Berry Delights - Mousses, Pies & Jams

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

What can you cook for the table and for the winter in the country

July is the top of summer, pleasing us with an abundance of berries, and, surprisingly, all at once: the strawberries have not yet been eaten, and the raspberries are abundantly strewn with branches and are not going to end. Here, long and bunches of red currants have ripened, and the black does not lag behind it - sweet, shiny, and just asks for a mouthful. The green gooseberry is already - it's time to cook the royal jam, a little more - and it will turn red, our northern grapes, as it has long been rightly called.

What is the best thing - to enjoy the long-awaited berries or cook something delicious from the generous gifts of our northern garden? Of course, it is difficult to find the taste and color of comrades, but it is always good to learn something new. I offer several recipes, time-tested and tested by the appetite of my loved ones.

So, the berries are fresh. First of all, it is worth listening to common sense: every ripe berry should be eaten with pleasure in its season - so the body will be saturated with useful substances, and we will get incomparable pleasure and health. Processing of berries and fruits should be the most gentle, so that vitamins and biologically active substances are not destroyed by high temperatures.

Children usually love berry mousse. You will need: protein from 2-4 eggs, 100-170 g of sugar or powdered sugar, 1 glass of fresh berries - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blueberries. Beat the protein with sugar in a mixer or blender, then add the berries and beat everything together until the volume increases by 3-4 times. The mousse is laid out in bowls, decorated with whole berries and leaves of mint, lemon balm.

Berry pyrog is always out of competition. The dough can be any, for example, from 100 g of vegetable oil, 1 glass of sour cream, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar, 0.5 tsp. salt and flour until the consistency of very thick sour cream. The most versatile dough recipe suitable for all pies and pizza: 4-5 tbsp. tablespoons of refined vegetable oil (or 250 g of softened margarine), 2 glasses of milk, a pinch of salt, 1 tbsp. l. sugar, 0.5 sticks of yeast, 3 cups flour. Yeast is diluted in a small amount of warm milk with sugar, then a thin dough is kneaded, covered with a napkin or cling film and placed in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes. The most amazing thing is that the dough is suitable in the cold and turns out to be very tender. For the pie, cut off the right amount of dough, and the rest can be stored in the refrigerator for several days, which is very convenient. The dough is kneaded or rolled out into a cake on a floured table and spread in a greased frying pan. Now the cake needs to be powdered with a mixture of starch and sugar, which will help keep the berry juice inside the cake. Next, lay out the prepared berries and also sprinkle them with a mixture of starch and sugar (1: 1, 1: 2 - as you like), and on top you can pour sour cream and wrap the sides with a fork. The cake is baked until its sides become ruddy. It is served warm with milk or cream.and on top you can pour sour cream and wrap the sides with a fork. The cake is baked until its sides become ruddy. It is served warm with milk or cream.and on top you can pour sour cream and wrap the sides with a fork. The cake is baked until its sides become ruddy. It is served warm with milk or cream.

Frozen berries. As you know, quick freezing of berries preserves all the nutrients in them without loss. Washed and dried berries (except for raspberries, they do not tolerate water) are laid out in portioned containers and placed in the freezer. As needed, in winter they take them out, defrost them - and again fragrant fresh berries are served on the table.

Berries mashed with sugar. Fresh healthy berries are harvested without heating, grinding them with sugar in a ratio of 1: 1.5. For the safe storage of the workpiece, it is important to do this correctly. The strawberries are sorted out and carefully washed in a deep bowl of water, transferring the berries to a colander and repeating this until all the earth and sand remains at the bottom of the bowl. Now the berries are carefully sprinkled on a clean towel and dried. Dry clean berries are placed in an enamel bowl and kneaded with a wooden spatula, adding sugar or powder. Now the hostess's task is to regularly stir the mixture of crushed berries with sugar with a wooden spatula until the sugar is completely dissolved. This happens, as a rule, during the day, while the dishes with "semi-finished" strawberries are covered with a napkin. Raspberries are usually not washed, and everything else is done the same. Berry puree with dissolved sugar is laid out in dry sterilized jars, a circle of parchment or tracing paper is placed on the surface of the puree (cut along the neck of the glass), dipped in vodka on both sides, and covered with a plastic canning lid, washed with baking soda and scalded with boiling water. The mashed berries are stored in the refrigerator. Jars are sterilized in different ways. You can put a saucepan of water on the fire, cover it with an openwork metal stand under the hot, put a jar (or 2-3) on it with the neck down. Boiling water will steam the jars, sterilizing them perfectly for 5-10 minutes. Then the jar is removed with the help of oven mitts and placed on a clean towel sideways, so it dries quickly.soaked in vodka on both sides, and covered with a plastic canning lid, washed with baking soda and scalded with boiling water. The mashed berries are stored in the refrigerator. Jars are sterilized in different ways. You can put a saucepan with water on the fire, cover it with an openwork metal stand under the hot, put a jar (or 2-3) on it with the neck down. Boiling water will steam the jars, sterilizing them perfectly for 5-10 minutes. Then the jar is removed with the help of oven mitts and placed on a clean towel sideways, so it dries quickly.soaked in vodka on both sides, and covered with a plastic canning lid, washed with baking soda and scalded with boiling water. The mashed berries are stored in the refrigerator. Jars are sterilized in different ways. You can put a saucepan with water on the fire, cover it with an openwork metal stand under the hot, put a jar (or 2-3) on it with the neck down. Boiling water will steam the jars, sterilizing them perfectly for 5-10 minutes. Then the jar is removed with the help of oven mitts and placed on a clean towel sideways, so it dries quickly.cover it with an openwork metal stand under the hot, put a jar (or 2-3) on it with the neck down. Boiling water will steam the jars, sterilizing them perfectly for 5-10 minutes. Then the jar is removed with the help of oven mitts and placed on a clean towel sideways, so it dries quickly.cover it with an openwork metal stand under the hot, put a jar (or 2-3) on it with the neck down. Boiling water will steam the jars, sterilizing them perfectly for 5-10 minutes. Then the jar is removed with the help of oven mitts and placed on a clean towel sideways, so it dries quickly.

Raspberry and red currant jelly. The number of berries and their ratio depends on personal taste, but you can stick to the golden mean 1: 1, and sugar or powdered sugar is taken at the rate of 1: 1.5 by volume of berry juice. Raspberries are sorted out and kneaded with a wooden spatula in an enamel bowl, then squeeze the juice through a napkin or in a juicer. The red currants are sorted out, washed, dried, separated from the stalks, kneaded with a wooden pestle or spatula and squeezed out the juice. Combine raspberry and currant juice, mix, mark the volume and add sugar, continuously stirring the mass, which will immediately gel, due to the presence of a large amount of pectins in the berries. Aromatic transparent jelly of amazing raspberry color is laid out in pre-prepared sterilized dry jars of small volume, a paper circle dipped in vodka is placed on the surface of the jelly,and covered with a tight plastic or glass lid. The jelly is kept in the refrigerator. This is a wonderful dessert, which is used as an independent dish, served with tea, pancakes with sour cream, diluted in water to obtain a delicious vitamin drink, added to cocktails, ice cream.

A small volume of jars is preferable so that the jelly does not become sugar-coated after opening it and the spoon's "penetration" into the jelly: after all, there is a supersaturated sugar solution that easily crystallizes from any interference or shaking. Extracts of berries are not thrown away - they make excellent compotes and jelly. In addition, they can be added to the berry mass for making homemade wine.

Gooseberry jelly with orange is one of the most original preparations made from fresh berries. (If someone harvests actinidia, you can use it in a similar way, and its fruits are excellent in taste and usefulness.) 1 kg of ripe gooseberries, 2 small oranges with peel, 2 kg of sugar (fruits and sugar are taken in a ratio of 1: 1.5) … Ripe gooseberries, oranges are washed and dried on a towel, the oranges are cut into slices with a peel, then everything is chopped in a meat grinder. Sugar is added, constantly stirring the mass with a wooden spatula. Due to the large amount of pectins, jelly is formed immediately. The finished jelly is laid out in dry sterilized jars, a circle of tracing paper dipped in vodka is placed on top, and sealed with plastic lids for canning, stored in the refrigerator.

Emerald or royal gooseberry jam.5 glasses of green gooseberries, a handful of cherry leaves, 7 glasses of sugar, 5 glasses of boiled water. Pour the washed cherry leaves with water, bring to a boil and cool. During this time, berries are pricked with a needle sterilized with alcohol or fire, which are "trimmed" from the stalk and brown stigma. Berries are poured overnight with cherry water with leaves and kept in the cold. In the morning, drain the water and boil sugar syrup on it. Gooseberries are poured over boiling syrup and cooked over low heat for 15 minutes. 2-3 minutes before the end of cooking, add cherry leaves and leave the jam until it cools completely. Poured into dry sterilized jars, put a protective circle made of tracing paper moistened with vodka, covered with tracing paper and tightly tied with twine. They say that it was precisely this kind of jam that A. S. Pushkin enjoyed it in Tsarskoe Selo in the first year of his family life …

Five-minute jam. This is the most gentle way of jam from delicate berries, moreover, the most economical in terms of time and sugar. Sugar needs only 30% of the weight of the berries. Berries - strawberries, raspberries, currants, blackberries - are sorted, washed and dried, as described above. Raspberries and blackberries are only sorted out so as not to damage and not oversaturate the delicate berries with moisture. A third of the total amount of berries is poured into an enamel bowl and kneaded with a wooden pestle. Wooden tools and enamelled utensils are essential to preserve vitamin C, which is easily destroyed by contact with iron. Put a saucepan with mashed berries over medium heat and bring to a boil under the lid, then pour all the sugar, stir with a wooden spatula, cover and bring to a boil again, stirring occasionally from the bottom so that the sugar does not burn. When the sugar is completely dissolved and the syrup boils,pour out the remaining berries, gently mix them with syrup, shaking the pan, put on a small fire and cover with a lid. After 2-3 minutes, shake the pan again so that everything mixes well and warms up evenly. From the moment of boiling, under the lid, the jam is allowed to boil for exactly 5 minutes, removed from heat and immediately poured into hot dry sterilized jars. The finished jam is sealed with canning lids (glass, plastic, tin), after putting on its surface a paper circle made of parchment or tracing paper, moistened with vodka on both sides (this protects the jam, jams, jelly well from mold). The cooled jam is removed to a dark and cool place. When sealed, jars can stand at room temperature; it is better to keep them in the refrigerator under plastic lids. Opening a jar of such jam,you will feel the full aroma and taste of fresh berries. If it seems to someone that there is not enough sugar, you can add it to the jam outlet.