Way to Go! It's Red Currant Time! / Rote Gruetze

[chiltepin]

Thank you, Publix! Once a year they have red currants &/or gooseberries. That's the time for me to make Rote Gruetze, which I mentioned back in the context of the Cold Plum Soup thread.

ROTE GRUETZE
raspberries
strawberries (wild strawberries if you can get them)
red currants
water
sugar

Stem, core, chop as needed and cook them for--oh, say, half an hour or so. If you used too much water and they won't cook down to a loose pudding, you can thicken them with cornstarch or run them through a food grinder. But I avoid this problem by being stingy with the water in the first place. I'm also stingy with the sugar (personal taste).

Serve cold as is, or with leftover Griesbrei (cream of wheat or semolina?), or with cream.

You can actually use any combination of tart red fruit. I've used blackberries (which makes a Dunkelrote Gruetze, a dark-red dish), canned sour cherries, and melted red-currant jelly as part of the mix out of season. If you do use melted jelly, use less sugar.

You'll notice this is very like the recipe for Cold Plum Soup. You can make it into a cold fruit soup just by adding more water. One time I did that and added two firm but ripe nectarines to the mix. Astonishingly good!

Oh, one last thing--the word Gruetze. Yes, it is distantly related to the word grits. The connection is to the Griesbrei that was originally served with it and often still is. So maybe we should translate it as Red Grits?