Erdbeeren

As Spargel season started to come to a close, it was time to move on to another seasonal love--Strawberries.  You know when the start of strawberry season is close because the little strawberry-shaped huts where the best strawberries can be found start popping up.  One appeared one day at the U-bahn station I get off at for work.  We then had to patiently wait until they opened.  But one day I walked out of the U-bahn station and smelled them!  I don't know what is so different about these strawberries, whether they have less chemicals sprayed on them, are not genetically enhance to grow to enormous sizes, or whatever, but they smell so wonderful.  And you don't need to put your nose towards them, you just need to be in the area.  Granted, there are a lot of strawberries in that little hut on a given morning, so it may be quantity that leads to the strong aroma.  Whatever it is, it made the trip to work that much more pleasant.

As strawberries became more at their peak the prices got better.  Then I also learned that if you buy them in the morning and not on the way home from work they are even cheaper!  You can get 2 kilograms of strawberries for 5.50 Euros.  That is 4.4 pounds of strawberries.  I am sure that you can buy them cheaper sometimes at the grocery stores here, but these strawberries always look and taste so much better.  We also find that the ones at the grocery store often have many strawberries that need to be thrown out (especially in the off-season you to need to buy twice as many to get the amount you need).

If I can find something to do with 2 kilos of asparagus, I can surely find things to do with that many strawberries.  So we had a strawberry dinner.  Thanks to foodnetwork.com, I found many options to choose from without having to look any further.

For an appetizer we had Brie with Strawberries on Crostini.  I added more strawberries than the recipe calls for (one strawberry for 6 servings is ridiculous!)  Next time I will dice them though and sprinkle them on so that it is easier to eat.

Then for dinner we had Roast Pork with Cumin-Spiked Mixed Berry Sauce, spaetzel, and Strawberry Salad (where I substituted bacon for the speck).  The pork was especially good.  I recommend trying it.  I used blueberry preserves instead of boysenberry and would add more strawberries next time.  I also cooked the sauce, which was quite runny, with some flour to thicken it before serving.  The halloumi made the salad different than most strawberry salads with balsamic vinegar.  It really hit the sweet/salty mix just right.  We had a Montepulciano D'Abruzzo with dinner.  This is one of our favorite types of red wine and is quite easily available in Berlin.  It is much lighter than most but still has some good flavor.  We didn't really plan the wine to go with dinner (a friend brought it) but it was a perfect pairing.

To finish the meal we had strawberry rhubarb crisp.  The recipe wasn't my favorite, so I won't link it here and will look for another one to use for next time.

Beyond my strawberry dinner, we have been having strawberries more in general.  In Berlin one of the big things to have is a Strawberry Bowle.  This is a strawberry punch.  There are many other flavors as well, but strawberry is the one that I am drawn to.  We didn't end up making any so that we wouldn't overdo the strawberries in the dinner, but it is worth noting.  At one street festival I had one that was more a large cup full of strawberries with some strawberry wine to fill in the crevices.  This was perfect in my book.  Although usually there is more liquid than strawberry like in this picture.  I guess it is a matter of preference.


I just hope that the strawberry season is nice and long.