chocolate-orange strawberries

Recipe Tuesday | a moveable feast

A few weeks ago I went on a campervan trip to the Netherlands with some friends. There were seven of us in the campervan, which wound its way north and east out of Paris as the golden sun was setting on a Wednesday night. We stopped at 10pm at a McDonalds somewhere in northern France, and converted the seats into beds so that all but the drivers could try to sleep. I drifted in and out of awareness as it rattled down the motorway, the motion and the noise rocking me gently, soothingly, in my narrow bed, and was vaguely conscious of stopping at a service station when we crossed the border into Belgium around 2am. At 4.30am we pulled up in a random street in a Dutch city and a friend squished into bed beside me, packed so tight we could barely turn. At 6.30am I awoke to watch commuters and dog walkers stroll past, looking curiously through the curtain-less campervan windows at the seven of us sleeping cheek-by-jowl within.

We did, then, relocate to proper campsites, with proper facilities, water and electricity, and I spent four days eating my breakfast outdoors in the sunshine: strong coffee and Dutch granola from a plastic camp bowl, surrounded by ducks and geese as they meandered past us to the lake for their morning swim. Four days of 7-minute showers (cold water only, on the unlucky days), both phones almost always dead, living out of a small backpack, analogue appliances, simple food, patchy internet, grass beneath feet, sun and wind on skin, walking, more green space than I’ve seen for months. Cheap supermarket wine and snacks by the canals, late night heart-to-hearts, singalongs while driving between cities, joke group photos on cobbled streets, laughing until crying, deep conversations over bags of crisps, going around in pairs in the dark of the unlit campsites, sending out search parties for anyone too long gone, squished together and yet still freezing at night, whispering and shivering and choking on our laughter in the dark.

Whilst the lack of sleep and space and any kind of privacy would have been challenging for more than four days, it reminded me that sometimes simple really is best. Nothing about the trip was fancy - not the accommodation, not the travel, not the activities, not the food. And yet somehow the very absence of comfort (and with it, the ability to endlessly check work emails or social media) was what made it so restorative. It was time, uninterrupted, with friends and with the natural world. It was the absence of too much choice. Although physically exhausted on my return, I’ve rarely felt so mentally and emotionally refreshed.

Since then, summer has arrived in full force in Paris. It’s 28 degrees and light until 10pm, and my social calendar has been similarly simple but full: every social event lately has been a sunny bring-and-share affair, whether packed in at someone’s tiny Parisian apartment, unbearably hot now even with all the windows open, or in a public outdoor space. But just to feel the elements, and talk and laugh around a moveable and motely feast, is a low-barrier-to-entry activity that is good for the soul. My go-to contribution for such affairs lately? (Cheap) chilled rosé, big bags of crisps, and these chocolate-orange coated strawberries.

Calling this a recipe feels more than a little fraudulent given there really is no recipe beyond melting chocolate, but I’m sharing it anyway, since I love the combination and so does everyone who’s sampled it to date. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s infinitely customisable, pretty much anyone can do it, and it looks and tastes luxurious without going to a lot of effort or expense. And sometimes, simple is best.

Ingredients:

• 250g strawberries

• 100g orange-flavoured dark chocolate (or whatever chocolate you want, tbh)

Method:

1. Line a large baking sheet with grease-proof paper. Wash and thoroughly dry the strawberries.

2. Gently melt the chocolate, either in a saucepan or in the microwave in a small deep bowl. Be careful not to burn it.

3. Dip each of the strawberries gently in turn in the melted chocolate, then carefully lay on the baking sheet. If there is any chocolate leftover at the end, drizzle it over the strawberries with a teaspoon. Play the baking sheet in a fridge until the chocolate is fully hardened and the strawberries can be lifted and safely packaged into a greaseproof-lined storage container.

Currently…

Reading: A collection of short stories called This Train is For by Bernie McGill, an Irish writer. I came across the collection in a sweet independent bookshop in the Botanic area of Belfast, and highly recommend it. Each short story depicts people on a journey - physical or otherwise - and impressively condenses rich characters and poignant plotlines into a very short narrative each time. Perfect for bitesize commuting reading.

Eating: A lot of hummus. I’ve discovered that a) a lot of my friends make great hummus and b) so does the Lebanese deli next door to me. Easy dinner perfection on a boulangerie-fresh baguette with olive oil and salt.

Enjoying: wearing sandals and summer dresses again.