Strawberry season is open! Whether you get your berries from a Pick Your Own farm (the best option), a market stall or the supermarket, they are now plentiful, ripe and delicious.
The fresher and the more locally picked (which is why PYO farms are the best), the better they’ll keep in the fridge.
How to store strawberries? Don’t immediately wash them but keep in the fridge in plastic tubs, and only rinse them just before eating. If you want to avoid the outcome of bruised, waterlogged mushy fruit, rinse them very gently with a dispersed spray then let them dry on a tray. If your berries are particularly ripe and fragile, dip them in a large bowl of water instead, then gently lift them.
And now, what to do with the fragrant bumper crop? That is, apart from eating bowlfuls with cream while watching Wimbledon? Here’s a bunch of suggestions.
Strawberry fool is the supreme of strawberries and cream, with layers of vanilla scented whipped cream and gorgeous fresh strawberry puree, barely sweetened. A fool if you don’t make it this summer at least once!
One better (and healthier) than the fool, strawberries with whipped labneh, strained yoghurt, is a loss on the calorie intake but no loss on flavour. Make labneh by straining full fat yoghurt through a muslin cloth.
Strawberries and whipped labneh
RECIPE
My version of Eton mess is Greek: the meringue chunks replaced with sweetened filo brittle. Is it better? Not for me to say but it makes a nice change. Plus, filo brittle is to die for.
Classic Victoria sponge sandwich is possibly the best vessel for strawberries and cream, and it’s so easy to bake! It looks pretty and it tastes just like English summer. Well – usually better than that, to be fair.
Strawberry and cream Victoria sponge
RECIPE
Strawberry crumble cake: the easiest cake batter in the world thickly covered with fresh strawberries and finished with crunchy crumble topping. This is my firm favourite every summer, and I only swap fruit for the topping. Arguably the only summer cake recipe you'll ever need.
Strawberry crumble cake
RECIPE
Fresh strawberry Bundt cake with yoghurt batter and mashed strawberry icing is as delicious as it is pretty. The cake batter might curdle whilst mixing but feel free to completely ignore it: the outcome will be successful all the same.
Fresh strawberry bundt cake
RECIPE
Absolutely delicious Italian style homemade ice cream without eggs with puréed fresh strawberry swirl. It’s not always all about raspberry ripple, you know.
Strawberry ripple ice cream
RECIPE
And there you were thinking it’s only desserts strawberries are good for! Mixed green salad with strawberries is the freshest and most vibrant summer side dish. Cucumber, strawberries and mint on the bed of shredded lettuce need only excellent balsamic and olive oil and a showering of black pepper.
Green salad with strawberries
RECIPE
All the fancy jam flavours in the world can’t beat homemade strawberry jam. And don’t think you need a tonne of fruit to make a couple of jars: a pound of strawberries will make two small jars of delicious preserve.
If you have an abundance of berries and you’ve already made several pots of jam, try roasting strawberries slow and low. Slow roasted strawberries become jammy but not too sickly, coated in luscious syrup, and they have a multitude of uses in desserts, cakes and afternoon tea confections.
Slow roasted strawberries
RECIPE
Can’t have a British summer without Pimm’s, can’t have a Pimm’s cup without strawberries! Together with cucumber, mint, lemonade or sparkling wine they mix into Pimm’s liquor for the most classic summer cocktail.
An alternative to Pimm’s, strawberry fizz is a prosecco and grenadine cocktail sparkling with halves of frozen strawberries. You can use cava or crémant instead of prosecco - it's the sparkle that matters, not the brand.