I know that I'm usually banging on about seasonal food so why am I writing about a fruit that won't be out till November?
Having just returned to the frosty mornings of Godzone from the riots of the UK, it got me thinking about the humble gooseberry.
The gooseberry plant
needs to have a good frost over the winter in order to produce good fruit in early summer. In the Bay we are lucky to still have a grower in the form of Mamaku Blue near Rotorua. They are better known for growing blueberries and can be found at most of our farmers' markets. They still grow gooseberries at the moment, even if demand isn't too high.
To me this is such a shame as the fruit is so versatile for cooking, as happy with savoury as it is with sweet (in France they are traditionally served with oily fish).
The Oxford English Dictionary associates the fruit's name with the goose with which it was once served as an accompanying sauce.
The popularity of the fruit in England led to improved, larger and sweeter varieties being bred, some for eating raw as a dessert fruit (usually red or yellow) and others (usually green), which are sour but have a superior flavour when cooked.
Gooseberry shows were once popular all over the north of England, but there are now only two left, the most famous of which is the Egton Bridge Show in North Yorkshire. In 2009 a world record-breaking Woodpecker berry was produced, weighing in at 62 grams. As luck would have it our trip coincided with the Egton Show.
I wasn't expecting much from a little village hall in North Yorkshire, so you can imagine my surprise when we arrived to find two television stations and a radio station eagerly awaiting the announcement of the grand champion. It's a serious business this gooseberry growing.
They are available November to January, an average portion of gooseberries contains about a quarter of the daily vitamin C requirement and fairly good levels of vitamins A, B, fibre, potassium, copper and manganese. Rich in pectin when slightly unripe, gooseberries are ideal for sauces, jams, preserves, pickles and jellies and make an excellent tart sauce for oily fish such as mackerel, poultry or meat. They also make a good filling for crumble, tarts, pies or suet pudding.