Looking ahead to autumn

With the schools in Scotland returning next week I know that autumn is not far away. I can almost smell it in the air and I can see it in the hedgerows as fruits start to ripen. Before it hits, and taking the opportunity of all this extra free time I have at the moment, I'm planning ahead to the few things that I know I will definitely gather and definitely make. Probably best to also add to that things I will definitely use. 

So other than sloe gin and rosehip syrup there are a few other recipes that I will make again and a few more I am keen to try. They predominately involve similar autumn berries as rather than spread myself thin and gather small amounts of lots of things I plan on concentrating on picking larger amounts of only a few things...mainly hawthorn berries and elderberries. 

Last year I made, with great success, the above sauce which is called saucy haw ketchup in Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No.2   but you'll find a slight variation on it under the name Haw-sin sauce. Both use the same quantity of hawthorn berries but the rest of the ingredients vary. It has a sweet and sour taste so could be used in a stir fry but so far I have used it as a dipping sauce for all sorts of deep fried snacks including pakoras, samosas and spring rolls and it also works surprisingly well as a salad dressing. This bottle is heading for being a year old and I'm not sure whether it is still useable...there appears to be a thick sediment at the bottom and something floating on the surface. I'm thinking that this year after pouring it in sterilised bottles I might go for boiling them in a water bath to make extra sure they keep all year.

 From elderberries I made the above Pontack sauce( from the same book but you can find the exact same recipe here). It's not a sauce consistency, more liquidy and it is a blend of elderberries, vinegar, onions and spices. Rather than use it as a condiment it's best added into stews, sauces and gravy to enrich it. It's nice but this year I plan on amalgamating it with my worcester sauce recipe as I think the berries will work wonderfully well with the sour and spice of my recipe.

I'll have to make elderberry syrup too as the notion of a winter without it doesn't bare thinking about! I won't make the same mistake as last year and only make a litre. I shall be doubling or possibly trebling it as we used it up in about a month last winter due to colds, flu's and chest infections. As a variation I may make some elderberry rob which is just a reduced down syrup with the addition of some medicinal brandy and some warming spices.

Comments

[Lucy]

love the picture with the basket/container out in the garden on it's side... very real :)

sauces and syrups sound wonderful... I am keenly anticipating all the brambles here, still green but going to be frozen and jammed this year. contemplating making the rosehip syrup too...