Eat your wine, have some fraises !

My dear poor non French people,

This blog is a great opportunity for me to tell the world what we Français are about, and to put an end to too many outrageous prejudices.

Non, we're not spending our days with a glass of wine in the hand.
Sometimes, when it's very hot like today in Los Angeles, we also have it in our plate.

So allow me to share with you one of my grand mother's recipes :
Les Fraises au vin.

Ingrédients

1 pound of Strawberries
1/2 a bottle of Red Wine (any, even Californian)
2 cloves
2 cardamon
2 star anise
Some vanilla
Some ginger
1/4 a cup of sugar (or Stevia)
1 lemon




On a very hot day like that, like during the moisson, the harvest, people would come back to the farm very tired and thirsty.
Ice cream and ice cubes and AC were something like a dream in a place where you felt lucky when you owned a frigidaire...

So my grand mother would go to the garden, pick up some strawberries, and open a bottle of rouge.

Simmer the wine with the spices and the sugar for at least 10 minutes

Let it rest and cool.




Cut the strawberries and splash them with lemon.

When the wine is cooler, add it to the strawberries.

Put in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

You can also add some mint at the end.



I remember seeing my grand father enjoying his fraises while telling us again one of his many stories of his captivity in Germany during WWII, the only time he left his village.

At the end, he used to take a loaf of bread "pour saucer" : in France, when a dish is good, you sometimes use your bread and soak it with what's left on your plate. It's rude, but it's good !

We French and perfect brats had the kid version of it, "la trempée au lait" : toasted bread that you dunk in very cold milk.

So let me tell you, thoses fraises are one of my Madeleines de Proust.

Bon appétit !