Exploring New Ingredients

The open-air market around the corner from our house is such a fun place to discover new fruits and vegetables in each season. Many fruits, veggies, and grains that are 'gourmet' and uncommon in the US are very common here, so I have been trying out new ingredients that would otherwise be too expensive. Lots of lovely fruits and veggies come in from Italy and Turkey, including beautiful figs that arrived in the markets a couple weeks ago. Goat cheese is quite cheap, so I have been enjoying decadent fig, goat cheese, and honey snacks!

But today I'm not writing about figs. Instead, I want to talk about Johannisbeeren, one of my summer fruit discoveries. I have never seen these berries in the US, but here they are a common garnish and ingredient. The berries are a very pretty bright red, and slightly translucent. They taste tart, but not sour. I have been snacking on them since late July, but this week I finally decided to check out some recipes.

tiny, sweet  Erdbeeren + tart Johanissbeeren

While searching for recipes, I also looked up the English name for these berries. It turns out that they are currants! I have tried dried currants from the Turkish grocery store around the corner, but they pretty much taste like raisins. I vaguely remember tasting fresh currants in my agroforestry class at Cornell in 2006, but I have never seen them in a US grocery store.

I found a bunch of interesting recipes using fresh Johannisbeeren, but I decided to first try out the simplest: Rote Grütze, a traditional North German fruit 'pudding.'

Rote Grütze means 'red grits.' My reading indicates that it was made with just grits and fruit juice in the past. Modern recipes vary in the number of ingredients and difficulty, but they no longer include grits and the base recipe always includes at least two types of whole berries, fruit juice (or wine), and a thickener. The recipe I tried is a really easy: there are only 4 ingredients, and it takes maybe 20 minutes active cooking time, plus an hour for the pudding to cool.

Rote Grütze
400 grams/~3.5 cups (total) at least 2 types of red berries (currants, raspberries, sour cherries, strawberries)
400 ml/1.5 cups fruit juice (apple, cherry, grape, cranberry, whatever you like!)
8 teaspoons corn starch or semolina
~1/4 cup sugar, more or less to taste

1.   Wash the berries. In a medium-sized pot, cook them over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Then add the juice and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Taste it and add more sugar if you like it sweeter.
2.   Lightly mash the fruit with a spoon. Mix the cornstarch with a bit of water to make a thick slurry, then slowly add the slurry to the pot while stirring.
3.   Cook for another 3-5 minutes, til the mixture thickens a bit. Remove the pot from the heat. Pour the mixture into 4 serving bowls or a jello mold, and let it come to room temperature before placing it in the fridge for an hour to solidify. It will have the consistency of thick preserves.
4.   Serve the traditional way, with milk or vanilla sauce, or try it with chocolate cake or on your morning yogurt!

Some recipes include a vanilla bean or a splash of red wine, cherry liqueur, or rum, which I might try next time. The berry season is just about over, so I made a half recipe and used currants and strawberries. I served it with 5 ingredient chocolate cake and vanilla sauce -- it is cool and not too sweet, which makes it a perfectly refreshing summer dessert!

Look for another Johannisbeere recipe coming soon!