So when I went to the farmer's market I not only hauled home 5 pounds of tomatoes (not to mention a loaf of bread, 6 eggs, a bag of corn on the cob, two tomato plants, three bunches of greens, and an assortment of other odds and ends), but also half a flat of strawberries. We ate one pint pretty immediately. Ok, actually more like two pints. Good so far. Now, what are we going to do with the rest?
The obvious answer here is "make jam." Well, there's a problem with that, and the problem is that we don't eat jam. I occasionally have apricot jam on my toast, but "occasionally" = "in spurts of two or three successive occasions, four months apart."
Next: wash, cut, and freeze them, so you can use them for smoothies et al at your leisure. Ok, but I don't really drink smoothies. I suppose I could make the berries into ice cream at some point in the future, but I've never been too into strawberry ice cream either.
Ok. What if I made a pie? What if I made two or three pies, or a couple cookie sheets' worth of hand pies? Then I could freeze those, and have fresh baked strawberry or mixed berry pie at my leisure. Granted, a lot of strawberry pies and tarts are best with fresh uncooked fruit, but this still seems like a pretty good idea so far.
What if I made a crumble with all the different bits of fruit scattered throughout the fridge? That could go in the freezer as easily as a pie, or it could be breakfast for the next week.
Or I could go the other direction, and turn them savory. Spinach salad with strawberries and poppyseed dressing is always a good plan. That's the only thing that comes to mind though. Do you guys have any other good savory ideas for strawberries?
In the meantime, I recommend this strategy: before you go anywhere, wash a couple handfuls of strawberries and stick them in a travel-friendly container. Throw this in your bag. Then, whenever you're hungry, don't go to the bagel shop or the drugstore; instead, bust out your excellent strawberries.
4 comments:
David Lebovitz's excellent strawberry frozen yogurt. http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2006/04/may-day-market/
Or you could do our trick with the tequila. Or just cut them up and put them on everything you eat.
(Also my word verification word is "sparkl")
You could make strawberry salsa, that's a nice savory thing to do with them. Fruit salsas are always yummy and surprising. Or just surprising if you don't like them.
Jam can be used for a lot more than just toast. Its great in oatmeal in lieu of sugar and fruit, or even corn flakes can benefit from a dollop of jam. Fig jam is common on cheese trays, but any jam can work, including strawberry. You can also take some cream cheese and pour jam over the top and serve with crackers. Ooo or you could even add some herbs, like basil, in the jam if you know you want it for something savory. Oooo or jalapenos, that sounds interesting. not sure how to do that though.
You can pour strawberry jam over vanilla ice cream to fancy it up.
Clearly I have more ideas for the use of jam than savory strawberry uses!
( my word is heads. sparkl heads :) )
This is a pretty good thing to do with strawberries! I made one and took it to a party, then had to make another just for me because I regretted having to share it.
Ooh, lots of good ideas! Thanks, everyone!
New list:
- strawberry schnapps/liquor infusion of some type.
- baked brie or (unbaked) peppered goat cheese w/ berries or jam.
- generally treating strawberries more like figs seems like a good idea.
- strawberry & hot pepper sauce--Very Interesting.
- CAKE. That cake looks an awful lot like the very exciting plum cake I made a while ago, so it's clearly a good plan
So now I clearly need to get a couple dozen more jars (for both liquor infusion and various cannery), sugar, and cheese, and have an afternoon of strawberry concoction. Or maybe strawberry-plum concoction.
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