Seasonal Flavors: Rødgrød Med Fløde

If you want a good laugh, do a Google search, and check out the YouTube video of Americans trying to say the name of this Danish dessert: rødgrød med fløde.

Even my husband, with his best attempt at a Danish accent, can't get it right. He yells it into the ear of his 99-year-old Danish mother, trying to tell her that he made it: "Mom, I made you some rødgrød med fløde!"

She says: "What?"

He yells it again.

She says, "What?"

He hands her the dish, and she tastes it and says "Oh! Rødgrød med fløde!

I gave up trying and just call it the red Danish dessert (as opposed to the lemon Danish dessert).

This is a beautiful berry-filled delight, just perfect for mid-summer celebrations on June 23/24. But I will confess that it's too much work for me. Picture John straining this berry mixture through a sieve. I am never opposed to a few berry seeds, but he is a purist and loves laboring over this. And he deserves the applause!

If the party is adults only, we serve it in the most beautiful cut glass, stemmed dessert dishes. But when the big, loud, kid-filled family joins us, those half-pint canning jars are just perfect.

Clean the fruit, put it in a large saucepan and add the water. Simmer over medium low heat until the berries fall apart. Remove from heat and strain through a fine-meshed sieve, pressing the fruit to get as much as possible through the sieve, but leaving the seeds behind.

Put the gelatin in a small bowl and stir in the water. Put an inch of water in a frying pan that will accommodate your gelatin bowl and bring the water to a simmer. Set the small bowl of water plus gelatin in the pan and stir until it is fully dissolved. (Note to the reader: this is the step that pushed me over the edge; I will never make this dessert—but I hope you will!)

Return the pressed fruit to the saucepan and add the sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and stir. Then add the dissolved gelatin.

Remove from the heat and pour into individual serving dishes—plain or fancy—and chill for at least two hours. The berry mixture will gel and become firm as it cools.

Whip the cream and add a dollop to each serving. You can see from the photo that we were celebrating July 4, so added blueberries and turned the Danish dessert into a celebration of the great U.S.A. Makes 12 half-pint servings.