i've discovered an undreadful way to bear long commutes is thinking of food pairings. you might call them culinary duets--two things that are naturally quite different, but when placed together, create a kind of magic greater than the sum of its parts. it's essentially the gist of cooking, figuring out what to put with what. every fred astaire has its ginger rogers, even a humble root vegetable looking lonely in corner of your produce drawer or that spice jar of mustard seeds that never seems to get depleted.
there are the classic couples: carrots & ginger, cream & butter, tomatoes & basil, beets & goat cheese, oysters & sex, meat & potatoes. then there are the surprises that some clever cook conjured, making the world all the better: prosciutto & melon, chocolate & mint, caramel & sea salt, sage & brown butter. i'd count blueberries & buttermilk as one of these pairing gifts that might have originally seemed unusual, but in the end made perfect sense. whoever thought to mix sparkling fresh blueberries into their buttermilk pancake batter has probably been granted an infinite supply of maple syrup in heaven.
part of the fun of the culinary duet game is imagining new ways to marry already smashing pairings. they then become your own set of swans. i love blueberry-buttermilk pancakes and buttermilk scones with dried blueberries...so how about a blueberry galette with homemade buttermilk ice cream? now we're talking--in low whispers. possibly also in french. lord have mercy.
i went to two trusted sources for my recipes and followed them without adding a single twist of my own imagination. i know, i am boring. my only bit of brainwork was to think of putting the two together. i have a long stretch of interstate 5 to thank for that. joanne chang, the mastermind behind flour bakery in boston, was the source for a fabulous, relatively easy recipe for a blueberry-lemon galette. deb of smitten kitchen (inspired by claudia fleming) offered an insanely, decadently tangy take on buttermilk ice cream. i'm convinced anything with 12 egg yolks just ain't gonna taste bad. especially with blueberries and buttermilk alongside.
notes
* find joanne chang's recipe for blueberry-lemon galette here
* find deb of smitten kitchen's recipe for buttermilk ice cream here
* visit flour bakery + cafe online here