Cooking in Season: Strawberries
By Lois Anne
Photo by Lois Anne
’Tis the season!! Strawberries have been abundant since late June and will continue to be so throughout July. I picked up two quarts at the Good Tern yesterday, and ate several of these luscious red fruits in the car on the way home. Last night’s dessert was a bowl of sliced strawberries accented with a scoop of lemon sorbet. And can you guess what we had for breakfast this morning?
A parfait of layered diced pears, Greek yogurt, sliced strawberries, granola, topped with more sliced strawberries, and served with unsweetened vanilla oatmilk. We’ll have our usual morning eggs as egg salad sandwiches for lunch.
If you have space in your freezer, one way to preserve some of summer’s strawberry abundance is to hull & slice a quart of the berries, add ½-1 tsp sugar to help get the juices flowing, enclose in a freezer-suitable container, freeze, and enjoy next January.
A versatile yet simple recipe is to make a multi-berry sauce using strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, blackberries in any combination of them depending on what you have on hand. If you want a thicker sauce, or to stretch the recipe a bit, add a couple of cored & diced apples. Place fruit in a saucepan, add water to not quite cover. Adding ¼-½ cup sugar is optional depending on your sweetness preferences. Heat to a boil. Lower heat, simmer over medium low heat, stir every few minutes for 15-20 minutes or until the fruit is cooked. The sauce, which will thicken as it cools, is yummy served warm over vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt, or a non-dairy alternative. It is an excellent topping for oatmeal or as an alternative for (or in addition to) syrup on pancakes or waffles. If there’s no jam or jelly in the fridge, a good substitute is this sauce on toast or a nut butter sandwich.
Lastly, here’s a no-stove-required recipe for a refreshing beverage –
STRAWBERRY-TARRAGON SHRUB
A shrub is a syrup made from fruit, sugar, herbs/spices (usually), and vinegar. Its combination of sweet and tart makes a great base for a refreshing soda or cocktail. Ripe strawberries and fresh tarragon is an interesting pairing, but fresh basil or mint would also work; and feel free to adjust the sweetness and tartness of this adaptable recipe to suit your taste. I prefer using white wine vinegar since its flavor is more delicate than white or apple cider vinegar.
For the shrub:
8 ounces strawberries, hulled and quartered
¼ cup unrefined sugar (use ½ cup for a sweeter syrup)
4 sprigs fresh tarragon (1 large handful)
¾ cup white wine vinegar (mirin or rice vinegar would also work)
For the shrub soda (makes 1 serving):
1 ounce shrub syrup
5 ounces sparking water
1 1/2 ounces spirits (optional)
ice
small sprig fresh tarragon & a couple of strawberries for garnish
Place strawberries and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir, cover, & leave the berries to macerate on the counter for a couple of hours, stirring them several times to extract as much juice as possible.
Meanwhile, put the tarragon in a 12-16oz glass jar and completely cover with the vinegar. Screw on the lid tightly and let sit on the counter.
After 2-3 hours, pour the fruit mixture over a fine sieve into a bowl. Reserve the strawberries for another sweet treat; add the liquid to the jar with the tarragon & vinegar. Cover tightly & leave in the fridge for up to a week. Taste daily until you’re happy with the strength of the tarragon flavor.
Strain out the tarragon and enjoy.
To make the shrub soda/cocktail: fill a glass with ice, add the shrub syrup, sparkling water, and spirits (optional). Stir and garnish.
Cheers!!
~ Lois Anne
Good Tern Co-op member since 1981