Sun-kissed Spanish Strawberries

It’s always such a pleasure to return to Vejer when the winter sunshine has encouraged red and juicy strawberries to glow with a shimmery and dewy EAT ME appearance. In Spanish there is a wonderful saying ”Que Buena Pinta”  which means ”what a great look”!

Paco my butcher will use the same expression when slicing marbleized Presa from the Iberian pig – muttering ”que buena pinta” as he slices he way through this sought after lump of exquisite meat. ”Que buena pinta” can also be a perfect remark when a delicious looking creation is placed in front of you by an eager to please waiter or harassed hostess. So at €8 per kilo, a mere 250 grams of these EAT ME strawberries, found their way onto my kitchen table.

They were so divine that I had to restrain myself from popping them into the blender so that the blended sweet juiciness might make its way into a glass to be topped up with chilled Cava … a missed opportunity for another ‘Que Buena Pinta!’.

If the strawberries from Conil are divine at the beginning of January, they will only get better with each sunkissed day until mid June, when the season is normally all but over. Come drink ‘Fizz a las Fresas’ when cooking at Annie B’s Spanish Kitchen.