Red grout is an authentic V.I. dessert, especially during the holiday season | Opinion

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During the holiday season in the Virgin Islands, native foods are high on the list during Crucian Christmas Festival events. These include the much loved dessert like red grout, or guavaberry used in holiday drinks, liquor and pies or tarts.

The guavaberry (Myrciaria floribunda) — a wild, native tree — whose eponymous fruit was eaten by the Amerindians in the Virgin Islands, and is still eaten today. A drink, as well as rum, is made from the fruit. The rum made from the guavaberry fruit is popular among locals during the Christmas season. In fact, it is so popular during the Christmas season that there is a song written about it by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights with the lyric: “On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a jimmy john [of] guavaberry…” In another song, the lyric goes: “Good morning, good morning, I come for me guavaberry.” This native fruit is tied to our culture — carolers singing the guavaberry song were bound to receive a small sample of the liqueur, and tarts available at a particular home as they went from door to door.

Red Grout, also signature of the Virgin Islands culture, is made from the sago palm (Cycas revoluta), and also called Rodgrod (Danish), rote Grutze (German), or rode Grutt, which mean “red groats.” It is a sweet fruit dish from Denmark and Northern Germany.

In Denmark, sago and semolina are used to make the red grout. However, the main ingredients of red grout are potato starch and red summer berries, like raspberries, strawberries, redcurrant, blackcurrant, blackberries, and stoned black cherries.

According to one source, the essential flavor of the red grout can be achieved by using redcurrant or with a small amount of blackcurrant. Sugar is also used to intensify the flavor of the red grout. Nonetheless, the amount of sago, starch, and semolina can differ with one’s taste and depends on how much is added to the other ingredients to make red grout dessert.

Grout, sago, or grit must be soaked before it can be used to make red grout with a consistency of pudding. The fruits are briefly cooked with some sugar. The pudding-like mass should be cooled down so that the starch can be dissolved into the fruit juice, or one can use water to stir in and avoid clumping the pudding mass. A second cooking of the red grout is required — for one to two minutes — in order to start the gelatinization, which removes the remaining white starch.

In Denmark, red grout is served either hot or cold as a dessert. It includes milk, or a mixture of milk, vanilla sugar, vanilla sauce (whipped) cream, vanilla ice cream, and custard added to balance the refreshing taste of the fruit acids.

Traditionally in the Virgin Islands, red grout is served on March 31, the holiday known as Transfer Day when the U.S. purchased the then-Danish West Indies from Denmark. Nevertheless, one can eat red grout anytime of the year, but serving it on Transfer Day ties our history with Denmark, which first introduced the tapioca dessert in the Danish West Indies.

The sago palm was not commonly grown in the Virgin Islands. As a result, tapioca (starch obtained from the root of the cassava) became a substitute as part of the ingredients for our local red grout. Locals cooked tapioca and then colored it with red juice made from the fruit of the prickly pear (Opuntia delleni). Prickly pear grows wild in certain areas of the Virgin Islands, but can be found growing in backyard gardens. The plant also has medicinal and food value, such as using prickly pear in fungi making or in “chop-up.” Chop-up is simply a term used for greens chopped into small pieces and in some Caribbean cultures like Antigua, prickly pear was an added ingredient.

Unlike the Danes who used berries, the local fruit for making red grout in the Virgin Islands is guava. According to the late Amy Blackwood Mackay, a Crucian, “the Red Grout dessert is chilled in a mold and served with a cream sauce.” In her cookbook titled, Le Awe Cook: “Let Us Cook” is a recipe for how to make red grout. The ingredients: 2 ripe prickly pear fruit or 1/8 teaspoon red food coloring; 1 quart of water; 6-8 firm ripe guavas; ½ cup sugar (optional); 1 cup sago or quick-cooking tapioca; ½ cup raisins; ½ cup prunes, pitted and a pinch of salt.

Then “prepare the prickly pear fruit by rubbing off all spines. Cut open and place in pan. Pour 1 cup boiling water over fruit and allow to steep for several minutes. Squeeze all liquid from fruit, strain well, and set liquid aside for use in coloring dessert later. Remove stems from guavas and cut fruit into pieces. Put to boil for 10 minutes on medium heat with water to cover, adding sugar if desired. Remove from heat and strain, reserving liquid and discarding pulp and seeds.

“Return to pot on low heat, adding sago or tapioca and stirring vigorously to prevent lumping, and continue to cook until grains are crystal clear. Add raisins, prunes, and salt, stir well, and cook for 5 minutes longer. Add prickly pear liquid or red coloring, pour into mold, and chill. Serve with cream sauce.”

If you’re in the mood for an authentic V.I. dessert this Christmas season, add red grout to the menu.

— Olasee Davis, St. Croix, is an ecologist who is active in the preservation of Virgin Islands history, culture and environment.

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Red grout is an authentic V.I. dessert, especially during the holiday season | Opinion

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