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Strawberries with spices and herbs
May. 26th, 2012 10:02 amJust a simple dish I made yesterday, but it turned out so delicious that I want to share it:
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Strawberries with Vanilla, Violets, and Mint
Wash about a pound of strawberries carefully and let drain until dry. Prepare/clean them and cut in 4 pieces each. Mix them in a bowl with
1 tablespoon violet sugar, vanilla (1 soup spoon self-made vanilla sugar in my case)(*), and 4-5 leaves of fresh mint, finely chopped. I prefer a strong mint like spearmint, peppermint, or thai mint, but any kind will do, or even lemon balm.
Let "steep" for a while (how do you call this when you're having a cold dish standing around for some time until the aromas get mixed and, in this case, some liquid forms?).
It's delicious all on its own, but you can serve it with vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream, or simply add two soup spoons of full-fat natural yoghurt to it, as I did, and have a creamy dish.
For vegan alternatives I use soy vanilla pudding as I haven't come by vegan ice cream hereabouts yet.
I used to do this with mint, or violet sugar, and combining the two sounded weird, but it tastes heavenly. Of course, it tastes well enough without violet sugar - which is difficult to come by, I know. But if you get the chance, try it; this sugar is aweeome!
(*) About the vanilla: I use self-made vanilla sugar, having about 300-400g white sugar mixed in a container with the scratched-out marrow of 2 vanilla beans and the beans itself, too. I keep that all the time, adding new sugar when the container is only 1/3 full, and from time to time a new vanilla bean. The aroma is very intense. In Germany we otherwise use ready-made "vanilla sugar", don't use this at the taste is too artificial for this dish. In this case, just use fresh vanilla and a little sugar to your taste. I don't have any experience with other vanilla products.
1 tablespoon violet sugar, vanilla (1 soup spoon self-made vanilla sugar in my case)(*), and 4-5 leaves of fresh mint, finely chopped. I prefer a strong mint like spearmint, peppermint, or thai mint, but any kind will do, or even lemon balm.
Let "steep" for a while (how do you call this when you're having a cold dish standing around for some time until the aromas get mixed and, in this case, some liquid forms?).
It's delicious all on its own, but you can serve it with vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream, or simply add two soup spoons of full-fat natural yoghurt to it, as I did, and have a creamy dish.
For vegan alternatives I use soy vanilla pudding as I haven't come by vegan ice cream hereabouts yet.
I used to do this with mint, or violet sugar, and combining the two sounded weird, but it tastes heavenly. Of course, it tastes well enough without violet sugar - which is difficult to come by, I know. But if you get the chance, try it; this sugar is aweeome!
(*) About the vanilla: I use self-made vanilla sugar, having about 300-400g white sugar mixed in a container with the scratched-out marrow of 2 vanilla beans and the beans itself, too. I keep that all the time, adding new sugar when the container is only 1/3 full, and from time to time a new vanilla bean. The aroma is very intense. In Germany we otherwise use ready-made "vanilla sugar", don't use this at the taste is too artificial for this dish. In this case, just use fresh vanilla and a little sugar to your taste. I don't have any experience with other vanilla products.
This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/109389.html and has
