Recipes with rowanberries

Local Foraging #2: Rowan Berries by Natasha Lloyd Recipes

Rowan Wine

The recipes on the right call for you to boil the berries, but with wine you don’t bring your fruit up to any great temperature, so it is essential that you freeze the fruit first then make your wine. Ingredients: 4lbs of rowan berries destalked 3lbs of sugar One packet of yeast – I like a sherry yeast for rowan berries. 5 litres of lukewarm water In a clean and sterile bucket, place the frozen berries, sugar, lukewarm water and yeast. Mix together and cover. Allow to ferment for 3 - 5 days depending on the ambient temperature where the bucket is kept. You will see bubbles forming to show the mix is fermenting, when you stir it every day. After it is starting to ferment, strain out the berries. You do this with a sieve and transfer the liquid into a clean and sterile demijohn. It takes about 15 to 20 months to fully mature. When at the desired flavour for you, bottle the wine into clean and sterile bottles and cork. This keeps it for longer.

Rowan Berry Jelly

This jelly is well known in Scotland as a tart jelly to go with fatty and game meats, and it pairs particularly well with strong cheeses. It has an unusual flavour that is tart and astringent. Ingredients: 4lbs of rowan berries with the stalks removed. 3lbs of apples, peeled and cored. Chop into quarters. 1lb of sugar. In a big bowl add the berries and sugar together and allow to infuse overnight. The next day add the syrupy berries and the apples to a saucepan and bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or until the fruit is soft. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then pour into a jelly strainer bag overnight. Once this is complete, pour the jelly into sterilised jars - you may need to heat the jelly slightly to allow it to pour freely into the jars.

Rowan Chutney

Ingredients: 4lbs of rowan berries with the stalks removed 3lbs of apples or other fruit such as pears or plums, peeled, cored or stoned and cut into bitesize chunks 3 large onions, sliced thinly ½ lb of sugar 100ml of cider vinegar Tablespoon of sea salt Olive oil In a large pan, cook the onions in the olive oil until slightly browned on the edges. Add the rowan berries, apples, cider vinegar, sugar and salt and allow to come to the boil for 10 minutes, and then to simmer for 45mins to an hour. You will see the fruit break down and start to come together. Allow to cool and place into sterilised jars.