Strawberries with Golden Sake Sauce combines sour cream and sake to make an easy, slightly sweet and creamy sauce. Spooned over berries, it is pretty and elegant. It also adds a touch of thoughtful interest to fresh berries creating a beautifully simple dessert.
An Easy Dessert – Strawberries in Sake Sauce
Finally! Local strawberries are now available in abundance at the produce market down the hill from my house. These local berries are medium-sized and deeply red. They are also fragrant and sweetly delicious. Thrilled to find them I bought my fair share.
Back home with my treasure I was ready to try a new and unusual recipe. I found it recently while looking through my kitchen files. It came from the same section of the newspaper as the recipe for Green Beans with Sesame-Ginger Dressing. The green beans were fantastic so I’ve been eager to try this recipe too.
Strawberries with Golden Sake Sauce combines sour cream and sake to make an easy, slightly sweet and creamy sauce. Spooned over berries, it is pretty and elegant. It also adds a touch of thoughtful interest to fresh berries creating a beautifully simple dessert.
Discovering Sake
A few years ago a recipe with sake in it would not have appealed to me. The only sake that I had ever tasted was dry and flat. It was served from a large bottle of ordinary sake, the kind that can be found at almost any liquor store. This type of sake is often served warm. While the warmth is nice on a cool day, the flavor is often uninspiring.
Lately, however, there is a lot more publicity for higher quality Junmai Ginjo sake. It is a finer quality of sake and is better served chilled, like a glass of white wine. This type of sake comes in bottles much like wine bottles and is described according to flavor topnots and type of finish. These sakes are often rated according to a scale of sweetness that helps the consumer to make appropriate food and sake pairings. I have tasted some delicious sakes in this category.
One of my favorite sakes comes from right here in the Pacific Northwest. Produced at SakeOne, America’s first successful craft sake producer, I find it particularly interesting. The brand is Momokawa and it comes in several distinct varieties. This sake is easy to obtain at most grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest.
Enjoy!
Strawberries in Golden Sake Sauce
Course: Dessert6
servings15
minutesThis recipe combines sour cream and sake with seasonal berries to create an elegantly simple dessert.
Ingredients
2 pints fresh strawberries, (or other fresh local berries)
1 cup sour cream
1 heaping teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/4 cup sake (preferably slightly sweet)
Directions
- Rinse and trim berries, removing the stem. Pat dry. Combine sour cream, sugar and lemon peel. Stir until the sugar is fully incorporated. Mix in the sake.
- Serve by places the berries in serving dishes and spooning the sauce over the berries. Garnish with lemon zest and/or sprinkled brown sugar.
Notes
- If you can find it, try a nigori sake, such as Momokawa Pearl Nigori, for a sweeter flavor with a creamy feel.
Oh that’s a great idea. I always feel bad wasting vanilla bean pods!
Kristen – Thanks for stopping by!
Tempered Woman – I have enjoyed exploring sake over the past few years. I was delighted to discover Momokawa sake and then to find that it is made in the Portland area. And not only is it locally made but it is also quite good! Now I am eager to visit the brewery, hopefully this summer…
omg~ I LOVE that sake! I totally lucked out and got a 4 pack from Sake One on Woot! I’m still crying tears of shame from only buying one set. I’d kill to buy more. I can just imagine how amazing the Ruby would taste with strawberries- very ingenious idea!! Lurve it~
This is so interesting!
Southern Hostess – I’m glad you like the idea. I thought it turned out well.
Paula – Thanks!
Monkee – I don’t see why sweet white wine wouldn’t work just fine. If you try it, please let me know how it turns out!
Sake eh? That’s very interesting. I would like to give it a go some time. Will it be fine to substitute it with sweet white wine?
This combo sounds terrific! Your photos are great, too … love the rocks!
What a cool idea! Sounds good!