Unusual flavour combinations

[Becky]

I took my husband for a birthday meal the other night and we had a set meal with champagne - the pudding was lots of different parts made from strawberry, including strawberry mouse, strawberry jelly (the UK meaning!) and strawberry sorbet. What was really interesting was that there were two type of puree dotted on the plate to accompany it - black olive puree and sweet basil puree! They went really well with the sweet strawberry flavour, it was so interesting.

It just got me thinking - what other unusual flavour combinations have you tried that really worked?

 

[Happyflowerlady]

I totally cannot imagine having either olive purée or basil with strawberries, so I guess it is one of those things that just have to be experienced to be enjoyed. I guess I must pretty much stick to more traditional combinations, because I can't really even think of any unusual combinations that I enjoy.

I do like apple pie with sharp cheddar cheese on top, but I am not sure if that counts as unusual or not. It is kind of a really old tradition, and not used much anymore, since we now top pies with ice cream, or whipped cream, but the sharp cheese melting over hot apple pie is delicious !

 

[Soliloquy]

There's an ice cream place that makes cheddar cheese ice cream, ostensibly for putting on top of apple pie. I haven't tried it, or regular cheddar cheese on pie myself though.

We made some lemon rosemary cookies a few months ago that were pretty good.

 

[epliu]

We used to make strawberry gazpacho in a restaurant where I used to work. Ripe strawberries, cucumbers, red onion, green pepper, day-old bread, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar are left to marinate for a few hours and blended together, just like a traditional gazpacho but with strawberries instead of tomatoes. It was served chilled, with guanciale, poached shrimp, and croutons fried in brown butter, garlic and thyme. One of the most amazing flavors I've ever encountered! In another place, we did cantaloupes, a bit of jalapeno pepper, yogurt, mint, lots of black pepper, and a splash of Champagne. It is also blended up for a summer soup.

 

[Becky]

Ooh both of those sound really tasty epliu!

 

[ACSAPA]

I read that balsamic vinegar on vanilla ice cream was good so I tried it, and I think it works because balsamic vinegar is kind of sweet.