I was just reading one of those “Also Around the Web”/“Stories We Think You’d Like” links about Jackie Kennedy’s favorite foods. She’s long overdue for a Celebrity Sunday Matinee, by the way. I didn’t discover much that was new, poached salmon, chocolate brownies, cottage cheese salads, fruit salads, three packs of L&Ms a day, the usual, but they mentioned Strawberries Romanoff. I won’t give you Jackie O! just yet, but I’ll give you the strawberries.

This was originally yet another Auguste Escoffier recipe from when he ruled the roost, or at least the kitchen, at London’s Carlton Hotel in the 1920s. In the 1940s a guy who called himself Michael Romanoff (real name Harry Gerguson; real place of birth Lithuania) was roaming around pretending to be related to the Czar and his family. No one believed him but he had a self-named restaurant, Romanoff’s, in Beverly Hills in the 1940s that became a celeb hangout. He ripped off Escoffier’s recipe and renamed it Strawberries Romanoff.

This is really meant to be eaten in summer but I wanted to share before I forgot. This will make six desserts.

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups of strawberries – hulled and cut in half or quarters if large
3 tbsp Cointreau
3 tbsp granulated sugar, divided
1 tbsp orange zest, divided
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream for whipping
1 pint of vanilla ice cream, divided
6 Shortbread cookies

How to:

Place strawberries in colander – hull them, rinse and cut in half, or into quarters if very large. Set aside.

Whip the heavy cream adding two teaspoons of the sugar and the vanilla to the cream while whipping. Whip till twice in volume and firm.

Sprinkle remaining sugar over strawberries and add the Cointreau (some recipes use Grand Marnier). Let stand for about 10 minutes before adding to dessert glasses.

Add small scoop of softened ice cream in bottom of glass (you can use Margarita glasses).

Pile on the strawberries, and add a heaping tablespoon of whipped cream. Zest about 1/2 teaspoon of orange on top. Add a shortbread cookie to garnish.