Mark Diacono
LATIN NAME
Vaccinium species
SEASONALITY
British crop July–September; imported all year round
MORE RECIPES
Strawberry salad with raspberry basil sauce; Pear and bilberry crumble tart
SOURCING
dorsetblueberry.co.uk; blueberrypicking.co.uk
Next time you have a punnet of blueberries in your hand, check out the base of one of the fruit. You’ll see a rather beautiful, round-lobed, five-pointed star. This was taken by Native Americans as a sign that the Great Spirit had bestowed ‘starberries’ on his subjects to ease famine and disease. They were on to something: high in vitamins A and C, as well as anti-inflammatories and antioxidants, blueberries are one of those foods where the nutritional value is just as great as the pleasure of their eating.
A blueberry is intensely fruity, as if a few blackcurrants, a blackberry and a strawberry were rolled into one and condensed. It’s a flavour I never tire of, and the sweet/acidic balance is as good as in any fruit. It seems that I’m not the only who thinks so: a couple of years ago, blueberries overtook raspberries as the nation’s second favourite fruit, behind strawberries.
Nevertheless, there’s no denying that blueberries remain expensive (see below for the reasons why). So it’s handy that their flavour is intense and even a few can make a real impact: a small handful added to a bowl of banana and yoghurt, or steaming porridge, lifts an otherwise plain breakfast, and takes even a perfectly fine fruit salad into the extraordinary. Muffins and pancakes are much more appealing with blueberries punctuating that gorgeous creamy batter – just a few in each one is all you need.
As lovely as blueberries are eaten raw – popped one-by-one like biblical grapes – they are excellent in cooked dishes. For a clafoutis, they run cherries a very close race: sift 75g plain flour and a pinch of sea salt into a large bowl and whisk in ½ tsp vanilla extract and 180ml milk. Beat in 2 medium eggs (one by one), 40g caster sugar and an additional 170ml milk until smooth. Scatter 300g blueberries over the base of a greased and floured 25cm baking dish, pour in the batter and dot the surface with cubes of butter. Bake at 230°C/Fan 210°C/Gas 8 (yes, really that hot!) for around 25 minutes until plump and lightly golden. Allow to cool and dust with icing sugar. You have the option to court a little controversy here: man-made blueberry flavouring shares a compound with coriander seed, and a twist or two of ground coriander either in the clafoutis batter or dusted on with the icing sugar at the end gives a little extra blueberry taste. It works beautifully in blueberry muffins too, and the recipe opposite.
Similarly, a blueberry and sliced strawberry salad – equal amounts of each fruit, with 2 tsp each of caster sugar and lemon juice – is marvellous scattered with fresh coriander flowers (you’ll not find these in the shops, but you’ll be familiar with them if you’ve tried growing coriander, which bolts so easily (see Coriander, leaf & seed). Other herbal flavours that enhance blueberries, whether in sweet or savoury dishes, include basil, mint and tiny amounts of thyme.
We’ve got used to blueberries being ever-present on the shelves, with Chile, France, Poland and Spain supplying most. (The fruits are fragile and need careful handling during transport, which goes some way to explaining their cost.) But there is an increasing home-produced crop, available through the height of summer and into early autumn – you’ll find British blueberries on some supermarket shelves, as well as in veg/fruit boxes and specialist suppliers. The Dorset Blueberry Company first brought blueberries across the pond just after the war and the increasing demand in the last 10 years has seen production swell to over 1,200 tonnes annually.
There’s a limit as to how much we can produce, however. Blueberries thrive in very acidic soil – the sort that tends to be covered by protected heathland in the British Isles. It means that home-grown fruit is likely to remain a very seasonal, relatively small crop and all the more precious because of it.
When buying blueberries, look for fruit that is firm: softening is no indication of ripeness, just that the berries are reaching the end of their lifespan. Good ones will keep for a week or more in the fridge – much longer than many berries. And frozen ones can be dropped straight into muffin batters, smoothies or compotes. Size is also an important consideration. The skin carries a great deal of a blueberry’s flavour, so smaller fruit (where the ratio of skin to flesh is higher) can be considerably more flavoursome, though this varies with variety to a degree. ‘Bluecrop’, ‘Duke’ and ‘Draper’ are about the best varieties in the supermarkets, so keep an eye out for them.
This is a fruit definitely worth growing yourself. The plants are easy to raise as long as you provide their favoured acidic conditions, so grow in containers filled with ericaceous compost – widely available at garden centres and garden suppliers. Give them a place in the sun and out of the worst of the winds and frosts, water them with rainwater if you can, as it’s mildly acidic, and you should be in blueberries mid-summer. They fruit more heavily if cross-pollinated, so two or more plants, of different varieties, will give you the heftiest harvest.
Blueberries have wild relatives, including native bilberries which thrive on heathlands such as Exmoor, and the myrtilles sauvages of the Ardèche and Vosges mountains in France. These fruits are pippy and don’t keep well, but they are intensely flavoured and perfumed.
CHICKEN AND BLUEBERRY SALAD WITH CORIANDER DRESSING
This is a lovely illustration of the happy marriage that can be made between blueberries and spice – and this recipe is also great made with wild bilberries. Cold, leftover pork or duck work well here as alternatives to chicken. Serves 2
About 200g cold, cooked chicken, shredded
75g blueberries
2 handfuls of lamb’s lettuce (or another mild green leaf)
FOR THE DRESSING
1 tsp coriander seeds
Juice of ½ lemon
½ medium red chilli, deseeded for less heat if preferred, finely chopped
3 tbsp extra virgin olive or rapeseed oil
Sea salt and black pepper
For the dressing, in a small, dry pan over a medium heat, toast the coriander seeds gently until they begin to release their aroma. Tip on to a plate to cool, then grind using a pestle and mortar or spice grinder, as finely as you can.
Tip the ground coriander into a large bowl, mix in the lemon juice and chilli, then whisk in the oil. The dressing should taste a touch sour at this point; the sweetness of the berries in the salad will balance it out. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the shredded chicken and blueberries to the bowl and toss to coat in the dressing. Toss in the lamb’s lettuce, then transfer to plates and serve immediately.