How to cook fresh fruit compote?

Such a well-known and tasty compote (uzvar, brew) is not only a drink for every day from fresh or dried berries and fruits, but also canned food or fruit boiled in syrup.Ease of preparation, the ability to attach seasonal fruits and berries, and then enjoy them in the winter - that's what we love compote.

It is believed that this drink is very useful, especially for children, but adults also drink it with pleasure. Especially good with acid and sour hot summer day. After all, all fruits and berries contain vitamin C, which increases the body's immunity. Peach and apricot improve the functioning of the heart muscle, apples supply the body with iron, plum has a laxative effect, and sea buckthorn and cherry improve the functioning of the nervous system by supplying it with vitamin B2.

Quince, like pear, will help in the prevention of gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, quinces contain tannins and pectins that resist anemia and tuberculosis. Fruit assortment in dried form is also a storehouse of vitamins and microelements, which is why the compote of dried fruits is so popular during the cold season.

But there is also a flip side of the medal: too sweet brew is harmful to all who monitor their health. It can provoke diathesis in children, allergic reactions, promote obesity and the development of diabetes. Sour collecting will cause stomach pain, and a large amount of fruit platter eaten can lead to diarrhea. Berries and fruits collected along roads may contain heavy metals and toxins.

There are several different types of compote.

• Uzvar - compote, in which the fruit and berry thicket prevails (often from dried fruits). A distinctive feature - the drink is not boiled, but brought to a boil and insist.
• Brew can be prepared with the addition of herbs, honey. Depending on the recipe, it is boiled or boiled.
• Macedoine - fresh and scalded boiled water (blanched) fruits, filled with syrup, for the preparation of which another fruit and berry set was used. It is used in the form of a cold dessert.
• Canned compotes - twists long-term storage with a predominance of liquid or fruit.
• Habitual dessert refreshing drink from fresh or frozen fruit platter with less sugar.

The choice of the fruit and berry mix option for a drink depends not only on gastronomic addictions, but also on the presence or absence of allergies, the season, the thickness of the wallet. You can use almost all fruits / berries. Compotes are boiled from one type of culture or from different ones. The main thing is that the fruits are healthy, do not contain rot and wormholes.

At the same time, in addition to fruit and berry cutting, mint leaves, lemon balm, currants or cherries, honey or spices are added to the compote if desired. The sweeter the fruit, the less sugar will be used. Here are a few options for combining components:

• pear, lemon juice, mint;
• feijoa and apples;
• plum, apples, cherries, lemon, peaches;
• peaches and red currants;
• chokeberry and apples;
• pear and currant;
• whole peach fruits (for canning);
• apricots, citric acid, lemon balm (for canning);
• gooseberry, black and red currants;
• orange slices, mint and lemon zest;

• grapes and grape leaves;
• cranberries and lingonberries;
• strawberries, strawberries, cranberries and mint;
• cranberries and sea buckthorn;
• oranges, sweet cherries, cloves and vanilla;
• strawberries with lemon;
• any frozen berries with honey;
• barberry berries (for canning);
• zucchini and sea buckthorn;
• zucchini and cherry plum;
• pumpkin, lemon, cloves and cinnamon;
• rhubarb and cinnamon;
• hybrid of black currant and gooseberry (yoshta).

And yet there are a few fruits that are well known to residents of the middle lane, which are not used in compote, and even more so in twists: bananas, persimmon, kiwi, grenades.Banana and persimmon - too soft fruit, quickly boil soft. Kiwi - not rich in taste and aroma. Therefore, if you decide to cook a kiwi fruit compote, then fresh mint, cloves and cinnamon will give it flavor.

Pomegranate is a southern fruit, so it is rarely used in recipes. But it is a very tasty and healthy product. And the compote from it turns out very tasty, even without adding other fresh fruits and berries.

The principle of cooking compote for the winter and as a soft drink is too different. When canning, fruit and berry preparations are immediately laid out in cans. Next, the recipe is poured with sugar and boiled water. Or pour the berry mix with sugar syrup.

Whether to add citric acid as a preservative - each housewife decides in her own way. It depends on the concentration of sugar (if there is a lot of sugar, then the banks will stand up without lemongrass), the desire to have sour juice and storage. A bank without a preservative may explode in an apartment, which will not happen in a colder cellar.

One of the easiest recipes for canning for the winter is yoshta compote. The berry is so unpretentious that even in lean years it always gives a big harvest. The unusually high percentage of vitamin C makes it even more attractive. Yoshta does not boil down into compote at all, therefore, it is usually put in jars for about a third, so that later you can just eat the berries or use them as a filling for pies.

And the work is done as follows:

• Rinse the berries thoroughly (tails can not be removed, and the leaves, accidentally trapped in a jar, make the taste more interesting);
• sterilized jar (1.5-3 l) filled with a third berry;
• add about one third of the cans to sugar;
• pour boiling water over it;
• screw the jar with a metal lid;
• flip the jar and shake several times;
• wrap the inverted jar for a day to cool slowly (in this case, all the sugar gradually dissolves).

The second fundamentally great way to preserve fresh fruits and berries is to fill them with sugar syrup. For example, pumpkin compote for the winter can be made according to the following recipe:

• 2.5 kg of pumpkin cleaned and cut into small cubes;
• pour water so that the pumpkin is completely in the water;
• add 200 g apple cider vinegar;
• set aside for 2 hours;
• boil water and sugar for syrup (4 l + 1.5 kg);
• put pumpkin cubes in a pan and cook for 10-15 minutes;
• pumpkin spread out in containers, top up with syrup;
• add lemon, cut into small squares, cloves and cinnamon in each jar;
• roll under the metal covers and wrap for about a day.

The third method of canning is using can sterilization. Many do not like him, because you can scald, taking the banks. But if the recipe does not provide pre-cooking, and the storage conditions are not very reliable, it is better to use this method.

For example, so you can prepare sea buckthorn compote. For this:

• Wash the fruits of sea buckthorn, put them in about 2/3 liter capacity of 0.5-1 l;
• fill with sugar syrup (0.4-0.5 kg of sugar per 1 liter of water);
• cover containers with metal lids and put in a pan with warm water for sterilization (half-liter jars are sterilized for 15 minutes, liter - 20 minutes over medium heat so that syrup is not sprayed)
• Take the jars out of the pan and immediately twist and wrap.

Since sea buckthorn is an oil berry, a bright orange fat film will appear on the compote. It is not necessary to remove it: sea buckthorn oil is a very valuable product. Sea buckthorn is a storehouse of ascorbic acid. To prevent vitamin C from being destroyed during heat treatment, the water temperature should be no higher than 60 degrees.

Everything is much easier with cooking compote in a saucepan. Having decided on fruits and berries, divide them into hard (hard apples and pears, for example) and soft (strawberries, strawberries, any frozen fruits).Very hard fruits are boiled for 10-20 minutes, but you can not boil soft ones at all, but put them in boiling water and turn off the stove immediately. If there are bright fruits in the mixture, then to obtain a saturated color, the compote should be infused for several hours. At the same time, the drink is gaining aroma and taste.

Here are some recipes for such a cool drink.

Compote from fresh pears:

• fruits from the core and lay in a pot of boiling water;
• add granulated sugar and some citric acid to taste;
• boil for 15 minutes;
• to change the color of a transparent pear compote 5 minutes before being cooked, you can put a piece of beet in the pan, which is removed after cooling.

“Mojito” compote is very refreshing on a hot day, it takes 20 minutes to prepare from the minimum set of products:

• fine grater remove the zest of one lemon;
• remove the remaining peel and remove white streaks;
• a small bunch of washed mint, peeled lemon, 4 tablespoons of sugar and one cup of water, beat with a blender;
• in a three-liter pot pour the whipped mixture and fill with water;
• lower the zest;
• boil;
• add half a teaspoon of citric acid if desired;
• boil for 2 minutes and turn off the stove;
• Compote insist 30 minutes under the lid, cool and filter.

Finally, a few tips from the professionals.

• If there is a rather large thermos in your house, then you should not boil compote in general: put fresh fruit / berries, granulated sugar and spices in a thermos, pour boiling water and close tightly. After 15 minutes, the compote is ready.
• To add rich color, fruit, berries, and even pieces of vegetables of bright colors are added to compotes. This applies to both soft drinks and winter preparations. For example, apple compote is often diluted with cherry, plum, rowan, yoshtoi.
• Children love not only to drink canned compote, but also to eat canned fruit. For this, small, medium-sized, firm apples, pears of small varieties, peaches, apricots, large plums are used. The apples and pears are removed core. But the stone fruits are often left intact so that the fruit does not boil soft in boiling water. And the taste of the stone gives a special flavor to compote.
• Many housewives put a large amount of fruit and berry mixture in cans so that in winter it could not only be eaten, but also put in pies.
• If your family does not like to eat brewed compote berries, freeze them. This is a filling for future cakes, and a filler for cottage cheese or yogurt.
• If small jars are used for compote, then they can be sterilized in a microwave. In this case, cover the jars with glass lids, saucers or not at all.

How to make a compote homemade from fresh fruit, see the following video.