|
- Strawberry Surprise --
Cookery ideas -
Strawberry
Smoothie:
Strawberries
(hulled) 8oz, 2 chopped bananas
Natural yoghurt 5floz (or crème fraîche)
Ice handful
Honey 1 tbsp
Put
all ingredients into a blender and whiz till smooth, serve with extra
ice to finish.
Go
for a dip! :
Dip
fresh whole strawberries in melted chocolate leave to set and enjoy.
Tip: use the leaves (hull) to dip the strawberries.
Strawberry
fool (easy peasy)
1
pack strawberry jelly
12oz fresh strawberries
3oz caster sugar
1 x 500g tub fromage frais
Dissolve
the jelly and allow to cool. Hull the strawberries and roughly chop,
place in a bowl with half the sugar.
Mash
this mixture and stir in the dissolved jelly. Leave to nearly set in
your fridge.
Get
it out and stir again, fold in the fromage frais and remaining sugar.
Transfer
to serving dishes leave to finish setting for 2 hours.
Decorate
with chocolate dipped strawberries and mint leaves, serve with
shortbread biscuits.
Strawberry-Hazelnut Shortcakes with
Strawberry Puree
If you’ve managed to grow a fine crop of
strawberries with the sun shining and the rain holding off, then the
last thing you’ll need is a recipe. With that wonderful fullness of
flavour, fragrance and ripeness, all you will need is a sprinkling of
fine sugar and some untreated Jersey cream,
a luscious dollop of crème fraîche or the same of mascarpone. The
vagaries of the English summer being what they are, don’t forget that
under-ripe and even rain-soaked strawberries will make a fine preserve
that will brighten up the dullest winter days. As far as recipes go,
strawberry shortcakes have long been my favourite, adding a bit of
sweet crunch and texture to complement the acidity of the fruit. Any
nuts can be used in the shortcakes, but hazelnuts are particularly
good.
Serves 8
Ingredients
For the hazelnut shortcake:
4 oz (110 g) hazelnuts
5 oz (150 g) softened butter
2½ oz (60 g) unrefined golden icing sugar, plus extra to serve
2½ oz (60 g) ground rice or rice flour, sifted
5 oz (150 g) plain flour,
sifted, plus a little extra for rolling out
For the strawberry filling:
1 lb (450 g) fresh
strawberries, hulled, reserving 8 small ones with leaves and stalks
intact to decorate
7 fl oz (200 ml) crème fraîche
5 fl oz (150 ml) fresh custard
2 drops vanilla extract
For the strawberry purée:
8 oz (225 g) fresh
strawberries, hulled
1 level tablespoon golden caster sugar
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).
You will also need two baking trays, each
measuring 11 x 16 inch (28 x 40 cm), lightly greased, and a 3 ½ inch (9
cm) round pastry cutter.
To begin, you’ll need to toast the hazelnuts by spreading them out on a
baking tray and popping them in the oven for 5 minutes. It’s important
to use a timer here as they burn very easily. After that, allow them to
cool and then grind in a food processor until they look rather like
ground almonds.
Now, in a mixing bowl, cream the butter and icing
sugar together until light and fluffy, then gradually work in the
sifted flours, followed by the ground hazelnuts, bringing the mixture
together into a stiff ball. Then, place the dough in a polythene food
bag and leave it in the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes. After
that, roll it out on a lightly floured board to a thickness of about 5
mm (¼ inch), then stamp out 16 rounds by placing the cutter on the
pastry and giving it a sharp tap, then simply lift the cutter and the
piece will drop out. Now arrange the biscuits on the baking trays and
lightly prick each one with a fork. Bake them for 10-12 minutes, then
leave them on the baking trays for about 10 minutes, before removing
them to a wire rack to cool completely.
While the shortcakes are cooling, place the
strawberries for the purée in a bowl, sprinkle them with the sugar and
leave for 30 minutes. After that, purée them in the food processor,
then press them through a nylon sieve to remove the seeds. Cover with
clingfilm until needed.
For the strawberry filling, whisk the crème
fraîche in a mixing bowl with an electric hand whisk until it becomes
really stiff, then add the custard and vanilla extract and whisk again,
also until thick. Then this mixture also needs to be covered and
chilled until you are ready to serve.
Slice or roughly chop the strawberries, not
forgetting to reserve 8. Spread equal quantities of the cream mixture
over 8 of the biscuits, then arrange the strawberry pieces on top.
Spoon some purée over, then sandwich with the remaining shortcakes. Now
place a reserved strawberry on top of each one, halved if you like, and
finish off with a light dusting of icing sugar.
Strawberry Granita
This is the recipe to make when there's a real
glut of ripe strawberries. It's a much nicer way to conserve them than
simply freezing them. The granita looks like sparkling jewels when you
serve it in tall glasses – and it contains hardly any calories!
Serves 8
Ingredients
1 lb (450 g) ripe
strawberries
6 oz (175 g) caster sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
You will also need a polythene freezer box 8 x 8
inches x 2½ inches deep (20 x 20 cm x 6 cm deep).
First hull the strawberries, then put them in a
colander and rinse them briefly with cold water. Drain well and dry
them on kitchen paper before transferring them to a food processor or
liquidiser. Blend them to a smooth purée, then stop the motor, add the
sugar and blend again very briefly. After that add 1 pint (570 ml)
water and the lemon juice, blend once more, then pour everything into a
fine nylon sieve set over a bowl. Rub the purée through the sieve, then
pour it into the polythene freezer box, cover with a lid and put into
the freezer for 2 hours.
By that time the mixture should have started to
freeze around the sides and base of the container, so take a large fork
and mix the frozen mixture into the unfrozen, then re-cover and return
it to the freezer for another hour. After that repeat with another
vigorous mixing with a fork, cover again and re-freeze for a further
hour. At this stage the mixture should be a completely frozen snow of
ice crystals, and is ready to serve. It can remain at this servable
stage in the freezer for a further 3-4 hours, but after that the ice
will become too solid and it will need putting in the main body of the
fridge for 30-40 minutes or until it is soft enough to break up with a
fork again.
I like to serve the granita in small, narrow,
unstemmed glasses – but any wine glasses will do so that the sparkling
colour can be seen in all its glory.
Strawberry
facts:
Did
you know that strawberries are as much a flower as a fruit - they're
part of the rose family?
Did
you know that even though strawberries are sweet with a delicious
flavour they actually contain less sugar than a tart lemon?
back to the introduction page
back to the top of the page
|
