What I made with the bounty of my pick-your-own strawberry harvest.
The week before I left the UK I joined a group of friends on an excursion out of London to a pick-your-own strawberry farm. My friend Jessica has some pics up on her blog FushMush – that’s me in the denim skirt and turquoise top picking blackberries.
I love this concept – as a foodie it’s a great way for me to feel connected with the origin of my food and also take advantage of the harvest bounty. For the farms, it’s great as well – many crops need harvesting all at once and it’s not always possible to find labourers at the right time. Most of all, it’s loads of fun, especially when you are there with friends. I won’t go into details but trust me, when I say that berry picking is not always a wholly serious endeavour!
We picked strawberries – I had about 3kg (6-7lb) by the end – and also blackberries, broad beans, chard and beetroot. If I had been staying in England then I would have bought a whole lot more berries and made jam. I am still a novice jam maker but I made it in Scotland with my aunt the summer before last and it was not as hard as I thought it might be. I recently wrote all about how to make jam for EcoSalon.
But time was short and I was in the mood for some baking… so I found a strawberry cupcake recipe on BBCGoodFood.com. (This has recipes from both BBC Good Food and Olive magazines and it’s a great resource for cooks, especially since you can search by ingredients). The recipe is rated easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s fool proof…
Recipe – Strawberry and polenta cupcakes
I won’t reproduce the recipe here since it’s available online already and I haven’t modified it. The recipe for <a href=”http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7032/strawberry-and-polenta-cupcakes” target=”_blank”>strawberry and polenta cupcakes is originally from the August 2008 edition of BBC Good Food.
My Road Test
A note on ingredients: I used salted rather than unsalted butter because this is what I had available. I used dry loose polenta from a packet rather than the wet kind (and I recommend you do too). Read this if polenta is new to you and you want to know more.
Method: The instructions were easy to follow. I did not have a cupcake or muffin pan so I spooned the mixture into paper cupcake cases arranged on a baking tray. This did not work out so well – the mixture spread sideways to create an amalgam of paper and cupcake.
Result: I managed to rescue and ice most of my cupcakes but they definitely had a rustic look! They still tasted great – powerfully strawberry-flavoured and quite sweet, though not overly so. The grainy texture of the polenta added a sophisticated touch.
The Verdict
I’d definitely make this again! I think it would work well with other fruit too – blackberry might be nice and not quite as sweet (I do like slightly tart flavours, but this is down to personal preference). I’d make sure to use a cupcake or muffin try or at least stiff foil cupcake cases next time though.
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Sorry about the poor image quality – my digital camera broke and these are stills from my Flip video camera!
It’s great to be connected with the foods we eat. I went strawberry picking during the time I lived in Tennessee. The polenta cupcakes sounds interesting. I’m partial to strawberry shortcake. My version includes those little sponge cakes you buy at the grocery store, strawberries and whipped cream.
.-= Donna Hull´s last blog ..Take Me to Chico’s =-.
Sounds delicious – and also nice and simple. Making short cake from scratch takes a while. – Caitlin.
Holy crap, those look amazing! So not fair to post when I’m in the midst of a 48-hour liquid diet for a medical procedure!
.-= Camels & Chocolate´s last blog ..Who Let the Dogs Out? =-.
Sorry! I hope the medical procedure goes well. You can enjoy these after. – Caitlin.