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Strawberry
Sauce (Puree) is a delicious blend of pureed strawberries and sugar. Fruit sauces pack a lot of flavor yet involve so
little effort. Take this strawberry sauce; all you need to do is process either
fresh or frozen unsweetened strawberries, along with a little sugar, until smooth. Then add a few drops of lemon juice to
bring out the strawberry's flavor and your done. It stores for up to a week in
your refrigerator or for a month in your freezer.
While fruit sauces
are not commonly made and used by home cooks, pastry chefs have long valued
their versatility and their ability to transform even the simplest dessert into
something special. Take a slice of cheesecake or a rich chocolate torte and
drizzle over a little strawberry sauce, and you will be amazed at how much
better it looks and tastes. Or, for an easy weeknight dessert that your kids will love,
just pour it over a bowl of ice cream or make a strawberry milkshake.
It is also wonderful when folded into some whipped cream for a Fruit Fool,
or as part of an Eton Mess. It can be used as a filling for cakes and roulades, either alone or added
to Confectioners' frosting, whipping cream,
or Pastry Cream.
If you decide to
use fresh strawberries to make this sauce, you need to buy strawberries that are
at their prime. Look for
bright red berries that are fragrant, plump, firm,
uniformly sized, and with no white or green "shoulders" at the stem end. There
should be no soft spots, bruising or mildew. The green leaf-like cap or hull
should still be attached and it should not be brown or wilted. Always check the
underside of the container to make sure there are no squashed berries or red
juice (sign of overripe berries). Also, since
strawberries are a delicate fruit they do not
store well. If not using immediately store in a single layer on a paper
towel-lined tray in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Do not wash or remove
caps before storing as strawberries absorb moisture. Immediately before using
quickly wash berries (do not soak), with caps still intact, so the berries will
not fill with water which, dilutes the flavor of the strawberry.
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