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!

Foolproof Meringue Recipe – with lots of variations

Not that I am suggesting any of my readers are fools, of course, but just in case you happen to know one …

This morning I found I had a few broken meringues and also, lucky or what!, a few strawberries that needed using up so, obviously, I made myself a private portion of Eton Mess.  

No need for a recipe, it’s just crushed meringue, whipped cream and strawberries folded together.  What I am going to do, however, is give an easy, fail-proof meringue recipe. 

Simple Fail-proof Meringues ~ makes about twelve two inch meringue

Maybe I am tempting fate calling this recipe “fail-proof” but it has always worked for me and for everyone I have given it to.   However here are just a few of pointers to make sure it really works

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Pin this for easy reference!  

     Rules when Making Meringues

1. For some reason older egg whites are more successfully whisked than newer ones and room temperature whites work better than cold so get them out of the fridge, if they are in there, an hour or two before using. 

      2. It is Absolutely Imperative that nothing greasy touches the egg whites.  Make sure that your bowl, whisk, hands etc. are completely grease-free.  Also, when separating the whites from the yolks ensure that no yolk at all, at all is left in the whites – yolks are greasy. 

     3. Whisk the whites till very thick, in fact the classic test is if you can turn the bowl upside down and the meringue doesn’t move it’s ready.  I wouldn’t try this unless you are fairly confident.
  

2 egg whites

12 oz caster sugar

½ tsp pure vanilla essence

3 tablespoons boiling water

                                                                               

~   Preheat the oven to 110˚C/gas 1⁄4

~   Have ready one or two large baking trays lined with baking parchment or greaseproof paper.

~   Put the egg whites, sugar and pure vanilla extract into a large dry grease-free bowl.

Add the boiling water and absolutely immediately whisk everything together (using grease-free whisks) till it is very thick and stands in stiff peaks when you lift out the whisk.

~   Pipe or spoon the meringue into small (about 3 cm) dollops, 2 or 3 cm apart, onto the trays (or make a single big meringue or whatever you like).

~   Bake for about 90 minutes till the meringues are crisp and dry.

~   Gently lift the meringues onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

~   Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

As if this wasn’t enough there are a few ways to vary this simple recipe, they are …

Squidgy Meringues

These have a soft marshmallowey interior, excellent for Pavolva, for instance.  All you need to do is, when the meringue is stiff, sprinkle over ½ tsp of white vinegar and 1 tsp cornflour (ie. cornstarch – not the yellow cornmeal) and fold in.  I imagine some sort of chemical reaction takes place to cause a soft middle.

Brown Sugar Meringues

A great variation is to use brown sugar in the recipe – replace half the caster sugar with soft dark brown sugar and the meringues will have slightly toffee-ish taste.  These used to be very popular in out restaurant in Cornwall where we served them with homemade clotted cream from the farm up the road.

Coffee Meringues

Dissolve four teaspoons of instant coffee granules in the hot water before adding to the egg whites or use 3 tablespoons of double strength freshly brewed coffee.  For a more intense effect and a spotty look also fold in a tablespoons of ground coffee.  Of course these are great filled with brandied whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce.

Pink Peppercorn Meringues

These are very pretty and mildly spicy, they go well with strawberries.  A word of warning, however; pink peppercorns are banned in the USA because, I think, they are believed to cause piles (or irritation of mucous membranes as I believe it is called)!  If you are OK in the botty department just fold in a scant tablespoon of crushed pink peppercorns once the whites are thick.

Coloured  Meringues

Just add a little food colouring, of course!  Here is a picture of some dark purple meringues I made and which I folded into homemade blueberry ice cream (made using my genius ice cream recipe, of course).

Use your Imagination ...

Fold in nuts (fairly finely chopped), grated chocolate, coconut (see here for a great way to improve desiccated coconut), different flavourings instead of vanilla, um … orange zest etc.

See here for lovely Squidgy Chocolate Meringues recipe.