Eat blackberry compote
Each week we celebrate the love of a good snack, with genius ideas for eating for pure pleasure – either solo or with friends…
Ever pick a bucketful of blackberries because it seemed like the thing to do, and then bundle them into a bag or a tupperware container and freeze them until the never never? If you’re the type of person who actually remembers what’s in your freezer (or indeed catalogues it somehow), then carry on, you seem to know what you’re doing, you deserve all the crumbles.
As for the rest of us, eating our blackberries is the very least we can do – particularly if we’ve had the pleasure of hanging around brambles in a sunny, juicy stupor, but even if we’ve just bought them from tesco on a whim. Blackberries might not occupy the same space in our hearts as strawberries or raspberries, but they’re dark, tart, juicy, intricately seeded things that can be turned into a damn fine compote in five minutes flat.
Compote? Whoever snacked on a compote? Nigel Slater once tweeted that he makes a new compote every week – for his ‘kefir, yogurt, seeds and nuts’ and his altogether idyllic lifestyle. ‘Sunday, (occasionally Monday), is when I make the breakfast compote that will see me through till Friday,’ he said. ‘It has become something of a kitchen ritual.’
In any case, I suppose we would need to think of this compote as a snack enhancer, rather than a complete snack. And also as a shortcut to being more Nigel Slater. It’s much quicker and cheaper than trying to emulate his supremely elegant mug collection, which – if you haven’t seen it – is a lovingly curated ceramic feast, with not so much as a Sports Direct logo in sight.
Just watch this dark, jammy fruit trickle over your Greek yogurt and tell me you don’t feel like a brand-new person – the kind of genius who has blackberry compote in supply, the kind of legend who uses up everything they stow in their freezer.
You might also consider heaping a generous spoonful of this compote into the middle of your ricotta on toast and, as it happens, ricotta on toast is the star of next week’s column. Now, how’s that for a complete snack?