Versatile Berry By Themselves, On A Shortcake Or In A Salad, Strawberries Are A Favorite Fruit

Strawberries are almost endlessly versatile. Strawberry shortcake, the cliche, barely touches the surface of this tasty berry. Strawberries are stars in chilled soups, sensational with seafood and stunning in salads.

By themselves, strawberries are fairly nutritious - a pint has just 97 calories, negligible fat and sodium, 182 milligrams of vitamin C, and 56.6 micrograms of folic acid - and that’s the way they are eaten most of the time.

But strawberries also take well to lots of dressing up. “The presence of strawberries lends an elegance to any dish it graces,” write Rolce Redard Payne and Dorrit Speyer Senior in their 1992 book, “Cooking with Fruit” (Crown).

Along with such old favorites as shortcake, they offer recipes for a chilled strawberry wine soup, a strawberry and spinach salad (with sweet onion and a lemon juice dressing), artichokes with strawberry sauce and stir-fried scallops with strawberries and snow peas.

Nancy Baggett, a cookbook author who specializes in low-fat foods, suggests making strawberry bread - delightful for breakfast or tea. “It’s on the healthy side” she said.

The California Strawberry Commission offers these “fresh” ideas for using strawberries:

For a dip with strawberries: Flavor plain yogurt with thawed pineapple juice concentrate, mix in flaked, toasted coconut, sweeten with honey.

For a beverage: Crush berries with a fork. Combine 3 parts lemonade with 1 part sparkling water, mix in strawberries and pour over ice in tall glasses.

For breakfast: Mix honey, sliced strawberries and grated lemon peel; spoon over hot French toast.

With espresso: Dip whole dry strawberries into melted white chocolate and immediately dip the tips into chopped pistachio nuts. Chill until set.

Here are some recipes to dress up a basket of strawberries and make them the star of any menu.

Tarts with Lime Curd and Strawberries

From Cindy Wolf, executive chef at Savannah at the Admiral Fell Inn.

1-2 pints strawberries, washed, stems removed and sliced Sweet pastry:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons softened butter

3 egg yolks Lime curd:

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

4 egg yolks

1 egg white

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

For pastry, mix flour and sugar in medium bowl. Cut in softened butter, using two forks or a pastry blender. Add the egg yolks and continue cutting in flour mixture until it forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly butter tart tins. Roll out pastry in circle until dough is about 1/4-inch thick and cut out 5-inch circles. (You can make a waxed-paper pattern and cut around it with a sharp knife.) Place in prepared tart tins. Prick around bottom with a fork. Bake until golden, about 4 minutes.

For lime curd, mix the lime and lemon juices. Beat egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is viscous and bright yellow, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add juices. Place mixture in the top half of a double boiler and cook on medium heat until thick. Cool.

Beat egg white until stiff. Beat cream until stiff. Fold white into cooled custard, then fold in the whipped cream.

Fill baked tartlets with custard and garnish with sliced strawberries. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Yield: 8 servings.

Strawberry-Lemon Bread

From “100 Percent Pleasure,” by Nancy Baggett and Ruth Glick (Rodale, 1994).

1 cup coarsely chopped fresh strawberries

2/3 cup strawberry jam or preserves

2-1/4 cups all-purpose white flour

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup granulated sugar

Generous 1/3 cup nonfat buttermilk

1 large egg white (or equivalent egg substitute)

1/3 cup canola or corn oil

Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon

Spray a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together berries and jam until blended; set aside.

In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well-blended. In a medium bowl, beat together sugar, buttermilk, egg white, oil and lemon zest, using a fork.

Using a large wooden spoon, stir buttermilk into flour mixture just until partly combined. Add generous half of strawberry mixture, gently stirring just until ingredients are evenly incorporated; do not overmix.

Immediately turn out half of batter into pan. Top with remaining strawberry mixture, then remaining batter, smoothing out surface. Using a table knife held vertically, swirl mixture to lightly combine berry mixture and batter. Smooth surface again.

Bake on center oven rack for 40 to 45 minutes, until bread is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in thickest part comes out clean. (If bread browns too rapidly, turn heat to 325 degrees for the last 5 or 10 minutes.) Let pan stand on wire rack until bread is thoroughly cooled.

Yield: 10 to 12 servings.

Chilled Strawberry Wine Soup

Rolce Redard Payne and Dorrit Speyer Senior offer this recipe in their 1992 book, “Cooking with Fruit” (Crown).

1 (16-ounce) package frozen strawberries, thawed

1 cup dry white wine, chilled

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1 cup plain soda water, chilled

1/2 cup sliced fresh strawberries

Mint leaves, for garnish

Place thawed frozen strawberries in a blender or food processor, puree briefly, then add wine, lemon juice and lemon rind and blend just to combine. Just before serving, add soda water and stir in sliced berries. Garnish each bowl with fresh mint leaf.

Yield: 4 servings.