aalbessensop review

Aalbessen are red currant. They are quite hard to find at this time of year - but i got lucky in my local Albert Hein. Jan Willem was super helpful in explaining that rinsewijn could be a more modern-style white wine, I ended up using the "wit lightzoet huiswijn" from ah.

The recipe itself only mentions ingredients and does not provide very much detail on how much and how. After some looking around on the net i realised that this recipe is similar to the english dish: Summer Pudding. Here are some examples: delia online, becks posh nosh, nigel slater in the guardian and an article in the ny times. I decided to aim for a quite similar look.

In the recipe above Delia Smith says: Place the fruits with the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat and let them cook for about 3-5 minutes, only until the sugar has dissolved and the juices begin to run – don't overcook and so spoil the fresh flavour. Now remove the fruit from the heat, and line the pudding basin with the slices of bread… etc.
I assumed that a 17th century cook might have gone for a slightly more cooked version and I also guessed that it would be quite sweet...

So here is my interpretation for 4 servings:


Clean about 150 g of berries. It helps if you have a very serious young assistant.


Mix them with 1 dl white wine, 40g butter and 1 dl raw cane sugar (I guessed that their sugar would not have been white).


Heat the mixture up in a saucepan and let it simmer for 5-10 min.


Put 4 slices of white bread without edges in a bowl.


Pour the mixture over the bread and serve on plates with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top.

Note: My first try was with 25g of butter and only 1/2 dl of sugar but i think the dish works better with the numbers above.


The result looks odd, wet, thick and pink. The assistant was very sceptical and decided not to taste it.


But this, this is seriously good. We finished it in minutes and I am seriously considering to serve it for my friend the chef tomorrow night. It tastes a bit like a light and fruity kind of spicy xmas wine. It is a fantastic desert, easy to make and it has already been added to the household favourites. If we can find enough berries it would be a great dish to serve in the tent!

Budget notes: 150g rode bessen = 2.99 huiswijn = 1.39 (I only used half the bottle)