Ajvar
Ajvar is a cooked Balkan pepper preserve built around roasted red peppers, peeled, drained, ground and slowly fried with oil and seasoning. Leskovac’s protected version is a pepper specialty; regional versions vary.
Fruit coulis
A smooth, pourable fruit sauce made by cooking or pureeing fruit with sugar and lemon juice, then pressing it through a sieve to remove the seeds.
A sauce made by pressing fruit
A coulis is a smooth fruit sauce. The fruit is cooked or simply broken down, then pressed through a sieve so that the seeds and skin stay behind. What is left is thin enough to pour and glossy enough to sit on a plate beside a dessert, and it is sweetened only enough to bring out the fruit.
Raspberry is the usual example, and the method below is the simplest version: raspberries and sugar are brought to the boil and simmered for about fifteen minutes until slightly thickened, pressed through a sieve or mouli, and finished with lemon juice. The lemon is stirred in last, and the sources advise adjusting sweetness and acidity to taste at that point.
Sources for this section
Why the sieve matters
Straining is the step that makes the sauce a coulis rather than a fruit mash. Raspberry seeds are gritty, and pressing the cooked fruit through a sieve or mouli removes them and most of the pulp that would otherwise cloud the sauce.
The cooking does two jobs in this method. Heat softens the fruit so that it gives up its juice, and the sugar and simmering concentrate the flavour and draw the sauce thicker. The result is still a pouring sauce, not a jam: the sources do not describe it as set or gelled.
Sources for this section
Keeping it
The account says a coulis keeps in the refrigerator for up to a week, or can be frozen in small batches. The sources do not give a shelf life for other fruits, for sugar levels other than the one in this method, or for a coulis left at room temperature, so the page does not claim one.
Sources for this section
History
No dated origin is given in the sources used here. The page describes the method, not the history of the sauce.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
RaspberriesFresh or frozen.
473 mL2 cup as recorded
118 mL½ cup as recorded
Lemon juiceStir in at the end.
15 mL1 tbsp as recorded
Method
- Bring the raspberries and sugar to a boil.
- Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.
- Strain the mixture by pressing it through a sieve or mouli.
- Stir in the lemon juice.
Places
Unknown
Relationship not established · Place not establishedThe sources used here give a method, not a place or date of origin for coulis.
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Sources
Radio New ZealandMethod
Raspberry CoulisIngredients: raspberries, sugar, lemon juice
Simmer about 15 minutes, strain through sieve or mouli, stir in lemon juice
Refrigerate up to a week or freeze in small batches
Cited in: A sauce made by pressing fruit; Why the sieve matters; Keeping it