Strawberries in Syrup with Mint and Lime
Whole strawberries preserved in syrup with a fresh aroma. For later, to be served over ice cream, on yogurt with granola, on crepes filled with creamy cheese, on cheese crepes, on strawberry tartines.
Initially I wanted to make jam, but the strawberries were so beautiful that I felt sorry to put them in a jar. Then I got the idea to preserve their shape and fragrant taste. Then there was a conversation with a friend about essential oils where the mint and lime combination came up. And that's how these jars came to be.
Ingredients
2.5 kg strawberries (weighed after cleaning and sorting)
1.2 kg sugar
2 generous sprigs of mint (about 10 large leaves per sprig)
1 lime
Servings: 3 jars of 800 ml and 1 jar of 300 ml
How to prepare strawberries in syrup with mint and lime
- Wash the strawberries. Remove the stems and set aside any that are too soft or spoiled. Leave them whole. Place in a spacious and wide pot and sprinkle the sugar on top. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and let sit until the next day. The next day, most of the sugar should be melted, and the strawberries should have released a lot of juice.
- Remove the strawberries into a bowl using a slotted spoon. Only the juice should remain in the pot. Put the pot on the stove and heat over low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved, stirring as rarely as possible.
- When the sugar is dissolved, increase the heat and bring to a boil. From when it starts bubbling, boil for 15 minutes. The heat should now be medium to low.
- Add the strawberries to the hot syrup along with the lime juice and bring to a boil again (it will take over 5 minutes; a lot of light pink foam will form when it starts to boil and the contents of the pot will rise). Boil the jam for another 30 minutes from that point. Towards the end, the light pink foam will almost disappear and in its place a dark foam will form, with tiny bubbles like lace.
- In the last 5 minutes of boiling, add the lime zest and mint.
- In the meantime, sterilize the jars in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes.
- Using a ladle, put the jam in the hot jars, through a special funnel if you have one, so the edges won't get dirty. Put on the lids and screw them on.
- Place the jars upside down (bottom up) for 10 minutes. Then wrap them in a blanket and leave until the next day, until they cool completely (dry sealing method).
Strawberries in Syrup with Mint and Lime
