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    Ruby’s Treasure: discovering strawberries in life, love and literature
    Ruby’s Treasure: discovering strawberries in life, love and literature
    Ruby’s Treasure: discovering strawberries in life, love and literature
    Ebook257 pages1 hour

    Ruby’s Treasure: discovering strawberries in life, love and literature

    By Liz Agnew

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    About this ebook

    Ruby’s Treasure is filled only with strawberry recipes that are delicious, relatively simple and accompanied by a slice of strawberry trivia. It is my hope that these will inspire a large amount of cooking, curiosity and interesting
    conversation for all strawberry lovers. Step by step methods instantly show how simple a recipe is and the shopping list will ensure that your pantry is ready for your next strawberry picking expedition. The illustrations are composed from old catalogues and magazines and reflect the strawberry in its cultural context. Why not have some fun spotting all the things that start with “S” if you’re cooking with company in the kitchen!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateJun 24, 2014
    ISBN9780992528706
    Ruby’s Treasure: discovering strawberries in life, love and literature

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      Book preview

      Ruby’s Treasure - Liz Agnew

      References

      PREFACE

      Ruby’s Treasure is a tribute to the strawberry – a modest fruit with a huge social, culinary and literary reputation. Medicinal herb, food of kings, symbol of love, peace and prosperity, the strawberry is one of Mother Nature’s gems and provides a delicious serve of tasty history. Pick a punnet or more of fresh strawberries and you instantly have a treasury of stories which can add extra flavour to your cooking and conversation around the table. Fresh strawberries, long celebrated by native American Indians and medieval herbalists, will give your meal a healthy edge.

      The great French chef Marie Antoine Careme once said that when we no longer have good cooking in the world then we will have no literature, no high and sharp intelligence, nor friendly gather, nor social harmony. Careme created desserts for the rich and famous of France, Russia and Britain during the turbulent Napoleonic Era and basically saved his life by cooking.

      Ruby’s Treasure is filled only with strawberry recipes that are delicious, relatively simple and accompanied by a slice of strawberry trivia. Step-by-step methods assist beginners and busy cooks while the shopping list will ensure that your pantry is ready for your next strawberry picking expedition.

      Ruby’s Treasure is also a folio of collages which reflect the strawberry in its cultural context. Why not have some fun spotting all the things that start with S if you’re cooking with company in the kitchen! Each illustration is composed from old catalogues and magazines. It is my way of keeping green.

      It is my hope that Ruby’s Treasure will inspire a large amount of cooking, curiosity and interesting conversation for all strawberry lovers. I hope you enjoy this treasury as much as I had discovering it!

      SHOPPING LIST

      ALCOHOL

      Brandy

      Cointreau

      Gin

      Grand Marnier

      Grenadine

      Kirsch

      Pimm’s

      Red wine

      Sherry

      Sparkling wine

      Vodka

      BAKERY, BREAD & BISCUITS

      Ginger nut biscuits

      Meringue nests

      Pastry flan shell

      Pastry tart shells

      Sliced bread

      Sponge finger biscuits

      Unfilled Sponge cake

      Wafers

      Water crackers

      CAKES & BAKING

      Chocolate – bits, milk

      Chocolate – dark

      Chocolate – melts, dark

      Chocolate – melts milk

      Chocolate – white

      Essence – Rosewater

      Essence – Vanilla

      Flour – cornflour

      Flour – plain

      Flour – self raising

      Spices – cinnamon

      Spices – nutmeg

      Spices – paprika

      Spices – salt

      Sugar – brown

      Sugar – caster

      Sugar – cubes

      Sugar – icing sugar

      Coconut

      Condensed milk

      Evaporated milk

      Mini marshmallows

      Pancake mix

      Powdered milk

      Rolled oats

      Short grained rice

      Strawberry jelly

      Strawberry topping

      Vanilla bean

      DAIRY

      Blue Vein Cheese

      Butter

      Cheese

      Cottage cheese

      Cream

      Cream cheese

      Custard

      Double cream

      Fetta Cheese

      Eggs

      Mascarpone

      Milk

      Natural plain yoghurt

      Strawberry yoghurt

      Thickened cream

      DRINKS

      Camomile tea

      Cranberry juice

      Ginger ale

      Ginger beer

      Grapefruit juice

      Lemonade

      Orange juice

      Pineapple juice

      Sparkling mineral water

      FREEZER

      Frozen mixed berries

      Frozen puff pastry

      Ice cream slices

      Strawberry sorbet

      Vanilla ice cream

      FRUIT & VEGIES

      Banana

      Blueberries

      Celery

      Cherries

      Cooking apples

      Fresh strawberries

      Grapes

      Kiwifruit

      Lemon

      Limes

      Mint

      Oranges

      Parsley

      Pineapple

      Raspberries

      Rhubarb

      Rockmelon

      Watermelon

      JAMS & SPREADS

      Chocolate hazelnut spread

      Honey

      Strawberry jam

      NUTS

      Crushed nuts

      Hazelnuts

      Peanuts

      Pecans

      Walnuts

      CHOCOLATE DIPPED STRAWBERRIES

      The red heart-shaped strawberry is a symbol for Venus, the Goddess of love. Legend has it that if you break a double strawberry in half and share it with someone of the opposite sex, then you will fall in love with each other!

      Ingredients

      1 cup dark chocolate melts

      1 cup milk chocolate melts

      1 punnet strawberries

      Waxed paper and toothpicks or skewers

      Method

      Keep dark chocolate and milk chocolate melts separate

      Melt and temper chocolate over a double boiler or in a MEDIUM microwave for 2-3 minutes stirring after each minute until smooth

      Dip ½ fresh strawberries in the melted dark chocolate until three quarters covered and dip ½ in the melted milk chocolate

      Put berries on a sheet of waxed (non-stick) paper to cool, or alternatively, place one berry each in paper candy cups.

      Place the dipped berries in the refrigerator for a few minutes for chocolate to harden.

      Drizzle the opposite color chocolate over strawberries

      Allow to set then serve immediately

      You can melt chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Do not let the bowl touch the water!

      SUMMER BLUSH

      When Aphrodite wept for Adonis, her tears fell to earth and turned into heart-shaped strawberries

      Ingredients

      Bottle of sparkling wine

      Fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced

      Strawberry sorbet

      Method

      Fill a ¼ of a long-stemmed glass with sliced strawberries

      Top strawberries with a scoop of strawberry sorbet

      Pour sparkling wine over the top into the glass

      Makes 6

      ADONIS AND APHRODITE

      Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love-both of Earth (Aphrodite Pandemos) and of the Sky (Aphrodite Urania). She could ignite physical passion and love in humans yet also inspire spiritual and intellectual love. The Greeks worshipped her as the Goddess of fertility and the ancient Romans named her Venus.

      According to Greek myth, Aphrodite was playing with Cupid when one of his arrows wounded her. Before the wound could heal, she saw Adonis and immediately fell in love with the handsome, athletic mortal. Being only a youth, his passion was for hunting rather than admiring feminine or natural beauty. Determined to open Adonis’s eyes to love, Aphrodite threw herself on him and followed him everywhere. While she hunted the timid rabbits and stags, she warned Adonis not to attack beasts that nature had armed with weapons, such as the lion or wild boar. Having given her warning, Aphrodite flew from the Earth in a swan drawn chariot.

      Adonis ignored Aphrodite’s warnings just as he also ignored Aphrodite’s advances. Unfortunately, Adonis was bored by love and then, ironically, killed by a boar! Aphrodite in her grief changed Adonis’s bruised and bloodied body into the purple Anemone or Windflower. Crystal tears fell from her eyes which were red and swollen from crying. When her tears splashed on the ground, they turned into Strawberries. Aphrodite appealed to Zeus, king of the gods, to restore Adonis to her. Zeus decided that Adonis should spend six months with Aphrodite and six months in the lower world with Proserpina. When Adonis lived with Aphrodite, the weather was warm and the plants flourished but when he returned to Proserpina the weather turned cold and vegetation died. In this way, the Greeks were able to explain the changing seasons.

      The legend of Aphrodite and Adonis appears in the ancient works of Ovid (Metamorphosis) and the poetry of William Shakespeare (Venus and Adonis), Milton (Comus) and William Morris (Atlanta’s Race). Painters and sculptors have interpreted various themes of youthful integrity, lust, ignorance, pursuit, death and grief into aesthetic works however the main emerging theme is that genuine love has the power to restore life:

      Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,

      But Lust’s effect is tempest after sun;

      Love’s gentle spring doth always fresh remain,

      Lust’s winter comes ere summer half be done;

      Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies;

      Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies

      AVOCADO, STRAWBERRY AND SPINACH WITH POPPY SEED DRESSING

      Ingredients

      SALAD

      6 cups of fresh baby spinach, washed, drained and dried 1 punnet of fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced lengthways

      1 avocado diced

      ¼ cup sliced roasted almonds

      4 ozs of crumbled feta or gorgonzola cheese

      ½ small red onion thinly sliced

      POPPY SEED DRESSING

      ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil

      3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

      2 tbsp of honey

      1 tbsp of poppy seeds

      Salt and pepper

      Method

      Make the dressing by whisking all the poppy seed dressing Ingredients until combined

      Toss all the dry salad Ingredients together

      Add poppy seed dressing

      Serve immediately

      Makes 2-4 servings

      QUINOA STRAWBERRY AND SPINACH SALAD

      Ingredients

      4-5 generous handfuls of baby spinach leaves, washed, drained and dried

      1 punnet of fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and halved lengthways

      2 cups cooked quinoa

      ½ cup crumbled feta cheese

      ½ cup walnuts

      3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

      Juice of half a lemon

      Ground salt and pepper to taste

      Method

      Place spinach, strawberries and quinoa in a large salad bowl

      Add half the cheese and half the walnuts

      Drizzle with 3 tablespoons of olive oil

      Add lemon juice and toss salad lightly

      Serve in individual starter bowls

      Add salt, pepper and extra oil according to individual taste

      Makes 4 starter salads

      LOST BREAD

      Although The Babes in the Wood fairytale is well known, there is a lesser known nursery rhyme about two children who, abandoned in the wood, both die and are then covered in strawberry leaves by a red robin.

      Ingredients

      8 slices of left-over bread

      ½ cup milk

      ¼ cup sherry

      Salt

      Grated rind of 1 lemon

      3 eggs

      Fresh strawberries

      Method

      Mix milk, sherry, sugar, salt and lemon rind

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