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Monday 13 July 2020

Shopping

I did all the shopping in Batley apart from the farm shops, as I wanted to spend less time than I would if I went north. I was as quick as I could be but of course I forgot some stuff and due to events out of my control, the casserole I shopped for ended up shelved for soup.

And I made a mess of cooking gooseberries. I was lucky enough to buy a punnet of gooseberries (you usually can't get them) and I knew bear liked them and needed a boost. 


I topped and tailed them using scissors, bunged them in the microwave with a little water and some agave syrup for three minutes - and got a watery mess. I didn't use that much water, but the combination of water, very ripe gooseberries, and agave syrup that were in the microwave and not a pan meant that it was far too runny to use as a base for the sponge. I've bunged it in the fridge and I'll fiddle with it tomorrow. I can always try thickening it with cornflour.  

It was nostalgic seeing them. My late grandfather had a very large garden and had a dozen gooseberry bushes at one time. I spent hours picking them when I was little. They were turned into jam, which my grandfather enjoyed in large quantities. One year uncle made 17 lb of jam (just under 8 kilos) in June and July and grandfather had finished it by Christmas. 

Writing stuff - the writing challenge is here, though I can't think of a word to write about it. 

Hugs and good health to all.

2 comments:

  1. I haven't had a gooseberry for years! I remember Mum making some sort of (maybe?) crumble with them. Yum.

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  2. I hate to give cooking advice, so please feel free to ignore this. There's no need to cook gooseberries before adding to a sponge or crumble, unless you are cooking frozen ones. My gooseberries are normally frozen so I just pop them in the oven covered with sugar while I prepare the crumble or sponge topping. My recipe for crumble is 4oz flour, 2ozs margarine mixed to breadcrumbs, then add 2 tblsps sugar mixed in, place over top of gooseberries and cook at 180 degrees C for twenty minutes. Sponge recipe is combine 2ozs sugar with 2ozs margarine, beat in one egg then fold in 3oz of flour and spoon over gooseberries. You don't need to add extra water to the fruit. If you just have gooseberries and want to make a fool, put enough fruit to fill a 1pint measuring jug with some sugar and cook in the microwave until soft. Rub fruit through a sieve - this should produce the required 1/2 pint of fruit syrup. Add this to half a pint of thick cooled custard and whisk well. When this is cold, add half a pint of double cream. It's delicious. If you can make a vanilla custard with just eggs and milk, you could achieve a gluten free version. You may want to rethink the use of agave syrup. I know it's touted as a healthy alternative to sugar but it's so highly processed, it's on a par with corn syrup for being something you may wish to steer clear of. Do you need to watch sugar levels because of diabetes in the family? We've grown gooseberries all my life and I have been making desserts with them since I started cooking with my mother probably fifty-eight or so years ago.

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