Summer Strawberry Shrub.
A sweet yet refreshing drinking vinegar perfect for serving over ice or in cocktails (hello gin!)
This month on ingredient we’re focusing on white balsamic vinegar: the tangy yet sweet, light and pale yellow condiment that just so happens to be my favourite everyday vinegar.
You can already find the recipe for my perfect-for-the-season Marinated Mozzarella and Tomato Pasta Salad here, and I’ve got a delicious summer salad recipe planned for you once I’ve got back from eating my body weight in Catalonian food and watching Max Verstappen win the Spanish Grand Prix (it’s an inside Formula 1 joke for the uninitiated!) in Barcelona later this week / weekend.
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After a pretty grim start to the summer where I’ve been rained on more times than I can count, just as I contemplate the task of getting the suitcase out of the garage in order to start packing for sunnier climes in true British fashion the sun finally appears.
But it’s okay, because I actually have something super seasonal to sip in the sunshine as I finish off the last few pieces of pre-holiday admin.
One of my favourite seasonal products in the year is the wonderfully sweet and fragrant Kentish strawberries grown in these parts. And as the most popular edition of ingredient I’ve ever written is an introduction to shrub making, the direction of travel for this white balsamic vinegar-themed month seemed clear.
What is a shrub?
For the uninitiated, a shrub is a preserved drink similar to a syrup or a cordial which combines fruit (sometimes flavoured with herbs and spices), sugar and most importantly vinegar. They have a lovely and refreshing sweet / savoury thing going on, and they’re delicious over ice and topped up with sparkling water (as pictured) as a non-alcoholic drink to sip in the sun, or to use as a cocktail ingredient.
Because we really want the beautiful flavour of the seasonal strawberries sing here, I’ve opted for this to be a three ingredient shrub, using plain white sugar, and of course a white balsamic which helps accentuate the strawberry sweetness the way white wine vinegar would not quite manage. The end result has a slightly jammy quality which reminds me of the Diabolo Fraise I use to sip as a child in France (strawberry syrup topped up with lemonade), and a beautiful jewel-like colour.
Happy shrubbing!
Summer Strawberry Shrub
Makes roughly 300ml, Preparation time: 10 minutes, Maceration time: 3 days
It may take three days to make this shrub, but all you have to do after you’ve sliced the strawberries and left them in the jar to macerate is shake it every time you pass it on the kitchen counter until all the sugar is dissolved. Then, store it in the fridge for up to a week!