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Wellspent Market founder Jim Dixon has been writing about food and restaurants for Willamette Week for a long time. He wants our readers to eat well, and he shows them how with the recipes he creates just for us by using simple cooking techniques and easy-to-find ingredients.
Oregon farmers grow the best tasting strawberries in the world. Once you’ve tasted one it’s hard to go back to the bright red berries packed in plastic clamshells available all year round in the supermarket. But the short season for local strawberries, along with the not uncommon vagaries of weather that can affect their flavor, often makes those good-looking berries from far away the only option.
But they just don’t taste that good. If you’ve succumbed to temptation only to be disappointed by the first bite, abandon any notions of eating fresh strawberries and pickle them. A few hours in a simple blend of vinegar, water, and sugar transforms the bland, pasty white berries into sweet-tarts nuggets of flavor.
Spoon the pickled strawberries over yogurt, add them to salads, or just eat them with a spoon right from the jar. And when local strawberries arrive in May or June, eat as many as you can while they last.
Recipe
1 pint strawberries, hulled* and quartered
¾ cup balsamic vinegar**
¾ cup water
½ cup sugar
*When it comes to strawberries, hulling means removing the green stem. While there are special tools, I find it easier to use the tip of a knife; stick it in at the edge of the green part (the pedicel if you want to get botanical) and rotate to cut it off.
**Real balsamic vinegar costs a small fortune, but the cheap imitation sold everywhere, usually just wine vinegar mixed with caramelized sugar, works better for this. You can make a decent substitute by mixing ¾ cup of red wine vinegar with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
Combine the vinegar, water, and sugar in a a small saucepan and bring to gentle boil. Allow to cool completely so it doesn’t cook the berries. Pack the prepared strawberries in a small jar or similar container with a lid, pour in the vinegar mixture, and refrigerate for at least a few hours.
