My Encounter with Gooseberries - A Recipe & A Crime Scene

I came across these hairy grapes lookalikes when I was browsing the local market in Cambridge. I was curious and bought a punnet to try. Oh my...they were mouth-puckeringly tart! They reminded me of redcurrants. I tricked the wild boar into eating one, he popped one into his mouth, gave me an evil glare, I quickly ran away and chuck the whole punnet into the freezer.

I learnt that these hairy berries were actually cooking gooseberries which are normally available early in the season (around June/ July). Later season dessert gooseberries (red, yellow or golden coloured) are sweeter. These berries are a good source of fibre and contain vitamins A, C and potassium. They are normally used to make desserts such as gooseberry fool, gooseberry crumble, gooseberry pie or you can make a sauce and serve it with mackerel, salmon, lamb or pork. Some recipes here. I decided to make some turnovers with the recipe girl's cream cheese crust - very delicious, a nice change to normal pastries. Another bookmarked recipe checked =)


Gooseberries & Blueberries Turnovers with Cream Cheese Crust


For recipe of the cream cheese crust, please refer to The Recipe Girl

For gooseberries & blueberries filling:
300g gooseberries150g blueberries1 1/2 tbs cornstarch100g caster sugar
Comments:
The filling was still quite sour. I would suggest adding more sugar, maybe about half a cup more.There will be a lot of liquid/ syrup left after filling the turnovers, I cooked the syrup until thickened and served it with the turnovers.
The crime scene

I am sending this over to Prof. Kitty from The Cabinet of Prof. Kitty - this week's host of weekend herb blogging #197. WHB event is currently housed by Haalo at Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once.