A Summer (Strawberry) Romance

   Hello, gorgeous

There's a line in a song that goes something like "How can I miss you if you don't go away?" After a winter of abstinence, there is heightened pleasure in eating fruits and vegetables just pulled from the ground or plucked from the vine.

Last week I sat in my car at the Day Road farm stand, a flat of Bainbridge Island Farms strawberries on the seat beside me. I picked one up and bit into thick, garnet flesh, shot through with juice impossibly sweet. I ate another, eyes closed, my head resting against the seat. I may have moaned. Just a little.

Heading home, I ate berries one by one, tossing the rough green tops out the sunroof. Hedonistic pleasure, parceled in tiny jewel-toned bites.  

In winter when our farms lie fallow, I cook for comfort with the corn, tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries tucked in my freezer when at their peak, and wait patiently for this June day.

What to do with this bounty?  

Make a plan before going home.

The shelf life of local berries is less than 24 hours. After eating as many as you can out of the box without making yourself ill, try these recipes to extend the love affair.

As simple as it gets. Three ingredients become more than the sum of their parts with fresh berries, good sour cream (the only ingredients should be cream and enzymes), and dark muscovado sugar. Dip berry in sour cream, dip again in sugar. Eat.  

Of course you're going to make freezer jam. No cooking, no sterilizing jars, no lengthy prep. Buy a box of fruit pectin, such as Sure Jell, a bag of sugar, and a lemon.  (Some recipes call for a tablespoon or two of lemon juice, others don't. Lemon cuts through a bit of the sugar, so I use it.) Follow the directions for freezer jam in the pectin package. Spend 45 minutes washing, hulling, crushing, stirring and scooping jam into jars. With that wee effort comes months of the freshest and best tasting jam on the planet, with plenty left over for much sought-after hostess gifts.

Next up:  Pop Tarts!

Your friends and family will believe you have super powers if you use your homemade strawberry jam in pop tarts. Here's the recipe from Bon Appetit: Strawberry Pop Tarts Make a double batch and freeze them. The recipe says they freeze for up to a week. Balderdash. I've frozen them for a month and they've been perfect. You can cut them in any shape or size. Just don't over fill with jam, and seal the edges well. I used a 2 x 2 ravioli stamp for the pop tarts in the photo above, but I've also used a heart-shaped cookie cutter, or gone free-form with a pastry wheel or knife. With these darlings on hand, you're 30 minutes away from an elegant little dessert any time. 

And now, the moment you've been waiting for: Ice Cream!  

Roasted Strawberry, Balsamic, and Fresh Rosemary Ice Cream 

I first had a version of this ice cream at Salt & Straw in Portland. It was assertive, potent with vinegar.  I liked it, but it wasn't something I'd eat a quart of. I wanted a more nuanced approach. After trying several online versions, I went back to my own ice cream template and tweaked it. The final result is ultra-smooth, with a subtle back note of rosemary and balsamic. Roasting the strawberries gives them a dark, mellow taste.  All grown up like.

Roasted Strawberry Balsamic Rosemary Ice Cream

Yield 1.5 quarts

1 pint strawberries
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar    
1 tablespoon vodka, cherry heering, Luxardo cherry liquor, or kirsch (optional, but recommended)

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup granulated sugar   

1, 4-inch sprig of fresh rosemary
pinch of sea salt 
3 egg yolks 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425°. Rinse and hull strawberries. Place them on a baking sheet lined with foil. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar and balsamic vinegar and macerate for about 15 minutes. Roast in oven for 10-15 minutes until soft, but not mushy.

Cool, then transfer berries and accumulated syrup, along with 1 tablespoon liquor (if using) to a bowl, cover and refrigerate.  

Whisk egg yolks in a bowl until frothy. Combine cream, milk, sugar, salt and rosemary sprig in heavy saucepan. Heat cream mixture over medium heat on the stove until temperature reaches 170° on an instant-read digital thermometer. Slowly drizzle the warm cream mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly. Return egg and cream mixture to the pan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture reaches 180°. Do not let the mixture boil or you'll get sweet scrambled eggs.  Yuck.

Remove and discard rosemary sprig. Strain custard through a mesh sieve into a 4-cup glass Pyrek measuring cup, or a bowl. Whisk in vanilla extract.  Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight.

Use an immersion blender, or a stand blender and puree strawberry mixture. Pour strawberry mixture and custard into ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s directions. Transfer ice cream to glass, plastic, or paper container, cover tightly and freeze until firm.

Ice Cream Base and Roasted Strawberries

Ice cream is incredibly simple to make, and the results are so good. When you're not up to making your own, try the ice cream at Mora, Molly Moon, or Salt & Straw. They use excellent ingredients and don't add junk found in even premium grocery store ice cream. Read the labels.  

All that cooking has made me thirsty. Time to cool off with a fresh strawberry cocktail.
Here's a dangerously good recipe from Imbibe Magazine:  Kentucky Daiquiri.

One bit of advice when buying strawberries. While berries are in season, the Day Road farm stand is open every day at 9:00am, BUT they don't pick every day and berries sell out fast. Be in line at 8:50am. Trust me, it's worth it if you have to try more than once to score your own flat.