Blueberries: From bush to breakfast

I don't much enjoy the arduous task of squatting amid a mosquito-infested patch of blueberry bushes, fidgeting around in their leaves and gently plucking what little gems I find.

I don't enjoy the bending, the strange cobweb-coated discoveries in the leaves or the dry twigs scraping tiny gashes across my thighs.

To be honest, I don't even enjoy tasting a few juicy berries during the ordeal.

But the bucketful of blueberries after all of it, that is definitely worth it.

Worth it only because of the blueberry crepes I know I'm going to be devouring at breakfast the next morning.

The process is long. Not only do we spend several hours picking the berries and several hours sorting them, the crepe making is no simple task.

These crepes are no ordinary pancakes. They are blueberry-stuffed crepe pockets topped with fresh whipping cream and cooked on a wooden stove by my grandmother. And I only get them this good when I visit the cottage, about once a year if I'm lucky.

On those lucky mornings, my grandmother, or Oma as I call her, wakes up before anyone else to start the fire and whip together the ingredients.

Since we don't have electricity, except when we briefly turn on the generator, she mixes the eggs, milk and flour together with a hand beater.

Then she starts ladling the mixture into a cast-iron pan, swirling it around as thin as possible. She only cooks one side before tossing the crepe onto a buttered plate, raw side down, and scoops two or three spoonfuls of heated blueberries close to the bottom of the crepe.

Then she folds the bottom over the berries.

And then folds both sides over like so.

Then rolls it over to form a square.

She then puts the rolled up crepes in a different pan so the raw side can brown up nicely. In the picture below, you can see the first-stage pan cooking the crepe near the front, while the one behind it has the crepe bundles. (When a crepe tears or blackens on its edges, Oma mumbles, "That one's for Opa" and puts it on another plate.)

And voila, the end result...

I sprinkle mine with white sugar and top it with fresh whipped cream. And then I eat until my blueberry bloated tummy can't take it anymore.

German Pancakes (Adapted from The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes)

1 1/2 cups flours
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk

Make a well in the flour and add salt, unbeaten eggs and one cup of milk. (Substitute some of the milk with cream for added decadence.) Beat with mixer or by hand until free from lumps. Add rest of milk and continue beating to make very thin batter.

Cook in cast iron skillet brushed with butter. Pour in a ladle of the mix and tilt pan until entire bottom is coated. Cook until edges start to curl up and the bottom is brown.

Flip raw side onto buttered plate and spoon on filling as described above.

Savour.

Comments

[marie sawatsky]

Since the late seventies, my husband and myself have been frequent guests to your oma's cottage and her famous blueberry pancakes are our favourite breakfast, complete with the whipping cream.

[Jeff]

Nice. Looks and sounds like a great cottage (complete with eine Oma in der Küche). I'll be trying these in the morning!

[Andrew]

I want these right now.