Strawberries

[snowangel]

Peter, a couple of his friends and I went to a local you pick 'em place this morning and came home with 40 pounds. They are absolutely beautiful, and the morning was perfect for picking -- windy (no bugs) and cloudy (cool). I'm planning on making Ice Cream (and perhaps sorbet). I'll also do something with strawberries and rhubarb.

Seeking other suggestions, outside of jam.

[jackal10]

Not much you can do besides jam or jelly; they don't freeze or can well.

Not even that good preserved in alcohol like a rumtopf

Dry in a dessicator or very low oven is one way; fruit leather another along the same lines

[Chris Amirault]

Sheee-it!

Strawberry shortcake with whipped cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's what I'd do, anyway.

[petite tête de chou]

You could make a Strawberry liqueur, add them to a Sangria or perhaps a strawberry wine (it would use up about 3 lbs.).

Baked Alaskas, Strawberry Daiquiri pie, Strawberry pie with a cream cheese crust, a pasta dessert with sweet strawberry sauce, Strawberries Romanov (steep berries in orange juice, sugar, Grand Marnier and lemon juice, top with whipped cream).

Strawberry bread, add to pancake or waffle batter, strawberry vinegar, add to a salad of romaine lettuce, red onion and slivered almonds (toss with a berry vinaigrette).

I wish I had all those strawberries. Lucky you.

[ludja]

Although they might not freeze well for some applications, you can successfully freeze whole berries for use in smoothies. Toss them into the blender still frozen.

Another avenue for some 'short term' preservation would be to make some strawberry sauce. Cook with some sugar and lemon juice and then pureed. May also add in a little Cointreau or Kirsch once it cools down. I would think it would be ok for at least a week. Eat with poundcake, pancakes, ice cream...

[sandercohan]

Peter, a couple of his friends and I went to a local you pick 'em place this morning and came home with 40 pounds.  They are absolutely beautiful, and the morning was perfect for picking -- windy (no bugs) and cloudy (cool).  I'm planning on making Ice Cream (and perhaps sorbet).  I'll also do something with strawberries and rhubarb.

Seeking other suggestions, outside of jam.

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I found myself in a similar situation last weekend (well, not with 40 pounds, but quite a but of strawberries). I made a chutney (I didn't want to just make jam) -- it came out okay, quite tart though and very sweet in a pleasing way.

[vinelady]

Would you be willing to post your recipe for the chutney?

[snowangel]

Now that I've found the cord for the camera, some photos of the berries and what I've done

In addition to what you see here, there were three more of the 5 quart ice cream pails full of berries to make up the 40 pounds we picked.

I froze some individually on cookie sheets and pureed and froze a mess of them.

We had some strawberry ice cream

You can see that the boy's fingers are still stained by berries.

We had waffles.

And, for my 3rd of July party, we had rhubarb strawberry pie. There was one more pie, still in the oven. 24 of us devoured these. I did save one piece for me for a late night, cleaning up after the party snack. The rhubarb was from my garden.

[Random Alias]

Ahhhhhh yeah! That's a lot of strawberries.