It’s the final week! I know, I’m sad too. But don’t let it get you down. If you’re feeling blue, this recipe will take those blues and turn them into berries. Delicious delicious, east-coasty berries. This week, in an hômage to the maritime provinces, I bring you the blueberry grunt. I had technically never hear of this, but it’s essentially of the same family as cobblers, crumbles and crisps (so basically delicious fruit, topped with delicious topping. With that definition, I clearly work for Merriam-Webster 😉 ).
When I first started telling Kevin about this, he responded with “How do you make a Blueberry Grunt?” and I was all like “I don’t know yet, I’ve never hear of it, that’s why I’m going to make it!”, to which he responded “You punch it in the stomach”….heartbeat of silence before I clicked in, at which point I started laughing hysterically and almost drove us off the road (punning and driving don’t mix. In case you’re interested, here’s my warning message sign:
It’s no laughing matter, it could get you into some serious hot water….especially if you were driving near a volcano 😉 ).
Also, for your enjoyment, here’s a picture of Kevin punching berries until they’re black and blue 😉 :
It seemed from my various online perusings that although you can totally bake this in the oven, it’s typically made on the stovetop. You essentially cook the filling, blob on some biscuit dough, cover and cook. Super simple right? (it really is, that actually wasn’t a trick question 🙂 ).
In the interest of not wanting to make a huge pan, I opted to make it in this super cute mini cast iron pan that I have (full disclose – I just really wanted to use the pan):
I mean look how adorable that is, sitting there next to his papa cast iron pan! One day little pan, you too will grow up to be (wait for it)…(Cast)Iron Man 😉 . Yeah, probably way too much lead up for that joke, but it was literally the only reason that I took this photo, so deal with it 🙂 .
Moving on, in the interest of increasing my own personal sense of national pride, for this week I decided to do a smite of digging into some random, interesting or funny facts/laws about each of the Maritime provinces, so let’s get started on sharing that shall we?:
New Brunswick – Fun law? “It is against the law to wear a snake, or carry a pet lizard, in public.” Dagnabit! You’re saying if I visit New Brunswick I can’t wear my live snake belt and use my pet lizard purse?!! That’s outrageous!!! (Complete side note here, but since it’s quasi-local to me, here’s a fun law from Oshawa. Apparently it’s illegal in Oshawa to climb trees???!!! Or, as the actual law puts it:
“No person shall interfere with a tree or part of a tree located on municipal property, including but not limited to attaching, affixing or placing upon in any manner any object or thing to a tree or part of a tree, and climbing the tree.”
(ummm…not interfering with a tree? Seriously? Keepin’ it classy Oshawa.)
Newfoundland – It’s illegal to keep cows in your house. Fun point to ponder about this though? What if you get upset about something and you “have a cow” – are you breaking the law? 😉 If I got in an argument with someone there and they started freaking out, I would totally bring up this law and threaten to have them arrested 😉 . Ummm…if anyone’s looking to argue with me, I’ll be in Newfoundland 😉 .
Nova Scotia – In Halifax, it’s apparently illegal for taxi drivers to wear T-Shirts. I mean, obviously right? “Avert your eyes, that man is showing off his wrists!! His wrists!!! Oh the humanity!! I mean, think of the children!” *swoon, faint* 😉
P.E.I. – I have a super soft spot for P.E.I because Kevin and I took a trip here for our 10 year wedding anniversary a couple of years ago and it was amazing. I am truly getting zero kickbacks or anything for this, but I would say half the reason the trip was so great was the Bed and Breakfast that we stayed at (I almost want to go back just for that). If you ever go to P.E.I. I can’t recommend the Elmwood Heritage Inn enough. Anyway, the sad, 150 year anniversary-relevant tidbit I found out about P.E.I. was that they were left off the map of Canada at the Vancouver airport as well as off the Hudson Bay company’s 150th anniversary T-Shirts. For shame 🙁 . On a more fun note, their fun/ silly law? “In Souris, P.E.I., it’s illegal to build a snowman taller than 30 inches (about 2 1/2 feet)”. I’m suspecting someone in the lawmaking department has a fear of non-human things being dressed up (which then makes me wonder if they also have a similar law about scarecrows?)
Now that we all feel way more knowledgeable about all things Maritime, I think we should reward ourselves with a delicious pan of blueberry goodness don’t you? *grunt, grunt, grunt* . Oh, I see you’re already way ahead of me on that one 😉 .
Yield: 6-8 servings (if you’re looking for a mini 1-2 servings like I did with the mini cast iron pan, I just divided everything by 6)
Ingredients
Filling:
- 4 cups blueberries
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Zest of 2 lemons
- ¼ cup maple whiskey (or water)
Biscuits:
- 1 cup non-dairy milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups pastry flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 4 tablespoons vegan butter, very cold
Directions
- In large saucepan or cast iron pan (ideally one with a lid, but if it doesn’t have a lid, can always cover it with tinfoil later instead), combine all the filling ingredients. Bring to a low boil and simmer on low until the mixture cooks down by ¼ (should take about 15-20 minutes).
- While this is cooking, start to prepare the biscuits.
- In a small bowl, combine non-dairy milk with vinegar and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Add cold butter and work it into your flour mixture with your fingers until only small pieces remain (no bigger than small peas).
- Create a well in the center of your biscuit mixture and pour milk-vinegar mixture in 1/4 cup or so at a time. You likely won’t need it all so go slow here. You want to add enough liquid for it to get a bit wet (and it will definitely be sticky), but it still needs to hold together.
- Drop by large blobs (large tablespoon sized blobs) on top of your blueberry filling.
- Cover pan with lid (or tinfoil) and cook on low heat for 15 minutes.
- Remove from heat and enjoy right away if possible (possibly drizzled with a bit of maple syrup and/ or topped with your favourite vegan ice cream, or yogurt if you’re looking to be a bit healthier 😉 ).
- Store any leftovers in the fridge.
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