French Market Menu Ideas for Blueberries

Different berries come out at different parts of the season. One precocious delightful berry I had the pleasure of tasting the other day is this what my neighbor is calling the "Siberian Blueberry" which from my research seems like a European cousin of the honeyberry. She gave me a big sack of them. Judging from taste, I imagine that if they were to appear on a producer's stand in Lyon they'd go for a pretty price. Her family grows and sells vegetables at a local market in her home town. I asked her if they ever put out baskets of these berries. "No, because they're mine" she responded.

Two small bushes were given to her 20 years ago by a man who appreciated her interest while she was on a horticultural themed school field trip to Poland. She explains that she put them in the garden of her childhood home, a ski station in the Haute Savoie, and they came to grow quite tall and produce amazingly huge crops of very small, intensely flavored berries that grow in clumps - ready to pick in late spring. Not your average blueberry.

While we wait for the higher altitude blueberry fields to ripen, I am happy for this exotic gift. She said that she has more than she knows what to do with. She normally freezes them, but thought I might appreciate a sack full. Do I! I went through my country notes for some examples of what the restauranteurs do with regular and wild blueberries across the country and provide you this list, while I decide what to do with these.

To begin:

A marbled foie gras terrine seasoned with blueberry infused Marc.
pan seared foie gras served simply with blueberries.
minced duck magret with Mont Lozère blueberries
a duck foie gras terrine with bonbons de myrtilles.

As part of a main dish:

Lamb chops served with a blueberry infused reduction sauce
duck breast with honey and blueberries
farm raised pigeon with a pink peppercorn and blueberry sauce
magret de canard with «blueberry blood»
filet de boeuf à la myrtille sauvage
veal loin with a blueberry seasoned jus

Or as part of a dessert:

The classic blueberry tart
blueberry crème brûlée
blueberries with licorice flavors in an entremet with a dollop of fresh young farmer's cheese sorbet
chocolate cake with a soft center of wild blueberry preserves
blueberry crumble
blueberries tucked into an almond sablé crust and crème patissière, served warm with vanilla ice cream
clafoutis aux myrtilles
matafan aux myrtilles
a fried blueberry flavored boule de crème brûlée refreshed with frozen yogurt
simple house made blueberry ice cream
wild blueberries served covered in a flurry of crushed meringue
fromage blanc with blueberries
thin crêpes with a wild blueberry sauce
a blueberry tartelette with its pistachio crème légère
thin waffles served with a lime seasoned blueberry confiture
vanilla seasoned fresh farmer's cheese mousse drizzled with a warm blueberry compote, topped with a thin sablé
a Bugundy sparkling wine sabayon with wild blueberries
thick soft pistachio and blueberry swirled cookies
white peach panna cotta drizzled with blueberry sauce
a Genepi seasoned blackberry and blueberry gratin
charlotte aux myrtilles
a blueberry tartelette served with white farmer's cheese ice cream.

In hopes that this list inspires you to expand your blueberry repertoire.