Much as I like cooked gooseberries, I was trying to think what I could do with some gooseberries that would keep that sharpness and fragrantness that they have when they’re raw. So I thought I’d try making gooseberry liqueur. I couldn’t actually find any recipes for it, but the basic principle of making fruit liqueur seems pretty straightforward, so I topped and tailed the berries, pricked them all over with a fork, and put them in a jar with a load of sugar and vodka.*

I’m going to leave them to soak for four or five weeks in a cool dark place, strain off the liquid into a bottle and then possibly leave it a little longer to mature. My ideal result would be a kind of gooseberry version of limoncello: sharp and flavoursome. But I’m just making it up as I go along, so I’ll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks.
* Just for my own benefit if I want to remember the quantities later: 800g of gooseberries, 300g of sugar and about 3/4 of a bottle of Stoli.
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So, how did it taste?
I don’t know, it’s still not ready. Or at least I don’t actually know whether it’s ready, but I’m giving it another couple of weeks. It hasn’t turned the vivid green I vaguely hoped it would — I think it’s going to be a kind of cloudy-looking liquid — but that’s all I know so far.
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[...] a quick update on the gooseberry liqueur I mentioned the other day. I have strained out the fruit and bottled the [...]