Strawberry Lemonade and Ramadan

It is Ramadan and here in Spokane our fasts last 17 hours. And let me tell you, it's not the hunger that gets to you after a long tiring day..it is the thirst. So the first thing we gulp down is some form of sweet beverage..most commonly, lemonade. It is tradition to have plain lemonade but I encourage you to switch it up a bit. I saw this recipe on t.v. years ago and have been making it ever since. Whether you are fasting or just trying to cool off, strawberry lemonades will be a delightful addition to your repertoire.

Recipe adapted from Emeril Lagasse

2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
2 cups cold sparkling water or club soda or plain water
Ice

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a boil. Stir occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice, stir, and remove from the heat. Let cool completely, then strain into a clean pitcher

.
In a blender, puree the pint of strawberries and strain into the pitcher with the lemon juice. Stir well to combine and refrigerate until well chilled.

Add the sparkling water and stir well. Pour over glasses filled with ice and serve. Garnished with slices of lemon, mint or strawberries.

Cake Roll with Mango Curd, Whipped Cream and Chopped Strawberries

Guess who went strawberry picking the other day..


Even in the 95 degree weather picking was the easy part. These keep for but a few days. Hence the next few posts will revolve around these ruby red lovelies. And as I keep telling my friends...Strawberry desserts for a month....:)

The first in the series is a simple roll cake flavored with a thin layer of mango curd, sprinkled with little bits of fresh strawberries, then topped with sweetened whipped cream and rolled up to sweet perfection.

Sheet Cake(The recipe comes from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Cakes and Epicurious, May 2009)
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cake flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
1/4 cup cornstarch (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)

Mango curd

Whipped cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar

First thing's first. Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter or coat a jelly roll pan with vegetable spray. The pan I used was 12 x 17 x 2 inches.


Line with parchment paper and then spray the paper. If using butter, butter both pan and paper. You do not want this cake to stick.


Measure cake flour by first scooping into a measuring cup and sift flour into a separate bowl. 

Then spoon the sifted flour into measuring cup. If you do not precisely measure the sifted flour this cake will give you trouble.


Here's a picture of how much extra sifted flour I had left after measuring into my cup.
 

Enough about four. Now onto eggs. Take eggs in a large enough bowl. After beating the volume will increase by 3 fold. So you need room for that.


Add sugar.


Whisk away over a pot of simmering water till the mixture reaches 100 degrees. A quick way to check this is to gently test the egg sugar mixture. you should not be able to feel the gritty sugar when you rub the mixture between fingers. It'll also be about body temperature. If you go higher you will get scrambled eggs. So stop when you feel that the mixture is hot. Or as an alternative use a kitchen thermometer.


Whip on medium-high speed until the egg mixture is cooled (touch the outside of the bowl to tell) and tripled in volume. The egg foam will start off yellowish and very thin.


But it'll start getting thicker.


And thicker.


And thicker.


You are done when it forms a slowly dissolving ribbon falling back onto the bowl of whipped eggs when the whisk is lifted.


Gently fold in sifted cake flour and corn starch mixture.


Only mix till you can't see flour anymore. Do not over mix or your batter will lose volume.


Pour into the prepared pan.


Bake for 10-12 minutes. Take out when the cake starts pulling away from the sides like so.


Flip onto another piece of parchment paper. The bottom is now the top.


Peel off the parchment and cool on a cooling rack.


Almost there now. Just a bit longer. Chop up strawberries and whip up heavy cream with sugar.


After the cake has cooled down completely spoon mango curd onto the cake.


In a nice thin layer.

Sprinkle strawberries.

Spread whipped cream.


Spread it out.


Roll it up tightly and chill in the fridge for atleast half an hour.


Sprinkle some icing sugar on top.
 

And enjoy. :)