The Frugal Gourmet

It’s June and strawberry time at chez Dyson. Yippee, I love strawberries but I am fussy about my strawberries, I believe rightly so.

I don’t eat strawberries out of season. When I was a child strawberries where a special seasonal treat limited to July, as we were where quite poor we would go out to the strawberry fields around Bedford to ‘pick our own’. “One for the basket, one for me, two for the basket, one, two for me…..” and so on, how the farmer made a profit is beyond me.

The short season made strawberries special but now with extended seasons and air freight that special appreciation has been lost. The memory of the strawberries of my youth is further undermined by the dreadful excuses for fruit, chiefly Elsanta offered by supermarkets more interested in shelf life and cosmetics than in flavour. Fortunately here in France things are still different Strawberries are generally not available out of season and they are sold on the basis of quality and taste not the convenience of the supermarkets.

So if I am fussy about my strawberries which ones do I eat? Well quite a range really, mostly older traditional full flavoured varieties but top of the list is Mara des Bois. Not an old variety it was created in 1990, by a French nursery Marionnet who set out to create a fruit to rival the best woodland strawberry. Four heirloom varieties, Gento, Ostara, Red Gauntlet and Korona were selected as parents based, not on their ease of growth or high yield potential, but rather for their individual strength of character. Each contributed a layer of flavour or texture to the Mara des Bois. The project was a roaring success producing a strawberry highly prized by consumers, patissiers and restaurateurs.

The Mara des Bois is a remontant type, meaning that they come again, cropping to the end of summer. The berries are medium sized and offer a balance of sweetness and acidity, the scent of wild strawberries and succulent, orange flesh that fills your mouth with the taste of ambrosia.

Sounds great, but lovely though they are they have one flaw that restricts their commercial availability, the strawberry doesn’t keep! Making them useless for mass distribution, they are however available from local markets and in Loches the growers will pick over each punnet to ensure perfection, how’s that for service!

The easiest way to ensure a supply of these little wonders is to grow your own, and under Julie’s strict supervision that’s what I do. Mara des Bois are a frugal strawberry to grow on several levels. A strawberry this good comes at a premium price so there’s a saving to be made for very little effort. The Mara des Bois fruits freely across the summer so they are very productive, currently I’m cropping about 5 kilos a week, though the quantity will fall off, but with jams, fruit sirops, ice cream and gifts surprisingly little will go to waste. Finally the plant freely sends runners so it is easy to maintain or develop your patch or to give plants to friends and neighbours. If you can obtain a few plants I warmly recommend them to you, even the smallest garden or balcony will have space for a strawberry pot.

A realise that many people cannot or will not just go out and plant or buy Mara des Bois strawberries, but what you can do is buy good quality produce from markets or better still a farmers market. Don’t buy out of season, there’s no point they taste rubbish anyway, and definitely avoid the supermarkets golden egg, Elsanta. Your new tasty strawberries may cost more, is that frugal? Yes, absolutely, why waste your money buying a poor quality produce when for a bit more money (perhaps) you have something you can take real pleasure in.

Given that you now have some excellent strawberries in your hand how can you get the best out of them?

Well there are a range of great recipes, one of which is here from a previous post, but here is my advice on getting the best out of this fruit.

• Try and ensure the fruit is as fresh as possible.
• If you wash your strawberries do it at the last minute and ensure they are well drained.
• Keep the green caps and stems on until the fruit is used.
• Avoid eating strawberries (or any other soft fruit) fridge cold, if the fruit has been in the fridge give it a chance to warm up to room temperature or even better to be warmed by sun light. You know how fresh picked strawberries straight off the plant are always best? Well one reason is that they have been warmed by the sun making them fragrant and juicy.
• Eat your strawberries simply, plain, maybe a little sugar, possibly light cream.
• Keep them out of reach of kids, you can’t eat what you haven’t got!

Here are a few strawberry recipes

Strawberries and Balsamic Vinegar

Be brave, the combination of strawberry and balsamic vinegar is lush.

500 gms Good quality strawberries

1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 tbsp Caster sugar (if needed)

Prepare your strawberries. Gently mix together all the ingredients. Leave to marinade for 15 minutes. Enjoy.

Strawberries and Black Pepper

This is very good

500 gms Good quality strawberries

A sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp Caster sugar (if needed)

Prepare your strawberries. Add sugar if needed. Give the strawberries a few grinds from a pepper mill. Gently mix together. Leave to marinade for 10 minutes. Enjoy.

Strawberries, Black Pepper and Balsamic Vinegar

You should be getting the idea by now J

500 gms Good quality strawberries

A sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 tbsp Caster Sugar (if needed)

Prepare your strawberries. Add sugar if needed. Give the strawberries a few grinds from a pepper mill. Add balsamic vinegar. Leave to marinade for 10 minutes. Enjoy even more.

That’s it, I’ll probably write a bit more about strawberries again soon, do give any or all of my 3 recipes ago it will be a revelation.