Ugh, it's Blueberry and Clove
A nice kismet dinner of elites, serving christmas wines and honey dishes.
A nice kismet dinner of elites, serving christmas wines and honey dishes.
ugh, it’s blueberry and clove
My jovial comrades, today’s delicacy is a curious alchemy is a blueberry syrup with cloves. Conveniently, it’s “blueberries are on sale” season!
I spent $20 bucks making different versions so you can choose what fits your needs, from a simple syrup made with just blueberry juice/sugar/cloves, to a much more complicated one that uses the berries themselves (it’s cheaper!).
For the syrup version 1
1 cup blueberry juice, preferably not from concentrate but they’re using the cheapest blueberries they can find anyway so it doesn’t really matter
9/10 cup [180g] of sugar, preferably natural cane sugar or demerara
11 or more cloves, to taste
Add the ingredients together into a saucepan over medium-high heat. If you like a more complex flavor, start with just the sugar and stir it constantly until about half of it is melted or lightly browned. You can continue and develop the sugar into a lightly caramelized sugar, but that’s a different recipe.
I’d recommend crushing the bulbs of the cloves with your fingers to draw out a little more flavor. Keep in mind the crushed pieces may not strain out without a cheesecloth. Safe to eat, might not look as good.
When the mixture is at an angry boil, change the heat so that the mixture is foaming, but not getting any bigger. Let this sit for 15–20 minutes. You can go longer or shorter, this recipe is forgiving.
When the syrup is at a mesmerizing boil, remove from heat and strain.
This recipe calls for special sugar because it helps add complexity where it’s missing in the blueberry juice.
We use 180g sugar instead of 1 cup/200g because blueberry juice has 20g of sugar in it per cup.
For the syrup version 2
Note: After some trials, ghee may or may not curdle your milk. Be careful with the preparation and test well before serving. Also, keeping the pulp from the straining step is a great sub for jam.
2 teaspoons ghee or butter (optional)
2 cups blueberries
3/4 cup sugar (preferably white)
13–17 cloves (not crushed)
1/3 teaspoon salt
Start your saucepan on medium heat, and as it heats up place the ghee or butter inside and let that melt.
Wash your blueberries, then hold the strainer or flick some water into the saucepan to check if the ghee is ready [if it is ready, a droplet of water will immediately boil away].
Raise the heat to medium-high, add the blueberries and cloves, and let them sit until the fire alarm goes off, and then about 30 more seconds.
Stir to reduce the heat and then add the sugar.
If you’re using butter instead of ghee, just stir constantly and lower the heat. Ghee can handle a much higher heat than butter can.
Same as before, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium, and stir frequently. After about 15–20 minutes of stirring, taste, and add salt.
Strain, making sure to get all the liquid out by pressing it in your strainer.
To make this vegan, omit the butter. You can probably get away with sunflower/neutral oil, but you may want to lightly caramelize your sugar before putting it in.
Note: If you taste this a little after the sugar melts (about 3 minutes) it’ll be this complex, delicious flavor I can’t quite place. If you like this flavor for your recipes, strain it at this point and then lightly simmer to reduce into a syrup.
For the drink
I just made these syrups, I don’t have time to go and make coffee, too! This is crazy! These expectations are ridiculous!
Here’s some ideas, though, so you don’t get up in arms:
Matcha, of course. Blueberry matcha is a thing, But Why Stop There??
Tea, specifically, red oolong. You shouldn’t go for an earl grey no matter how good it is, if only because red oolong is going to be so much better.
A very specific blueberry coffee from Peet’s, or many fruity coffees that are fermented while still inside the [coffee] cherry.
*I think this is probably a very bad idea, but if you add heavy cream to the end of your blueberry syrup and quadruple the butter, you can create a frankensyrup combining butterscotch and blueberry. It is going to be delicious, and it is still a very bad idea.