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Red gooseberry and lemon balm cordial recipe

August 18, 2014 6 Comments Filed Under: Food, Gardens, Recipes, Uncategorized

Red gooseberry and lemon balm cordial recipe
The garden has been a pleasure this summer and I, for once, have been good about watering. I’ve used lovage and sorrel for soup, tomatillos and jalapeños for salsa, and found remnants of last year’s potato sowings, tiny red and blue spuds, for baking. My courgette flowers have been eaten by a neighbouring cat, down to the stems, so there will be no crop, no courgettes this year. We have gooseberries but this being their first year in the garden, they haven’t fruited yet. Zia Mays, my gardening colleague, donated some red gooseberries from her allotment. What to do with them? A cordial, I thought, to relish their ruby colour. I’ve also got around to using the lemon balm growing near the outdoor bathtub. This herb will lift the syrupy drink. I served it as a cocktail for the Hens night supper club a couple of weeks back. 

Adapted from Skye Gyngells Gooseberry and Lemon Verbena cordial recipe. 

Red Gooseberry and Lemon Balm Cordial recipe

Makes 75cl, a wine bottle’s worth

400g (2 cups) red gooseberries
280g (1.5 cups) caster sugar
1 litre (4 pints) water
6 sprigs lemon balm
To make a cocktail add 15ml/half a shot of the cordial to a glass of prosecco. 
Garnish with more sprigs of lemon balm. 
Top, tail and wash the gooseberries then place in a small heavy bottomed pan with the sugar and water.
Add the lemon balm to the pan and over a medium heat, bring to the boil. Then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. 
Strain through a colander, pushing down on the fruit to release the juices.
Leave to cool then decant into a bottle.
Makes a refreshing non-alcoholic summer drink also.
Straining the red gooseberry and lemon balm cordial

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Comments

  1. Linzi_Barrow

    August 18, 2014 at 12:28 pm

    That looks beautiful, in my garden lemon balm grows like a weed and I should make better use of it. Thanks for the inspiration

    Reply
  2. Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

    August 18, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    It's easy to be lazy about actually going into the garden and using the plants isn't it? It's lovely chopped onto salads too…

    Reply
  3. Magnolia Verandah

    August 19, 2014 at 7:39 am

    Don't think we can get green or red gooseberries down here. Great photos though.

    Reply
  4. Nic M

    August 13, 2016 at 12:55 pm

    Gorgeous. So nice to see the redder gooseberries being celebrated too. Good balance of flavours, picks out the lemon note in the berries.

    Reply
  5. Fiona

    June 20, 2022 at 5:17 pm

    Made 2 bottles of this tasty cordial today, fortunately my garden has both ingredients in abundance.
    Fiona

    Reply
    • msmarmitelover

      June 20, 2022 at 6:16 pm

      ooh thank you for telling me. I’ve got tons of lemon balm at the moment but used all my gooseberries up on Saturday for the fool

      Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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