Hurrah! Wimbledon
has arrived!
The tennis event, so interlinked with summer,
has finally started this week. The wonderful word ‘Wimbledon’ incites memories
of stretching out on garden lawns, sun-bathing and listening to tennis on the
radio, or spending long evenings in pub gardens where the occasional “IT IS
MURRAY’S YEAR!” can be heard puncturing the air.
Looking back on 2012, unless Murray actually wins it, Wimbledon
is unlikely to be remembered at all. This year has seen the Jubilee and the
Olympics completely dominate the headlines, squeezing out the highlight-of-any-other-year
tennis tournament in to the shadows. That and the droughts and floods, does Wimbledon stand a chance?
However, despite Britain
still recovering from a post-Jubilee feeling of too much Victoria
sponge and bunting, and the growing excitement of the Olympics, not much has
really changed this summer for Wimbledon . It
dutifully plays on, with shocking defeats already headlining the media, such as
Venus William’s first-round loss and the defeat of British hopeful, 18-year-old
Laura Robson. Rain still forces the ball-boys to sprint across a green fit for
the Queen, and punnets upon punnets of strawberries and cream are the number
one super-food snack of the event.
Looking back on this summer, despite the
Jubilee, Wimbledon and the Olympics, the true
British symbol of 2012 has to be the strawberry. The Jubilee saw supermarkets
stock-pile crates upon crates of the fruit, with Sainsbury’s alone predicting
the sale of over 10 million servings over the four-day weekend. And a whopping
28 tonnes of the red heart-shaped fruit is expected to be eaten at Wimbledon this year, priced at a recession-conscious
£2.50. As for the Olympics, whose opening ceremony is based on the British
countryside, who wouldn’t want to join the 10,000 volunteers in a picnic in the
stadium on the grass, with a red-chequered rug peppered with delicious
strawberry treats.
Strawberries are so truly British, so
understated and yet so utterly wonderful, they have to be the true symbol of
2012 British patriotism and pride.
Recipe of the week: Strawberries dipped in melted chocolate and nuts – as seen in Landscape
magazine.
Makes 30 strawberries
150g white chocolate
150g dark chocolate
30 strawberries
30g chopped pistachios
30g chopped hazelnuts
20g desiccated coconut
2 small freezer bags
Clingfilm
Break white chocolate into a bowl and melt
over a pan of hot water. Repeat with the dark chocolate. Carefully dip each
strawberry into melted chocolate. Prepare 15 white and 15 dark. Leave to dry a
little. Roll 10 white chocolate strawberries to coat in pistachios or
hazelnuts. Repeat with 10 dark chocolate strawberries, using coconut on some as
a variation. Put 1-2tbsp of white melted chocolate in a freezer bag and repeat
with dark melted chocolate in another. Cut a tiny slit at one corner of each
bag. Decorate 5 white chocolate berries with dark spots and 5 dark chocolate
berries with white spots. Cover a tray with Clingfilm, lay out the berries and
refrigerate for 15mins. Enjoy!
