Kissel

Kissel is an old dessert/drink from North-East of Europe. The origin of the name seems to be a Slavic word kisly, meaning sour. In the old times it was commonly made from the oats or other local grain, often after a mild fermentation for a few days, resulting in a sour dish, commonly eaten with a bit of butter or bacon/lard scraps. I remember my grandparents making oat kissel when I was a kid; a few years ago I made it myself to see if it tasted as horrible as I remembered it - and yes, it did, you have to be used to it to like it!

Either way, a kissel I am talking about is the one made from berries and it is entirely different story taste wise from its oaty ancestor. Technically it can be made from any berry (or fruit), which can be turned into a more or less flavored syrup, however usually red berries work best. My favorites are strawberry-raspberry (either of them alone can work too, but together I like it better), cherry (sour cherry only), black/red current (both work well, black has dark purple and red - bright red color), cranberry (more sour and bitter), blackberry (rich purple).

Need (drink):
150 g of berries
1 liter water
3 table spoons of sugar
1 table spoon of potato starch

Wash your berries, take pits out from cherries and similar fruits. Save a half of a glass of cold water, bring the rest to boiling. Add berries and sugar, boil it for about 10 minutes. Sift the resulting sirup, as we need it clear, pour it back to the pot and bring to boil again. Mix a half glass of cold water with starch and pour it into the pot, stirring frequently. The whole thing will start thickening, bring it to boil, stirring, take from fire, close the lid and let it to cool of. Drink cold, possibly with a spoon of whipped cream on top if you want it as a dessert.

Need (dessert):
150 g of frozen berries for syrup
300+ g frozen strawberries or/and raspberries for adding to the kissel
1 liter water
4 table spoons of sugar
4 table spoons of potato starch

Since it is fairly difficult to come by fresh quality berries in the winter, and even then they tend to cost a fortune, I came up with a way to combine kissel and frozen berries in a more or less instant dessert, with much of a kiddie approval. I usually use strawberries and raspberries as fruits to add, since they seem to keep the taste best when unfrozen (aka do not turn horribly sour), but it matters less from which fruit you make the syrup part.

Save almost full glass of cold water, bring the rest to boiling. Add syrup part of frozen berries and sugar, boil it for about 10 minutes. Sift the resulting sirup, pour it back to the pot and bring to boil again. Mix the remaining cold water with starch and pour it into the pot, stirring frequently. Bring to boil, stirring, as it thickens quite fast (turning fire to soft might be a good idea too, as it is inclined to burn at the bottom). Add 300 g of frozen berries, wait for it to boil again, turn the fire off. Stir it for a bit, so the frozen fruit unfreezes faster and the juice gets mixed with the rest. Eat cold, with or without whipped cram.