Dear Kitchen Goddess... Please don't let me catch my kitchen on fire or poison my friends!: Balsamic & Black Pepper Strawberries

It's 89 degrees ~ just one week after the storm of the century (using Californian standards), a chilled drink in hand, spotify master mix playing and on my patio are two of the cutest dogs I've ever seen!

Let's rewind...

It's 4 o'clock on a Friday afternoon (4/20 to be exact) and my desk is the only thing keeping me from my deck...more accurately, the slow ticking of the clock above me.

Fast forward...

Home sweet home.

The grill has propane, the arbor is draped in bulbs for when dusk turns to darkness, a stack of wood by the chiminea if it gets a little breezy and there is plenty of wine. I could quite possibly spend all weekend out here.

This Spring evening's menu:

Balsamic & Black Pepper Strawberries
on a bed of spinach with goat cheese & almonds
(and later a bowl of vanilla bean ice cream).

Grilled Ginger Orange & Thai Chili Prawns

Grilled Filet Mignon

Let's start with the balsamic & black pepper strawberries because they need time to marinate.

The first time I had this bite of summer was at a gathering of lovely ladies years and years ago, my mouth still waters every time I think about it. A dear friend of mine Cassie introduced it to us. As she laid the ingredients out on the counter I was baffled...this being a different time, me in my early 20's with lightening fast metabolism and an undeveloped palate to say the least. I had no problem eating a hot dog and pizza in the same meal...I've probably even had a hot dog pizza!

Ingredients:

A batch of large, fresh strawberries

Balsamic vinegar

Sugar

Cracked Pepper

Basil (optional)

Steps:

Wash and De-Stem Strawberries

Place berries in a large serving bowl if you will be serving them fairly soon.

In a separate bowl whisk together equal parts balsamic and sugar,

start with one cup of each and go from there.

Pour balsamic and sugar mixture over berries and add as needed until berries are covered.

Cover in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.

I wanted to chill mine for a day so I threw this together late Thurday night after class. I used tupperware for storing that way you can just shake it every now and then.

I love pepper so I peppered them during this stage and again later, but you can wait and pepper maybe an hour or so before serving so the pepper pieces absorb some of the sweetness. Mine is an adjustable grinder so the pepper pieces came out a bit bigger than I would've liked so be sure to set it to fine.

Read slowly and trust me on this...you are going to want to put some aside rather than take your chances that there will be left over because these are incredible over a bowl of vanilla bean ice cream and drizzled with sweet balsamic especially when that ice cream is topped with crushed thin mints!

Gently stir to coat the berries just before serving. Transfer berries with a slotted spoon into a serving bowl. Save the sweet balsamic. It can be used as dressing, reduced down to a dipping sauce or to marinate chicken in for the grill...add some kick to it though.

If you are serving the berries as a side dish a nice touch would be a ramekin with thin strips of fresh basil, one with an herb goat or feta cheese, sliced almonds etc.

Tonight these beautiful berries were gracing the top of a spinach salad to be accompanied with a wall of filet and spicy citrus prawns.

If you are going on the full ride the next step is the prawns.

First you clean, devein and butterfly the prawns.

Jennifer's specialty is throwing together whatever clean, bright & citrus flavors she can get her hands on. Tonight it was...

The juice from a couple oranges

Ginger

Lemon grass

Thai chili sauce

Cracked pepper

Marinate for 30 minutes.

Now for this glorious hunk of meat!

I am hands down a dry rub girl! My favorite being cracked pepper and sea salt.

Pack in salt and pepper and let sit for 30 minutes or longer.

Pour some wine. Light the grill and relax.

Now is about right.

If you're still working on your grilling techniques this works for me...

Sear your filet well on each side for about 4 minutes (if it's a thicker cut) at 400-450 degrees.

Move filet to upper rack and bring heat down to med-low. Depending on how you like it, start testing after 8 minutes or so. Ours went 10 minutes and came out perfect at medium rare.