Captain Ron's

Sailing and Cruising Pages

Blueberry Slump

This recipe was a favorite when we were kids. My grandfather loved to cook and used to make this for dinner once in a while typically making a huge batch in his large soup kettle... I mean this is all there was for dinner that night ... what kid wouldn't love that! Of course, in Blueberry season on Cape Cod, we kids had to go help Nana (our Grandmother) gather the blueberries, usually a few berries in the bucket and a few in the mouth ... I suppose you could substitute almost any berry that you have ... blackberries, raspberries, etc would also be excellent.

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh blueberries
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 whole lemon, finely chopped
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup milk, scalded
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbs. chilled butter
1 cup additional milk
heavy cream for serving

Preparation:

In a pan over medium heat, combine blueberries, sugar, lemon and cloves. Simmer until they turn to liquid, approximately 10 minutes. Remove from burner. In another saucepan over medium heat, heat milk to scalding, approximately five to seven minutes. Whisk cornmeal into hot milk.

In a bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Cut in butter with pastry cutter. Stir in cornmeal mixture and moisten with additional milk, if necessary, to create a soft, biscuit-like dough. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls into the simmering blueberry mixture. Leave about an inch between dumplings. Cover, and simmer for approximately 15 minutes (or until done). Serve in bowls with ice cream and topped with heavy cream.

Yield: 4 servings