By Carolyne
Try this: sprinkle sugar to taste over quite-ripe chopped fresh berries, then cover with ordinary two-per-cent milk. Let stand a few minutes, then mash and stir. Refrigerate. A chemical reaction takes place and the mixture begins to thicken. It tastes even better the next day.
Serve it in stem glasses or in a shrimp cocktail glass with a bit of crushed ice in the base of the container part. Decorate with a sprig of mint and any kind of berries.
More Strawberries – Leftovers
Here’s another great use for strawberries: Make the strawberries and milk mixture as noted. Make extra. Leave it in the fridge for a couple days. Then, put the berry mix in a metal dish or one that is freezer safe. Freeze until solid.
Place the container on the counter for about 20 minutes. You don’t want it to thaw, but it will get hard as a brick and you will think you can do nothing with it. When you are able to remove the frozen mixture from the container, break or chop the frozen berry mix into a few large chunks. Place it in a food processor and whirr – pulse until a solid mush forms, sort of like ice cream thickness, scraping down the sides of the machine dish.
Place it in, ideally, a metal container with a cover. I use a plum pudding container that has a cover. Re-freeze. Now you have a semi freddo. You can use this dessert like an ice cream dish. Call it a sherbet or a sorbet, or you can use it as a palette cleanser between courses.
Try placing the mould upside-down on a large cake plate. Release the frozen mould. Cover it with whipped cream and decorate with fresh berries (any kind), or try covering the mould with stiffly beaten egg white. Then flambé it with a portable gas flash torch at the table.
You can make the semi freddo in individual muffin tin trays and decorate each one individually. First freeze the mixture in the muffin trays, whirr each one individually in a food processor and repack into the muffin trays. These keep (covered) in the freezer for a long, long time just like ice cream. Now you have an instant gourmet treat when company comes.
The working title for Carolyne’s Gourmet Recipes cookbook is From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen: A Canadian Contessa Cooks. This kitchen-friendly doyenne has been honoured and referred to as the grande dame of executive real estate in her market area during her 35-year career. She taught gourmet cooking in the mid-70s and wrote a weekly newspaper cooking column, long before gourmet was popular as it is today. Her ebook, Gourmet Cooking – at Home with Carolyne is available here for $5.99 US. Email Carolyne. Scroll down to the comments at each recipe column. Carolyne often adds complimentary “From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen” additional recipes in the Recipes for Realtors Comments section at REM.
