Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Strawberries & Balsamic Vinegar, served with Toasted English Muffins & Peach Sherbet


Vinegar = Piss.
That's what I thought, classic me.
During my first year in Hong Kong, I was so busy trying to avoid vinegar, which is really popular in wonton noodles shop, and naturally, I always mistakenly poured some on my food instead of soy sauce, thanks to my ignorance.

Maybe that's how I got kinda "trained" to appreciate vinegar now.

Balsamic vinegar is a whole other thing.
I bought a bottle out of curiousity.
Blame it on me watching too many Jamie Oliver's shows.
Balsamic here, balsamic there...so I bought a bottle and instantly fell in love with its fragrance.
I use it making salads, roasted potatoes, meat, etc etc etc...but of course, would never use it for something sweet.

But I heard how everyone said that strawberries + balsamic vinegar = top notch!
I heard it, you've heard it, we've all heard it.
Again and again and again and again.
That's it. I gotta give it a try.

One of my main principal is, if everyone likes it, I probably will too.
I'm pretty mainstream really :)
...and not much of a pioneer either :D

So I did.

This is again, an almost non-recipe.

(adapted from here)
- 1 cup of strawberries, cleaned, removed top, halved
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup of caster sugar
Mix everything in one bowl and let it be for at least one hour, max 4 hours.

That's it, after one something hour, I gave it a taste and...
I swooned!

This is THE perfect treatment for those mediocre, el-cheapo, not-so-sweet strawberries!

I am not much of a scientist, but all I know is, this combo does amazing things to my blah strawberries. They now taste fan-freaking-tastic! I could've just consumed the whole bowl of sweet, syrupy strawberries myself, but I had a leftover of half an English muffin (that's right, half), so I did this...

Butter (salted) and sprinkle some sugar on English muffin, place it on a hot pan. It will sizzle and you'll get this gorgeously golden, buttery toasted muffin with a hint of sweetness....Now, we're gonna bring it to the next level, and all you need to do is...assembling.
Top toasted muffin with an ice cream of your choice (I only had Dreyer's peach sherbet), place balsamic vinegar strawberries on the side and drizzle with the sweet and sour syrup from the strawberry "marinate".

It looked so glamorous, I almost felt bad I consumed this with bare hands~
Almost ;)

14 comments:

Miss Fong said...

Mmm... your posts almost make me wanna cook... *almost*... :D

pam said...

You have got to try roasted strawberries with balsamic vinegar. They are amazing.

Pei-Lin said...

Thanks for sharing!! Now, you've tempted me into buying balsamic vinegar ... I just got myself a bottle of apple cider vinegar!! I'm going to be so, so broke ... =_=""

Pei-Lin

tracieMoo said...

It sounds so interesting. Strawberries pairs best with balsamic vinegar but I've never thought of it on muffins served with sherbet! sounds fantastic :D

Jason said...

I just finished dinner and now I want more!! :)

Erika from The Pastry Chef At Home said...

You're so right. Balsamic vingegar does wonders for crappy/out of season strawberries. This is totally a recipe! Some people have no clue what to do with balsamic...

pigpigscorner said...

I loooove strawberries and balsamic! They are perfect together! I eat strawberries wit balsamic glaze =)

Dori said...

Oh wow, now I know that is awesome! I love the balsamic vinegar and the english muffin :)

dewi ayin said...

aaahhh... such a beauty, i'll try that *almost* a recipe later, will change english muffin to glazed jco donuts, lazy lazy me :D

Noob Cook said...

hehe, I also bought balsamic vinegar after watching Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. pretty breakfast!

tigerfish said...

Weird. I love balsamic vinegar in olive oil and dip freshly baked bread with that. But I do not like those distilled (colorless)vinegar.

Unknown said...

i never tried that combination before! looks tasty

Mrs Ergül said...

This looks very classy!

Anonymous said...

You posted a dessert recipe without chocolate OR banana. I want a refund! :P