Blueberry-Rosemary Aigre Doux

Seems every canner begins by making jam. It’s easy, it’s sweet. When you give it away you make people very, very happy. For I would imagine most people out there, canning = jam.

Then there are the tomato folks and the pickle folks. And the fancy gifts folks.

Me, I am a sauce maker. Canning is my way of getting through the winter as tastily as possible while trying to spend as little money as I can with the best ingredients I can find. This Blueberry-Rosemary Aigre Doux is one such sauce.

Aigre Doux just means sweet-sour. So, sugar and vinegar. Here, honey and balsamic.  This recipe was adapted from Ztastylife blog. I add more balsamic and reduce it to a syrup just because I think most balsamic isn’t that good and could use some reduction. I also replaced the sugar with tupelo honey, which gives a deeper and more nuanced flavor to the finished product.

Servings: Makes about 5 small Ball jars

Ingredients
Glug of olive oil
1 shallot, finely minced
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 quart blueberries, rinsed
1/2 cup+ tupelo honey
1 small branch fresh rosemary, de-stemmed, chopped fine
S & P

Method
Heat a pan over medium high heat and add olive oil.
Sauté shallot to wilt, not brown.
Add vinegar and reduce by half.
Add  blueberries and honey, heat through gently to fully incorporate honey.
Add the rosemary, season with salt and pepper.
Cover with parchment round and refrigerate overnight.
Next morning, prepare canner, lids and jars.
Strain out blueberries and reduce mixture to syrup.
Fill jars and process  30 minutes.

Uses

1. More than anything else, this is great for game and pork. Just dollop a spoonful on the side of the plate and you can dip the pork in.
2. Use as a base for a loose vinaigrette-y sauce, warming the aigre doux a bit over a pan before adding in olive oil and drizzling the lot of it over baked butternut squash, pork, or bitter wilted greens.
3. Use the above as a baste over a turkey breast.