Freshest amongst fresh…

Its been raining all through the past week. The weekend was predicted to be no better. So when we woke up bright and early on Saturday, we knew we had to make the most of the perfectly sunny day. The air was crisp and leaves coloured all over. It was a perfect autumn day!

So we got dressed in our comfortable shoes, and armed with a camera and the excitement of a child, we set out on our little adventure! The destination - a very well-known, very large farmer’s market.

Spending a warm day surrounded by the freshest of produce can perk up any foodie’s droopy mood. And that’s exactly what it did to me! Three fabulous shopping hours later, I had a fridge full of beautiful veggies waiting to become a piece of art. But while I still had to plan out and decide how I would go about celebrating my week’s menu, I already knew what desert was going to be.

We had picked up a basket of the freshest, reddest and plumpiest strawberries I had ever laid my eyes own. The best thing to do would have been to just enjoy these drops of heaven in the purest form, but a little chocolate on the side never hurt anyone. And I was not to be left behind!

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Ingredients:

A bunch of fresh strawberries, washed and thoroughly wiped dry 1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup cream 1 tsp instant coffee powder 1 tbsp sugar 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. Heat cream till it is warm enough to melt the chocolate chips. Do not let it come to a boil.
2. Add chocolate chips, sugar, coffee powder and vanilla extract, and stir continuously till the chocolate starts to melt.
3. Remove the mixture from heat and keep stirring till chocolate melts nicely and forms a thick paste. Set aside to cool for 15-20 minutes.
4. Once the chocolate has cooled completely, dip each strawberry half-way into the chocolate and aet on a sheet of parchment paper.
5. Allow to cool till choclate firms up around the strawberries.