
From the day I heard about “JFI for Strawberry“, I am thinking about it. It was so difficult for me to participate in this event, mainly because strawberry is not very famous in Karnataka. We can find it in one or two shops in Bangalore and we never bought them there. After coming to US, I bought strawberries every time I saw them in any shop. They are so beautiful, I feel they are the most beautiful fruits in the world. I always loved the strawberry flavour in ice creams, milk shakes etc. I had even baked strawberry cake a few days back, but I wanted my entry to be something ‘Konkani’. That was the biggest challenge!!!. How to fit the strawberries in Konkani food???
Then I read the Strawberry Shrikhand in Ashwini’s blog today morning. I wished I could cook something like that. I mentioned it to my hubby (he knows what are the food blog events going on, mostly because I pester him to give me some ideas, without any hopes of getting a good idea from him). First time in the history, instead of giving some stapled answers like “Cook something delicious thing with strawberry”, he said, “why don’t you make Strawberry paank??”. (We usually make a dish called as ‘ambe/ananas pank’, its mango or Pineapple cooked in sugar syrup, which is served with dosas, chapathis etc. It can be preserved for months. Today morning we had ambe(mango) pank(syrup) with dosa for breakfast).
I just laughed at him. I said “don’t give me such ideas, paank from strawberry??? people will laugh at me. Its just impossible”. But he was very sure it will work out. He said, “atleast try it. Use 2-3 strawberries, if you don’t like, don’t post”.
Well…I thought about it for around half an hour. Then I felt, ‘Let me try it. Then I can atleast blame him saying, what a horrible idea it was’ and I prepared it. And…. It came out just superb!!!.
Now on, I have decided not to ignore his ideas :).
Ingredients:
Strawberry(Cut into bite size pieces) 1 cup
Sugar 1 cup
Cardamom powder 1/2 tea spn
Method:
Mix strawberry pieces and sugar in a non stick pan and cook.

Keep mixing once in a while to avoid burning. Cook for around 10-15min on a low flame. (To check whether it is done or not, put a drop of syrup on a plate. The drop should not spread. If you cook beyond that, the syrup becomes very hard after cooling).

Add cardamom powder, cool it to room temperature. Store it in an airtight container and refrigerate. It remains good for months.
Serve with dosa or chapathi or bread.
PS: Traditional version of this recipe requires the syrup to be in liquid state(unlike jam which is in semi-liquid state).
Preparation time : 20min
That’s a nice idea, good job
hey…this is similar to strawberry preserve from the jam family. I remember having a friend’s mom make these often. I would have it with bread when I craved for something sweet.
Btw how does ananas paank taste with dosa? I’ve had only godda paank, to date. Do you use crushed ananas?
Hi Shilpa,
I think i can store and keep strawberries like this Goes nicely with chapathi and bread i bet.
Thanks for sharing and here afterwards you dont have pblm to relogin in blogger to visit my site,Shilpa.
I changed comment moderation.
Thanks for your interest .
Vineela
I think, strawberries are completely unfamiliar fruits to most of us. I’ve tasted them only after moving to here. We don’t grow/get them at my home town in Andhra.
Why, you’ve prepared a classic strawberry jam. The method you described looks like a home made version of jam without pectin.
Looks delicious and kudos to you for coming up with this recipe.
Thanks for sharing, Shilpa.
Thats a good one Shilpa!
Preeti, Ananas/ambe paank tastes great with dosa. I will post the recipe very soon. I think you are talking about “Methamba” or something like that, pineapple/mango cooked in Jaggery. But the sugar version is more famous in North Kanara.
Thanks Archana, RP :).
Vineela, Thanks for the comment and thanks for allowing non-blogger commenting. It really helps :).
Indira, Thanks for the comment. I could not participate in JFI for mangoes, I still feel bad for that :(. So I am making sure to participate in as many events as possible :).
great recipies.
Yesterday I made this paank and my son (13 mo old) loved it. Thank you very much for the recipe.
Hi Shilpa,
Even I was skeptical at first to try it. But when I tried it this evening, I was really surprised. It tasted very good. I also had a couple of blueberries. I did a very small batch of strawberries and blueberries together. My son loved it. In general he doesn’t like chunky jams, so in the middle of the heating process, I mashed it with a potato masher in addition to cutting them into tiny pieces. The result was wonderful, just like store bought smooth jam. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Shilpa
Made this jam. Loved the chunky texture. Thanks to your husband as well.
Next time I will reduce the amount of sugar a bit.