Food: Red Berry Pudding
Jul. 23rd, 2015 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lyornLife is busy but tedious and not worth posting about, so, a food post:
Rote Grütze (Red berry pudding)
Get a lot or red summer fruit and berries. There should be redcurrants in it, but I did not use them, instead I got one pound each of sweet cherries, sour cherries, blackcurrants and strawberries. Cleaned them, de-stoned the cherries (turning an old white shirt into some horror movie prop while doing so), and put them in the fridge for two days, which I do not generally recommend, but my fridge is set to 4°C and can handle it.
I then heated (in a large pot) a pint of apple juice, the juice of one lemon, two tablespoons of sugar, two pinches of salt and cinnamon each, and one shot of raspberry syrup, added about 1/3 of the fruit and boiled it on medium for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, I mixed 90 grams of potato starch with water. (Traditionally one uses groats or semolina, I'll leave the for the next try). When the fruit started to disintegrate, I took the pot off the plate and let it cool down a bit (~60°C? - ice cubes help), as starch poured into boiling fluid creates instant-jelly.
Back on the plate, on medium-high or high, stir in starch and get to boil while stirring with a long-handled cooking spoon. When it starts to clear (starch is opaque until it gets going, then it clears), add in rest of fruit, bring to boil again. Keep stirring. When it has boiled, take if off the plate and let it cool. Stir occasionally in the first five or ten minutes.
Take a picture of the spoon and caption it "I cut his heart out with a spoon!"
Feeds 8 to 12.
I served it with rice pudding and vanilla sauce, but vanilla ice cream, semolina pudding, cream or yoghurt would have worked just as well.
You could also use it as filling for a tarte or cake.
Or pour it hot into jam jars pre-heated with boiling water. Put on lids, let the jars cool upside-down on a plate or cloth. (Oven gloves are necessary for handling.) Officially this keeps for two weeks in the fridge, unofficially it keeps for 1 year in the kitchen cupboard.
Variants:
* Fruit: Whatever you want, as long as it it red (or black, or blue).
* More sugar: +1 tablespoon for each of the following: you have no syrup; you are replacing 1 pound of sweet fruit with less sweet fruit; you are going to serve it cold; you just like it sweeter.
* Less sugar: -1 tablespoon for each of the following: you are using only sweet fruit; you like it more tart.
* Consistency: If you want it to be creamy and not semi-solid the next day, use less starch (maybe 2/3?). If you want to have fewer identifiable fruit, you could halve the sweet cherries, boil more of the fruit for a longer time, or use an immersion blender to taste.
* Alcohol: Can discourage the starch from doing its job. Experiment. If it fails, gelatin is your friend... if you have time for it. If not, just declare it to be meant that way.
Rote Grütze (Red berry pudding)
Get a lot or red summer fruit and berries. There should be redcurrants in it, but I did not use them, instead I got one pound each of sweet cherries, sour cherries, blackcurrants and strawberries. Cleaned them, de-stoned the cherries (turning an old white shirt into some horror movie prop while doing so), and put them in the fridge for two days, which I do not generally recommend, but my fridge is set to 4°C and can handle it.
I then heated (in a large pot) a pint of apple juice, the juice of one lemon, two tablespoons of sugar, two pinches of salt and cinnamon each, and one shot of raspberry syrup, added about 1/3 of the fruit and boiled it on medium for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, I mixed 90 grams of potato starch with water. (Traditionally one uses groats or semolina, I'll leave the for the next try). When the fruit started to disintegrate, I took the pot off the plate and let it cool down a bit (~60°C? - ice cubes help), as starch poured into boiling fluid creates instant-jelly.
Back on the plate, on medium-high or high, stir in starch and get to boil while stirring with a long-handled cooking spoon. When it starts to clear (starch is opaque until it gets going, then it clears), add in rest of fruit, bring to boil again. Keep stirring. When it has boiled, take if off the plate and let it cool. Stir occasionally in the first five or ten minutes.
Take a picture of the spoon and caption it "I cut his heart out with a spoon!"
Feeds 8 to 12.
I served it with rice pudding and vanilla sauce, but vanilla ice cream, semolina pudding, cream or yoghurt would have worked just as well.
You could also use it as filling for a tarte or cake.
Or pour it hot into jam jars pre-heated with boiling water. Put on lids, let the jars cool upside-down on a plate or cloth. (Oven gloves are necessary for handling.) Officially this keeps for two weeks in the fridge, unofficially it keeps for 1 year in the kitchen cupboard.
Variants:
* Fruit: Whatever you want, as long as it it red (or black, or blue).
* More sugar: +1 tablespoon for each of the following: you have no syrup; you are replacing 1 pound of sweet fruit with less sweet fruit; you are going to serve it cold; you just like it sweeter.
* Less sugar: -1 tablespoon for each of the following: you are using only sweet fruit; you like it more tart.
* Consistency: If you want it to be creamy and not semi-solid the next day, use less starch (maybe 2/3?). If you want to have fewer identifiable fruit, you could halve the sweet cherries, boil more of the fruit for a longer time, or use an immersion blender to taste.
* Alcohol: Can discourage the starch from doing its job. Experiment. If it fails, gelatin is your friend... if you have time for it. If not, just declare it to be meant that way.
