Rødgrød
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Rødgrød (Danish for "red porridge"), Rote Grütze (German for "red groat"), or Rode Grütt (Plattdeutsch) is a dish from Denmark and the neighbouring North German region of Schleswig-Holstein.
Grød or Grütze was traditionally made of groat or grit. Semolina and sago are still used in some family recipes; potato starch is today the standard choice to achieve a creamy to pudding-like starch gelatinization. The essential ingredients that justify the name are red summer berries rich of fruit acids, such as redcurrant, blackcurrant, raspberries, blackberries, bilberries and stoned black cherries. (Strawberries are an uncommon ingredient; the change of taste and consistency they suffer towards the sweet and mushy after being heated is undesirable). The essential flavour can be achieved with redcurrant alone; a small amount of blackcurrant will add variety; sugar is used to intensify the flavour. The amounts of starch, sago, semolina differ with the solidity desired; 20 to 60 grams on a kilogram or liter of the recipe are usual; sago, groat or grit have to soak before they can be used.
The preparation is basically that of a pudding: The fruits are cooked briefly with sugar. The mass should cool down for a moment so that the starch—dissolved in fruit juice or water—can be stirred into it without clumping. A second cooking process of one to two minutes is needed to start the gelatinization; remaining streaks of white starch have to clear up in this process.
Rødgrød or Rote Grütze is served cold as a dessert with milk, a mixture of milk and vanilla sugar, vanilla sauce, (whipped) cream or custard to balance the refreshing taste of the fruit acids.
The Eastern European Kissel known in Poland, parts of Russia, Lithuania and Ukraine is a closely related dish.