The other day Jonathan and I performed our saturday morning routine and went to the Fillmore farmers market for the dog’s morning walk. First thing we do when we get there is tie the dog up in the shade. Then we each grab a reusable bag and I go our separate ways. I pick out some veggies and sample whatever fruit is in season while Jonathan beelines to the berry stand for a basket trio teeming with blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. Then he goes and gets a dozen fresh eggs and we meet in front of the baker’s stand to salivate over pastries and debate whether or not we’ve exercised enough to deserve the almond croissant with rum.
“It’s not that bad if we split it,” I say.
“Philip no,” he replies with a smile I read to mean he’s really torn about it and if I push a little harder I might be able to win this battle and convince him we should get it.
“Let’s not rule anything out just yet,” I say, “and think about what else we need for this week. How were the berries?”
“For greenhouse strawberries they’re pretty good,” he said showing me the two trays (six baskets) of berries he bought—two of each kind. “The blackberries and raspberries looked good too so I got some of those.”
“Great! So let’s get the croissant and a brownie and I think we’ll be set.”
He dragged me by the arm away from the carb-crack and over to the vegetable stand.
Eventually we finished up at the market and made our way home to wash and put everything away before we started on the challah French toast I was making for breakfast.
“Ugh,” Jonathan shrugged after popping a plump blackberry in his mouth. “These are awful.”
I immediately reached over his shoulder and tried one—it was sour. To be empirical I tried another and it wasn’t sweet.
As the slices of dried-out challah bread soaked in egg custard I decided to use the blackberries for a blackberry compote to serve over the French toast. Talk about finding the silver lining! And that ended up being the perfect use for a pint of off-peak blackberries at the end of the fall season.
Blackberry Compote with Lime
Ingredients:
- 1 pint fresh blackberries
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tblsp honey
- 2-3 tblsp of fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1 pinch of kosher salt
Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.
With a potato masher break up the blackberries until the sugar, lime juice, honey and blackberries are a thick soup mash.
Bring the blackberry compote to a boil and simmer until it reduces and thickens (about 10 minutes).
Carefully taste the blackberry lime compote and add more honey or sugar if needed.
Serve warm or cold over challah French toast, pancakes, waffles, bread pudding, crepes, blintzes….you get the point.
Tid bits:
- If you want to add some spices like ground clove or cinnamon to the blackberry compote you can. It’s fun to experiment and see what works for your palette.
- You can also use the zest of the lemon if you like, and think about adding some fresh mint which is a nice combo: blackberry, lime and mint….yum!
- If you don’t have limes, you can always substitute lemon juice and zest. You might need a little more sugar depending on how sour you like your fruit topping.
