Recipe for Haw Sauce - Made from Hawthorn Berries

As promised here is the recipe for Haw Sauce – a surprisingly delicious asian-style sauce made with the berries from the Hawthorn tree. The ingredients are very simple so the flavour really is in the haw berries. As May is duck shooting month in New Zealand this might be a good recipe to go with dinner.

I should probably have put this up last month when the berries were at their best but there are still some out there on the trees.  If you are lucky enough to live in an area where the old settler-planted hawthorn hedges are still intact then be thankful for them and try to preserve them – they are sources of shelter and food for the birds and other animals.

The Recipe.

For every 500 grams of berries you will need 1 ¼ cups of white wine vinegar or cider vinegar. ¾ cup of sugar. A pinch of salt and some good grinds of black pepper.

Wash and destalk (as much as possible) berries.Use scissors if easier.

Wash and sterilize sauce bottles. Smaller ones are good.

Put berries into a preserving pan and cover with the vinegar plus 1 ¼ cups of water. Cook until soft.

Take off heat. Carefully put mixture into a sieve and press through to remove seeds and skins. (This is a bit tiresome – sorry. Any suggestions how to make this easier would be helpful. I have been making quince paste and you have to do the same thing. My arm is still sore.)

Put the puree back into the pot, add sugar and heat gently stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to boil and cook 5 minutes. Now add the salt and black pepper and pour into sterilized bottles. 

This is really delicious with pork or duck.

Credit for this recipe goes to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Pam Corbin and can be found in the River Cottage Preserves Handbook.