A friend of mine went to the big Florida Strawberry Festival this past weekend, and brought me back four pints of fresh strawberries. They look and smell great, and I’d love to do some cool stuff with them, rather than just eat them all straight. I’d also feel crummy if they start to go bad before I get to all of them. I could always make a strawberry smoothie in the blender with orange juice and a banana, but I’d be interested in something a little bit more exciting or ambitious. I probably wouldn’t dip them in chocolate or slice them into breakfast cereal, but I’d be open to any other strawberry suggestions. Keep in mind I’ve never made my own strawberry pie or cobbler or shortcake, but I wouldn’t be opposed to trying.
I am of the “eat 'em right out of the basket” camp myself, but if I am forced to share them with other people, I make salad. Slice them up and throw them in with some mesclun greens (often sold in a bag as “spring mix”), jicama and almonds, and sprinkle a little balsamic vinegar on. Yum yum yum yum!
Slice, sprinkle with sugar to make then juice up a little & serve over vanilla ice cream, or pound cake, or angel food cake or… the possibilities rae endless! Eat with a spoon.
Slice them up, sprinkle with sugar, cover with whole milk, eat with a spoon.
Cover with marsala, then layer with lady fingers, more marsala, & marscapone in a parfait glass. Eat with a spoon.
I’ve always been partial to strawberry tart, which I don’t have a decent recipe for. Basically, it’s a single baked pie crust in which is placed a layer of custard, then strawberries, then a fruit glaze.
Personally, I love fresh strawberry crepes. There are any number of variations that include things like cream cheese and such, but I like mine pretty plain and simple…
Crepes:
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Flour
1 Cup Milk
1 Tsp. Oil
Pinch of Salt
1 tbsp. sugar (add more or less to desired sweetness)
Beat eggs. Slowly blend in flour, salt and sugar. Add 1/4 of the milk & all the oil. Whisk. Add remaining milk and whisk again until smooth (batter will be fairly runny, especially compared to standard American pancake batter).
Heat a pan with an interior bottom diameter of 6 1/2" - 7 1/2", or use a standard crepe-maker. Lightly spray pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Ladle 1/8 cup batter into pan, tilting and twirling until it covers the bottom with a thin, even coating. Cook for 1 minute, or until small bubbles start to form and it is barely firm. Flip and cook for 15 - 30 seconds.
Remove to a plate, layering between waxed paper. Set aside.
Rinse, hull and slice strawberries and mix with a little whipped cream. If strawberries aren’t sweet enough, you can sprinkle them with powdered confectioner’s sugar the day before and let them sit overnight in the fridge, or just add some powdered sugar to the berry and whipped cream mixture. Spoon the strawberries and whipped cream combo into the center of the crepe shells, roll up and top with a dollop of more whipped cream to seal. Drizzle with chocolate sauce if desired.
I just made a batch of the world’s best strawberry ice cream. I had tried before, but kept getting crystally, icey ice cream with hard chunks of frozen fruit. Finally, I found a website which told me the secret: cook the fruit with some sugar for awhile, essentially almost making jam, and then add the cooled cooked fruit to a basic vanilla ice cream recipe. Cooking the fruit gets rid of most of the water in it, and it’s the water which gets hard and crystally.
Good God, was that stuff delicious. Mr. Pug and I finished the pint and a half in two days. In case anyone’s interested:
1-1/2 cups of heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 basket of hulled strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
Bring the milk, cream, sugar and salt just to a boil. In the meantime, beat the yolks well. Add a cup of the hot milk mixture to the yolks a little at a time, whisking. Pour the yolk mixture back into the milk saucepan and bring it gently to barely a simmer, stirring all the time. It should thicken to the consistency of a lightly creamy sauce. Add the vanilla. Chill this mixture for four hours.
In the meantime, slice up the berries and cook them with the 1/3 cup of sugar until they have reduced down and thickened considerably, almost making a jam. Cool this mixture in the fridge.
Put the chilled ice cream base and the strawberry mixture into the ice cream freezer and churn it up. Restrain yourself from eating the entire batch directly out of the freezer! Makes about a pint and a half.
Cut up strawberries and put into a bowl. Throw a few tablespoons of brown sugar on top; then grate about 12 turns of black pepper; coarsely grated is better. Do not use finely ground black pepper like you’d find in a regular pepper shaker. Then pour a couple or three tablespoons (amount depends on amount of strawberries) of balsamic vinegar over it. Stir. Put in fridge for a couple of hours - stir now and then. Serve over vanilla ice cream. Make sure to combine spoonfuls of ice cream with spoonfuls of sauce. Delicious.
Note: do not use red wine vinegar, white vinegar, cider vinegar, etc. Use balsamic only.
