Brilliant blackberry and chilli syrup

It’s hard to walk past a hedgerow at this time of year without noticing leaves tinged with jewel-hued spheres of green, red and purple. Its blackberry season! Readily available in fruit stores and supermarkets everywhere, it can be much more satisfying, and if you take some enthusiastic friends, a whole lot more fun, to collect your own

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A versatile fruit, excellent eaten raw with pancakes, or in a crumble like we also enjoyed (below), there are no shortage of options.

As well as the crumble, which was devoured by myself and a bunch of friends, I wanted to experiment with a slightly longer-lasting blackberry recipe. After an online read around, I decided to experiment with a blackberry and chilli syrup, like the one made by Heidi Swan.

This simple and quick syrup, is rich in flavour, with a slow and firey burn that creeps in at the end of each mouthful.  Heidi suggests swirling into yogurt, oatmeal, and crème fraîche, or on toast, over goats cheese, or pancakes. All delicious options!

At our place it’s been eaten as a late night snack on crackers, added to champagne for a brilliantly sparkly aperitif, and spread on toast topped with blue cheese. The omnivore in our family has also suggested the syrup would be excellent with game – he’s mentioned venison and pheasant. 

Here’s the recipe, slightly adapted from Heidi’s version:

Recipe
(Makes around 500mL)
    3 tea spoons dried crushed chillies
    1 cup dark Muscovado sugar
    1 cup organic brown sugar
    1 1/2 cups water
    Juice of one large lemon
    1 cup blackberries

 Add the dried chillies, sugars, water, and lemon juice to a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Boil, stirring regularly, until the mixture has reduced to 2 cups. This should take around 25 minutes. 

While that’s boiling, puree the blackberries with a hand blender. Strain the berries through a fine-mesh strainer, and set puree aside.

Head back to the stovetop, once the chilli mixture has reduced, remove from heat. Add to the berry mixture and blend until smooth. Strain through a sieve into a heat-proof bowl.

Pour into a bottle and refrigerate. Enjoy!!

Hawthorn berry syrup

It’s the time of year when Hawthorn trees are laden with bright red berries. It’s only autumn but the bright red berries against the backdrop of brilliant green, remind one of Christmas!

The berries of the Hawthorn tree have been used for thousands of years in the Greek culture to treat a variety of health issues.  In China, the berries are made into a tea, which is drunk to promote the health of the circulatory system, treat angina, high blood pressure, as well as stomach problems.

I used the hawthorn berries we collected in Devon over the weekend, to make a honey infused syrup. We served it today on pancakes with mixed autumn berries. Here’s the recipe.

Recipe

Two cups hawthorn berries

One jar of honey (200mL)

Muslin cloth (to strain berries)

Bring two cups of hawthorn berries to the boil in two cups of water. Once boiling simmer the berries for 20 minutes. The water will reduce the liquid should become a brownish/red colour as the juice leaches from the berries.

Strain the berries, retaining the water. Once the berries have cooled slightly, strain through a muslin bag, squeezing out the remaining liquid into the berry stained water.

Return the liquid to the stove top. On a low heat, simmer the hawthorn berry juice together with the honey. Stir slowly until the honey has melted fully into the berry juice. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Once cooled, pour into a glass jar, or bottle and leave to set overnight in the fridge.

Serve the hawthorn berry syrup with pancakes, or use as a sweetener for tea. It tastes delicious, is very healthy, and should keep for 3-4 months in the fridge. Enjoy!!