strawberry season--part two
/yeah yeah, storing berries is all well and good. But what about EATING them?
all the Berries!
Other than just eating them, straight, I fall back to a few options.
that's brown sugar on the strawberries, not blueberries.
First, sliced berries with a bit of sugar. I make my own vanilla sugar, which is killer sprinkled on the berries. But also a bit of brown sugar is FANTASTIC. Sprinkle the sugar and let it sit for a bit, drawing out the juices of the berries--this is called macerating.
Then, if you want to get fancier, add some cream--whipped or not. Whipped cream is easy enough to do a small amount by hand with a whisk, just add a pinch of sugar (white or brown!) and beat the hell out of the cream with a whisk until it's thick. You don't need to fully beat the cream to stiff peaks, even softly beaten cream is great. Or just pour a bit on the berries.
Or, if you don't have heavy cream on hand, stir a bit of brown sugar into a little sour cream and plop that on top of the berries.
Want strawberry shortcake? Make some of the cream biscuits (add a tablespoon of sugar to the dry ingredients). Split them, top with the macerated berries and top that with whipped cream. DONE.
Also, here's a little whipped cream trick: add a little bit of sour cream to the heavy cream before you beat it. It'll help stabilize the whipped cream to make it last longer (it won't deflate in the fridge or weep liquid), and adds a little tang, similar to what creme fraiche is like.
strawberry water. take the tops out before you drink though.
One last thing you can do with the berries: throw the tops into water, and keep in the fridge for an hour before fishing out the berry tops. Now you have fancy spa strawberry water!
