Get set for strawberry fortnight

by Rowley Leigh

As a callow Youth, I failed to appreciate the two glories of Wimbledon fortnight, tennis and strawberries. I have come to enjoy tennis as an enthusiast, if erratic participant, although I am rarely fixated by watching the grunting and heaving that passes for the professional sport. As for the strawberries, an incident of excess in childhoos put me off them for the best part of twenty years. The mere sight of a strawberry was enough to make me feely distinctly nauseous. I did not feel the loss greatly, as I cultivated a snobbery about fruit and supported the notion that there was something rather "common" about a strawberry, as opposed to the more sophisticated and elegant raspberry.

A raspberry does indeed have the better balance of acidity and sweetness and normally the crucial teset, a greater length of flabour. Atkiins dieterswill also love the raspberry's low carbohydrate count in contrast to the sucrose levels of the fleshy strawberry. Despite all this, I have come back to strawberries and find them the more intriguing of the two. No two varieties and not two seasons ever seem quite the same. Aprt from this extraordinary variety, they have an element completely lacking in the raspberry and that is fragrance.

The English word is a corruption of stray-berries, a reference to the plant's habit of putting out runners and rambling if not constantly checked. The latin fragaria more appropriately referes to their aromatic qualities, although it has to be admitted that the average poly tunnelled Elsanta from the Spanish plaint has a very limited perfume. Even the more temperate and slower grown English strawberry that will engulf the tennis tournament this week and next is unlikely to stop you in your tracks with its scent. Up until recently, if you wanted a truly fragrant strawberry, it had to be the wold or alpine version, usually identified on menus as fraises de bois.

When fully ripe, a wild strawberry exudes a glorious perfume, amply justifying its relation to the rose family. The flavour is quite exquisite, with a rich savoury quality that is lacking in the domesticated version. However  wildi strawberries are hard to come by - I have never been able to pick more than I can eat - expensive and incredibly fragile. They go from hard to unyielding to soft and quidgy in a matter of hours and need careful handling, especially as they must be served at roomo temperature in order to express their scent. I have found the best way to capture their perfume and to extend their capacity has been in a wil strawberry pudding where their aroma and flavour is infused and preserved in custard.

The distinction between a wild and cultivated strawberry appeared to be reconcilable until the arrival of the mara des bois, developed in France and first released in 1992. I have been suprised by how slowly this extraordinary hybrid has been to catch on. Smaller than most cultivated strawberries, with a rounded shape and a deep glossy red colour and the same exuberatnt, musky rose perfume of a wild strawberry, the mara des bois has an intensely sweet flavour. To my mind, they are transcendentally better than any other cultivated strawberry and a miracle of modern horticulture. Sdaly they are not in general circulation but are slowly beginning to be seen in an enterprising greengrocers. If you see them, do not hesitate.

Strawberries do not require much work. Traditional pairings of short bread of meringue with lashings of thick jersey cream, vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche are all delectable. A pavlova combining strawberries with passion fruit or mango can be revelatory. More often than not I prefer my strawberries completely plain and dipped for a couple of seconds on the end of a fork into a glass of fruity red wine. They can be enjoyed with coarsely milled black pepper and balsamic vinegar. Wild strawberries and even more mara des bois rate something just a little more delicate and this is it.

Wild strawberry pudding

Should you have some mara des bois use them exclusively to make both pudding a sauce. Serves six to eight.

Ingredients
400g wild strawberries
100g ripe English Strawberries
100g sugar
4 leave gelatine
350ml milk
1 vanilla pod
4 egg yolks
350ml double or whipping cream

Method
Sort through the wild strawberries taking any over ripe and soft examples and mixing them with the ordinary, cultivated ones. Chop up the latter and macerate them with three tablespoons of sugar and a squeeze of lemon. Reserve the better wild strawberries in the fridge.

Soak the gelatine leave in some tepid water, Bring the milk to the boil and with vanilla pod split in half, and let is infuse off the heat for 20 minutes. Whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar very well, until they become pale and fluffy and then pour over the milk and return to the heat. Cook slowly, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture begins to thicken. The test is a trai left on the back of the spoon with the finger will remain for a few seconds. Once the custard has thickened, remove it immeditely from the heat and pour into a clean bowl. Add the drained gelatine, whisk it well and leave it to coo.l Whip the cream  until it thickens and forms soft peaks. Whisk the custard and fold the cream and two thirs of the reserved strawberries. Mix carefully together and pour into a pudding mould. Chill overnight.

Pass the strawberry and sugar mixture into a sieve to produce a smooth sauce. Dip the pudding bowl for five seconds into a pan of simmering water, cover with an inverted plate, turn over and remove the bowl. Pour the sauce around the pudding a decorate with the reserved berries.

June 20th 2003