Strawberry Season

Strawberry Season is well and truly upon us. So it would be rude not to take advantage and also support local suppliers and farms. And support them we did and will.

There's only the two of us, so three pints of strawberries seemed a reasonable way to kick off the season. And first up that meant Strawberries and Ice cream, because why wouldn't you?

So we started with Three Pints of Strawberries, Two types of Ice Cream and One Gin & Tonic (it's like the summer version of the 12 days of Christmas, only with less verses...)

Then we needed to use up some of the strawberries in other ways so I made some strawberry muffins. The strawbs were a little too juicy for muffins, but they still worked pretty well.

Then there was strawberry jam made in breadmaker. It's just strawberries and lemon juice (no pectin), so we just made a couple of little jars as it needs eating reasonably quickly. It's a really easy way to make jam!

Finally there was strawberry risotto. I've had a recipe in a breakfast foods book for years but never quite got around to it. But this seemed like a good opportunity. Arborio rice, single cream (which I've learned is called Table Cream over here - who knew..., vanilla extract, caster sugar and butter, then hot liquid (in this case hot water rather than stock) added gradually like any risotto.

Add strawberries at the end and serve...

It made a wonderfully decadent breakfast because it was basically strawberry rice pudding, but strawberry risotto sounds so much more windswept and interesting.

In addition to all that there have been strawberry smoothies and strawberries with yoghurt and granola. It's a good job we like strawberries.

We're going back to the farm and getting some more this week, so I'll see what strawberry surprises happen then!