balsamic roasted wild strawberries with greek yogurt


Each trip to the farmer's market that I have the great blessing of living just walking distance to,  is like a treasure hunt. I am always excited about what I will find that day. A few weeks ago when berries ruled, where now there are mountains of peaches and nectarines and plums, I chanced upon a stall with tiny strawberries. The cheerful woman missing one front tooth, who had woken up at 3 am to bring this bounty to us, pointed  out that this was the same variety of the regular larger strawberries, just those growing wild on the mountains.


I bought some of each, the regular ones and these tiny ones to compare. The wild berries had a concentrated strawberry flavour and tartness and crunchy seeds while the plumper ones were juicier, being fleshier and I actually preferred those to eat. 
The mountain berries however, would be wonderful in dessert and jam, being incredibly flavorful. 

small wild mountain strawberries 

larger fleshier regular strawberries sliced 

Both types were nothing like the tasteless ones from the supermarket. From thinking that organic produce was just overpriced hype, I have become a locavore convert! Seriously the difference in taste between something that is grown in small farms organically and brought fresh to the market to that which is grown on a large scale God-knows-where to look pretty and last longer on supermarket shelves but taste like water balloons is something you have to taste yourself to understand! So get yourself to your local markets or farms where ever in the world you are, if you haven't already! 

I had grand ideas of making balsamic roasted wild strawberry ice-cream and cut up whatever strawberries remaining I hadn't greedily eaten ( both kinds) into a roasting dish with a tablespoon or so of sugar,  a squeeze of lemon juice, a scraped vanilla bean and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and after about 8 minutes at 350 F in the oven I just about died when I tasted the sweet  juicy warm goodness.


Forgotten was the ice cream and we happily ate it by itself or topped some greek yogurt with sweet juicy red spoonfuls. It would make a great cake or ice cream topping too, but sadly it was all gone before I could investigate further!

Roasting fruits is a great way to experience them completely differently. Adding just a few spoonfuls of sugar and nothing else even, while roasting or stewing with a little water on the stove top, turns fruits that are slightly tart and sour and thus untouched on your dining table into something that everyone will fight to finish! They break down a little and become soft and slightly jam like, releasing delicious juices.
I had tried this with peaches last summer, (and again this time in roasted peach and bourbon icecream) where the edges get browned and caramelized. Bananas are great to roast too, as are a lot of other fruits. 


Am playing around with my camera settings and very slowly learning about exposure and the other nuts and bolts about photography. The awesomely talented and wonderful Xiaolu, Aparna, Prerna have been awesomely patient and not laughed at my embarrassingly noobie questions. Thank you! 

I submitted the first photo to Food Pixel's fruit as core ingredient themed photography event. I am now liking this darker feel that I achieved shooting against a dark back ground and by reducing the aperture and also reducing the exposure bar by a couple of points, and further increasing the shadows on a simple editor like Picasa tho I need to look into a more powerful editor soon. This is new for me, after  years of obsessively trying to make my pictures brighter! 

For those of you who want to learn more like me, here is what I'm reading and trying to get into my small brain!
Will update this list with more as I find them, but first, going to have to force myself to read beyond the first few pages of my tedious and boring camera manual :(

12 comments:

  1. I love that word - locavore. Fab! Berries are my favourite thing, so I am drooling over this post :)

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  2. wow..simply superb mouthwatering recipe..

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  3. Thank you! Jacqueline I love being a locavore too!

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  4. I have heard so much about this combination and have always wanted to try. So recently I did .. but with red wine vinegar and it tastes so good ..

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  5. they look divine... love the last pic :)

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  6. wow tht last pic looks pretty glamorous..im still awry of using dark backgrounds, but must give it a shot sometime.

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  7. Looking great, Rose! Especially love the last photo and the darker setting overall =D. So glad you got your lovely new camera and can have fun discovering all its capabilities now. Thanks so much for linking my photography post, too! <3

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  8. Thank you sooo much! You just made me a very happy girl! Xl thanks for your awesomeness :) Nisha am in love with the "dark side" :) Hope to explore it a lot more too.

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  9. Glad you discovered the world of locavores! :)

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