Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, June 27, 2008 at 5:00 PM
I picked up some strawberries up at the Clintonville Farmer's Market and I just couldn't wait to get them home. Real strawberries—the ones that come in early summer—taste so much outlandishly better than what you can find in the grocery store. I wanted to make a dish that would highlight them, but they taste so wonderful by themselves that I was worried that any interference would ruin their natural goodness.
And I was right. The strawberries were delicious and the dressing was fine, but it was hard not to be disappointed by this Whole Foods approved recipe for spinach and strawberry salad. First off, the recipe only called for five strawberries, which made for some meager picking amongst the spinach. We saved the salad with the addition of some crumbled blue cheese—it went better with the dense spinach than the light and fruity vinaigrette.
Any one else have some great strawberry salad recipes that better showcase the delicious fruit?
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Posted by Lucy Baker, June 22, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Ever since I first started baking as a child, I've been searching for a recipe for strawberry cupcakes—perfect, pink confections with the sweet flavor of pure sunshine. There are plenty of versions to be found, but most call for frozen strawberries or strawberry jam. I wanted cupcakes that incorporated actual berries—preferably ones I had plucked from a bush myself from the rows behind my local farm stand. After years of searching to no avail, I had all but given up.
Enter Martha Hall Foose, author of this week's Cook the Book selection, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea. I literally squealed with joy when I turned to page 230 and discovered her recipe for Ponchatoula Strawberry Cupcakes. Not only do the cupcakes call for 1 cup of mashed ripe strawberries but the frosting uses 1/2 cup as well. The results are gorgeous—tender little cakes with a beautiful rosy hue, perfect for any tea or birthday party.
Win ‘Screen Doors and Sweet Tea’
In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week, we're giving away five copies of Screen Doors and Sweet Tea. Enter to win here.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, June 13, 2008 at 12:45 PM
I’m about to type a cop-out phrase that I would immediately cut if I were editing someone else’s work: I don’t know if I can find words to express how I feel about strawberry shortcake. What keeps coming to mind is Buddy’s gleeful, innocent enthusiasm in Elf: “Smiling’s my favorite!” Strawberry shortcake’s my favorite, no contest, and I look forward to it all year long. Properly made it offers purer pleasure than any other food I know. It is luxury, it is summer, it is bliss.
Strawberry shortcake is not a towering, gloppy affair, nor should it ever involve Cool Whip, a little boat of grocery store sponge cake, or out-of-season strawberries. It is a biscuit (preferably a cream biscuit) split in half and topped with barely sweetened sliced strawberries and whipped cream. It looks appealingly homey, but its balance of flavors and textures is simply elegant. It melts in your mouth and tastes ambrosial. It’s easy to make and, despite what the cookbooks say, still pretty good the second day. Lindsey Shere’s recipe is a thing of beauty. If you say you don’t like strawberry shortcake, I say either you hate strawberries (and who are you?) or you’ve just never tried the real thing.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, September 28, 2007 at 3:00 PM
You know how I urged you to bookmark the previous two Cook the Book recipes for winter? This one you're going to want to bookmark for spring. Sure, it's not strawberry time, but we wanted to highlight produce-aisle citizens from across the spectrum this week.
Anyway, this hotcake recipe is from How to Pick a Peach
by Russ Parsons, a book that's all about where the foods in the produce aisle come from, when they're at their best, and how to pick a prime example of whatever it is you're in the market for. The recipe follows after the jump, but first a couple of tips from Parsons.
- How to choose: There are a lot of little indicators of strawberry quality, but the most important is probably the simplest: smell. Great strawberries have a distinctive candied aroma that you can't miss. Beyond that, the berries should be completely red (the exact shade of red will depend on the variety); avoid any with white tips. The green hull should look fresh, not dried out. The berries should be glossy, without any matte spots where the flesh has started to break down. Always look at the underside of the berry basket—that's where crushed berries may be hiding and where spoilage will start. It's not at all uncommon to pick up a basket of berries that are beautiful on top but are as gray and fuzzy as a freshman dorm refrigerator underneath.
- How to store: This is a tough one, because refrigerating damages the flavor of strawberries, but the fruit is so tender that not chilling will lead to rapid spoilage. The best solution is to buy berries from a local farmer and eat them the same day without putting them in the refrigerator. Failing that, transfer the berries to a plastic bag (to prevent excessive drying) lined with a paper towel (to absorb excessive moisture) and refrigerate them.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 24, 2007 at 6:00 PM
And so the time has come to say goodbye to Vegetable Harvest, this week's featured book. Our final recipe from Patricia Well's potager-inspired cookbook is one that shouldn't tax you too much on the penultimate weekend of summer; it calls for only three ingredients and a blender.
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