Some fresh ideas for sweet Irish strawberries

Seeing a man selling strawberries on the side of the road recently represented a welcome return to an old kind of normal. Not only was I driving beyond the city boundaries of Galway to see my parents for the first time in nearly three months, but that old reliable roadside strawberry was perched up off the hard shoulder, reminding me that all was okay, or nearly, with the world again.

I never thought buying strawberries on the side of the road would be such a revolutionary act, pulling in off the road, winding down the window and taking a in carton of those little red gems from someone who only a few weeks ago I wouldn’t have stopped for, due the fear brought on by this current pandemic.

The best strawberries need nothing, they can be eaten straight up in the car. The sight of them should make you salivate immediately. However, there are a few little tricks that can take these sweet summer berries to heavenly levels.

The first is fat. Of course, lightly whipped vanilla cream is a good place to start. But what about other types of fat. Why not try cold pressed rapeseed oil or extra virgin olive oil?

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Try a little salt, to bring out the savoury quality in the strawberry. Or even acidity, lemon juice, lemon verbena or, my favourite, a good dash of Fionntán Gogarty’s smoked blackberry balsamic vinegar (available online). Too often we reduce the strawberry to playing a singular role in the creation of our favourite dessert. For some, using a strawberry in any other way except dessert is a mortal sin.

How to use strawberries in salads

Strawberries are great in summer salads. Take a blow torch and char some strawberries before adding them to a tomato and mozzarella salad, with some rocket and freshly cracked black pepper. And because the Irish strawberry season is short enough, why not make some strawberry vinegar to use on some autumnal salads, such as steak, wild mushrooms and hazelnuts? Simply cover a jar of strawberries in white wine vinegar and leave to macerate for a week before decanting it.