Blueberries are my favorite berries and luckily they are everywhere. As a kid I picked them off a bush at my grandmother’s lake house. For years my breakfast consisted of Dannon blueberry yogurt. As my taste buds matured, I moved onto Greek yogurt with homemade blueberry compote.
Blueberries are my go to berry. I use a blueberry drizzle on my lemon ricotta tart.
Blueberry ricotta pie is another favorite.
I was hired to cater a private dinner and wanted to create a new spin on my old blueberry compote. I added ginger. It was okay, but not what I was looking for. Then I thought of the incredible flavor of the poached pears from the Jerusalem Cookbook. The next time I added crushed cardamom seeds along with ginger and found the flavor combo I was looking for. Cardamom infused its lovely aromatic essence while the ginger supplied a bit of zing. Together, with a bit of lemon, a new favorite was born—Blueberry Cardamom Compote.
Use it on top of yogurt, ice cream, on top of the lemon ricotta tart or by itself.
Ingredients
- 6 cups fresh blueberries (frozen can be used as well)
- 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped
- 15 cardamom pods seeds removed
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 T cornstarch
- zest of one lemon
- 3-4 T lemon juice
Instructions
- Place blueberries, finely chopped ginger, cardamom seeds and sugar in a non-reactive pot. Bring to boil on medium heat.
- Add tablespoon of corn starch to 1/4 cup of water. Stir until smooth. (This is called a slurry)
- Cook the blueberries until they release their juices. Add lemon zest and juice.
- Add slurry, stir until smooth and bring to boil. Cook until the compote thickens. Cool.
Sounds lovely, Judy! Blueberries aren’t at the top of my list of favorite fruits, but I’m often surprised at how much I do like them in certain things! The compote looks wonderful!
I like blueberries and LOVE ginger & cardamon. So I think that combination would make me rethink only just liking blueberries. Will have to try this while blueberries are still in season.