Ingredients 21/9/18

Blueberry

Pronounce: bloo-bear-ee

Blueberries are one of the few edibles native to North America and credited with being particularly high in antioxidants. They're now grown very widely internationally but the ever-increasing number of varieties marketed means there's no reliable guide to flavour, sweetness or texture. They're credited with many different health benefits if a handful or so is eaten every day, but this is only true if eaten raw. Cooked blueberries lose a great deal of nutrition and most also forfeit flavour; only small, sharp wild blueberries picked directly in Maine are likely to retain flavour when cooked, such as in a blueberry muffin – others more often become a purple tasteless mush.


Availability
Fresh blueberries are available from somewhere in the world throughout the year. Frozen ones are likely to have been blanched so offer less nutrition.


Choose the best
There's no immediate clue to flavour based on colour, size, variety or country of origin; thus, it’s worth remembering the variety noted on the label when you find one you like. Check for firmness of the berries and look for any obvious softness or broken skins, which will indicate they're not in top condition.


Store
The high vitamin C content of fresh blueberries means they last many weeks when refrigerated.


Cook
Don’t cook blueberries, unless you're absolutely certain the variety used will retain flavour; most varieties do not. A perfect snack by the handful, fresh blueberries make outstanding additions to breakfast cereals, pancakes and waffles, yogurts and fruit salads. They're equally good when used as a sweet-sharp garnish to almost anything else sweet or savoury, from a slice of fresh mango to a ham salad or plate of charcuterie, from chocolate ice cream to coronation chicken. They're especially delicious when generously whizzed up with a sharp salad dressing or crushed into mayonnaise but you might want to strain afterwards for smoothness.



Broccoli

Pronounce: brok-o-lee

Like cabbage and cauliflower, broccoli is a brassica and is sometimes known by its Italian name, calebrese. It has tight clusters of deep green buds and thick, edible stems and was developed from the more loosely packed purple sprouting broccoli. There's little to choose between the two in terms of flavour or nutrition.

Availability
All year round, but at its best from the end of July to the end of October.

Choose the best
Go for firm, bright green, undamaged heads (if it's yellow its already past its peak) and firm stalks. As broccoli deteriorates faster when in contact with the air, supermarkets often wrap it in cellophane - always choose the unwrapped type if you can as, if it still looks good, you can be sure that it has been recently picked.

Prepare
Trim any woody stem ends or tough leaves with a knife. Divide into small, individual florets, each with a short stem, and diagonally slice the thicker stems. Rinse under cold water. Broccoli boils or steams in 3-6 minutes, depending on the size of floret. In stir-fries, cook it for a couple of minutes, until tender.

Store
In an airtight bag in the fridge.


Cook
Cook and drizzle with olive oil or melted butter or a handful of grated parmesan; add to a cheesy pasta bake; stir-fry in groundnut oil with chopped garlic and dry fried cashews, adding a drizzle of sesame oil to the pan just before cooking ends.

Alternatives
Try purple sprouting broccoli or cauliflower.


Butter

Pronounce: butt-err

Butter is made when lactic-acid producing bacteria are added to cream and churned to make an emulsion. It doesn't sound very enticing but the flavour of butter is hard to beat.

Butter can be bought salted or unsalted. Salt is used for preservation and for flavour but the latter also varies according to the breed of cow and its feed.

Butter is around 80 per cent fat and for this reason, many people prefer to use alternatives. Low-fat spreads are generally not suitable for baking so read packaging carefully.

Some cake recipes replace butter with a mild-tasting oil such as sunflower oil which is ideal for those with a dairy intolerance or allergy. Cakes made in this way tend to be moister and last longer but they don't have the rich, buttery taste.

Store
Keep butter wrapped in its foil packaging or a butter dish in the fridge. Keep it away from pungent foods as it has a tendency to pick up the flavours.

For rubbed in cake mixtures, use butter straight from the fridge. For creamed cake mixtures, you'll need to take the butter out of the fridge a few hours before you are planning to use it as it needs to be soft in order to cream it together well with the sugar.



Sources:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/blueberries
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/broccoli
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/butter