiling to setting point
0.5 hr Potting

Taste Test

Excellent, just tangy enough to be a wake up call on breakfast toast, with the elderflower adding a sweet taste.

1. The latin name for the Gooseberry is Ribes uva-crispa.

2. It is not the same plant as the Indian Gooseberry, Chinese Gooseberry (Kiwi Fruit) or Barbados Gooseberry (a Cactus)

3. Gooseberries produce fruits in various colours including green, white and red depending on variety.

4. It is not unusual for bushes to crop for at least twenty years.

5. One serving of 100g raw gooseberries contains 40 Kcals.

6. One ancient belief tells how fairies would shelter from danger in the pickly bushes. This is how gooseberries became known as fayberries.

7. Competitive gooseberry growing was very popular, until the 1st world war there were 170 shows in the north of England.

8. Egton Bridge, eight miles from Whitby, is the setting for the oldest surviving gooseberry show in the country, established in 1800.  The show is held on the first Tuesday in August each year by the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society.
Winning gooseberries can be the size of golf balls.

9. The classic Gooseberry Fool recipe has its origins in Tudor times.

10. The gooseberry has been crossed with the blackcurrent to produce the jostaberry.

I was in Manchester yesterday and popped into an old haunt, Appna Food Stores, to stock up on spices and pickles. In amongst the lime pickle and mango pickle was this jar of Gooseberry pickle, which I couldn't resist bringing home to try.

After a bit of research it turns out this is a pickle made from Indian Gooseberries (nellakai in tamil, amla in hindi) as opposed to the commen or garden English gooseberry. Bit of a shame as I had grand plans to turn the gooseberries from our overladen bushes in the garden into something hot and spicy.

The ingredients are listed as Gooseberries, Salt, Red Chilly, Mustard, Turmeric, Asafoetida, Ginger, Garlic, Vinegar and Gingelly Oil.
I'd assumed the last ingredient was a mis-spelling of gingery oil, but it turns out to be sesame oil.

I've found a marvelous looking recipe with pictures on the tickling palates blog, which would be good to have a go at if I can find some of the fresh fruit next time I'm near supermarket a bit more exciting than Morrisons.

The pickle itself tastes extremely hot, as you might expect, with a sour note from the fruit. The Indian gooseberries are much more crunchy and firm than ripe English ones would be.