Strawberry and Blueberry Fruit Salad

A fruit salad with diced Scottish strawberries, and blueberries from somewhere, neither of which were doused in sugar or alcohol and marinated in the fridge. Just doused in single cream. It is still early in the season, so those things can wait. Delicious!
 

Strawberry and Blackberry Bourbon Surprise

Wow! Diced Scottish Strawberries and Blackberries soused for a couple of days in two shots of blended Bourbon whiskey, and two dessert spoonfuls of Demerara sugar. Kept in the fridge. Plus a handful of crushed almonds (I've made this dish before with almonds which were ground in a coffee grinder). Stirred occasionally.

Dress in a little black or white pepper before serving on a bed of Greek style yoghurt.

Any other whisky or whiskey will produce an excellent result. Utterly delicious! Strawberries Rombauer is often touted as the the apex of fruit salads (using Cointreau). It's good, but this has it beat.

Strawberry and Blueberry Fruit Salad

A simple and delicious fruit salad, made with chopped blueberries and Strawberries.

The fruit was prepared and decanted into a bowl, to which was added a couple of dessert spoonfuls of demerara sugar (any form of granulated sugar will do instead). Stirred together, and allowed to stand for an hour or so. The juices of the fruit will emerge by their interaction with the sugar.

Served with a dressing of fresh cream. Add grated nutmeg if you prefer a spiced flavour to the dish.

Strawberry and Walnut Salad

Quartered Scottish Strawberries,  soused for four or five hours in granulated sugar, which produces excellent juices.

Decant to a serving bowl and add two handfuls of walnut pieces.

Add three or four dessert spoonfuls of plain yoghurt (or single cream if you prefer). Chill in the fridge for half an hour before serving. A fabulous dish!

Blueberry, Strawberry, and Orange Fruit Salad

This morning's breakfast: a fruit salad with three fruits, served on a bed of Greek yoghurt, after being soused in some white wine and sugar overnight.

The (Stirlingshire) strawberries were quartered, and the blueberries served whole. The (Spanish) orange was cut into slices and the peel was cut off with a sharp knife. After that the orange segments were diced.

About ten minutes of preparation time, but the resulting dish is well worth it.

Blueberry, Black Grape and Strawberry Fruit Salad

A three berry fruit salad, soused in white wine, scotch whisky, and sugar. I used about 150g of Strawberries, 100g of grapes, and about 50g of blueberries.

Halve the strawberries, and half the grapes. Add the strawberries, grapes and blueberries to a bowl and pour in a glassful of white wine, a shot glass of blended scotch whisky, and a dessert spoonful of granulated sugar. Stir together.

Best served after a couple of days in the fridge. Stir occasionally, so that the fruit is evenly marinaded in the alcohol and sugar.

Serve with double or single cream. Delicious! Hard to go wrong with a strawberry based fruit salad!

Pear and Strawberry Fruit Salad

Slice the pears vertically to  remove the central portions containing the seeds, and then chop into small chunks. Remove the leaves from the head of the strawberries and halve or quarter them (still early in the local season, so these strawberries came from Spain).

Souse in a bowl in a mixture of white wine (about 150ml) and sugar. Cover and leave in the fridge for two days, giving the occasional stir.

Serve with double or single cream. Delicious!

Black Grape and Strawberry Salad

A simple fruit salad made with whole black grapes, and chopped strawberries, served with single cream.

Add the seedless black grapes, and chop the strawberries. Add white pepper (a Scottish detail). Mix together, and add single cream.

You can if you prefer souse the fruit in some table or caster sugar first, but this is not necessary.

This is a combination which works particularly well. Delicious, and prepared in minutes!

Fruit Salad with Raspberry, Blackberry and Strawberry

A really easy fruit salad. Since it is December, the strawberries came from Morocco, but I saw some better looking ones from Egypt in Morrison's store yesterday.  But these tasted fine. Halve the blackberries and the strawberries, and souse all three fruits in a little white wine and grenadine,  coat with a dessert spoonful of granulated sugar, and leave to soak in a sealed container for several hours in the fridge. Turn occasionally.

Decant the fruit and the juice into a serving bowl, and pour on some single cream. Delicious!

Fruit Salad with Raspberry, Blackberry and Strawberry

Strawberries Rombauer

400g of fresh Perthshire strawberries, mixed with three teaspoons of demerara sugar, a glug of Cointreau, and left to stand overnight in the fridge, Serve with double cream. 

This recipe is from the Rombauer family's wonderful book, 'The Joy of Cooking'.  A standard reference in the American kitchen. 

Strawberries Rombauer

Pear, Blueberry & Strawberry Fruit Salad

The basis of this dish is strawberries in sugar and blended Scotch whisky, a take on Strawberries Rombauer, from the 'Joy of Cooking', which recipe I posted a few days ago. So the main part of the description is essentially the same. 

The strawberries were topped to remove the green collar, then each was sliced in two, at an angle, rather than straightforward halving. This increases the surface area of the strawberries. 

After cutting, they were decanted into a glass bowl, and given a coating (two table spoons worth) of ordinary refined sugar (caster sugar does just as well). A large dash of blended Scotch whisky was added also. The mixture was stirred for a couple of minutes, to dissolve the sugar and spread it evenly through the strawberries. 

A Scottish twist is the addition of a couple of shakes of white or black ground pepper, which gives the final flavour a little edge. 

The bowl was set aside and covered with a plate, and left altogether for four hours, to allow the osmotic pressure of the sugar to extract some of the juices in the strawberries. The mixture was stirred at least once an hour. If the bowl is placed in the fridge, the process will take place more slowly. Outside the fridge, the dish will be ready to eat after four hours, at room temperature. 

I added to the bowl about 100 grams of blueberries, and a Conference pear, cored and thinly sliced. Allowed to sit for fifteen minutes after stirring in to the strawberries. 

The contents of the bowl were stirred again for two minutes before the fruit was decanted into a dish containing some Scottish single cream. 

Pear, Blueberry & Strawberry Fruit Salad

Scottish Strawberries with Single Cream

The first strawberries of the season. This is essentially a take on Strawberries Rombauer, which appears in the pages of the compendious recipe collection,  'The Joy of Cooking'. The strawberries were topped to remove the green collar, then each was sliced in two, at an angle, rather than straightforward halving. This increases the surface area of the strawberries. 

After cutting, they were decanted into a glass bowl, and given a coating (two table spoons worth) of ordinary refined sugar (caster sugar does just as well). A large dash of blended Scotch whisky was added also (as opposed to Cointreau, which is the Joy of Cooking suggestion, if I remember correctly). The mixture was stirred for a couple of minutes, to dissolve the sugar and spread it evenly through the strawberries. 

A Scottish twist is the addition of a couple of shakes of white or black ground pepper, which gives the final flavour a little edge. American friends who saw me do this for the first time were a little nervous at the addition, but did not complain about the result. 

The bowl was set aside and covered with a plate, and left altogether for four hours, to allow the osmotic pressure of the sugar to extract some of the juices in the strawberries. The mixture was stirred at least once an hour. If the bowl is placed in the fridge, the process will take place more slowly. Outside the fridge, the dish will be ready to eat after four hours, at room temperature. 

Serve with Single Cream. Delicious!

Scottish Strawberries with Single Cream