Green Gooseberry and Elderflower Compôte

When I’m driving through country lanes in late May or early June and I spy the elderflower coming into blossom, I know it’s time to go and search on gooseberry bushes for the hard, green fruit, far too under-ripe at that stage to eat raw, but wonderful cooked in tarts or fools or in this delicious compôte. Elder-flowers have an extraordinary affinity with green gooseberries and by a happy arrangement of nature they are both in season at the same time.