Good use for blackberries

[Riven]

Seeing as the blackberries are in abundance this year thought it was time to try something a bit different.
Love the crumbles and made them with vodka (very nice), and whilst looking through my library came across Richard Mabeys sound advice. Soak berries in red wine overnight and then eat. We had ours with fromage frais and I must say they were delicious.
So does anyone else have any good and easy recipes?
Riven.

 

[Woody girl]

Blackberry vinegar. I use white vinegar or white wine vinegar but you could use red. Soak berries in the vinegar for a week shaking daily. Use in salad dressing.

 

[Woody girl]

Blackberry vinegar . Steep berries for a week in white vinegar or white wine vinegar. . You could use red wine vinegar aswell. Shake daily . Use in salad dressings.

 

[Mesquite]

Blackeberry Brandy.

Then after you remove the blackberries use them on vanilla ice cream.

 

[Buckshot]

We do Bramble Whisky which is very nice

 

[Woody girl]

Blackberry and apple chutney. Lovely with cold cuts and cheese.
Jam
BlackBerry snapps (vodka)
Cordial
Clafoute. .. I think that's how you spell it. A sweet batter with blackberries in. Normaly done with cherries but equally good with blackberries.
Pop some into fresh home baked scones instead of dried fruit.

 

[Janne]

Preserve. Excellent on crepes.
Nicer if the seeds are removed.

 

[Woody girl]

Blackberry gravy good with venison apparently. Just add a good handfull to your gravy. Never tried it myself but I think I saw this in a magazine once upon a time when they were doing a feature on venison.

 

[Riven]

Gravy sounds good and venison is what turned my wife back into a meat eater.

 

[Toddy]

Cranachan.

Not the posh adulterated with whisky stuff, but the kind your Mum made for you when you wandered home with a handful of sticky hedge fruits

Fresh fruits, fresh cream and toasted rolled oats and/or flaked almonds over the top.
I promised to make it for Son2 this week, and I picked a wee bowlful of fresh rasps not half an hour ago. The oats just toast up in a dry frying pan, and the house will smell wonderful and everyone'll be hungry with it.

Bramble syrup's awfully good too though, it makes an excellent hot drink or base for a sore throat mix. Truly a pleasure drizzled over ice cream or apple pie/crumble.

M

 

[Dark Horse Dave]

Blackberry and apple chutney. Lovely with cold cuts and cheese.
Jam
BlackBerry snapps (vodka)
Cordial
Clafoute. .. I think that's how you spell it. A sweet batter with blackberries in. Normaly done with cherries but equally good with blackberries.
Pop some into fresh home baked scones instead of dried fruit.

Apologies for a quick thread diversion: didn't know that about clafoute; Mrs DHD has always made it with tinned apricots ( very nice by the way!) We've got a new one to try now, so thanks! Back to the thread.....

 

[Janne]

Clafoute is delicious with most fruit.
Mom was an expert, I do not think I have had it for at least 2 decades.

Receipe please?

 

[DocG]

Toddy,
Please explain how to make syrup from blackberries.
Thanks

 

[Toddy]

Wash the brambles and put them into a pot with a little water....the remaining water on the brambles is usually enough, but err on the safe side and maybe add a cm to the bottom of the pot.
Bring up to a simmer and keep it there for maybe quarter of an hour or so...if you use the tattie masher on them when they're soft it speeds things up a bit.

If you have a jelly bag, then now's the time to use it. If you don't, find a colander and line it with something like an old, washed free of any soap and detergent, folded in two, teatowel that you don't mind sacrificing. It'll end up purple and that stain will fade to a lavender grey colour. It'll just look filthy for ever afterwards, though bleach will help clean it up.

Anyhow, the juice that collects in the bowl/pot/jug, needs to be measured and the same amount of sugar added. So if you get a litre, add a kilo.

Prep your bottles beforehand, have them washed and then heat them up in the oven. Not hot/hot, you don't want the syrup to boil when it's poured into the bottles, but hot enough that they won't crack when the hot syrup is poured into them.

This is where you have to mind that you're making syrup and not jelly. Bring the juice and sugar slowly up to a boil making sure that the sugar is fully dissolved, and only keep it there for a minute or two. You don't want set syrup in bottles, trust me on this, you really don't
Move the pot off the heat, and stir gently. If the syrup needs skimmed, then as the temperature falls the liquid will shrink a bit, and it's easy to encourage the skimmings to the side where they can be removed.
While the syrup is still hot pour it into bottles and seal.

Keep cold until used, then be careful not to tighten the lid too much on a half used bottle in case it ferments. It ought not, but after all the years of me making and using this stuff, a bottle of blackcurrant exploded in my kitchen earlier this month. The mess was unbelievable. I'd used Kilner bottles with swing cap lids too, and thought they'd blow before the bottle would.
I reckon I'd have been better sticking to old washed out sauce bottles.
The opened bottle hadn't been put in the fridge or pantry, and it was scorching hot that week. I think that was all the encouragement that the stuff needed.

However, the syrup is really good and worth the effort

M

 

[Woody girl]

Mmmm blackberry syrup. Or cordial as I call it. Havnt made that for a couple of years. As all my elder trees in the neighbourhood were cut down earlier this year I'll have no elder rob so blackberry syrup it is for me. I like it as a hot drink with a good glug of brandy in too if I'm feeling a bit peaky . Does one the world of good if taken just before bedtime.
More blackberry picking comming up.......

 

[Toddy]

I suppose it is a kind of cordial, I just think of it as a syrup because mostly we use it on puddings
Have you tried the wild strawberry syrup ? Our strawberries are full of fruits here again, and I'm tempted to stock up, but I'm kind of awash with raspberries still, and the big rosehaws are really starting to put on colour now too.

M

 

[Woody girl]

My wild strawberrys never get into the house! Strawberry syrup sounds delicious. I have a small bottle of rosehip in the fridge. That was my favourite as a child. I had to take a spoonful of a thing called virol which is like malt extract, followed by a spoonful of rosehip syrup. It's a real faff to make with our tiny hips but I've seen a bush with quite large ones just beginning to blush up nicely so may have a try with those.
If I may digress for a moment..... I wonder if anyone else remembers virol ?

 

[Toddy]

No, not at all, what is virol ?
Off to google

Wild strawberries grown in abundance here, so even munching them daily still leaves a fair amount for syrup.

M

 

[Toddy]

THE INGREDIENTS of Virol are: malt extract, refined beef fat, maltose, sugar, malto-dextrins, glucose, fructose, egg, orange juice, salt, flavourings, phosphoric acid, calcium phosphate, iron phosphate, sodium iodide, and added....???

Seeing the images I do remember the orange label, but I'm pretty sure it was only an advertising, it wasn't something we had in the house.
Plain malt extract we did though, and I still keep some in the pantry. Mostly for baking, tbh.

M

 

[Woody girl]

I guess the nearest thing nowadays is malt extract. Lovely sticky treacley malteaser sort of taste. Supposed to give you all the vitamins you needed to grow big and strong. The rosehip syrup was for the vitamin c. It was the best bit of the day. Straight after breakfast we had that wonderful "treat" I still take a spoonful now and then. Particularly in the autumn and winter. Often make hot milk with a dessert spoonful of malt extract dissolved into it before bed too. Tastes a bit like horlicks.