By
Diego Cortés
Cooked strawberries are the simplest seasonal dessert in Chilean home cooking: whole fruit in a pink syrup with cinnamon and cloves, eaten warm or chilled, on their own or with a spoonful of their juice. It is the classic way to use up ripe fruit from October to January, when strawberries are cheap and sweet.
The recipe needs no oven and no blender: the sugar does the work. Macerating the fruit for 30 minutes before you turn on the heat separates watery strawberries from a concentrated syrup, and cooking them gently for no more than 12 minutes keeps them whole. In Chile they are served with cooked mote (hominy corn), quesillo or meringue, or as a cheesecake topping.
Keep the season going with fresh strawberry jam, this strawberry and mascarpone cup and the calories and benefits of strawberries.
Prep
45 min
Cook
15 min
Servings
4
Calories
210 kcal
Wash the strawberries under running water, never leave them soaking, dry them with kitchen paper and hull them with a small knife.
Leave them whole if they are small, or cut them in half lengthwise if they are large: that way they cook evenly and stay intact.
Put them in a bowl with the sugar, the lemon juice and the pinch of salt, stir gently and let them sit for 30 minutes at room temperature until they release their juice.
Tip the strawberries and all their juice into a heavy-bottomed pot and add the water, the cinnamon stick and the cloves.
Cook over medium heat until it comes to the boil, about 4 to 5 minutes, uncovered, swirling the pot in circles instead of stirring with a spoon.
Turn the heat down to low and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until the fruit is soft on the outside but still whole and the syrup has turned pink.
For a thicker syrup, stir in the dissolved cornstarch and cook for 2 more minutes, swirling the pot.
Turn off the heat, fish out the cinnamon and cloves, add the vanilla and taste the syrup to adjust the sugar.
Let it cool down in the pot: the leftover heat finishes colouring the fruit and it soaks up part of the syrup.
Serve warm or well chilled, on their own or with a spoonful of syrup on top, and keep any leftovers in a clean lidded jar in the fridge for up to 5 days.
This recipe has a easy difficulty level, which means it's accessible for cooks of all levels.
The preparation time is 45 minutes and the cooking time is 15 minutes.
This recipe is designed for 4 servings.
Yes, many ingredients can be substituted with similar alternatives. We recommend checking the recipe variations.
Store the preparation in the refrigerator for up to 3 days in an airtight container. Some preparations can be frozen for up to 3 months.
