A little late this year, but B.C. strawberries are now in season and I noticed folks lining up to buy them at farmers markets and roadside stands this past weekend.
They are beautifully red, robust in flavour and hard to resist, as evidenced by the fact that people 鈥� including me 鈥� were eating them right out of the basket shortly after purchase.
If you do manage to get some of those strawberries home and ever tire of eating them on there own, remember that fruit is also great to use in recipes.
Here, I offer a trio of them incorporating B.C. strawberries into a cool summer drink, a colourful salad and a divine dessert.
The drink is an iced tea that鈥檚 flavoured with strained strawberry pulp. That addition gives the tea a stunning, ruby red colour and things get even more appealing when you garnish the drink with sliced fresh strawberries and mint.
My perfect-for-summer salad recipe sees earthy greens tossed with a tangy balsamic dressing, sweet red strawberries, rich walnuts and a creamy cheese, which could be blue or goat.
My dessert recipe sees single-serving portions of cocoa-flavoured meringue topped with whipped creamed and sliced strawberries. Pretty decadent and a nice way to end a summer supper. You can make the meringues the day before needed. See recipe intro for details.
You can find local strawberries for sale at some grocery stores and, as noted above, can buy them at farmers markets and directly from farms that grow them. To locate those markets and farms, go to the Southern 91原创 Island Direct Farm Marketing Association website, islandfarmfresh.com.
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Strawberry Iced Tea
This ruby-red, iced tea is rich with the fruity flavour of strawberries. How ripe and sweet the berries are, and how sweet you like your iced tea, will determine how much sugar you use to sweeten it.
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Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: Seven minutes
Makes: Six (about 8 oz.) servings
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4 1/4 cups cold water (divided)
2 to 4 Tbsp granulated sugar (see Eric鈥檚 options)
3 orange pekoe tea bags
2 cups hulled and sliced fresh strawberries (divided)
6 lemon wedges
6 mint sprigs
Place three cups of the water and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil. Boil until sugar is dissolved, about one minute. Remove pot from the heat. Add the tea bags and steep five minutes. Remove tea bags from the pot.
Place 1 1/2 cups of the sliced strawberries and remaining 1 1/4 cups of water in another pot. Bring to a boil, boil two minutes, and then remove from the heat.
Set a fine sieve over the pot containing the tea. Strain the hot strawberry mixture through the sieve. Firmly press on the strawberries with the back of a ladle to extract as much juice/pulp as you can. Cool tea mixture to room temperature. Transfer to a serving jug and cover and refrigerate tea until needed.
To serve, fill six glasses half full with ice cubes. Drop a few of the remaining sliced strawberries in each glass. Set a lemon wedge on the rim of each glass. Stir the iced tea well, and then pour into the glasses. Garnish each drink with a mint sprig and serve.
Eric鈥檚 option: Instead of sugar, use honey, to taste, to sweeten the iced tea.
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Market Greens with Strawberries, Walnuts and Cheese
I used the term 鈥渕arket greens鈥� because I bought the salad greens used in this recipe at Victoria鈥檚 Moss Street Market.
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Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: None
Makes: Four servings
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1/2 cup walnut halves
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp honey to taste
鈥� salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
8 cups mixed salad greens
12 to 16 fresh, local strawberries, hulled and sliced
75 to 100 grams blue or soft goat cheese, pulled into small nuggets
Place walnuts in a skillet and set over medium heat, swirling pan from time to time, until nuts are lightly toasted, about five minutes. Transfer nuts to a bowl and cool.
Place vinegar, oil, mustard, honey, salt and pepper in a salad bowl and whisk to combine. Add remaining ingredients and gently toss to combine. Divide salad among four plates, ensuring some of the strawberries, walnuts and cheese decorate the top, and serve.
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Cocoa Meringues with Local Strawberries
This divine dessert sees single-serving portions of cocoa-flavoured meringue irresistibly topped with whipped cream and ripe, red slices of strawberry. The meringues could be made up to a day in advance. After cooling and drying, leave them on the baking sheet, cover and store at room temperature until needed.
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Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: Three hours and 30 minutes
Makes: Eight servings
4 large egg whites
1鈦�2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup berry (extra fine) sugar (see Note)
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 (250 mL) container whipping cream
2 Tbsp orange liqueur (optional)
32 to 40 (about 2 pints) small to medium local strawberries, hulled and sliced icing sugar for dusting
8 mint sprigs for garnish (see Eric options)
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Preheat the oven to 225 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a pen to draw eight, three-inch diameter circles on the paper, leaving three inches in between each one. (The circles will guide where to mound the meringue after is it made). Turn the paper over; you will still be able to see the circles.
Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl. Beat until very soft peaks form. Gradually, beating steadily, add the berry sugar. Keep beating the meringue until glossy and stiff peaks form (they should stand almost straight up). Add the cocoa powder and cornstarch and beat two minutes more, until well combined.
Spoon the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Divide and pipe meringue in each circle, building up the edges to create a pocket in the middle. (If you don鈥檛 have a piping bag, simply spoon the mixture into rounds, building up the sides.)
Bake meringues for 30 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the meringues cool completely in the oven for three hours. Do not open oven during this drying process.
Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add the orange liqueur, if using, and beat the whipping cream until stiff peaks form.
Set a meringue on each of eight dessert plates. Divide and pipe or spoon an equal amount of whipped cream on each meringue. Divide and arrange the strawberries on top of the whipped cream. Dust meringues with icing sugar. Garnish each with a mint sprig and serve.
Note: The finely granulated texture of extra fine (berry) sugar means it dissolves easily, which is why it鈥檚 great for meringues. It鈥檚 sold in small bags at most supermarkets.
Eric鈥檚 option: If you have lavender in your garden or see it at a farm market, you could use sprigs of it to garnish this dessert.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
