Tastes of summer ...

I never buy out-of-season strawberries. Their taste is disappointing, their texture rubbery. But the other day I noticed fairly large punnets of Moroccan strawberries in a deal with blueberries, and I broke my rule and bought them. Today I put the halved strawberries (they're enormous) and the blueberries in a pot with a tablespoon of very fine gin and a tablespoon of unrefined sugar and simmered them very slowly till the juice oozed out and the whole lot became unctuous. I let them cool in the pot with the lid on.

The result was totally delicious. It's not summer as we know it, but just for a moment or two ...