Ingredient of the week: Washington Strawberries

When chef Thierry Rautureau shops for strawberries, he likes to see them ripen as much as possible.

“Many people eat strawberries with a crunchy texture, I don’t like crunchy strawberries,” Thierry says. “I like them with a little mush, when they have that beautiful ripeness.”

He suggests cooking strawberries in your breakfast crepes, “It’s very simple.”

He usually adds a little bit of flower, eggs, sugar, and a tad of milk into a bowl. Thierry recommends warming the pan first and running a small amount of butter around the edges. “Then I put my batter right on top of that, let it sit for a few minutes and once its cooked, I flip it,” he says.

Once the crepes are cooked, chef Tom Douglas recommends sprinkling powdered sugar and tossing a bunch of chopped strawberries in the crepes.

“Now put some thin chopped mint and vanilla whip cream on top, roll the whole thing together and go at it,” says Tom.

Thierry says that, to him, is the sign of summer.

When strawberries are fresh, Tom believes there is nothing better than a strawberry cream pie. “This would be a fun time to either add a nut or black pepper to your crust, so you have some kind of counterpoint to the sweet strawberry taste.”

Thierry, Tom, and Katie-O discuss some of their favorite ways to eat fresh Washington strawberries in the most berrylicious ways possible on this week’s Seattle Kitchen.

Whole Foods Markets are a proud sponsor of Seattle Kitchen’s Ingredient of the Week.

Story by Riley Elliott