Menu Dorset issue 19 *MENU18..dorset pdf issue 19 | Page 8

 P
Dorset
L E N T Y 
The Vital Ingredi ent
Bl ckberries
F
8
Get your gloves and buckets ready – arguably the finest free food
in the world comes into season this month
oraging has become fashionable over the last ten years as wild
food enthusiasts hunt in the hedgerows and fields for hairy
bittercress, green cracked brittlegill and other wonderfully-named
plants and fungi that sound like ingredients for Harry Potter
potions. While more adventurous cooks might have to convert their
friends and family to the pleasures of nettle soup or hawthorn ketchup,
there is one foraged food that everyone loves: blackberries.
Children may turn their noses up at hogweed tempura but who would
say no to blackberry and apple pie? Well, you’ll need to wait until apples
are at their best next month for that warming autumnal pudding, but you
don’t need such patience for brambles. They are arguably at their best
early in the season, when the sun is beating down on them in late August,
so get out there and pick the biggest and juiciest berries before the flies
get them.
The classic way of eating blackberries is in a crumble, pie or cobbler,
but you might not fancy a hot pud drowning in steaming custard on a
baking hot day. Thankfully, just like early-summer berries, blackberries
are just as good doused with cream and a sprinkling of sugar. If you want
to make something more substantial, try them in a pavlova, an Eton mess
(see recipe) or a (late) summer pudding.
Loaded with vitamin C and high in fibre, eating blackberries for
breakfast is a great way to start the day, so throw some into your bowl
of porridge or granola, serve them with pancakes or blitz them into a
smoothie – they’re also a juicy treat in a muffin.
Like most tart fruits, blackberries go well with fatty meats such
as duck and pork, so next time you’re roasting a leg or a shoulder, try
serving it with a blackberry sauce made with chicken stock. Or you could
also go completely wild and serve the sauce with roast grouse, which also
comes into season this month.
Whatever you do, be quick. Not only do you want to get the
blackberries before someone or something else nabs them, but they don’t
keep for more than a day. That said, if you do end up with too many to eat,
you can always preserve them in a jam, jelly, fruit leather or a cordial.
Blackberry Mess with
Lemon Cream
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
500g blackberries
3 good quality meringue nests, crushed
400ml double cream
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 tbsp icing sugar
Method
1. Crush half of the blackberries in your hands or
with a masher, and set the rest aside.
2. Peel the lemon with a fruit zester and squeeze
out the juice
3. Break the meringues into bite-sized pieces
4. Whip the cream in a large bowl until it starts to
thicken and gradually add the icing sugar. Then add
the lemon juice while continuously beating. Fold in
the lemon zest
5. Mix the crushed blackberries and meringues with
the cream. Serve in individual bowls, topped with
the remaining berries.
Black Beauty
Blackberries are in the hedgerows and just asking to be picked
Tart blackberries are a great
topper for a rich and creamy
cheesecake.
Blackberry sauce – the
perfect accompaniment to
roast duck leg.
Considering they are
plentiful in the hedgerows,
blackberries are expensive in
major supermarkets
www.menu-dorset.co.uk
The best blackberries are
usually found at the end of
the stalks
Red blackberries are no good
to eat raw, but they contain
pectin so chuck some into
your jam pan.