Cooking with gooseberries and elderflowers with Darina Allen

Frothy white elderflower blossoms are the jewels of the hedgerow – they are the quintessential flavour of early summer.

Sun, 14 Jun, 2020 - 18:00

Darina Allen is co-founder of the Ballymaloe Cookery School and more recently the Ballymaloe Organic Farm School in Shanagarry, East Cork.

Frothy white elderflower blossoms are the jewels of the hedgerow – they are the quintessential flavour of early summer. They lend their haunting muscat flavour to many fruits but the combination of green gooseberry and elderflower is a marriage made in heaven.

As soon as I see the first flowers, I make a beeline for the gooseberry bushes in the fruit garden. They will still be tart and green but as soon as they are the size of a marble, one can start to pick them. I always have to go myself, because no one will believe me that they are ready to pick – not to enjoy fresh but to pile into pies and crumbles, tarts, compotes…. always with a few elderflower blossoms to add that haunting muscat flavour. We make fritters too and lots of elderflower champagne and cordial which keeps brilliantly to perk up a G&T and enliven cordials and add magic to a custard or simple sponge or Swiss roll.