Food News: Branch out with Berries: Get creative with fruit recipes including strawberry salsa and gooey gummy worms

"Picking strawberries fresh out of the field and eating and baking with them is an early summer rite of passage in Oregon, but tradition is no excuse for lack of creativity.
The bright red berries - prized for shortcakes, jams and their sweet flavor - also make tasty salad dressings, bread, salsa, fruit leather and even gummy worms.

"People just can't wait for fresh strawberries," said Nellie Oehler, who works for the Lane County office of the Oregon State University Extension Service. "There are a lot of things you can do with them."

Strawberries are delicious sliced into a spinach salad, then tossed with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing and topped with chopped nuts, Oehler said.
They can be used in smoothies, over ice cream and - fresh or dried - on breakfast cereal.

One of the more unusual ways to prepare strawberries involves cooking them into a thick, glossy goo, then squeezing the mixture through a hole cut into a sandwich bag to make gummy worms, slugs or bugs. Like their processed counterparts, strawberry gummy worms are sweet and chewy. And they're fun to make.

Oehler, who leads an eight-week training program for master food preservers as part of her family community development job, recently showed off some of her tricks to a group of home cooks."

Full article here.

June 8, 2006

Food News: Branch out with Berries: Get creative with fruit recipes including strawberry salsa and gooey gummy worms