Strawberries - July 9, 2011

My Hand-Picked Flat of Berries

I managed to lolly-gag my way through Minnesota's strawberry season and ended up needing to go on an emergency run to pick this year's supply on Saturday morning. Despite waiting until the penultimate day of 2011's season, I was able to get a nice looking flat full of the delicious berries. The majority of these are already quite snug in the freezer. Some will be devoted to making jam, although that will have to wait until our stove is up and operational again in what I anticipate to be ten days from now (ugh! that's another story Dinner Clubbers).


Strawberry Ginger Soda

It is always very luxurious, however, to have mountains of fresh strawberries at one's disposal, and so some must be enjoyed fresh. In addition to just grabbing a handful whenever I please, I've also made up this glass of strawberry ginger soda by muddling fresh berries in the bottom, adding 2 oz of my ginger syrup, ice and filling with charged water. As I'm sure you can tell, it was very refreshing and could easily be doctored up to become an 'adult' beverage, if one was so inclined.


Fresh Strawberries with Almond Pastry Cream, Coconut, and Sliced Almonds

We've also made up some fancy-schmancy desserts with our fresh berries. This one involves a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything for Vanilla Pastry Cream, which I of course changed to Almond Pastry Cream. I couldn't quite tell what to expect from the recipe, but I had all the ingredients on hand and it only took 20 minutes to make, so make it I did. It turned out not so much like 'cream' and very much like pudding, which was delicious, especially layered with the berries, coconut flakes and slivered almonds.

Strawberry season stretched quite long this year for us due to the cool spring and so I lucked out.  Now raspberry season is upon us, followed very closely by blueberries. Also, we've picked our first round of cherries from the tree in front, but that's for another post. Do not waste your days, Dinner Clubbers, make sure you are taking full advantage of this years bountiful berry season.