What to do with Too Many Strawberries!

… as if such a thing could be possible - we do, however, have quite a few. 

 If you too have a plethora of the lovely little buggers here are some ideas.

Strawberry Ice Cream ~ I have a fabulous no churn ice cream recipe, read more here.

Strawberry Fool

Add to or start a Rumpot - a delicious drink made from summer fruits macerated in rum.

Make an Eton Mess

Add to breakfast cereal.

Stir into yogurt.

Add to fruit salads, crumbles and pies.

Oh, and see here for lots of strawberry cocktails.

Strawberry Coulis

fresh strawberries – hulled and halved

caster sugar – half the weight of the strawberries

~    Put the and sugar into a small saucepan.

~    Stir over a medium heat giving the fruit a squash now and then – you could add a dribble of water to encourage the sugar to melt if the fruit isn’t very juicy.
~   Continue to cook and squash till the sugar has melted and the fruit and cooked down to a mush.

~   Strain through a fine nylon sieve pushing on the fruit debris to extract as much coulis as poss.

~   Cool, cover and chill till needed.

Serve the coulis over creamy desserts and ice cream or fold into whipped cream as a cake filling or frosting.

~   If you don’t have enough fruit to go round chop what you have and stir into scones before baking.  Serve with clotted cream, of course. Strawberry scones recipe here.

~   Similarly add to cake and muffin recipes.

~   Freeze strawberries, spread out on a tray so they don’t stick together, and then store in an airtight container till you have a large enough collection to be useful or here a couple of ways to use the frozen berries ….

~   Add individual frozen strawberries to drinks as posh ice cubes.

Sudden Strawberry Sorbet

650g frozen strawberries - slightly thawed

65g caster sugar

40ml vodka or other suitable spirit

~   Put everything into  a food processor or liquidizer and process till smooth. 
~   Put back in the freezer and mash every now and then with a fork or potato masher to keep it smooth. 

Oh, by the way – make sure not to use too much alcohol or the sorbet won’t freeze.

In other news (and I'm very excited) …

I went up to London and met with prospective publishers for my leftovers book; lovely people who seemed keen so, y’know – yippee!  

(News from the future - not only is this book now published but a new edition comes out on 1st March 2018; Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.)






After talking with my publishers I wandered up Piccadilly and had a look in Fortnum & Mason which I haven’t been in for probably 20 years or more.  Interesting place!

The shop assistants wear tail coats, the architecture is fab and the jam display amazing.  Next trip I might buy some toffee'd scorpions and then I can write about what to do with the leftovers!

“Plate to Pixel” by Hélène Dujardin – a review

I start this post with a slight blowing of the old trumpet – my article on an extremely easy “alternative” way to make ice cream is in July’s Vegetarian Living – OUT NOW!   

I say “alternative” in that tone of voice because although it is not a traditional custard based recipe it makes exceedingly good ice cream.  

When I was cheffing in the Caribbean there was an erratic electricity supply, minimal catering equipment, and no high quality ice cream product available so I used this method to develop all sorts of yummy ices and desserts.  

Here’s a pic of one I made earlier – Cherry Bounce Ice Cream (Cherry Bounce is made the same way as Rumtopf) – and either this picture is not as good as I think it is or it’s a fluke … read on.

I have written a whole book, Luscious Ice Creams without a Machine: ... or much time or effort or having to mash the stuff as it freezes, about this lovely no-churn way of making ice cream, no ice cream maker needed! In it I give 100+ recipes together with ideas, serving suggestions, anecdotes, ancillary recipes and every useful piece of useful information I can think of.  There are even a few photos. 

Speaking of books and pictures the main focus of today’s post is, Plate to Pixel – Digital Food Photography & Styling by Hélène Dujardin (what a pretty name – Helen of the Garden) which I have just purchased. 

Until recently I have had no more than a passing, holiday snap kind of interest in taking pictures but now I've started blogging and writing it has suddenly caught my attention in a big way.  

Unfortunately this new enthusiasm is not as yet apparent in the images I produce no matter how hard I try.  Undeterred I am sometimes cheeky enough to submit pictures to the foodie photo sites who are all quite stringent about the quality of the photographs they accept.  The ones I have tried include FoodGawker, Tastespotting, Tasteologie, Dishfolio and Kitchen Artistry all of whom have  accepted a a few of my photos but I'd like to be more certain of the quality of my pictures every time I take them.  Hence my purchase of this lovely book.

One of the first sentences I read, on flicking through when it arrived, was “… you may think that this book applies to people with a dSLR camera, that it’s not for those with a Point & Shoot.  But that’s not the case” (OK – 2 sentences).  This gladdened my heart because I do have a newish P & S (photographer talk – see it’s working already) which I’m really pleased with.   

The second chapter of the book, after basics, deals with camera settings which really cleared up a few matter for me; how, when and why to adjust white balance, what ISO means (concerning light sensitivity) and how to work with it, apertures, depth of field etc.  At first it seems a little hard to take in but I found it much easier to understand whilst actually looking at my camera and its manual. 

Lighting is next, how to work in natural and in artificial light, and I learnt a lot – I’m excited to start trying out diffusion and the bouncing of light when I’ve got a bit more space.  A small caravan is not the ideal place for photographic experimentation so some of my learning will have to be deferred for a few weeks when we will be moving.

I did have a bit of a play; here are some photos I took of freshly baked shortbreads, I’m reasonably pleased with them - both the shortbreads and the photos.

The trouble is I don’t know which I like best and in any case I can’t remember what I did for each picture; I shall avail myself of a notebook for my next try! 

After the technical info the book moves on into exciting chapters on composition, styling, getting ready for “capture” (as we photographers say), props, fabrics, etc.   Hélène Dujardin does stress the importance of understanding the technical matters before getting into the creative side of things but I couldn’t resist a look especially considering my limitations space wise at the moment.

The final chapter touches on photo editing, storage, photo sharing and gives some useful resources.

Hélène Dujardin’s tone of writing friendly and informal yet very easy to understand.   Like me she got started in food photography when, as a chef, she took photos of meals to show kitchen staff how to present dishes.  There the similarity ends!

The book itself is very attractive – lovely pics, obviously - a nice heavy paperback and the only criticism I have is that it is not an easy shape to read lying down whilst sipping a brandy.  Probably just as well anyway; as I said above to really learn I think it needs a bit more involvement.

“Plate to Pixel” by Hélène Dujardin, which I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who, like me, needs a little help in the photography department, was published in paperback by John Wiley & Sons in May of this year.  Here are the relevant numbers … 

ISBN-10: 0470932139  ISBN-13: 978-0470932131 

How to make Rumtopf aka Rumpot – a brilliant use of summer fruits.

~  Menu ~

Roasted Garlic Hummus

Lightly Pickled Cucumber

Balsamic Glaze

Toasted Ciabatta

Sparkling Water but …

… followed by a glass of Rumtopf

You may remember in my last post, when reviewing The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit I was reminded by her recipe for Coffee Orange Liqueur* that I had Rumptopf and Cherry Bounce somewhere in the cellar of our caravan.

Well I have found the Rumtopf and it is Delicious!  It’s been hidden away for almost a year and I thought it might have gone mouldy or evaporated but it’s great.

So, it being The Time of Summer Fruits again, here’s how to make it!

Rumtopf aka Rumpot

Pin this so you can find it in the summer!

The first stage of this recipe must be started at least two months before you want to drink it but the good news is you can do something else whilst you are waiting. Often this was used, by patient German people, as a way of storing summer fruits for Christmas.

I have seen recipes using all sorts of fruits but I think lovely soft summer fruits are best; strawberries, cherries, peaches, raspberries, plums, apricots, loganberries, redcurrants etc.

(For the benefit of friends in the Caribbean I do think mango might work well in this, particularly if using rum).  

~   Select a glass or ceramic jar with a really good seal – I used a Kilner jar – and make sure it is clean and dry.

~   As fruits come into season, so starting with strawberries, de-stem them and wash and dry thoroughly.

~   Weigh the fruits and put into you jar then add half their weight in sugar.

~   Cover with dark rum or brandy (in which case I believe you will have a Brandytopf) to a depth of half an inch. It is essential that all of the fruit is always submerged so place a small saucer or similar directly on top of it to stop any random pieces floating to the surface.

~   Cover tightly and store in a cook dark place till the next fruit comes along.

~   With the second and all subsequent additions repeat the procedure topping up with the spirit and reseal.

A few points …

­ ~    Always use perfect fruit – no bruises, no overripe or under ripe fruit, just perfect.

­ ~    Don’t stir when adding additional fruits, just layer up.

­  ~   At the end of the summer, after the last fruity addition, forget about it for really nice surprise later on.

The resulting liqueur makes a truly delicious sipping liquor, the fruit is powerful but a little over vanilla ice cream is good. 

Cherry Bounce 

This is exactly the same sort of thing but using just cherries and brandy. I can't find mine - must have drunk it!

Might as well pin this too!

Both Rumpot and Cherry Bounce  make superb ice cream using the genius no-churn recipe in my book Luscious Ice Creams without a Machine which gives over 100 delicious no-churn ice cream recipes plus every bit of useful ice-cream making information I can think of!

So far as lunch is concerned I have fallen back, so to speak, on Hummus. I usually have the makings available just in case I don’t have a good idea – the hummus recipe plus lots of ideas and variations here.  I ate it with my lightly pickled cucumber, balsamic glaze (which I always have in the cupboard) and lovely toasted ciabatta.  

A week or so ago we bought a cucumber for 10p and, as is my way with cucumbers, I pickled it.

Lightly Picked Cucumber

1 cucumber

salt

150ml white vinegar – I use cider vinegar

3 tsp light brown sugar or to taste

a sprinkling of chilli flakes - optional

~   Top and tail the cucumber and then cut in half lengthways.

~   Remove the seeds – the easy way to do this is to score a line with a sharp knife either side of the strip of seeds then using a sharp teaspoon (!) scrape the seeds out.

~   Slice the cucumber as thinly as you can and put into a nylon sieve suspended over a bowl

~   Salt generously tossing the slices to make sure they all get some and leave for an hour or more.

~   Drain away the juice then turn the slices into the empty bowl and rinse well with cold water.

~   Re-drain.

~   Stir together the vinegar and the sugar to dissolve the sugar.  Add the chilli flakes if using.

~   Stir in the cucumbers, put in an airtight jar or container, cover and chill till needed.

This keeps a good long while in the fridge.  

After eating up all my hummus like a good girl I drank the glass of rumtopf left after taking the above photo.  It's a hard life.

Cheers!

Tweetables ...

~   How to make Rumtopf aka Rumpot – a brilliant use of summer fruits.

~   Rumpot - start 2 months before you need it but happily you can do something else whilst waiting for it to be ready! 

~   How to make Rumpot -  a truly delicious sipping liquor!

~   How to make Rumpot/Rumtopf  and the closely related Cherry Bounce.