Saturday, May 16, 2009

Strawberries!

Unfortunately their season is short, but we have been enjoying the strawberries a whole lot lately!
We go pick them at the strawberry farm and that is as fresh and local as one can get. They are delicious, juicy, red, and soooo sweet!
I love them just as they are, have been enjoying bowlfuls of the berries for breakfast, but there are also a few recipes that both the husband and Matheus request and so they appear year after year in our kitchen during strawberry season!
Truly, this year the one new recipe I made was Strawberry Ice Cream, which turned out not only delicious but had the most gorgeous and natural color I have ever seen on a strawberry ice cream!
It was so good though that we ate it all in a couple of days and I even forgot to take pictures... so, this will be one of the few posts without a recipe photo, but you can imagine how strawberry ice cream looks like, right?!!
And, to make up for that here some of the other recipes I have already made this past few weeks with our juicy red gems:

Strawberry Muffins (Matheus and the Husband love these muffins!)

Strawberry Tart
(This is the Husband's favorite! And my sister's too!)

Strawberry Bavaroise
(This one is strawberry creaminess at it's best, it's my favorite!)

There are other recipes in the blog archive, such as strawberry bread and pancakes with strawberry sauce, which I have made too this year already, so take a peek there and see what other goodies you can find!
Here goes the ice cream recipe, it is so easy and so good! Gotta love ice cream season!
Enjoy!
Ana

Strawberry Ice Cream
(adapted from the book From Your Ice Cream Maker)

3 cups fresh strawberries, clean and stemmed (or 16oz/500g frozen strawberries - unsweetened) I used three heaping cupfulls of strawberries and my ice cream had an intensely awesome fruity flavor!
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cups sugar (use more or less depending upon the sweetness of your strawberries)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Triple Sec, or your favorite orange liqueur (alcohol doesn't completely freezes, so this helps your ice cream not to turn rock hard on your freezer - plus it adds a depth of flavor to the ice cream, even though you don't taste it on the final product)
A tiny pinch of salt

Process all ingredients on a blender or food processor until all incorporated and the strawberries are pureed to the desired consistency (I left some ity bitty chunks on mine for texture and deliciousness!). Refrigerate the mixture for a few hours until it is thoroughly chilled. Give it a quick whiz and pour the mixture in the ice cream maker, following the instruction of your machine.
Makes about 1 quart.

My note: if you use chilled fruit and cream you can even pour the mixture directly into the ice cream maker right after you blend the ingredients. However, the colder the mixture the less time it takes for your ice cream to churn and the creamier it will be!
This is pure cold strawberry bliss and since it uses so little ingredients try to use the best fruits and cream you can find, it really does make a difference here!! This is worth the wait, time and money spent on it!
Ana

13 comments:

Shawna said...

Strawberries are a hugeee favorite in our apartment!!

Unfortunately, as college students 3 things stand in my apartment's way to making all of these tempting recipes: 1, most days we are broke. 2, if we have the money we're too busy writing papers or cramming for midterms to make it to the grocery store or farmers market, and 3, we don't really know our way around kitchens yet.

College life can be tragic sometimes!

Ana Cláudia Ruy Cardia said...

mm... torta de morango..... fiquei com lombriga!!! e uma lombriga turrkish ainda por cima! hahaha!!!
Beeeeeijo da irma maluca!

Carolina Andrade said...

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Akemi said...

So de imaginar vc com quilos de morango ai, fico verde de inveja, amiga! Esse sorvete parece delicioso mas com o friozinho que tem feito esses dias, vou adiar para o verao para testar sua receita!!! Bjss

Cris said...

Oi Ana e o morango daí é tão bom né, fiquei com água na boca. Querida, adivinha com quem tomei um café esta semana... :-) Obrigada por me apresentar a Mi. Acho que vou vê-la na segunda para uma apresentação. Beijos!

Valentina said...

Anna, love you strawberry recipes. i have tried some throughout the years.

kaka said...

OI Ana, te conheci pelo blog da valentina, lendo os post e comentários sinto que até já te conheço.
Menina, tá muito lindo!!!
PEna que eu não entendo nadinha..
Meu inglês é péssimo!!
Snif snif..
Posso perguntar porque está escrito em inglês?
Grande abraço
Kaká

kaka said...

Ana,
Obrigada pela visita no meu blog.
Queria falar com vc, só que "em particular".
Você poderia me dar seu e-mail?
Vou te enviar o meu. kakylove@gmail.com
Grande abraço
Kaka

Rita said...

Olá Ana

Cheguei ao seu blog através do A Vida..., da Marcinha. Vim à caça dos oatmeal muffins e acabei navegando por outras receitas encantadoras. Não sou uma chef como vocês, sou antes uma wannabe cheia de vontade. Alguns blogs maravilhosos estão entre minhas fontes de inspiração e acabei entrando nessa mania de registrar nossas empreitadas (culinárias ou não). Parabéns pelo blog e pelas receitas, e obrigada pela inspiração. Vou me aventurar nos muffins e depois passo aqui pra te contar no que deu.
Abraços.

Rita said...

Eu fiz, Ana, eu fiz! Fiz seus muffins e deu tudo certo, imagine só como estou ficando prendada! Quero convidá-la para ver as fotos lá no Estrada Anil. O cheirinho você não pode sentir, mas te digo que ficou daquele jeito...

Rita said...

Oi, Ana
Eu de novo. Viu o sucesso que seus muffins fizeram lá no Estrada?
Eu tava pra passar aqui desde que vi seu comentário adorável, mas tive uma semana daquelas. Senti-me super honrada com sua visita, devo dizer (mostrei pro meu marido: olha, olha, a Ana dos muffins!). Tomara que você volte sempre. E pode apostar que estarei sempre por aqui.
Have a very nice weekend.

Navita (Gupta) Hakim said...

Ana..I can almost imagine the delish ice cream...thanks for sharing :)

Valentina said...

I am madly in love with your strawberry loaf recipe. I must try the muffins as well.