On raspberries
- tips for harvesting, shopping and storing; ways to use; a recipe for raspberry vinegar and another for pancakes
Yesterday a friend with an allotment sent me this photo of her first raspberry harvest of the season. It made me think that perhaps some of you here might similarly have your hands on a early supply (I wouldn't yet have much hopes of seeing good ones in the shops, but keen to hear if you think I’m wrong) and might like to read a few thoughts on what to do with them.
So I have plucked out some ideas from Seasoning and after those you’ll find a recipe for an infusing raspberry vinegar that is just gorgeous as a salad dressing, with goats cheese dishes, figs or when cooking lamb; and a recipe for fluffy raspberry pancakes with raspberry syrup.
First, a quick word on raspberry varieties: The classic pink ones share a lovely balance of sweet and sour with black raspberries, whereas golden raspberries are sweeter, almost melon-y or pineapple-y. Any opportunity to use a mix of raspberry varieties is a really lovely way to discover how a fruit whose flavours feel so familiar to us, is actually much more nuanced than we might think.
Harvesting:
Raspberries are reliably ripe to pick as they won’t easily let go of their branch until ready. The point is, don’t try to tug too hard at an unwilling fruit - when it is ripe it will easily be freed.
Shopping:
Raspberries should be bright and look full of plump juicy life. Avoid any with their hull still attached as that means they were picked before being fully ripe.
Check the bottom of a raspberry punnet and if it’s over-juicy that probably means the ones at the bottom have got a bit mushed. Raspberries are delicate and prone to crushing if stored for a while.
Storing / freezing:
Don’t wash raspberries until it’s time to use them.
Keep them in the fridge, uncovered or just with kitchen paper lying over single layers of the fruit.
Raspberries freeze far better than strawberries. Freeze them in a single layer before transferring to bags. They’ll be very soft when you defrost them and so best for ice creams or other things where that doesn’t texture loss doesn’t matter, like the pancakes below. Use straight from the freezer for smoothies.
Ways to use:
Bring raspberries back to room temperature before using so their flavours that have been suppressed by the cold of the fridge can bounce back.
For the simplest of sweet servings, sprinkle caster sugar over and let them sit for a while. The sugar will draw excess juice out of the berries, intensifying their flavour while at the same time creating a sweet raspberry sauce. Add a little alcohol by way of wine, vermouth or other fortified wine for extra deliciousness.
Macerated as above or not (although I pretty much always would), raspberries are fabulous to: fold into ice creams, syllabubs or fools; layer them into trifles or sundaes; sit them in the middle of a Victoria sponge, nestled among the cream or custard filling.
A raspberry clafoutis is a very good thing.
Try this iced wine punch for a really refreshing summer drink that brings together raspberries’ love of both booze and spices:
Put ½ teaspoon of ground cloves and a dozen bruised cardamom pods into 150ml brandy. Chill for 3 hours, then strain. Add to the brandy a bottle of red wine, the juice from 1 lemon and 2 oranges, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp rosewater and 300g raspberries. Chill again until ready to serve. Finish with 500–750ml sparkling water (amount to taste), some sprigs of soft herbs, and cucumber slices. Serve over ice, with your shoes off and feet up.
(There are plenty more ways to make the most of raspberries in Seasoning, pages 74-81)
Raspberry Vinegar
This is far simpler than double-fermenting raspberries into a true raspberry vinegar but does (nearly) as well in a salad dressing, with goats’ cheese, figs or lamb.
400g raspberries
400ml white wine vinegar
200g granulated sugar
Put the berries into a large stainless steel bowl and lightly crush them with a fork. Pour over the vinegar, stir, cover the bowl with a cloth and leave it all in a cool, dark place for 3 or 4 days. Give it a stir every so often.
Strain the liquid through muslin or a fine sieve into a medium saucepan. Add the sugar and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and gently simmer for 5 minutes, skimming away any foam that comes to the surface.
Pour into sterilized bottles and let the vinegar mature for 2 weeks before using. It’ll keep for up to six months.
Fluffy Raspberry Pancakes with Raspberry Syrup
The ideal forkful of pancake stack needs to have in perfect balance: fruitness, sweetness, and lightly fluffy sweet pancake-ness. That nirvana is achieved here by cooking raspberries into the pancake batter, with then more raspberries as a syrup to spoon between the pancake layers.
Note that any extra raspberry syrup is great to use as ripples for ice creams, sauces for desserts, or to whisk into a salad dressing.
Serves 2 with a stack of 5 or 6 pancakes (depending how large you made them)
15g butter, plus extra for frying
110g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp caster sugar
1 egg
150ml whole milk
pinch of salt
250g raspberries
1 tbsp honey, plus more to taste
2 tsp icing sugar
Gently melt the 15g butter in a small saucepan and set aside to cool.
Put the flour, baking powder, sugar, egg and milk into a mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt and the cooled melted butter, and whisk together well. Set aside for 20 minutes, using that time to make the raspberry syrup.
For the syrup: Blend 175g of the raspberries with 2 teaspoons water and the honey. Push through a sieve to get rid of the seeds. Taste the syrup and decide whether or not to stir in more honey to taste – it will depend how sweet or not the raspberries were, and how sweet you want the syrup.
Only make the pancakes right before eating them. Use a fork to gently crush all but a few of the remaining raspberries. Spoon those lightly crushed ones through the batter. Set a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add a small piece of extra butter, let it melt, then ladle in mixture for pancakes about 10cm wide, with space between them. Leave the pancakes alone to cook until bubbles start to blister on the surface – that’s the time to turn them over and give them just another minute on the other side. Lift out onto plates, stacking them up with raspberry syrup between each pancake. Repeat with the rest of the batter, adding more butter as the pan needs.
Ideally the pancake stacks will be served straight from the pan but if you need to keep some warm until they are all done, put them onto plates and into an 80°C fan oven. Serve while hot, with the icing sugar, remaining raspberries and syrup over the top.