Smokin' Strawberries

I’m always shocked and pleasantly surprised to stumble across a combination of flavors whose resonance creates a taste that is greater than the sum of its parts. A little citrus juice can make an ordinary cantaloupe extraordinary. Sausage in a meatloaf pops.

I made two such discoveries this past weekend: how to prepare the perfect strawberries when all you can get is shipped in from California and what goes amazingly well with those perfect berries.

When I was a kid, we had a strawberry patch in the back yard. It grew over the septic tank, so they were always big and luscious. I picked about 8 quarts every other day and sold most of them to the neighbors. There are only so many strawberry pies we could eat, and there was always one in the fridge.

I can’t get quite that quality of berry any more, so I like to sweeten the pot. I slice them up, put in some raw sugar, honey and fresh—squeezed orange juice. That gives them a whang and sweetness that rest on the palate for a good while. It’s a perfect combination of sweet and interesting.

If you want to take it to the next level of flavor combinations, get some smoked goat cheese, cut a slice of it and put some of the berries and juice on top. The flavors, though an unlikely combination, will rock your world. It’s a 3-D taste experience.

The combination would make a very good appetizer for a fancy dinner party or just good snack food for a less formal occasion. For the formal occasion, use a couple of slices placed on an angle that compliments the serving dish and spoon some berries and juice over it. For less formal ones, put a round of cheese on a plate and spoon the berries and juice over it.

Depending on your religion, you will either see Jesus, Buddha or Allah. If you don’t have religion, you’ll just see infinity and what is possible.

It’s all pretty much the same.

Good food that both surprises and delights is not a luxury if you do it right. Good ingredients mean good food.

Strawberries and smoked goat cheese. Think about it. The intermingling of sweet and tart and smoke in a humble strawberry. Who would have thought?

God is good when He wants to be.