Kissel is a dish familiar to everyone since childhood. There are many jelly recipes: some are made from berries and fruits (or juices), others from oats, milk and even vegetables. Starch is mainly used for the preparation of kissel, which makes it possible to give this drink the necessary density. Most often, potato starch is used for these purposes , a little less often corn. Kissel is a tasty and healthy drink that is often used in children's cuisine, as well as with various diets. Due to its viscous structure, it envelops the walls of the stomach, so it is often used for acute and chronic gastrointestinal diseases, as well as after poisoning and intestinal infections.
Almost any fruit (fresh or frozen), as well as juice or a decoction of them, are suitable for jelly made from fruits and berries. The recipe for jelly from strawberries, raspberries, currants is quite simple: you need to sort the berries, removing the spoiled ones, as well as branches and leaves, rinse thoroughly and grind through a sieve (as an option - pass through a juicer). You can also use a meat grinder, only in this case it is necessary to squeeze the twisted raw materials through cheesecloth. For the preparation of jelly, you do not need to select selected berries, on the contrary, somewhat overripe or greenish are perfect for it, the main thing is that they do not rot. You can cook a “quick kissel”, for which starch needs to be added to a small part of the resulting berry juice, bring the rest of the juice to a boil, pour the diluted starch into it (with stirring all the time) and bring it to a boil again. Speaking about how to cook jelly from starch, it is necessary to mention the following rule: when starch is added to the drink, it is categorically not recommended to boil it, because otherwise it may not thicken as it should. And if there is a little time and desire, then you can complicate the jelly recipe a little to make it more useful: put the juice obtained from berries in a refrigerator for a while, pour the processed raw materials with water, and then squeeze through cheesecloth or sieve. Put the resulting infusion (or the second juice), then try not to shake it, pour the transparent part into another container. Mix a small part of this second juice with starch, and heat the rest until boiling, add diluted starch (stirring again) and bring to a boil. Then add the juice of the first extraction to the jelly. Such a jelly recipe will allow you to save all the vitamins contained in the berries, because the juice is not heat treated, which means that the beneficial substances are not destroyed. The proportions of berries, water, starch and sugar depend on personal preferences: for those who like thick jelly, it is recommended to add more starch (about 70 g per liter of jelly), and for lovers of medium-density jelly, starch will need less (about 40 g per liter of drink ) Thick jelly is no longer a drink in the usual sense of the word, because it can be eaten with a spoon. The amount of sugar also depends on how much family members prefer sugary drinks. Here are the average norms from which you can build on: a pound of berries you need 750 ml of water, 50 g of starch, 150 g of sugar. If desired, citric acid can be added to the jelly at the very end (on the tip of a knife), and the finished drink can be poured into forms and sprinkled with crushed nuts or chocolate chips. The jelly recipe from other berries and fruits is very similar to the above.
In addition to fruit jelly, there are dairy jelly, familiar to many since kindergarten. This is a tasty and healthy dish that many children and adults love. Especially delicious is the jelly from oat-flakes and milk. For its preparation, for 2 cups of milk you need to take 100 g of cereal, 1 tablespoon of starch and 1.5-2 tablespoons of sugar. Add Hercules to milk and leave to swell, and then strain the milk through gauze or sieve, add starch, a little salt (to taste) and put the pan with jelly on a small fire, while stirring constantly. Do not bring to a boil! To make a sweet jelly, sugar is added to the milk, and then everything is done according to the recipe.