Eating Well article - Food and entertaining with strawberries by mo123 Blog entry

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by mo123

Eating Well article - Food and entertaining with strawberries

Sweet strawberry season. Nothing makes my stomach ache more than strawberries. They are so wonderful, delicious and extremely health.

Date: 6/13/2009 10:05:05 AM ( 15 y ) ... viewed 2829 times

Featured Recipe: Strawberry Sherbet | More Fresh Strawberry Recipes

There is nothing more sublime than early-summer strawberries. Try them in these sweet and savory treats.

By Hilary Meyer, EatingWell May/June 2009

Until I spent a summer visiting my grandmother on her family’s tiny island off the southeastern coast of Norway, I had never really tasted a strawberry. Sure, I had eaten strawberries before. They usually came from a plastic container, picked out of season, underripe and shipped from some distant location. But after tasting the real thing, I could hardly consider those strawberries anymore.

After an overnight flight from New York to Oslo, a four-hour car ride along narrow winding roads and a 20-minute boat ride, I landed on the small rocky island. My grandmother (we called her Bestemor, which means “grandmother” in Norwegian) met me with a smile on her tan and weathered face. She was thrilled to show me everything on the island, especially the short winding path between her two small houses, where wild strawberries grew. Once they ripened, the berries were vibrant red and easy to spot. They were so intensely sweet and floral, they tasted like candy. Every morning I would walk slowly with my head down, scanning the edges of the path for a sign of one of the tiny berries. I tried to be disciplined. It was tempting to eat them all at once, by the handful, when I was lucky enough to find that many. But I did my best to savor the experience.

Since the wild berries were in finite supply, Bestemor would supplement our needs with fresh berries from the small market on the mainland. During the boat ride home, we’d eat the berries right out of their green mesh basket, tossing the tops into the water. After dinner, when the northern summer sun still hung high, she would slice up the berries and put them out with a bowl of cream for dessert. For breakfast, we would make the Norwegian version of peanut butter and jelly—fresh strawberry jam spread on toast with geitost, a sweet caramelized goat’s-milk cheese. It was never anything fancy. Bestemor had been the mastermind behind many elaborate meals for me in my lifetime, but with those sweet summer berries, she knew not to alter them much. To taste simply of themselves was enough.

I haven’t spent a June in Norway lately. But now I pick berries at a nearby berry farm and the taste reminds me of that summer with Bestemor.

Now that I’m an adult, with more experience in the kitchen, I’ve learned to incorporate fresh strawberries, which are full of fiber and vitamin C, into a few dishes that I know Bestemor would appreciate, such as strawberry rhubarb pie that oozes with sweet and tart juices and muffins that fill the room with the smell of freshly baked berries and toasted nuts. She would love the simplicity of strawberries churned with buttermilk in a refreshing strawberry sherbet. And I can picture her sopping up every last bit of the savory fig-and-strawberry sauce that tops rich grilled duck breast. Even though I’d love to spend every summer in Norway eating those special berries, I’ll be busy consoling myself at home with these delicious strawberry recipes, no plane ride required.

Hilary Meyer is assistant editor for EatingWell Media Group. Hilary spends much of her time in the EatingWell Test Kitchen testing and developing healthy recipes. She is a graduate of New England Culinary Institute.