BRATTLEBORO — I was a plump, worried girl growing up in East Bethel, Vermont in the 1950s, prone to the overly dramatic. A lot of time was spent in the backyard pretending to be in television commercials. A lot of time was spent thinking about food.
Those who know me now will not find either of those facts surprising. June was a highlight for me because it included our tiny town's annual Strawberry Festival, held in a farmer's field at the top of a hill a few miles from our home.
There was buttery shortcake, gobs of whipped cream, and tubs of local strawberries. I would take my plate to one of the rickety card tables set up at the edge of the field and pretend to be in a fancy restaurant eating an exotic and complicated dessert.
My love of strawberries has not diminished since then, and in Vermont June remains their month. A great deal depends upon the weather: too much rain, not enough sun, or too-hot or too-cold temperatures can make the difference for the fruit between sweet and red, or hard and tasteless.
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Strawberries are actually a member of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are called an “aggregate accessory” fruit, meaning they are formed differently from most fruit, with the seeds or achenes on the skin.
Those achenes are the little brown speckles on the outside of the flesh, and each one is actually an ovary of the strawberry flower with a seed inside. Who knew?
We do know that strawberries are distinctly delicious and their local availability short lived. The out-of-season specimens we see in the marketplace are but pale ghosts of the deep red, fragrant, complex, and exquisite real deal.
Nutritionally, strawberries are equally satisfying. A cup provides 20 grams of calcium, 240 grams of potassium, 82 grams of vitamin C and only 45 calories.
Wild strawberries have been around for over 2,000 years and there are now more than 600 varieties grown around the world. They are extremely perishable, and their history of hybridization echoes that of many fruits and vegetables bred to cardboard in order to survive shipment over thousands of miles. I recommend you eat local ones in June.
Once picked, strawberries will not further ripen, so they are best consumed soon after they are purchased. Look for firm, fat, deep red, and fragrant berries.
If you intend to keep them around for a few days, don't wash them but put them - not touching - on paper towels in sealed plastic containers in the refrigerator.
They freeze beautifully. Wash them gently. Pat them dry gently. Hull them or not, but place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet or anything that will lie flat in your freezer. When frozen hard, place them in heavy plastic bags and return to the freezer until ready to use. They will keep this way for 9 to 12 months.
I still love cream-slathered strawberry shortcake. But I have developed a slightly more sophisticated palate than my 10-year-old self and find that the strawberry is a versatile fruit suited to both sweet and savory applications.
Here are a few of my adult suggestions, some of which may surprise.
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Salsa, classic fruity accompaniment to grilled fish or chicken or simply with some sliced avocado and tortillas, is an extremely personalized condiment, and literarily thousands of recipes exist. I follow this simple formula, which works as the seasons progress.
I take the same amount – let's say half a cup – of vegetable matter: red, green, and yellow peppers, seeded cucumbers, and red or sweet onions, and I chop them into small dice, saving their juices and putting them all into a big bowl.
Then I take twice as much fruit - in this case, 1 cup - of tomatoes, peaches, mangoes, and in June, strawberries. These I dice and add to the vegetables with a generous amount of minced cilantro and minced jalapeño or habanero to taste, and lots of lime juice.
I let this sit for a few hours, maybe drain off some of the liquid, and voilà!
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My garden is just beginning to produce lovely young spinach if the heat doesn't bolt it first. Spinach is delicious as a salad in combination with strawberries. For four servings you need ¾ of a pound of fresh baby spinach and 1 cup of sliced strawberries.
You can make an easy and versatile vinaigrette (this will yield about ¾ of a cup) in the food processor or blender by combining ½ cup of extra-virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons of good wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper, and 1 shallot cut into chunks. Blend until emulsified and smooth.
Toss the spinach and strawberries with ½ cup of toasted almonds or pine nuts and a bit of the dressing. You can add some crumbled goat cheese, or - even better and quite transcendent - a Maplebrook Farm Burrata torn into pieces, available at the Brattleboro Food Co-op.
This is what June was made for, believe me.
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Gazpacho is usually a tomato-based cold soup. Tomatoes themselves are fruits, so the leap to strawberries is not totally foreign. Here is a simple and delicious version.
Take three slices of rustic white bread and toast them in a sauté pan with a tablespoon of olive oil and a handful of thyme leaves until golden. Reserve and tear into chunks when cool. Dice a pint of hulled strawberries, a seeded red pepper, ½ a seeded green pepper, 2 small cucumbers and a clove of garlic. Combine in a bowl with ½ cup of tomato juice or V8, 3 tablespoons of really good red wine vinegar, and 3 tablespoons of really good olive oil.
Let this mixture sit and mingle and become friendly in the refrigerator for about 5 hours. Then add the toasty bread and purée until smooth in a food processor or blender. Add salt and pepper to taste, some torn basil, a drizzle of olive oil, and some Tabasco if desired.
It can be argued that strawberries taste their very best simply served ripe, red, and juicy with a small pour of heavy cream and a sprinkle of sugar. If your strawberries are perfect, this is the way to go, although I may favor just eating them out the basket on my way home from Lilac Ridge while they are still slightly warm from the June sun.
But when nature supplies you with less than perfection, here are two ways to really perk up their flavor.
The first is to roast them. Yes, roast them. Hull and halve two pints of strawberries, toss with sugar to taste. Spread them in a single layer on a parchment paper lined rimmed cookie sheet and roast in a preheated 250-degree oven for 2 to 4 hours. Check them every half hour, turn them with a spatula, and try to keep them from sticking.
You will want them slightly caramelized, very concentrated, and still a bit soft; similar to oven-roasted cherry tomatoes.
If you want to get fancy, add 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, a shake of salt and pepper, a dash of port wine, or a drizzle of maple syrup to them before roasting. These are very delicious on ice cream or with plain cake.
You can achieve a similar effect without using the oven by directly caramelizing them in a skillet on top of the stove. They will not have as deep a flavor, but they will have more luscious strawberry-flavored liquid, and their taste is really quite marvelous.
Use a heavy pan over medium-high heat and dissolve ½ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon light corn syrup and ¼ cup water. Cook until the mixture begins to caramelize, when it starts to turn golden.
Remove from the heat, then slowly and carefully add a pint or two of hulled, halved strawberries and stir until combined.
Return to the stove and cook gently over medium-low heat until the fruit has softened which should take about 5 minutes or so. You can make this more exotic by adding ½ cup of red wine and some spices like a few black peppercorns or cardamom pods before adding the strawberries. Both roasted or caramelized strawberries taste better at room temperature.
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One of the best ways to serve both these types of cooked strawberries is with what the French call Coeur à la Créme. It requires a bit of forethought but is a very simple and wonderful summer dessert with fruit of all kinds.
In France, white porcelain heart-shaped molds with holes in the bottom are used, but any medium-size mesh strainer will work just as well.
To serve four to six people, start by lining the strainer with a few layers of cheesecloth and support it over a bowl. In another bowl, mix 6 ounces of room temperature fresh goat cheese, 4 ounces of cream cheese, and 1/3 of a cup of honey until soft and smooth. In yet another bowl, gently whip ¾ cup of heavy cream with 1 tablespoon of sugar until soft peaks form.
Fold the cream gently into the cheese mixture until just combined and spoon it into the prepared sieve. Fold the cheesecloth over the top and refrigerate the sieve in its bowl for at least 3 hours or overnight, so the mixture can settle and drain.
When you are ready to serve the Coeur, unmold it carefully onto a large round plate and surround it with the strawberries. The cheese mixture will have become softly dense and creamy sweet but still slightly tangy from the goat cheese. It is perfect with strawberries, cooked or fresh.
And then there is shortcake. I know you already have a recipe that you make every June, and I bet nothing could improve upon it.
It's a dessert that is quintessential America. It's a dessert that means summer is here. It's a dessert that makes you a child again, sitting on the top of a hill, balancing a thin white paper plate overfilled with that gorgeous combination of biscuit, fruit and cream.
That first bite was just about the closest I ever got to food heaven.