Gooseberries — season, tips, and recipes in New Zealand
Gooseberries is a fruit available in New Zealand during December, January, February, peaking in January. This page is a practical guide for home cooks: when to buy gooseberries, how to pick a good one, how to store it, what it goes well with, three original recipes, and detailed nutrition information.
Once extremely common in NZ gardens, now increasingly rare commercially. If you find them at a farmers' market, buy them.
How to pick a good one
Should be firm and slightly translucent. Green ones are tart (best for cooking), golden ones are sweeter (eating fresh).
How to store it
Fridge for up to a week. Freeze well. Top and tail before using.
Goes well with
elderflower: Elderflower and gooseberry appear at the same time of year and taste as though they evolved together. Elderflower's floral sweetness and gooseberry's sharp tartness are almost exactly what the other needs.
cream: Gooseberries cooked with cream moderate their tartness. A gooseberry fool -- stewed gooseberries folded into whipped cream -- is one of the oldest British desserts for this reason.
mackerel: One of the more unusual fruit-fish pairings, but a genuine one. Gooseberry's sharpness cuts through mackerel's oily richness the same way lemon does, but with more complexity.
ginger: Ginger's warmth and gooseberry's cold tartness cover opposite ends of the flavour spectrum. Used together in preserves and crumbles.
Recipes
Gooseberry Fool
English classic. Tart and creamy.
Ingredients: 200g gooseberries, 3 tbsp sugar, 250ml cream, 1 tsp vanilla
Method: Top and tail gooseberries. Simmer with sugar and a splash of water 10 min until soft. Cool. Whip cream with vanilla. Fold gooseberry mixture through cream leaving streaks.
Gooseberry Crumble
Tart base, sweet top.
Ingredients: 300g gooseberries, 3 tbsp sugar, 80g oats, 60g flour, 60g brown sugar, 50g butter
Method: Top and tail berries. Toss with sugar in dish. Rub oats, flour, sugar, butter until crumbly. Top. Bake 180C for 30 min.
Quick Gooseberry Jam
15 minutes. Incredible on toast.
Ingredients: 300g gooseberries, 200g sugar, 1 tbsp water
Method: Simmer berries and water until soft. Add sugar, stir until dissolved. Boil 10 min until setting point. Jar hot.
Nutrition
100g of gooseberries provides 46% of your daily vitamin C, more per gram than oranges. Unusually high in vitamin E for a berry. Good source of fibre and manganese. Only 44 calories per 100g. One of the most underrated nutritional performers in the berry family.