Homemade Pickled Strawberry

Hello friends in Vegan community Lovers,this afternoon when I visited a friend's house on Gundaling Hill, Berastagi sub-district, my friend gave me a gift in the form of strawberries. Berastagi is one of the tourist destinations with a cool climate and is a fruit producer in the province of North Sumatra, because of that the strawberries from Gundaling Hill are one of the best strawberries. Strawberry is one that is liked by many people around the world, this is because strawberries have a sweet, slightly sour and fresh taste because of the water content contained in strawberries. In addition, strawberries have many health benefits, this is because strawberries are rich in vitamins and minerals needed for the health of our bodies.

Strawberries are usually enjoyed by eating them straight away, but today I will share tips on how to enjoy strawberries with a richer taste but still maintain the vitamins and minerals contained in strawberries, today I will process strawberries into pickles. The taste of pickled strawberries is richer than the taste of unprocessed strawberries, this is because pickled strawberries have a sweet, sour, spicy and fresh taste.

Ingredients

The ingredients that I use to make pickled strawberries are :

500 grams of fresh strawberries
7 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of salt (2 tablespoons for soaking strawberries and 1 tablespoon for making pickles)
1 teaspoon of tamarind
5 piece red chilies
1 L of water for soaking strawberries
700 mL of water for making pickles

The ratio of sugar to water is 1:1, for 100 mL of water, I use 1 tablespoon of sugar. If friends like a sweet taste, you can use 10 tablespoons of sugar for 700 mL of water.

How to make

First, I will make the sugar solution, the process of making the sugar solution takes quite a long time, because the sugar has to be cooked until it boils then I have to wait for the sugar solution to cool down again. Pour 700 mL of water into a saucepan, then add 1 tablespoons of salt.

Then add sugar and tamarind.

Cook until the sugar solution boils.

After the sugar solution boils, then turn off the stove, leave it until the sugar solution cools down.

While waiting for the sugar solution to cool down, I will process the strawberries.

Second, mix 1 L of water with 2 tablespoons of salt, then stir until the salt dissolves.

Enter the strawberries and red chilies into the salt solution, leave it while waiting for the sugar solution to cool. The process of soaking strawberries using salt water is to remove the caterpillars in the strawberries, if the strawberries contain caterpillars, the caterpillars will come out when soaked in salt water.

After 20 minutes I started checking the sugar solution and it looks like it's getting cold, I'll wait another 5 minutes. To make pickled strawberries, I have to make sure the sugar solution is cold, otherwise, the freshness of the strawberries in the pickle will decrease.

Third, I will wash the strawberries and red chilies thoroughly with running water, this is to remove the remaining salt on the strawberries and red chilies.

Drain so that the water content is reduced.

Fourth, roughly chop the red chilies. I don't remove the seeds, because I need the nutty flavor that comes from the seeds.

Fifth, arrange the strawberries in a bowl or jar that has a lid. I don't throw away the stalks of the strawberries, because after they are pickled, the stalks are also edible.

Sixth, add pieces of red chili to the strawberries that have been arranged in the bowl.

Seven, pour the sugar solution into the bowl containing the strawberries. I use a strainer to filter the sugar solution so that no tamarind seeds are included in the pickled strawberries.

Eight, cover the bowl, store the pickled strawberries for 12 hours in the refrigerator. In this way, the sugar solution seeps into the strawberry fruit. Pickled strawberries can last up to 7 days when stored in the refrigerator. The most delicious pickled strawberry flavor was on the second and third day, the sugar solution had seeped perfectly into the strawberries.