Roasted strawberries - c'mon, everybody's doing it!

And so, the wave of visitors continues - the latest arrival being Nick's gran, who flew in yesterday morning from Cape Town. 

Having visitors is fun - instead of spending the weekend at home blogging, gardening and cooking, I spend the weekend being a tourist in my own town!  Over the past few weekends this has seen me visit Camden market, see Dirty Dancing on stage, eat out almost once a day, visit Greenwich, see Kylie and spend a day in Kent.

Kent is the next county to the south-east from where I live.  You just drive over the Dartford Crossing bridge and voila - you're in Kent!  We headed for the lovely village of Bearsted first, to meet up with friends and have lunch at the rather lovely Oak on the Green pub (full review to follow later) and from there we headed for Sissinghurst garden.  Sissinghurst was the home of poet and novellist Vita Sackville-West, famous not only for her writing but also for her affair with Virginia Woolf.  Vita's other talent was gardening, and the garden she created at Sissinghurst is rightly famous - the division of the space into themed "rooms" (herbs, seasonal gardens, colour themes) is inspired and very striking.

Why the paragraph on Kent?  Because Kent is also the home of the strawberries that I used to make dessert last night. To be completely honest with you, the strawberries were slightly past their prime - if they had been picture-perfect I doubt I would have been able to resist gobbling them up fresh with cream!  But as things stood, it gave me an opportunity to try the recipe that's been cropping up all over the blogosphere these days - roasted strawberries.  I first saw them on Kevin's blog and Cherrapeno, but I've subsequently also seen them on Dessert First, Jumbo Empanadas, and Zoe Bakes.

The only change I made to the basic recipe was to substitute half the balsamic vinegar with caramelised verjuice, which worked beautifully.  I loved the concentration of flavour that roasting gave the strawberries - but even more, I loved the spectacularly coloured syrup that the roasting produces - too gorgeous!  I served this with vanilla ice cream, but you could just as successfully serve it with cream or yoghurt.  Any which way, this recipe is a keeper.

So give in to peer pressure today and roast some strawberries ;-)

ROASTED STRAWBERRIES (serves 4)

Ingredients:

500g fresh strawberries
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp caramelised verjuice

Method:

Wash, hull and halve the strawberries.  Toss together with the sugar and vinegar/verjuice.

Spread on the base of a shallow oven-proof dish and roast at 180C for about 30 minutes.  Serve with ice cream, cream or yoghurt - and don't lose a single drop of that beautiful juice!

I'm submitting this recipe to my friend Susan the Foodblogga who is hosting this month's edition of Sugar High Friday with a berry theme.

Comments

[courtney]

I have to get on the band wagon and do this.

[Susan from Food Blogga]

I'm so glad your exploring the treasures in your back yard! Speaking of treasures, that's what this dessert is, Jeanne. I've seen roasted strawberries a couple of times now too. What am I waiting for to make them?!

[cookinpanda]

I should do this. I feel I am really missing out.

[Anne]

Oh, that is just beautiful. It sounds amazing - I've somehow missed the other posts on this, but I'm glad I caught yours. Hope I can still find some strawberries!

[Pille]

First time I hear about roasting strawberries!?! Intrigued, however :)

[Jan]

I MUST try this - just have so many things to 'try' I can't keep up lol.
PS: I haven't forgotten the meme (just had a hectic weekend) I will do this week - promise.

[nina]

Today at Spar a vegetable hawker was trying to sell me some strawberries and my system was saying..."Can't be! No, it is not strawberry time yet!" At R30 pr kilo it is still a bit expensive too. In about a months time....... I will keep this in mind!

[Kevin]

I really enjoyed the roasted strawberries. Yours look really good on the vanilla ice cream. I am going to have to look for some of that caramelized verjuice to try.

[Darius T. Williams]

You're right - everyone's roasting strawberries these days. I'm going to be joining the group soon - lol.

-DTW
www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com

[justfoodnow]

Hi - me again. These things are just not available here in Cape Town right now so the million dollar question is, could I make these with the frozen kind? I froze quite a few this summer, most of them really beautiful and firm and since this is your recipe, please help!!!!

As usual stunning stunning blog - it's like a holiday to me right now.

[saaleha]

Gorgeous!
I always enjoy strawbs with balsamic, but this roasting you've done simply moves me!

[brian]

Jeanne you've got to try this with the strawberries flash roasted in a pizza oven. I like to keep all the red wine leftovers until I have enough to make a Gluhwein and then reduce it down to a rich glaze. Apart from making a stunning dessert sauce it imparts an incredible concentrated wintery flavour to a summery fruit......does that make sense ?

[Tongue-Tickle]

im loving your pics!!

[Boots in the Oven]

How simple and delicious-looking! We roast veggies all the time, but not fruit, except maybe apples... and strawberries, now there's a good idea. Thanks for the recipe!

[herschelian]

About three years ago I went mad for roast strawberries as a dessert and for a month or twoserved them to everybody who crossed the threshold; it's one of my worst culinary habits to get hooked on a recipe and then do it to death.
I was using balsamic, but I bought some verjuice in SA earlier this year and think that it's a wonderful idea to use that instead. How did you caramelize it?

[kittie]

wow - obviously I've been on mars, cos this is the first time I've seen these little beauties!!

Mmmmmmmm.........mmmm :D

[Jan]

Jeanne - I've done the 'Six Quirky Things' meme! Thanks again Jan x

[Johanna]

I tried roasting strawberries for the first time this year and they are excellent - works well in Australia where our berries aren't as wonderful in the UK and your pic of them with the icecream has me wanted to make these again

[brilynn]

Glad you finally caved to peer pressure, I love the roasted strawberries and have made them numerous times since.

[Nicisme]

Jeanne, aren't they great? I must make them again after seeing this!
I'm looking forward to the review of the pub as I'm not far from there.

[Elizabet]

Roasted (!!) strawberries! What an amazing idea. I can see that this would be a good way to rescue slightly inferior strawberries. Too bad I didn't see this when local strawberries were still in season. (Now the strawberries are well past their prime and the only ones available are the giant wooden-flavoured variety from California.) I do hope I remember to try this next summer when strawberries return.

[Bellini Valli]

I don't know how I missed this one so it is definitely bookmarked for when strawberries are not at their prime:D