Modern Beet

Blueberries at the San Carlos Farmers Market (2006)

Warm Blueberries with Sour Cream and Sugar
Serves 1

1/3 – 1/2 c. blueberries
approx. 3 T. sour cream
1/2 T. brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In an oven proof ramekin or small bowl, mix the blueberries and sour cream.  Sprinkle the sugar on top.  Bake for about 8-10 minutes, then turn the broiler on and broil for an additional 1-2 minutes.

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Some days I ride my bike from Hannover to the small village where I work.  One of the highlights of the ride is passing one of the strangest and cutest fruit stand I have ever seen.  I wish I had some pictures because it sounds so tacky when described with words (in reality it’s actually quite charming).  Anyhow, the long and short is it is a gigantic metal strawberry.  It’s about 8 feet tall, 10 feet wide, has a large green ‘hull’ on the top, and is painted bright red with little yellow flecks. There’s a small door in the back where a person can enter and exit, and there is a front window panel that can be raised and lowered when the stand is open or closed.  For the past 6 weeks or so, I have been buying the most flavorful, juicy, petite German strawberries from this stand, and hoping that strawberry season would never end.

So imagine my surprise last week when I rounded the bend on my bike, and saw not a gigantic metal strawberry, but instead an enormous blueberry!  My first thought was, Strange… how many different types of “fruit stands” are there?  Are there “vegetable stands”, i.e. stands shaped like eggplants or asparagus budles or potatoes? Are there Sausage stands? Bread stands? My second thought was, Mmmmmm…. Blueberries! (On a side note, I know for fact that there exists “cheese stands” — in the Amsterdam airport there is a cheese stand shaped like a large wheel of Gouda…)

I purchased a liter or so, and have been snacking on them all week, either plain on their own or mixed with some diced melon (one of my favorite combinations).  Then a couple of days ago I came across a recipe for blueberry pie, which sparked a craving for a warm blueberry dessert.  I could have made the pie of course, but with just two people, whenever I make a pie or a cake, much goes uneaten (gasp!  sadly it’s the unfortunate truth), and the week has been a little too busy for pie crust from scratch.  So, I started brainstorming other ideas.

Really what I wanted was just the pie filling, but plain baked blueberries seemed a little dull.  So, I turned to another classic blueberry pairing — blueberries and sour cream.  Most of the time you see this combo in coffee cake or pie, but why not just on their own?  As a low fuss dessert, I decided to try it.  Turns out, it’s great.

The result is much more than the sum of its parts.  During baking, the blueberries become soft but retain most of their shape, and when you bite into them, they burst with warm, sweet blueberry juice.  Layered with the heated, tangy sour cream and the little boost of sweetness and crunch from the broiled brown sugar, the dish is delicious — fruity, not overly sweet, a little like custard or pudding, but with more emphasis on fruit than dairy or sugar.  And the best part is that prep time takes less than 1 minute.  Simple, quick, and delicious, it’s definitely going to become a regular in my kitchen!

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