Rote Grütze

Rote Grütze is a traditional Barossa recipe made with fresh Shiraz or Mataro grapes during Vintage.

Our food memories are powerful stories that have the ability to hurtle us back through time, to days when grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and community-get-togethers involved rituals and recipes. Those Barossa Girls is a project all about those food stories, the heritage recipes that preserve them, the practical food skills to create them, and the everyday opportunities to create new ones.

And if we are talking about seasonal favourites that speak of a time and place, Rote Grütze is the perfect candidate. A food tradition that was carried to Barossa settlements with its European settlers, the traditional red berries in the dish were not readily available and it was modified to use grapes – hence the Barossa’s own signature dish was born.  Pronounced “Rotor Grootzer” its now a regional specialty and is a proudly and strongly contested category at our local Tanunda show.

Using red grapes at the height of vintage, delicately spiced and set with sago it produces a simple dessert that is now such a powerful part of our regional food traditions and has become embedded in memories of vintages past.  Stunning jewel colours in a deceptively simple autumn dish, utterly delicious with lashings of local cream – what a great recipe for starting a family food story of your own.

• 1kg bunches of late-picked shiraz grapes, washed
• 3 slices lemon, skin included
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 whole cloves
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons Sago or Tapioca pearls*

1. Pull the berries from the grape bunches, place in a saucepan with the lemon slices, cinnamon and cloves.  Boil for ten minutes, then allow to sit for 45 minutes for skins to infuse colour; the juice should be a rich dark colour, like red wine. Strain through a sieve, squeezing as much juice as possible.

2. Return the juice to the saucepan with the sugar then sprinkle the sago/tapioca pearls over the top.  Allow to sit for several hours, or overnight.

3. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring gently for 15 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and the sago is clear.

4. Pour the Rote Grütze into a bowl and allow to set in the fridge.

5. Serve warm or cold with lashings of runny Jersey Fresh cream.

Tip: (your supermarket may not have Sago. Tapioca pearls are a perfect substitute)