Recipes for hedgerow berries from HFW in The Guardian

[Bzfeale80]

I stumbled across this article written in The Guardian newspaper last year by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of River Cottage tv series.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/12/wild-hedgerow-berries-recipes

As there are loads of hawthorn berries in the hedgerows where I am at the moment I will have a go at making the Haw Sin sauce mentioned in the article. Unfortunately I don't have any spare demijohn to try making a wine at the moment.

[Bzfeale80]

After removing stems from 880 g of hawthorn berries I managed to get 1 large passata jar and a jam jar full of sauce and had a little left over. Its a kind of sweet and sour sauce - a variation on hoi sin sauce and is really tasty.

[Bzfeale80]

So here is the recipe and method which I forgot to post last time:

Haw-sin sauce


Ingredients:
500g haw berries
300ml cider vinegar
170g granulated sugar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:
Wash a bottle and a vinegar-proof screwtop or stopper in hot, soapy water, then put them in a low oven to dry out and heat up.

Wash the berries and remove any stalks and leaves. Put them in a pan with the vinegar and 300ml water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, by which time the berries will have turned a dull brown and their skins will have split to reveal their yellow flesh.

Tip into a sieve over a clean pan and rub the fruit through with a wooden spoon, leaving the skins and pips behind. Add the sugar to the purée in the pan and heat gently, stirring, until it dissolves. Bring to a boil and simmer for five minutes, stirring often to ensure it doesn't catch. Funnel the hot sauce into the hot, clean bottle and seal straight away. This sauce improves with age, so if you can leave it for a few weeks before opening. Use within a year and refrigerate once open.

If I can find a photo shall post later

[googoomuck]

Myself and my old head chef made this, we had it with pigeon and venison at different times. Went really well with both.