Strawberry field

Our vegetable gardens are now filled with strawberries, a paradoxical fruit which bears its seeds as a coat. Its name seems to instruct the gardener to place straw between the plant and the soil, a technique well designed to prevent spoilage. In fact, the word preceded the custom: it designates the ability of the plant to spread by sending off runners. Although strawberries are listed in the King’s Vegetable Garden in the seventeenth century catalog, the Sun King did not gorge on the same “fruit” we now enjoy. His was the woodsy variety, ours a happy marriage of the native Virginian (for the taste) and Chilean (for the size) plants celebrated on European soil.
What to do with all the strawberries we gather at this time of the year, besides eating them with a dusting of sugar and or dipped in heavy cream? Strawberry and rhubarb is a match made on earth: they come out at the same time and enhance each other's sweet tartness in a pie. For the chocoholics, the combination of chocolate, caramel beurre salé and strawberry sauce can prove addictive, but delaying consumption may be an even better option. To freeze them: clean them, remove the stem and just lay them on a cookie sheet in the freezer until hardened or for a day. Then, place them in a labeled plastic bag and put them back into the freezer. In the winter time, indulge in a spring strawberry and banana smoothie. Or make a strawberry and rose sherbet, which will taste lovely when the red currant and raspberries are ripe.
Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie
(Easy, Preparation time and cooking time: 40 minutes, 1 hour resting time, Cheap)

Ingredients:
For the sweet dough (broken pastry)*:
1 stick (113g) butter
1 cup (230g) flour
¼ cup (60g) sugar
1 egg
For the garnish:
6 stalks rhubarb
¼ cup(60g) sugar
2 cups (500g) strawberries
2 tablespoons red tea syrup

Material:
Food processor
Knife
Parchment paper
Rolling pin
1 11-inch (25 cm) pie mold with a removable bottom
1 saucepan with cover

Cut the butter in pieces. Place it with the sugar in the food processor fitted with the dough blade. Pulse. Add the flour and the egg and pulse until the dough resembles coarse meal. Gather into a ball or a disk and place in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for an hour.
Cut and discard both ends of the rhubarb stalks. Cut the rhubarb in one-inch pieces and place in the saucepan. Sprinkle the sugar on top and cover with a lid. Place on the low range of the gas stove and cook covered. When the content boils, the rhubarb sauce is ready.
Wash the strawberries. Remove the stem and reserve.
Preheat the oven at 360F (180C).
Butter and flour the mold. Roll out the dough on a parchment paper or, as the dough is very fragile using your hands press it evenly into the mold. Pierce with a fork. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
When the pastry sheet is cool, dispose it on a serving platter. Layer with the rhubarb sauce. Add the strawberries on top and glaze with the red tea syrup.
*Pâte brisée in French is a sweet pastry to which an egg has been added. It is particularly suitable when dealing with a pie the garnish of which does not request additional cooking.

Chocolate-caramel pudding in a strawberry sauce
(Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 40 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients
Pudding:
4 large eggs
¼ (50 g) cup granulated sugar
3 oz (88 g) butter
9 oz (250 g) 62% semisweet chocolate
Caramel:
3 oz (88 g) crystallized sugar
1½ oz (40 g) salted butter
¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream
3 pinches salt flower
Sauce:
2 cups (500g) strawberries
¼ cup (60ml) red tea syrup

Material:
Eggbeater
Saucepan
2 medium bowls
Mixer
Rubber spatula
4 individual silicone muffin mold
1 ovenproof dish

1- Preheat oven at 360F (180C). Place the butter in a pan and melt it on the lowest gas setting. Turn off the gas and add the chocolate in small pieces. Stir until the chocolate is melted. Beat the eggs and sugar in a medium sized bowl until creamy yellow. Set the bowl over boiling water and stir until warm to the touch. Remove from the heat and beat with an eggbeater until light and fluffy. Fold into melted chocolate and butter. Place the silicone molds in an ovenproof dish. Fill about ¼ of the silicone muffin with the batter.
2- Pour the sugar in the non-stick pan and melt over the lowest setting of the gas. Do not stir while the sugar transforms into caramel in about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the gas and add slowly the cream while stirring. As the cream hits the caramel, it will boil. Add the butter and stir well. Set the pan over the low setting of the gas and stir constantly for another three minutes to melt any hard piece. Add the salt and stir. Pour on top of the batter. Spoon the rest of the chocolate batter on top of the caramel.
3- Add enough very hot water to the baking pan to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the cake emerge clean. The batter will somewhat rise.
4- Wash the strawberries. Remove their tops and place in the bowl of the mixer with the tea syrup. Blend and strain.
The cakes can be refrigerated up to a day. They should be served reversed on a plate and surrounded with the strawberry sauce.


Red Tea syrup
(Easy, Preparation time: 15 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
2 cups (1l) cane syrup
8 teaspoons (100 g) tea leaves

Material:
1 saucepan
Strainer
Glass jar

Place the syrup and the tea leaves in a saucepan on the medium setting of the gas. Bring to a boil. Remove from the stove. Filter and store in a glass jar.

Strawberry and rose sherbet
(Easy, Preparation and freezing time: 1 hour)

Ingredients:
4 cups fresh strawberries washed, stem removed
½ cup sugar
1 cup rose syrup
The juice of a lemon

Material:
Blender
Ice cream maker
Plastic container

Place all the ingredients in the blender. Mix until smooth.
Follow the ice cream maker instructions. Either eat when ready or store in a plastic container in the freezer for up to three months.