An American Take on an old German Fave: Rote Grütze

Red Groats in a cut glass bowl on the dining room table

One of the best things about being a tourist in Germany in the summer is eating the dessert Rote Grütze, literally translated as "Red Groats."  The best is found at Leysieffer in Osnabrück, Sylt and Berlin.  You can even buy a container to take home.  
Now this delicacy is made with red currants, and maybe some currant juice as well as raspberries and strawberries.  I don't know if you have a currant bush, but we do not and the little red buggers are $4.99 for a piddling small box if you can find them at all.  Sooooo. What to do? 
I have solved the problem by devising my own Americanische Rote Grütze.   This is not authentic but it's very good.
Take a cup or more of frozen cranberries, 2 cups of rhubarb cut in 1 inch pieces and cook together in a tiny bit of water and a squeeze of lemon juice and maybe 1/3 cup sugar.  Cook until the berries have popped and the rhubarb is soft but still in recognizable shapes.  Add a cup of so of fresh red cherries and a 1 1/2 cups of fresh strawberries.  Add more sugar to taste and cook until the berries are soft.  Cool, chill and serve with whipped cream.   
This is a dessert called compote, which is high in all those good-for-us red fruits, hell, it's all red fruit except for the necessary sugar.  Don't over-sweeten.  A bit of tartness is good. 
This time of year with cherries and strawberries on sale is a good time to make Rote Grütze.  I keep cranberries frozen from year to year.  Raspberries, if  reasonable, are a tasty addition.  Antioxidants up the yingyang.  Soooo healthy.  

Rethinking Diets

The weight loss has been minimal.  Probably too much wine and then there's the dark chocolate after dinner.  Significant Other has lost 5 pounds, but I'm only down 2.  We had steak (leftover) and eggs for breakfast with slices oranges and blueberries.  Truly delicious, but diet?  Who knows?  Ate the first lettuces from the garden that reseeded themselves this spring.  Do not decline what nature offers. Free lettuce?  Yes! 

I'm still not ready for the spray on "I can't believe it's not butter."  I sure as hell can believe it's not.  There is a time in life when one becomes too old to believe all the lies we hear daily. 


The sun rose bright and shiny this morning, for the first time in literally weeks.  Even bad news on the scale cannot impinge on my good mood.  We'll definitely go for a walk.  I have the season's first mosquito bite and am hoping it's not one of those toxic mosquitoes bearing awful diseases.  Sprayed myself thoroughly to work in the yard, but he found a spot under the watchband.  Go figure. 


We have yummy (for them) stuff to feed the Highland cattle.  No calves this spring.  Boo hoo!  I do believe the old cows "cowed" the young bulls.  


Here is a spring tonic:  find a friend with some rhubarb and bum a few sticks.  Chop up, cook with a little sugar, a very small amount of water, and any other red fruits you can find.  Strawberries and blueberries and even raspberries are on sale here this week.  A few frozen cranberries add pop.  Some grated orange rind does likewise.  Cook until all the fruits are soft and if you added too much water, thicken with a bit of cornstarch stirred into cold water and added to the fruit.  Let cool, chill and serve for dessert.  Good over cottage cheese.   A spoonful or two even works on shredded wheat.   Or on ice cream, but we're into low-fat frozen yogurt these days.  


Onward, 


The CheeseParer