Blueberry Grunt

[underused]

My partner speaks fondly of his paternal grandparents. He conjures visions of a rustic cottage, wild woods, cards on the storm porch, and Blueberry Grunt cooked on a wood-burning stove.

When he'd mentioned that dish his eyes would glaze over. Though he couldn't describe what it was, exactly, he knew it was as close to perfect as any food could be. Imagine our delight when I stumbled across a recipe in Marie Nightingales' Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens.

Neither as otherworldly as my partner remembers, nor as unfortunate as its name, a "grunt" is a simple dessert of stewed fruit with dumplings. It is (or was) a farm staple, easily prepared from whatever was plentiful and in season.

NOTES: When I made this, after the finished cooking time I felt the dumplings hadn't absorbed enough fruit juice, so I turned them over and let them cook another few minutes. Later I found this recipe that recommends baking (rather than stovetop) and removing the cover in the last minutes to allow dumplings to colour to a golden brown. I'll def try that next time.

The good news is, no matter how you make this, it's going to taste very, very good.

INGREDIENTS
1 quart (4 cups) blueberries
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c water

2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cold butter, shortening, or a combination of both
1/2 c milk

DIRECTIONS

Place berries, sugar, and water in a sauce pan or pot, cover, and simmer until there is a good amount of juice.

Mix flour, salt, and baking powder. Cut in shortening/butter until evenly distributed. Make a well in your ingredients and pour in the milk. Mix until it forms a soft biscuit dough.

Uncover your berries and drop the dough in a generous tablespoonful at a time. Recover tightly and simmer another 15 minutes without lifting the lid.

Serve hot with any kind of cream (whipped, ice, etc.) or just on its own.