We bought a big container of strawberries the other day. About 4 pounds I think. They were the really big California ones which can be hit or miss on flavor but look fabulous, these ones were pretty flavorful but had the shelf life of an Oregon strawberry.
in case you have not experienced the Oregon strawberries, they have the most incredible flavor, but tomorrow they will be spoiled.
I worked for a local restaurant chain where we used the Oregon berries in milkshakes, smoothies and with lemonade, absolutely delicious. We sold a ton of those special berry drinks, but because of the short shelf life, we had to prep them all the same day they were delivered.
Imagine walking up to one of your employees and telling him/her that they need to prep all the strawberries that had been delivered and then telling them that there are 24 cases! Did I mention that many of these beautiful berries are the size of a marble?
Usually I was not greeted with a happy face.
The sad part about the short shelf life of the Oregon strawberry (there are actually many varieties but they all are commercially problematic) is that fewer and fewer farms are producing them due to their fragile nature. Each little berry is absolutely packed with wonderful flavor. We may lose them at some point, at least in the restaurant industry.
Well these big California babies are looking a little tired and a lot faster than I expected. Some of them were also not quite ripe. This happens early in the season. The less than ripe berries will still be a bit whit on the inside.
What to do then...Coulis of course.
The recipe that follows can be used with any berry: Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackberry etc. The huge upside here is that you will have a beautiful sauce for your dessert of choice. Coulis also freezes, so make some even if you don't yet have plans for it yet.
So here is the recipe I used today:
2.5 lb strawberries
3 T granulated sugar
That's it.
Cut the strawberries into chunks. More of a rough chop really.
Put them into a sauce pan and add the sugar.
Turn on the burner to low and let them roll a bit.
I use a wooden spoon to crush them a bit to speed the process a bit. It is not necessary to add any water to the pan as the berries have all the moisture that you will need.
After about five minutes they should look something like this:
Let them simmer another 15 minutes or so until they look like this:
As you can see, they have released most of their moisture. Next puree them with an immersion blender or if you don't have one use a a regular blender. I use the immersion blender because it does not break up the seeds and therefore gives me a smoother, more velvety texture.
The final step (usually) is to strain them with the finest strainer that you have. Mine is called a Chinoise. Which means Chinese in French. The kitchen slang for it is a China cap.
Use a ladle to force the liquid through the strainer and leave the seeds behind. This will take a few minutes. When you are finished, it should look something like this:
When this coulis was finished, the texture was thicker than I would like. So once it had cooled completely, I added a tiny bit of lemon juice to give the final product a bit of a "tangy" quality and a few ounces of water to achieve the texture that I am looking for.
This sauce is to be served cold, so it needs to be have a liquid-like quality so that it can be poured or dispensed using a squeeze bottle for patterns or lines of the coulis.
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