Wednesday 11 May 2022

Polish Strawberry Kisiel - AKA Strawberry Fruit Pudding

This is a very simple pudding; it's basically fruit juice thickened with flour.  I will confess right here - mine did not thicken much at all.  Really, you could just about drink it (which apparently is also a thing).  Not sure why?  Not enough flour?; not the right kind of flour?  Who knows?  Still tasty though.  The original recipe calls for potato flour which I didn't have, but I read that you can use other flours like cornflour or arrowroot - so I did :-)  Apparently potato flour has a slightly earthy taste which I didn't fancy here.  

Soft foods are good for me at the moment.  I had a back molar tooth out last week (maybe a wisdom tooth?), and it's giving me a hard time.  The socket (?) is feeling okay, but my jawbone is being a right mongrel.  Drugs are my friend right now :-)  And warm, salty mouth washes every couple of hours.  My dentist should just take over my bank account.  And he reckons I need another crown.  OMG!  

This is a slight adaptation of a recipe from Rose Petal Jam by Beata Zatorska and Simon Target.  Beata was born in Poland, but migrated to Australia and became a family doctor in Sydney.  This book is about her travels back home after twenty years.  Gorgeous photos and interesting tales.  But no nutty bling for her :-)  Nor did she mention divvying up the cold water into two amounts; in fact her recipe just suddenly mentions using another 100 mL of water for the slurry.  As my dessert was a wee bit runny, I decided that next time it would be best to use the 500 mL for both the fruit mixture and the slurry.  

  

Serves 6-7:


ready for the bling


ingredients:


500g./1 lb 2 oz strawberries or fruit of your choice - fresh or frozen

500 mL/17 fl oz water, divided into 400 mL and 100 mL

6 Tbs (85g.) caster sugar

8 tsp (24g.) arrowroot or potato flour or cornflour (see Notes)

a splash (about 1/8 tsp) rosewater - optional

juice of a small lemon - maybe 40-50 mL

2 tsp Chambord or other fruit liqueur - optional


For the topping:


a handful (50g. or so/2 oz) pecans or walnuts or your fave nut, chopped roughly

more strawbs, sliced

chocolate Flake bar, broken up

raspberry or strawberry pearls - optional!


Method:


If using fresh fruit, you will need to rinse, hull and slice up; otherwise just tip the frozen slices (or fruit juice) into a medium saucepan

Then pour the 400 mL water, plus the sugar, in with the fruit

Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and let the fruit soften for about five minutes

Place a sieve over a medium bowl, (don't forget the bowl) and tip the fruity mass into the sieve

Press out all the juice with a large spoon, leaving behind the pulpy bits in the sieve and pour the juice back into your pan

Make a slurry with the arrowroot/potato flour and the other 100 mL of cold water (see photo below)

Then slowly mix it into the fruit juice, stirring constantly till the mixture thickens (or maybe not - tee hee)

Now add the rosewater, lemon juice and liqueur (if using)

Let it simmer gently for another minute, then leave to cool slightly

Spoon/pour into ramekins and let it cool in the fridge

Add the nuts, extra fruit, chocolate shards and fruity pearls on top

Some recipes say it's best hot, some say cold; I liked it cold


Notes:


You can even use bought orange juice from the shop!

Arrowroot is AKA tapioca flour

Flake bar is light and flaky, and breaks up into shards very easily, but you could chop up or grate some regular chocolate

The bling was my idea; the original recipe is just the thickened fruit juice



ingredients gathered

fruit, water and sugar in the pan

strain the fruit and press out the juice

make a slurry with the flour and water

simmer and stir with the slurry

simmer for a few minutes till it thickens

ready for the fridge

bling bling bling!

all blinged up and ready for the eating
(hands courtesy of our English/Aussie friend visiting from the UK)



© Sherry M.



a beautiful book


49 comments:

  1. Sounds delicious, Sherry! In fact, it reminds me of a typically Sicilian dessert called gelo di melone, which is made in a very similar way, only with watermelon. Funny how two such different cuisines come up with similar recipes…

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an interesting and delicious strawberry recipe! I love those little bowls with handles...just cute! p.s when you said FLOUR, you meant starch?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In Australia, we call it cornflour! But I think yes, americans call it corn starch. I love the little ramekins. A famous aussie artist family made them.

      Delete
  3. Germany, Denmark, and other countries have similar puddings to this Polish one, named Rødgrød, Rote Grütze, or Rode Grütt and made from various red fruits including strawberries. It's very well-loved as you implied, and sounds just delicious. Summer berries are just starting to ripen here in the Northern Hemisphere, which makes it very much in season.

    sounds delicious!

    I hope your tooth problems are quickly resolved!

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks Mae. I am fed up with these teeth of mine :(

      Delete
  4. Bling is always a good idea! :-) This looks like an interesting dish -- haven't made anything quite like it. BTW, love the "don't forget the bowl" part of the instructions. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I'd not be the only one to forget the bowl at times ... and watch my beautiful liquid flow down the sink...

      Delete
  5. Looks so good.

    I hope you get some relief from your tooth soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks marie. i'm hoping it heals up soon too!

      Delete
  6. I love strawberries. I'll bet that's just delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Looks great Sherry! Hope your tooth issue is settling down xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you Anon. (mm still a mystery.) the tooth is getting somewhat better.

      Delete
  8. Oh yeah, Kisiel is quite common in some European countries, and I definitely grew up having it (It's either you like it or hate it haha). And I love how you've elevated a very simple dish to a more elegant level by using rose water and some crunchy toppings. Delish!

    ReplyDelete
  9. thanks Ben. i couldn't resist blinging it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Che bontà! proverò la tua ricetta, complimenti!

    ReplyDelete
  11. That is a really beautiful book. I have it but I did have trouble with the recipe that I made too :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it is lovely but not sure about the recipes?! I wonder which one you tried to make? :-)

      Delete
  12. The flavor does sound pretty fantastic here! I'm sad that it didn't set up properly - I've had some run-arounds with replacing some of those less-than-common flours, too. I should probably play around with them a bit more. Some day. In the meantime, hang in there with that tooth! (Also, I laughed out loud at your comment about the dentist and bank account...it's that the truth!!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes my dentist must be drinking daiquiris on my payments :-)

      Delete
  13. Yum! This looks delicious and perfect for a sore mouth. (We are fortunate to have our brother-in-law as our dentist! We works on us for free!)

    ReplyDelete
  14. It sounds like just the thing for a sore mouth. So sorry about the dental problems, I've had my share this year as well. I tell my dentist that I am paying for his new office. Dental insurance is almost useless. Sorry I missed IMK this month, I had a post almost written but didn't finish it. I guess I will roll it into next month. Hope you feel better soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. we don't have dental insurance so we just pay:) I can happily take a late IMK post Liz!

      Delete
  15. I'm not sure my comment went through...you may get two from me but it said there was an error.

    I hope your mouth feels better soon, this sounds like it was easy on that sore area. I've had my share of dental problems these last few months as well. Do you get free dental work? I've told my dentist that I am paying for his new office, it's so expensive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. blogger is being a sod about commenting lately. Grrrrr!

      Delete
  16. Oh dear, hope your jaw is a lot better by now Sherry. Mouth issues just take all the enjoyment out of food. I can smell those strawberries cooking from here, lovely recipe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes thanks pauline. now the other side of my mouth is starting to ache!!

      Delete
  17. Tooth pain is the worst, hope you heal soon. Love that strawberry dessert. We tend to buy strawberries then eat them out of the container before I can make make anything with them!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I’m so sorry about the tooth — I’m having a back molar (wisdom tooth for sure) removed in early June. It’s most likely going to break in half when extracted, so I can’t wait for the aftermath… I will definitely need this pudding which sounds amazing — the strawberries and rose? Yum!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks david. yes i was terrified about having this one out. i was sure it would break but it came out cleanly. and still i got an infection. grrrrrr.

      Delete
  19. Sorry to hear about your tooth Sherry! I can sympathise with you about the dentist not being cheap either. Ours still haven't caught up with the backlog of being more or less shut for 2 years when the worst of the pandemic was on. Love this bright and vibrant strawberry recipe. We'll have fresh Scottish strawberries here in 2 months time to try this out with!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you Neil. Yep i need another mortgage to pay the dentist :) Ooh scottish strawbs? sounds great.

      Delete
  20. Hi Sherry, I have a difficult tie commenting on your blog. Let’s try it this way. I love dessert like this one. Not too sweet but delicious. We had desserts like this when I was a child in Germany. Thanks. Gerlinde de Broekert

    ReplyDelete
  21. Oh, I hate tooth pain. I hope your better now. Your Polish Strawberry Kisiel sounds very tasty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks Ron. the socket is healing up and it's feeling a lot better now.

      Delete
  22. Wow, I have definitely never had anything like this. Sorry about your tooth!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Sorry you are having teeth problems! Have been there a few times myself, so I can understand why something like this scrumptious pudding is just what you need. A very different pudding that what I'm use to but definitely something I would love to try. Hope you feel better!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks MJ. Still heaps to go on my teeth apparently.

      Delete
  24. deliziosi i tuoi piatti! prendo nota per prepararli al più presto!

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear from you. Please leave your comment and I will reply as soon as I can. If you have problems commenting, please try without your WordPress profile. You can try Anonymous (add your name in the text) or your Google account if you have one.