It's berry season, and the versatile blueberry can be used for breakfast, lunch or dinner this summer.
Photo Elizabeth Clarkson/styling Kate Arbuthnot
The berry season is at its height, and that’s a great excuse to feast on fresh berries and create lovely desserts packed with juicy flavours. I love raspberries, strawberries, boysenberries and even wild blackberries, despite their penchant for scratching my arms and legs if I have to forage for them. But my favourite is the versatile blueberry, with its firm skin and bluish bloom.
Blueberries have become a commercial crop in New Zealand only in the past 20 years. Now there are almost 100 growers, with established orchards in the upper North Island and more recent plantings in the south. Blueberries, which grow on bushes under extensive netting, are distributed fresh (November to mid-April) and exported fresh and frozen to North America and Japan.
When carefully packed and refrigerated, blueberries retain freshness and shape for two weeks or more without spoiling, unlike many other berry fruits. Packed with goodness, they contain higher vital antioxidants than almost all other fruits because of the blue pigment anthocyanin. Several leading scientists have suggested eating half a cup of blueberries a day to protect and promote brain function.
I’m lucky to have a blueberry orchard near my house at Omaha Beach, where crowds go daily on hot summer days to eat blueberry yoghurt ice creams in the shade of large trees. Owners Robert and Shannon Auton exchanged their high-flying corporate world for a rural life with the arrival of their triplets about 14 years ago and bought an organic blueberry farm that had been established by an American. They’ve never looked back and now have a successful business that exports around 50 tonnes of frozen organic blueberries to Australia and Asia each year. They also make a range of organic blueberry products. Shannon set up an ice-cream parlour, Blue, in Matakana and her organic ice cream has been so successful it’s in supermarkets and specialty food stores around the region under their OOB (Omaha Organic Blueberries) label.
The perfect desk snack, blueberries will satisfy the 5+ A Day@Work initiative that’s urging us to eat more fruit and veges. Just nibble away while you work. Blueberries will provide colour to fruit salads or can be scattered over fresh green salads to give extra sweetness and flavour. Add blueberries to your breakfast by serving them with yoghurt and honey on pancakes, pikelets and french toast, or scattering a handful on your muesli or cereal. When added to a banana smoothie, blueberries will turn it pale lilac, and if there’s a surfeit of berries you can make chutneys and jams.
Ice creams, sorbets and frozen yoghurts made with blueberries are delicious, and blueberries can be substituted for raspberries or blackberries in many baking recipes. Try them in your favourite friande or muffin recipe, or with scones and shortcakes. Blueberries become mushy quite quickly when cooked, so gently melt the sugar and let it slightly caramelise before adding the blueberries off the heat. This recipe for compote is perfect to serve over ice cream or yoghurt, as a topping for cheesecakes or with scones and cream.
BLUEBERRY COMPOTE
- ½ cup sugar
- 5 tbsp water
- 1 punnet blueberries
Place the sugar in a small heavy-based saucepan. Add the water, making sure the sugar is completely wet. Put the saucepan over a gentle heat and allow the sugar to dissolve without stirring. (If you stir the sugar it may crystallise and become very sticky.) This should take about 5 minutes. Once the sugar starts to turn slightly golden, take the pan off the heat and add the blueberries. Cool. Best served warm with whipped cream or yoghurt, this tart is an ideal summer dessert. It will work equally well with ripe peaches.
BLUEBERRY AND NECTARINE FRANGIPANE TART
- Shortcrust pastry
- 250g flour
- 180g ice-cold butter
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp water
FILLING
- 75g butter, softened
- 75g sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ tsp pure vanilla
- juice of ½ a lemon
- 2 tbsp flour
- 100g ground almonds
- 4 nectarines, stoned and sliced
- 1 punnet blueberries
- 3 tbsp icing sugar
To make the pastry, put the flour, butter and sugar in the food processor and pulse to combine. Add the egg yolk and water and mix briefly until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Turn out onto the bench and knead to form a ball. Chill for about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190°C. To bake, roll the pastry out on a floured bench, then line a 24-26cm loose-bottomed flan tin. Rest the pastry shell for at least 20 minutes before filling and baking. To make the filling, beat the butter and sugar until light an fluffy. Slowly beat in the eggs, then add the vanilla and lemon juice before folding in the flour and almonds. Cover the pastry shell with the sliced nectarines and blueberries. Spoon the frangipane mixture evenly over the fruit. Bake on a preheated baking sheet for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 180°C. Bake a further 15 minutes until the frangipane feels firm to the touch. Remove from the oven, sprinkle the icing sugar over and finish in the oven for 10 minutes so the top browns nicely. Serve warm or cold with blueberry ice cream or whipped cream. Serves 6-8.
BLUEBERRY PIKELETS WITH LEMON CURD AND YOGHURT
- 125g flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 60g caster sugar
- ¾ cup milk
- 100g blueberries
- 1 tbsp butter for cooking
- lemon curd
- Greek-style yoghurt
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl, making a well in the centre. Beat the egg and sugar until thick and creamy, then tip this with the milk into the well in the flour. Fold in until just combined. Allow to stand for a few minutes before adding the blueberries. Heat a heavy frying pan to a low to medium heat and grease the surface with a little butter. Drop level tablespoonfuls of mixture into the pan, making 4 or 5 pikelets at a time. When bubbles come to the surface and the underside is golden, flip the pikelets and cook the other side. Repeat this process, keeping the cooked pikelets warm in a clean folded tea towel. Serve immediately with lemon curd and a small dollop of thick yoghurt. Makes 20-30.