Rødgrød med Fløde

Certain ingredients need a lot of help to become something special. This can be really amazing, to take things that aren’t very interesting or don’t stand well on their own, and turn them into something that is truly more than the sum of it’s parts. These are the times when you realise that there is a certain x-factor involved in cooking and baking. Like how an egg, some butter, sugar and flour can become a moist, golden, dense or indeed light and airy, cake. Looking at a packet of flour it’s hard to imagine the two are related. Seeing the way food works, changes, indeed, undergoes a metamorphoses is an extremely big part of the joy of cooking.
Then again there are ingredients that you really don’t have to help at all. Certain things are pretty much perfect as they are. Like chocolate. You need a really special recipe if you’re going to improve upon good quality dark chocolate. Another example would be fruit. Berries, in this instance. Red currants, raspberries, strawberries… They are complete and perfect as they are so if you’re going to cook with them my advice would be to do as little to them as possible. Simply accentuate what makes them great and make sure not to lose any of their charm, colour and above all flavour.

This, I think, is the best dessert ever. It’s sweet but also tart, silky smooth but with a crunch, it’s not too heavy, it’s fresh and vibrant, it looks beautiful, easy to make… It’s just berries.

Rødgrød med Fløde is a traditional Danish recipe. In the cold Scandinavian clime, where red fruit used to be scarce, you really need to make the most of it when you’ve got it. Rødgrød is pure concentrated fruitiness. All that’s added is a little starch to make it set, some sugar and some toasted almond flakes to give crunch. Serve with cold cream (Fløde) or milk, to cut through the dense flavour.

1 kg mixed (frozen) berries (like red and/or black currants, raspberries, cherries, strawberries)
150-175 g sugar
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
2 tablespoons of cornstarch with a little bit of water
A handful of toasted almond flakes
Cold cream or milk

Rinse the berries and cook in a large pan, with maybe a little bit of water to get them started, and the vanilla pod. Simmer for about ten minutes, maybe more depending on the fruit you’ve used. You want to really boil it down. Add the sugar and take of the heat. Remove the vanilla and add the cornstarch and bring it back to the boil (to activate the starch), then remove and spoon it into a serving bowl. Allow to cool and place in the fridge. When ready to serve sprinkle on some caster sugar and the almonds, serve the cream in a separate jug.