Local strawberries with sabayon

local strawberries with sabayon // a thousand threads
I can’t remember just when it was that I learned to cook. There was a homemade marinara lesson, bestowed on me by someone’s (though I can’t for the life of me remember whose) lovely mom from 4-H, a fancy Belgian waffle recipe (from my own mom of course, who’s never done anything halfway, and taught me to whip up waffles with folded in egg whites before ever even thinking about grabbing for a box of Bisquick) and a creamy berry “goulash” that we used to make after a long day of picking mostly salmonberries, huckleberries, and wild blackberries, but also the occasional thimbleberry (if we could keep ourselves from eating them immediately and actually allow one to make it to the pail) along the dirt road that led to our house.

When I think about learning to cook, my mind wanders over an endless series of moments, flavors, and techniques, but there is no one lesson, no one “beginning” I can point to. Cooking, and even more – baking – feel as if they’ve always been and always will be a part of my life.

I didn’t have an easy-bake oven, but my grandparents had an apple orchard, and both my grandparents and my parents kept a garden. I can see now where every tiny bit of influence over my love of food grew and evolved through the years spent eating raspberries from the bush until my fingers were red. But I’m always learning. And there are a million things out there I’ve yet to learn how to make… more and more that I’m able to tackle each day.

This weekend saw two of those firsts. My first croissants, and my first sabayon.

local strawberries with sabayon // a thousand threads
While the recipes do have a few things in common, though, namely a certain culinary country, the two experiences couldn’t possibly have been more different.

My first foray into croissants was actually my second, having given up halfway through the first multi-day attempt in a huff that saw my poor dejected dough dry up in the fridge. And although in the end it went well, this second (just slightly more successful) attempt was veeeery involved.

This little sabayon, on the other hand, took me all of 10 minutes to whip up.

local strawberries with sabayon // a thousand threads
And while both were delicious, only one was lucky enough to be paired with these pretty little strawberries that we picked just up the road.

It might not be a goulash, but it will certainly do.

local strawberries with sabayon // a thousand threads
Local strawberries with sabayon
Adapted from Wine Spectator

12 large egg yolks
1 cup light brown sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped with pod reserved
1 cup white wine (Riesling preferred)
2 ounces cassis liqueur
2 pints fresh strawberries, washed and hulled, sliced if large
1 lemon, for rind

Fill a medium pot with about an inch of water and place on the stove. Begin to heat the water.

While waiting for the water to boil, place first five ingredients and vanilla pod in a stainless steel bowl. When water boils, hold stainless steel bowl over lightly boiling water and whisk ingredients quickly and constantly until yolk mixture thickens and reaches the ribbon stage.

Once mixture has thickened, cool stainless steel bowl over an ice bath and refrigerate until needed.

To serve, discard vanilla pod, then spoon sabayon over individual servings of strawberries and grate lemon rind on top.

local strawberries with sabayon // a thousand threads

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