Strawberry season, dear neighbors ! My daughter asked me yesterday what she could make with these fruit. After casting aside the usual desserts, knowing that she avoids added sugar (for several reasons, among which skin issues, and also the big C word which has cropped up in our family recently) I started thinking and remembered that her brother had planted mint in their backyard a while back, quite a feat for someone who is more into gaming and reading than gardening ! Now if she manages to pick some without touching the neighboring poison ivy, she’ll be able to make this cool early summer recipe which I posted two years ago on my French site.
Ingredients ( for 8 small ramekins)
(all my ingredients are preferably organic)
– 250 g ( = 9 oz ) strawberries, stems removed
– 125 ml ( = 5 oz or ½ cup ) water and more – unfortunately we have to use bottled water ; not very eco-friendly, I know, but necessary for us to avoid chemical residues)
– 3 to 5 TBSP agave nectar
– 2 g agar powder, a natural vegetable alternative to gelatin, now banned from our pantry because of sulfites
– 4 fresh mint leaves (or more, to taste)
– choice of fresh fruit; here I use what I have available to me: 2 fresh mangoes, 2 bananas and a few blueberries. Of course you can add more strawberries also!
How to:
1. Cut and cook strawberries with water about 5 minutes on low heat after boiling starts. Turn off heat, add mint leaves to infuse about 10 minutes.
2. In the meantime, cut the fruit into small pieces. Obviously this does not apply to the blueberries, dear neighbor, no need to be splitting hairs! Divide into your ramekins. Mine are tiny, so if yours are a bigger size you will end up with less portions.
3. Remove mint leaves from strawberry juice. Mash and squash through a sieve (the mesh kind) or just puree in a blender, then add enough water to get a total of 500 ml (2 cups). Add agave nectar to taste, then agar powder and bring to a boil for about 2 minutes. This boiling time is necessary for the agar chemistry to work.
4. Pour over the fruit in the ramekins and place in the refrigerator for a few hours; usually 3 hours are enough for the jelly to set.
Enjoy! Of course this is even tastier with whipped cream, dairy or non-dairy, to your preference!
sulfite-free cooking 
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