Tamal Ray’s merry berries: gooseberry trifle and redcurrant custard tarts – recipe | Life and style
There has been a war in the vegetable patch, between my dad and me for a few years now. As he is fond of telling everyone within earshot, Dad has been growing his own vegetables ever since he first had a suburban garden to tend, back in the 70s. The trouble is that my dad is a creature of habit, growing a limited crop of runner beans, tomatoes and spinach, and refusing to yield to “modern†ideas such as crop rotation. It’s not that I dislike any of what he grows, but to my mind if you’re to go to the trouble of growing your own food it should be something that’s difficult to find in the shops or expensive to buy. Which is why I’m slowly pushing out the runner beans in favour of fruit.
Of all the things I grow, the gooseberries are the champions â€" narrowly pipping redcurrants. The gooseberry bush is a curious thing. A short mass of sprawling, thorny twigs bearing bright green, veiny fruit. It might not be a thing of beauty but it certainly has character: the cantankerous old man of the fruit patch. If you don’t grow your own gooseberries, you should be able to find them at your local market. The big supermarkets are less reliable, although a quick internet search will tell you which stock them. You are likely to find them tucked away in some neglected corner of the fruit aisle, as though they are harbouring some embarrassing family secret.
It’s a shame that gooseberries have fallen out of fashion. Perhaps we’ve become so accustomed to scoffing handfuls of raspberries, strawberries and blueberries straight from the packet that the idea of cooking a berry seems alien. They may look rather unassuming, but mixed with a little sugar and cooked into a jam or compote, they take on a delicious flavour, as confounding as it is unique. Gooseberry jam stirred into Greek yoghurt makes a lovely, simple pudding. This month, though, I’ve used them in a trifle, a dessert that itself is well overdue for a comeback.
Redcurrants, meanwhile, are a great addition to Portuguese custard tarts. It was a friend of mine who first introduced me to these, with the sort of misty-eyed, hungry look that far surpassed any actual words of recommendation. If you’ve ever made a regular custard tart, you might view them as tricky things to make: too hot or too long in an oven and the mix turns to scrambled eggs. The Portuguese variety, however, is far more robust. The custard mix of eggs, flour and sugar syrup is blasted at a high temperature until dark brown spots of caramelisation appear on its surface. With a base of crisp, flaky puff pastry, they make a delightful sweet treat. The bright, scarlet tang of the redcurrants is a perfect complement to the gooey sweet custard.
Gooseberry trifle
(Makes one large trifle that should serve at least eight)
For the sponge
100g plain flour
3â„4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
11â„2 tsp ground ginger
1â„2 tsp ground cinnamon
100g runny honey
35g vegetable oil plus extra for greasing
5 large egg whites
For the compote
700g gooseberries
150g granulated or caster sugar
For the custard
450ml whole milk
3 tbsp cornflour
450ml double cream
5 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla paste
For the topping
40g flaked almonds
300ml double cream
30g icing sugar
To make the sponge, preheat your oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Line the base of a 22x33cm swiss roll tin with greaseproof paper and lightly grease the sides with a little vegetable oil. If you don’t have a swiss roll tin, use whatever you own that has a similar area; a pair of 20cm-round sandwich tins would make a good enough substitute.
Mix together all the dry ingredients, then stir in the honey and oil. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, using an electric whisk. Stir a third of the whites into the mix, then fold in the remaining two-thirds. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for 12 minutes, by which point it should be well-risen, golden and springy. Set aside to cool.
While the sponge is baking, top and tail the gooseberries. Place in a large saucepan with the sugar and stir over a low heat for a couple of minutes. The berries will release a lot of water as they cook, which will dissolve the sugar. Simmer on a low/medium heat for another 10 minutes, by which point the berries will have softened and turned slightly pinky-orange. Set aside to cool.
Make the custard by stirring one teaspoon of milk at a time into the cornflour until you have a smooth paste with no lumps. Then stir together with the remaining milk, cream, beaten egg yolks and vanilla paste. Cook on a low/medium heat, stirring constantly with a balloon whisk until thickened. This should take about 8 minutes.
Toast your flaked almonds by roasting them on a baking sheet for 6 minutes at 180C/350F/gas mark 4.
When all the ingredients are cool, assemble the trifle. Tear up the sponge into chunks and place into the base of a large trifle bowl. Cover with a layer of the gooseberry compote, then some of the custard. Repeat for a second or third layer (depending on the size of your bowl). Whisk up the double cream and icing sugar with an electric whisk and spread over the top of the trifle. Finally, sprinkle over the almonds.
Redcurrant Portuguese custard tarts
(Makes 12)
For the pastry cases
15g melted butter or oil for greasing
A few tablespoons plain flour, for dusting
320g pre-rolled all-butter puff pastry
For the sugar syrup
1 orange
200g granulated or caster sugar
100g water
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
For the custard
2 tbsp cornflour
250ml whole milk
4 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla paste
A handful of redcurrants
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Brush the inside of a 12-hole cupcake tin with a little butter or oil, then dust with flour and shake off the excess.
Using a 10cm-round cookie cutter, cut out discs of pastry and push down into the holes. They will not come up to the full height of the tins. You should get about 8 discs from the first sheet of pastry. Stack the offcuts on top of each other (rather than just squishing together, which would destroy the layers of butter), roll out to 3mm thick and cut out the remaining 4 rings. Place the pastry tin in a freezer for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the sugar syrup. Use a potato peeler to cut strips of zest from the orange. Place in a small saucepan with the sugar, water, star anise and cinnamon stick. Heat gently at first until all the sugar is dissolved, then turn the heat up and boil the syrup until it reaches 105C on a sugar thermometer. Once cooled, discard the cinnamon stick, anise and orange peel.
Mix together the cornflour with a little milk to form a smooth paste. Stir this paste gradually into the remaining milk, beaten egg yolks and vanilla paste. Cook in a saucepan on a low/medium heat for about 8 minutes until the custard has thickened.
Pour the custard into the pastry cases, aiming to fill to a few millimetres below the rim. Sprinkle 4 or 5 redcurrants in each, then place in the oven for 16-20 minutes. They are ready when the custard is billowing up and dark brown spots of caramelisation appear on the surface.
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