Feeling Fruity – Strawberry Habanero Sauce

It’s that time of year where there seems to be a glut of strawberries on the market.  I believe it’s also called super delicious happy yum time – or is that just me?  Whatever you want to call it, my greengrocer was selling five punnets of strawberries for $5 so after doing a little dance of joy (which looks scarily like this):

Snoopy’s Happy Dance

I loaded up my cart.  So,  get out your maraccas and pile some fruit high on your head, today we are channelling our inner Carmen Miranda’s and getting a little bit fruity!

Speaking of whom, I had always just thought of her as the lady with the fruit on her head.

But wow!!!!!  Who knew she was so amazingly, stunningly gorgeous?

So…how about you all keep channelling the inner.  And I give the outer a shot?

But first, I’ve been obsessed, not only with real fruit but things that look like fruit for some months now.

First came my little Daiso fruit dishes:

Then the Mozi Measuring Cups:

I am so not using these for measuring!!!  Imagine serving a dip in the Big Pineapple? Awesome!!!!

I’m easily amused aren’t I?

But it does pretty good loaded up with stuff does it not?

Put ’em together and what have you got?

Unfortunately we were all out of bibbidi-bobbidi-boo’s

But I did manage to make an absolutely knock your socks off Strawberry Habenero Sauce.

Ok, Mum, I know you read this and I know, in your world, a fairy dies every time I swear…

You might want to skip the next few paragraphs.  Come back at the next photo, we’ll be good by then.

Ok – she’s gone now hasn’t she?

For the rest of us.  When I say this sauce is the motherfucking bomb, I honestly mean that you could probably use it to detonate explosives.

This won’t just knock your socks off, it could possibly take your ankles with it. And having said all that, it’s also sweet and herby and so, so, good you’ll be wanting more even whilst you are calling for a fire extinguisher for your taste buds,

It may well be the most fucking hot thing I have ever eaten.  In my life.  And let’s bear in mind my Sri Lankan background.  I’m not alien to hot and spicy.

But, seeing as she’ll be dying to come back…here’s that next photo:

The original recipe called for 12 habaneros and a cup of strawberries.  As you can see, I had 5 habeneros and thought I might have to top it up with a few little scud chillies (totally unnecessary).  I also ended up using nearly 4 punnets of strawberries – that would be 4 times the cup required in the original recipe.

I also had some rosemary, which as you will see, was not at it’s prime.  So I threw a couple of springs of that in too. Waste not, want not right?

After about an hour it looked like this:

Then I threw in a couple of sprigs of tarragon, took it off the heat and let it sit until it cooled.

You can choose to puree this as you see fit.  I put half in the blender and left the other half chunky.

The resulting sauce is capital A awesome even if I do say so myself.  One of the best things is that it actually has a visible three step taste process.

The first taste is the strawberry sweet which is accompanied by a sound of “I thought you said this was..?”

This is followed by a “Mmmm” as the herby notes of the rosemary and tarragon kick in.

The final is a gasp for air and a kind of popping of the eyes as the chili kick hits.

This is when you can act like an absolute arse and say “Oh…you began to say something earlier…..?”

Or just pass the person a glass of water.

Your choice.

I’m going to be spending my week working on special Easter treats for all of you. Stay tuned….these are going to be…I don’t even know the word…retro awesome /possibly revolting

Time will tell.

Hope your week is fabulous.

Strawberry Habanero Sauce

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 5–12 Habanero Chillies (I used 5, the original recipe called for 12)
• 4 x 250 punnets strawberries
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 Lemon (juice only)
• 2 Shallots
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 2 sprigs of tarragon

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Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients except tarragon in a pan and cook for or 1 hour.
2. Add tarragon and turn heat off. Leave on hob for 1 hour.
3. Puree in a blender.

First up,