Diet
[x] Flexitarian + Omnivore
[x] Vegan
[x] Vegetarian
[x] Pescatarian
[x] Gluten free
[x] Weight Maint: Use in place of jam, make without sugar or alcohol but use the ripest berries only
[O] Keto Diet
[x] Mediterranean
[x] Lectin Avoidance
[x] Oxalate Avoidance: medium levels in berries, make with little amounts of sugar
[x] Purine Avoidance
Strawberry Compote
A great topping for oatmeal, waffles, pancakes, yougurt; a lower sugar “jammish” spread.
- 1 # Strawberries (Roughly chopped, organic, )
- 1 T Sugar (Granulated, organic)
- 1 Shot Triple Sec
- 1/4 C Water
Berry Prep
Wash the fresh strawberries, remove green stems. Chop into the sizes you want.
Cooking
Put the strawberries into a pot, add sugar, triple sec, and 1/4C water. Bring to a boil, and monitor until it is slightly reduced. Then turn the heat down to barely a simmer and put the lid on for 10 minutes to reduce further and soften the berries. Monitor so it does not overboil (it can get to be a mess otherwise.)
After cooking, turn off the heat and lift the lid. Then taste to see if it needs more sugar. Let it cool a bit in the pot, for just a few minutes.
Storage
Rinse and clean a jar and lid. Once warmish, pour the mixture into the jar and let it sit for a bit to cool down further. Then place in the fridge and use up within 7 days.
This is usable as a dessert or breakfast topping, but also in place of jelly or jam; but contains a lot less sugar. It is a great way to use up lots of berries if your garden over produces a given year.
If you have just smears of food left in any jelly or jam jars, you can spatula out those leftovers and add to the compote which will add additional flavor and some pectin and sugar. For instance, I scraped out ~1/2t of raspberry jam from a jar ready to recycled, and added that to a compote, it was incorporated into the topping and upped the berry flavor.
I would use compote for nearly any berry or stone fruit, but not all. Blueberries I would rather just wash and freeze for later use.
Compotes can be frozen.