Rote Grütze mit Vanillesauce

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Medium heavy saucepan, 2 to 3 litre
• •Small saucepan for Vanillesauce
• •Whisk
• •Heatproof bowl
• •Fine sieve
• •Small milk jug or sauce boat

Instructions

1. 1

   Sort the fruit

   Rinse the currants and cherries quickly, then drain them well. Berries left sitting in water carry that water into the pot and weaken the set. Strip the currants with a fork, pit the cherries, and keep the raspberries and strawberries separate because soft fruit needs almost no cooking.

2. 2

   Cook firm fruit

   Put the currants, cherries, juice, sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring it to a gentle simmer and cook 5 to 6 minutes, until the currants burst and the cherries stain the liquid deep red. This draws the acid and juice into the pot before the starch sets it, so the Grütze tastes of fruit, not sweet paste.

3. 3

   Thicken the juice

   Stir the potato starch with the cold water until smooth, then pull out the lemon peel and stir the slurry into the simmering fruit. Starch must be wetted cold because hot liquid seals the outside at once and leaves dry lumps inside. Simmer 30 to 60 seconds, just until the liquid turns clear and glossy, then stop; a hard boil breaks the set and dulls the fruit.

   Use less starch than your fear tells you. Rote Grütze should spoon softly, not stand like a red brick.
4. 4

   Fold soft berries

   Take the pan off the heat and fold in the raspberries and strawberries with a wide spoon. The heat already in the pot softens them enough, and boiling them hard turns raspberries to seeds and strawberries to dull jam. Runter mit der Temperatur. The berries should still know their own names.

5. 5

   Cool the Grütze

   Spoon the fruit into a serving bowl and let it cool for 20 minutes, then cover and chill at least 2 hours. The starch finishes setting as it cools; judge it hot and you'll add too much thickener. Serve it cold, or let it come back to a gentle room temperature if you want the old whole-meal feeling with sauce or milk.

6. 6

   Infuse the milk

   Put the milk, cream, vanilla seeds, vanilla pod, and half the sugar in a small saucepan. Warm it until small bubbles gather at the edge, then take it off the heat and let it stand 10 minutes. The fat carries the vanilla, and the resting time pulls flavour from the pod without boiling the milk flat.

7. 7

   Cook the sauce

   Whisk the yolks with the remaining sugar, the teaspoon of starch, and the salt until smooth. Pour the hot milk in slowly while whisking, because the yolks need to warm before they thicken or they scramble. Return everything to low heat and stir until the sauce coats a spoon, 82 to 84C if you use a thermometer. Do not boil it; egg thickens before a boil, and after that it tightens into sweet scrambled egg. Nicht aus dem Glas.

   If the sauce catches, strain it at once into a cool bowl and whisk. It won't be perfect, but dinner survives.
8. 8

   Serve together

   Spoon the Rote Grütze into bowls and pour the Vanillesauce over at the table, warm, cool, or cold as you like it. The point is the contrast: sharp red fruit against soft vanilla. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss does its work here too, the small pinch of salt makes the sauce taste like vanilla instead of sugar.

Chef Tips

• •Do not make this with strawberries alone. They smell lovely, but they have little acid, and without red currants the bowl goes sweet and flat.
• •Frozen unsweetened berries are the winter answer. The summer season is shut then; don't buy pale fresh berries in February and expect the north to forgive you.
• •Potato starch gives the clearest, glossiest set, but it hates a hard boil after it thickens. Once the liquid turns clear, stop.
• •The spent vanilla pod goes into a jar of sugar after the sauce is made. Weggeworfen wird nichts.
• •Packet vanilla pudding poured thin is not Vanillesauce. Nicht aus dem Glas, not from the jar, and not from the sachet.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the Rote Grütze up to 2 days ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator. The flavour settles, and the starch finishes its set cleanly.
• •Make the Vanillesauce up to 1 day ahead. Press parchment or film directly on the surface because custard forms a skin where air dries it.
• •Rewarm the sauce over low heat if you want it warm, stirring all the time. Do not boil it, or the yolks tighten and the sauce splits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 325g)