Wild Blackberry recipes.

Three simple recipes foraged straight from the hedgerow.

Blackberry & Bay Shrub

Makes: approx. 300ml, Preparation time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: 15 minutes, Steeping time: 15 minutes

Magic happened for me the day I discovered that you could mix fruit vinegars with a splash of soda water over ice for a sophisticated sip that is something halfway between a cordial and a cocktail. I was even more excited the day I started contemplating shrubs as a way of preserving the seasons bounty.

Blackberry and bay are a classic pairing, and make for a not too sweet, slightly tart, and wonderfully aromatic sip perfect for these transitional days when things start to look less like summer and more like autumn. I’m also more than slightly obsessed with it’s deep, jewel-like colour.

• 150g (5 1/4 oz) white granulated sugar

• 150g (5 1/4 oz)¹ wild blackberries

• 1 small bay leaf²

• 150ml (2/3 cup) red wine vinegar

1. Combine the sugar and 150ml (2/3 cup) water in a medium saucepan set over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved into a gently simmering syrup.

2. Stir in the blackberries and the bay leaf, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. By the end of this time the berries should look diminished, sucked of their juices.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the red wine vinegar. Allow to steep for a further 15 minutes.

4. Strain the mixture through a plastic (or another non-reactive) sieve and store in the fridge for at least a week.

---

Blackberry Clafoutis

Serves: 4-6, Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus cooling time, Cooking time: 25 minutes

This classic French dessert - often made with pitted cherries - to me was simply screaming out to be made with blackberries. It is something I’ve been making for dessert when I have guests for dinner recently, because it can be assembled and the batter made ahead ready to go in the oven when you sit down to eat - it will then be ready by the time you get to pudding - as long as you remember to set an alarm to turn the temperature down half way through cooking.

This is delicious served with some sort of cream, be it double cream, vanilla or milk ice cream or gelato, a tangy yogurt that holds it’s shape when spooned, or creme fraiche. As we learned in my Blackberry & Bay Shrub recipe, blackberries and bay are perfect partners; as are bay and cream, so a bay ice cream or a bay infused pouring cream would be particularly welcome here.

While for guests you’ll want to serve this fresh from the oven, the leftovers also microwave well.

• 120g (4 1/4 oz) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing³

• 3 large eggs

• 120g (4 1/4 oz) plain (all purpose) flour

• 225ml (1 scant cup) semi-skimmed milk⁴

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 90g (3 oz) golden caster (granulated) sugar

• 300g (10 1/2 oz) blackberries

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees (355 farenheit).

2. In a small saucepan, gently melt the butter before setting it aside to cool.

3. Lightly beat the eggs in the bottom of a large jug or mixing bowl, then whisk in the flour.

4. Once the butter has cooled, gradually whisk it into the egg and flour mixture to form a thick batter. Whisk in the milk, vanilla and sugar.

5. Grease a roughly 26cm pie dish well with butter before scattering over the blackberries. Scrape the butter on top and gently shake the dish to allow an even distribution of fruit and batter.

6. Bake the clafoutis for 10 minutes before dropping the temperature to 160 degrees (140 farenheit) for a further 10 minutes of cooking time.

7. Remove the clafoutis from the oven - it should be golden in places and a knife or cake tester inserted in a patch of batter from the middle of the pudding should come away clean - and leave it to rest for a further 10 minutes before serving.

---

Blackberry Toad in the Hole

Serves: 1 (or more!), Preparation time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: 45 minutes

While some people might consider dropping blackberries into the batter of a Toad in the Hole heresy, I think it is simply wonderful, adding sweet, inky puddles of a glorious, fruity sauce to the thick, crisp batter to enjoy alongside the juicy, gloriously fatty pork sausages.

You might look at the picture and think this Toad in the Hole looks a little small: it does, because I’ve purposely made it to serve just one, so you can easily multiply it up to fill your biggest pan or to suit however mouths you’ve got to feed. Just remember you want two sausages per adult or just one per smaller child, to leave at least three fingers width around each sausage in whatever baking dish you’re using for the batter, and to stop scaling up the amount of oil you use after 2 tbsp per 8 sausages.

I always serve my Toad in the Hole with a quick and easy onion gravy.⁵

• 2 x fat pork sausages

• 1 tbsp light oil

• 60g (2 oz) plain (all purpose) flour

• 1 large egg

• 100ml (1/2 cup) milk

• freshly ground sea salt & black pepper

• handful wild blackberries

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees (355 farenheit).

2. Once the oven is hot, switch it over to grill (broil) set on high.⁶ Toss the sausages and the oil together in a suitably sized roasting dish (see notes above) and grill until golden for about 8-10 minutes (this will depend on the power of your grill), tossing occasionally to colour the sausages on all sides.

3. Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, egg, milk and a very generous amount of salt and pepper to create a batter: don’t worry if you’ve got a few lumps, I’ve actually found my Yorkshire puddings, Toad in the Holes etc. are actually fluffier made this way than if I use the old fashioned incorporation method to avoid lumpy bits.

4. Pour the batter over the sizzling sausages and scatter with blackberries. Turn the oven back to baking and bake for 30-35 minutes until puffy and golden.

1. 150g is the minimum amount of fruit for this shrub as the classic formula for any shrub - cold process like my recipe for a Pineapple Shrub, or hot process like this one - is equal parts fruit, sugar and vinegar. However, one of the greatest joys about foraging for wild blackberries is in their abundance; you can add many more to this recipe and it will take them, resulting in a juicier, fruitier shrub than this basic formula.

2. If you have a bay tree and therefore prefer to use fresh rather than dried bay leaves, either double the amount of leaves you add to the infusion or leave it to steep for twice the given time.

3. I keep old butter packets in a sealed tub in my fridge to grease baking tins and the like to cut down on waste, but before you use one of these be sure to smell it to make sure the butter has not got too old and soured, as the flavour can leech into your baked goods and puddings.

4. If you don’t have any milk left, or making this recipe will cause you to run out, when I was making this again to take these photographs I forgot to add it and the resulting clafoutis looked and tasted excellent - it was just a little less light!

5. I never use a recipe to make onion gravy, but for two people I thinly slice an onion into half moons, then cook them in a large knob of melted butter with a splash of light olive oil and a good pinch of sea salt until soft and only just starting to colour over a medium high heat. Then, once they’re good and golden, but still soft not crisp I stir in a good shake of flour. After cooking the flour off for a few minutes I stir in either homemade chicken stock or good beef stock from a cube until I have a gravy of the desired consistency, breaking up the onions with the back of my spoon as I go. Season to taste with salt, pepper, Worcestershire Sauce and Dijon mustard.

6. Some ovens allow you to grill and bake at the same time, but you’ve pre-heated it so it does not matter if you have to grill, then switch back to oven like you do in my new one!