Strawberry Love Dessert and its Coconut Cream — Un amour de fraises et sa crème à la noix de coco

L’histoire des fraises – Partie 2 / The Story of the Strawberries – Part 2

I think that noticing differences can be very intriguing. Take two people that are close to me. P. my hubbie loves coconut. My brother Benoit hates coconut (noix de coco (n.f.) in French) And I really mean love on one hand, hatred on the other end. Why is that, I wonder? Personally, I used to dislike coconut and I grew to like it. Now this is talking about influences that one can have on someone else, just like one becomes similar to the people one lives with. I reassure you. P. and I do not have a dog that is a spitting image of us two. But we could! I wonder what the dog would look like!

You will have understood that when it comes to strawberries, my imagination is very active. To the question, what to do when you have a fridge full of ripe strawberries that will not last so long? , I had to find a quick answer for last night’s dinner. I have not been back for 5 full days and I j u s t could not help but already buy 3 cartons of strawberries. Is this what we call an obsession? My strawberries were not going to last and I wanted to make something a little more original than the usual bowl of freshly washed strawberries sprinkled with sugar and lemon that P. and I commonly have. After a fast inspection of my fridge, I set my mind to improvising a very simple and refreshing dessert. And to do so, I did something I enjoy doing a lot:

The Art of Deconstructing A Recipe

Or How to Invent a Recipe

The method is pretty easy and probably familiar to a lot of you

Step 1: Come across a recipe that catches your eye or talks to you
Step 2: Check the list of ingredients
Step 3: Note what you like
Step 4: Select what you keep
Step 5: Select what you omit
Step 6: Select what you add or substitute
Step 7: Test to see whether it works
Step 8: Start again until you are happy.

My inspiration for this dessert initially came from a recipe from chef Michel Bras presented in a copy of a recent Elle à Table. Only that I decided to change most of the cream ingredients because I wanted a lighter, faster-to-make dessert, and I was going to use my secret-summer-dessert-ingredient of all. Today is your lucky day! Guess what! I am telling you what the secret ingredient is.

Mascarpone cheese

Do you know of a nicer, softer, more satisfying texture than the one you can find in this white subtle cheese? I only have a few words to add, and you have to believe me. Mascarpone cheese can definitely become your secret ingredient too. It is just the perfect ingredient to use to make delicious desserts, in no time, such as in this recipe. I use it over and over (you might remember my strawberry tartlets here and there). In a few words, this dessert is made of a coconut-flavoured mascarpone cream topped with freshly cut strawberries and surrounded with strawberry coulis. With this, I do not know why my brother would still hate coconut!

Vive la mascarpone et les italiens!