Berries!
(with apologies to foodies and real cooks everywhere, to say nothing of Jenny Baker, the author of The Student's Cookbook)
I have previously said that Strana in the summer is kind of like Eden. I wasn't kidding. Last summer, I discovered what fresh, local strawberries tasted like, and I had the life-altering experience of tasting an O----an 'honey peach.' (before the founding of Israel, it was known as the most Jewish city in the world, and it's still got the largest population of Jews in Strana) This year, the weather's been a little colder, and I've been getting to know other summer fruits- namely, berries.
I've been a fan of strawberries since childhood, and I like the other kinds that are available at home well enough. However, my exposure to berries has been somewhat limited- especially in contrast to what's available here. Here, old women and old men earn extra money buy selling jars of various berries that I've never seen before in my life. Of course there are strawberries, raspberries and cherries (which aren't actually berries...), but here I have come to know golden cherries, golden raspberries, sea buckthorn, red, black, and white currants, gooseberries, and mulberries (ok, I knew these before, but I never paid much attention to them). For the record, gooesberry skins are horribly sour, but the flesh is all right- jam may be the only option. [EDIT: Actually, those are only unripe gooseberries. Ripe gooseberries are reddish in color, and sweet in skin.]
This week, I exulted in the harvest, and bought bags black and red currants, raspberries, and mulberries (which are charmingly called 'silkberries' in Russian). They took up an alarming amount of space in my fridge, and in response, I made a pudding. I basically followed a recipe from the afore-mentioned cookbook, but took a slight liberty with the execution.
Put ~1 pound of fresh berries in a pan with 6 tablespoons of sugar. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 3 minutes. Take a deep round bowl and line it with good thick bread. Cover this layer with the berry liquid. Put another layer of bread on, and another layer of liquid. Cover again with bread, cover the bowl with a lid of some sort, and leave in the refridgerator overnight. You may drench the whole thing in cream before you refrigerate it; I attempted to make whipped cream with 20% fat cream, to no avail, and decided on saturation instead. It turned out pretty nicely.
I have previously said that Strana in the summer is kind of like Eden. I wasn't kidding. Last summer, I discovered what fresh, local strawberries tasted like, and I had the life-altering experience of tasting an O----an 'honey peach.' (before the founding of Israel, it was known as the most Jewish city in the world, and it's still got the largest population of Jews in Strana) This year, the weather's been a little colder, and I've been getting to know other summer fruits- namely, berries.
I've been a fan of strawberries since childhood, and I like the other kinds that are available at home well enough. However, my exposure to berries has been somewhat limited- especially in contrast to what's available here. Here, old women and old men earn extra money buy selling jars of various berries that I've never seen before in my life. Of course there are strawberries, raspberries and cherries (which aren't actually berries...), but here I have come to know golden cherries, golden raspberries, sea buckthorn, red, black, and white currants, gooseberries, and mulberries (ok, I knew these before, but I never paid much attention to them). For the record, gooesberry skins are horribly sour, but the flesh is all right- jam may be the only option. [EDIT: Actually, those are only unripe gooseberries. Ripe gooseberries are reddish in color, and sweet in skin.]
This week, I exulted in the harvest, and bought bags black and red currants, raspberries, and mulberries (which are charmingly called 'silkberries' in Russian). They took up an alarming amount of space in my fridge, and in response, I made a pudding. I basically followed a recipe from the afore-mentioned cookbook, but took a slight liberty with the execution.
Put ~1 pound of fresh berries in a pan with 6 tablespoons of sugar. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 3 minutes. Take a deep round bowl and line it with good thick bread. Cover this layer with the berry liquid. Put another layer of bread on, and another layer of liquid. Cover again with bread, cover the bowl with a lid of some sort, and leave in the refridgerator overnight. You may drench the whole thing in cream before you refrigerate it; I attempted to make whipped cream with 20% fat cream, to no avail, and decided on saturation instead. It turned out pretty nicely.
posted by Life Called | 7:07 AM
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