Sweet treat in May
Scottish strawberries are in season and such a delicious fruit to enjoy, particularly when you pick your own, writes Carina Contini.
May sunshine be with us. May is that month that we feel most confident that we’ll be surrounded with sunshine. The garden calls us outside and those beautiful long evening warm walks always make us happy.
Food is at its best too. Strawberries, sorry I should say, Scottish strawberries are in abundance. And they are sweet. I was fooled into buying some mid April with a lovely Angus label, the smell was there, which warmed the heart, but those sweet juices were missing. Not now. As a family we’ve always loved picking strawberries. We used to have Lowe’s Fruit Farm close to us on the East Coast but sadly no more. On the other side of the city, a little further for us to go, is Craigies Farm. Their website is open for booking in May with the “Pick Your Own” starting next month. A treat especially if you’ve got little ones who are always the best height to spot those bright red berries. Their wee noses must sniff them out long before any of us adults too. Victor’s mum and aunt were
champion jam makers. My mother was very good too but she didn’t make quite as much as the Contini side of the family. I hardly ever make jam as I’m so conscious of the volume of sugar that it uses. I eat it most days in the restaurants that’s maybe why. A warm fruit scone with homemade jam really can’t be beaten. We stopped making any other kind of jam apart from strawberry as it really is the majority of people’s favourite. I love homemade apricot jam with toast but for scones or a Victoria sponge, you can’t beat strawberry. The great thing about jam making, especially strawberry is that using frozen fruit works just as well and you don’t need to take the time to de stalk the fruit, it’s all done for you. There are many Scottish suppliers that sell frozen berries which adds to the sustainable qualities of this very local and very beautiful fruit. Our family’s favourite strawberry dessert is pavlova.
At this time of year you don’t need any extra sugar to sweeten the strawberries so all the sugar in the cake part doesn’t make you feel so guilty. This is perfect to follow a barbecue or roast chicken with a delicious fresh salad, out in the garden, maybe the best thing so far this year.
Fragrant spicy lemon garlic chicken
An easy roast or if you have a BBQ the marinate chars and becomes even more tasty.
Serves three/four
3 green chillies, seeds removed
and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 preserved lemons, pips removed
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
generous pinch of salt
large handful of fresh parsley, leaves only
large handful of fresh coriander, leaves only
1.5kg free-range chicken, backbone removed and squashed flat and lay skin side up on a roasting tray
1 Blend all of the marinade ingredients in the blender. Pour this mixture over the chicken and gently rub in. Leave to marinade for at least an hour. Sprinkle some more salt over the chicken and a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil.
2 Roast at 220C/Gas Mark 7 for 15 minutes so the skin becomes lovely and tasty then lower the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4 and cook for another 40-50 minutes until the leg of the chicken easily removes from the carcass.
Cucumber salad
Serves four
2 cucumbers, washed and very thinly sliced and left to drain in a colander in the sink with a pinch of salt
1 red onion, very thinly sliced and soaked in cold water with a pinch of salt for 10 mins to sweeten
1 small tub sour cream
2 big handfuls finely chopped herbs that you like, dill and fennel are delicious juice and zest of one lemon generous pinch of salt and fresh black pepper
1 Dry the cucumber and the onion slices with kitchen towels. Mix with the sour cream, herbs, lemon and season with salt and black pepper. Serve chilled.
Strawberry pavlova
Sweet new season Scottish strawberries make this a sensational dessert.
Serves four to six
200g free range egg whites
400g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
1 heaped tsp cornflour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white wine vinegar
2 x 250g punnets of fresh strawberries, stalks removed and cut into quarters
1 x 250g punnet of fresh raspberries
10g icing sugar
600ml of double cream
1 Carefully separate the egg whites and beat with the pinch of salt until very stiff. Very slowly beat in the caster sugar. When all the sugar has been added, mix the vanilla, vinegar and cornflour.
2 Use a baking sheet lined with parchment or a ceramic pie dish (approximately 28cm wide) and oil very lightly. You can serve the pavlova in this dish and it saves on the dishes. Fill the dish with thick scoops of the mixture to form the pavlova shape and bake in a preheated oven 150C/ Gas Mark 2 for 12 minutes then turn off the oven and leave for a further 20 minutes.
3 Remove the dish from the oven and allow to cool. Meanwhile heat one punnet of raspberries with the icing sugar in a pan until the raspberries start to pop and the sugar has dissolved. Cook for about 3 or 4 minutes, stirring to ensure the mixture doesn’t burn. Cool and then sieve the seeds to make a coulis and add the strawberries to the coulis.
4 Whip the double cream until soft peaks form and then spoon it onto the pavlova and dress with the strawberry mixture.
