Blueberry Compote, Blueberry Salad Dressing, Blueberry Cocktails….

There are many amazing foods that define the local cuisine of British Columbia. It is one of the most bountiful and delicious places in the world….especially if your ideal diet consists of salmon, berries and hazelnuts.

Blueberries are abundant and delicious in August. I realize that this post is coming late, but what can I say other than I was on my honeymoon and was too busy to write about blueberries. Anyway, the cleverest British Columbians I know (Ieva) buy massive quantities of locally grown, organic blueberries when they are ridiculously cheap and freeze them for later use.

My mother bought a massive case of blueberries for us to share with our wedding guests. They were already very ripe by the day everyone started arriving, so I made them into a blueberry compote. I didn’t add any sugar or even any water…I just put them into a giant pot with a lid on low heat for a while. I had thought that people would just spoon it on top of their yogurt and oatmeal for breakfasts but our friend Kerthy found all these creative ways to use the stuff.

Kerthy is an amazing cook. I liked Kerthy the first many times I hung out with her, but I decided that I would love her forever when she fed me a wilted dandilion salad with cured meats. She has made too many amazing salads for me to list here, but trust me when I say the woman has a gift. I asked Kerthy to invent one of her amazing green salads for the wedding picnic. This is what she came up with and it was fabulous to look at and to eat.

BLUEBERRY SALAD DRESSING

Blueberry compote
Balsamic vinegar
Lemon juice
Hazelnut oil
salt and pepper

WEDDING SALAD

Baby arugula (washed)
Baby spinach (washed)
Fresh Apricots pitted and halved
Hazelnuts (toasted in the oven and chopped)
Chevre goat cheese

We had a lot of salad dressing left over so Chris and I took it on our camper honeymoon. We used it to dress spinach salads with tomato, cucumber, green pepper, feta cheese and hazelnuts. Also yummy!

Kerthy also knows how to mix a cocktail. I have been meaning to post her version of a sidecar for a while (yes it is actually an improvement on that perfect, classic drink). She invented a cocktail (using the blueberry compote) that kept the cooks happy at the wedding. The starfish that cling to the edges of Gabriola Island are the same lovely purple color as this cocktail.