Saturday, June 4, 2011

What to do with an entire flat of strawberries

For a few months I've been trying to significantly cut down on the amount of processed foods I eat.
  
Out: cookies, sugary breakfast cereals, snacks, etc.
In: fruit and vegetables in season, eggs, whole milk, Greek yogurt, steel-cut and old-fashioned oatmeal, fresh fish, beef, lamb and chicken.

As a result, I'm eating more fruit than ever before, which brings me to the topic at hand. Last week I stopped by the farmers market near closing time, and I picked up the most amazing strawberries. I got a VERY fresh whole flat of strawberries for $10. Yes, $10!

But as I piled them into the fridge, I realized: Oh my goodness. I have an entire flat of strawberries. That's six baskets. What to do? Well, a flat of strawberries goes a very long way.

The tally so far:
  • Sliced and mixed into six servings of steel-cut or old-fashioned oatmeal, blended with plain yogurt, honey, cinnamon and walnuts
  • Four strawberry hand pies made in my Breville pie maker
  • Twelve ounces of strawberry/blackberry/cherry preserves made in our bread machine
  • And the latest: four "strawberry fools"
I had never had a strawberry fool before, but I happened upon a recipe in the latest issue of Bon Appetit magazine. It focused one of its sections on strawberries, since they're in season. I cut the original recipe in half, but here is what I did:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup chopped strawberries
1/2 tbsp sugar + 1 tsp sugar
A dash of vanilla
3/8 cup strawberry preserves (the ones I made the day before)
3 lady fingers

You mix 1/2 tbsp of sugar with the chopped up strawberries and let them sit for a while. While they're getting juicy, you toss the vanilla and 1 tsp sugar into the whipping cream and then whip it up. Then fold the preserves into the whipped cream. Then dump the chopped strawberries into the whipped cream and mix gently.
Carefully spoon the cream-berry mix into four ramekins and then crumble the lady fingers on top of the cream. You can top them off with a fresh strawberry for a nice, bright touch.

Anyway, at the end of all of this, I still have two baskets of strawberries left! Fortunately the strawberries keep well in the fridge if you leave them in their baskets and wrap them in plastic vegetable bags, cutting holes in the plastic bags so air can get in and so that water doesn't condense on the plastic. Water is the enemy of any sort of berries.

I'm still looking for additional strawberry recipes, so if you have any favorites, please share.

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