I reckon the blackberries are almost over in Devon. There were still plenty on the bushes in Lustleigh today, but plenty of them were turning to mush in our purple-stained fingers. There were a shameful amount of unpicked mouldy ones too. Why doesn't everyone go brambling? Maybe the walkers and residents in Lustleigh have had their fill.
In folklore, it is deemed unlucky to pick blackberries after September 29th, otherwise the devil has spat on them, so I guess we made a lucky escape today.
I made this:
It's from Jamie Oliver's Italy and its Italian name is Torta di More and the full recipe is on his website here.
I cheated and used a pre-made all butter pastry case from Sainsbury's. I'm totally useless with 'neat and tidy' pastry, so these cases are a godsend and magically keep for ages in your larder without any preservatives. Must be huge quantities of salt and sugar in them, or just Sainsbury pixie dust.
Then basically, you just whisk together in one go:
500g mascarpone,
3-4 tablespoonfuls of caster sugar,
the inside seeds of a vanilla pod,
100ml cream (supposed to be single, I used double)
a couple of tbsp of vino santo, grappa or other sweet liqueur.
Place that creamy mixture in the pastry case, sprinkle on some blackberries and then dob a few droplets of melted blackberry jam onto the fruit to make them sweet and sparkly.
My son said that there was far too much cream and he picked off all the berries (not much of a success for him then) but the rest of the family tucked in. Delicious, and seasonal (just).
By the way, if you're ever near Lustleigh, try the Primrose Tea Rooms, a wonderful friendly place run by a mother and daughter team where I had a slice of fresh, light lemon drizzle cake for 80p.
This blog post has been entered in the Simple and in Season Blogging Event: http://www.renbehan.com/2011/09/simple-and-in-season-september-blogging-event.html
In folklore, it is deemed unlucky to pick blackberries after September 29th, otherwise the devil has spat on them, so I guess we made a lucky escape today.
I made this:
I cheated and used a pre-made all butter pastry case from Sainsbury's. I'm totally useless with 'neat and tidy' pastry, so these cases are a godsend and magically keep for ages in your larder without any preservatives. Must be huge quantities of salt and sugar in them, or just Sainsbury pixie dust.
Then basically, you just whisk together in one go:
500g mascarpone,
3-4 tablespoonfuls of caster sugar,
the inside seeds of a vanilla pod,
100ml cream (supposed to be single, I used double)
a couple of tbsp of vino santo, grappa or other sweet liqueur.
Place that creamy mixture in the pastry case, sprinkle on some blackberries and then dob a few droplets of melted blackberry jam onto the fruit to make them sweet and sparkly.
My son said that there was far too much cream and he picked off all the berries (not much of a success for him then) but the rest of the family tucked in. Delicious, and seasonal (just).
By the way, if you're ever near Lustleigh, try the Primrose Tea Rooms, a wonderful friendly place run by a mother and daughter team where I had a slice of fresh, light lemon drizzle cake for 80p.
This blog post has been entered in the Simple and in Season Blogging Event: http://www.renbehan.com/2011/09/simple-and-in-season-september-blogging-event.html
5 comments:
It looks wonderful. Our Island is covered in blackberries.
Funny I had never heard of the 29 September thing - lucky I survived until now!
Still plenty of blackberries around Totnes as of 6th October provided you stick to north facing hedges.
Thanks for you comments.
@wallyb - new name - all grown up now?!
@GC - way lucky
@Ben - interesting there are still some around, but are you prepared to risk the Devil's spit?
Thank Kate for entering this into Simple and in Season! A 'sweet' round up will follow today!
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