Fruity Garden Bounty : Currants and Gooseberries

It's that time of year YAY! when the fruit on the bushes starts to ripen. We have one small gooseberry bush and three Black Currant bushes. It is only a small bounty of tasty juicy fruit, but it's still enough to excite us. 

This year there has been so much rain that the black currants have been really big and juicy, and every year I'm blow away by the jewel like beauty of gooseberries, they are so green and luminous. 

We still have the raspberries and the red currants to ripen, lucky us!

What shall we make with these yummy berries?

Big and Juicy

Green luminous jewels

So Pretty & Sour

Gooseberry Granita A frozen Treat

The black currants are in the freezer for a unknown future use, maybe a pie, crumble, pancakes, vodka ? 

With the gooseberries I made a delicious granita. A granita is a great way to use up a glut of soft fruit. It's a bit of a made up recipe. 

I bring the gooseberries up to boil with sugar to taste and a little bit of water. As soon as the gooseberries go opaque I take them of the heat and pour them through a metal sieve into a clean bowl.

To get all the yummy goodness out I push the flesh through the sieve until only a bit of the flesh is left. Leave the liquid to cool. 

Once cooled pour into a plastic container with a lid and place into the freezer. Every few hours take a fork and mix up the granita so no big ice crytals form. Do this until totally frozen.

Before serving let the granita thaw a little so it easier to scope.

To make a strawberry granita, sieve the streawberries through a metal sieve into a clean bowl and then add sieved icing sugar to taste. 

Again pour into a plastic container with a lid and place into the freezer. Every few hours take a fork and mix up the granita so no big ice crytals form. Do this until totally frozen.

I highly recommend both versions of these easy and delicious frozen treats this summer.

Yum Yum

Emma xx