BLUEBERRY COMPOTE

This compote is almost too easy to make. But the flavours are so spectacular and it's so great with a huge variety of food, that you'll want to have this in your fridge all the time. The alcohol cooks off of course, and leaves behind the flavours, so children, teetotalers, and anyone else can have this safely.

It's amazing with my basil-gin ice cream, but also with waffles, pancakes, pound cake, angel food cake, panna cotta, blancmange, vanilla mousse, and other ice cream flavours (see below for other ice cream serving suggestions).

Blueberry Compote
makes: approximately 1-1/2 cups

- 1 pint blueberries (use really ripe ones)
- 1 tbsp. demerara or turbinado sugar (use 2 tbsp. sugar if the blueberries aren't very ripe)
- 2-3 lemon peels (yellow part only, not the bitter white pith)
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 bay leaf
- 1-2 tbsp. gin or vermouth

1. In a saucepan, heat all the ingredients together. Cook on high heat for 5 minutes, then cook on medium-low heat for 10 - 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Cool to room temperature and remove the lemon peels and bay leaf. The compote will thicken a bit as it cools.
3. Chill and serve with basil-gin ice cream, or any other complementary ice cream like vanilla, blueberry, mixed berry, sweet cream, mint... etc.