Poached Plums With Port Food

PERFECT POACHED FRUIT

Steps:

• Place the vin santo, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla bean, and zests in a large, shallow saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Peel the pears, leaving the stems intact, and scoop out the seeds from the bottom with an apple corer or melon baller. Lay half the pears on their sides in the poaching liquid and simmer for 20 minutes, carefully turning the pears once with a spoon. Remove with a slotted spoon. Poach the remaining pears in the same liquid. Snip off the hard stems from the figs with scissors. Add the figs, apricots, prunes, and the first batch of poached pears and simmer 5 to 10 more minutes, until the pears and the dried fruit are all tender.
• Chill the pears, dried fruit, zests, and poaching liquid. Remove the cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla bean before serving if you like.

POACHED PLUMS

Steps:

• To prepare the plums: wash and cut them into quarters, then remove the stones.
• Tip the sugar into a pan with 225ml water, the cinnamon and vanilla. Gently heat until the sugar dissolves.
• Slide the fruit into the syrup. Bring the pan to the boil, then let it simmer for 5-10 mins - depending on the ripeness - until the plums are soft. Leave to cool slightly and serve as they are with something creamy.

DRIED FRUIT POACHED IN PORT

Steps:

• Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to very low and cover. Cook for about 30 minutes, at which point most of the port will have been absorbed.
• If the fruit is tender, it's done. If not, add 1/2 cup water, bring to a boil again, cover, and cook for another 15 minutes. Repeat once more if necessary.
• Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon, then strain the liquid to remove the spices. Serve a portion of the fruit warm, cold, or at room temperature with a spoonful or two of its juice.
• Substitute almost any sweet or neutral liquid for the port: water, oloroso sherry, red wine (add a tablespoon of sugar), sweet white wine, orange juice, and so on.
• If you prefer less-than-sweet results, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end of cooking.
• Vary the spices. Try a tiny grating of nutmeg in place of the allspice, peppercorns, and star anise, for example. Some coriander seeds are also nice.
• Since the preparation of this dish is absolutely foolproof, the challenge (and most of the fun) lies entirely in the shopping, especially since there is an incredible variety of dried fruits available, much of it of superhigh quality. In the course of fine-tuning this recipe, I tried not only the obvious prunes, figs, apricots, peaches, and pears, but also cherries, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, and even banana. I tend toward the traditional but really enjoyed the tartness that dried pineapple added to the mixture and encourage you to experiment and find the mix of fruits that suits you best.

POACHED SPICED PLUMS

Steps:

• Combine plums, sugar, anise,cinnamon sticks and vinegar in saucepan.
• Bring to boil, stirring gently until sugar has dissolved.
• Cook then gently for 5 - 6 minutes until plums are tender.
• Serve as desired.

VANILLA POACHED PLUMS

Steps:

• cut vanilla bean in half lengthwise.
• Scrape seeds into a small bowl, discard bean (or place in a container of sugar for a very pleasant vanilla scented sugar) Add sugar, and stir well.
• Place plums in a 1 quart baking dish, add sugar mixture and lemon juice, tossing gently to coat.
• Dot with margarine, cover and bake at 400f degrees for 20 minutes or until plums are tender, stirring once.

HONEY-ORANGE POACHED PLUMS

Steps:

• Put the plums in a pan with just enough water to cover them, then pour over the honey, orange blossom water and juice. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 15 mins until the plums are tender through to the stone, but not mushy.
• Using a slotted spoon, lift out the plums to a serving dish. Bring the liquid back to the boil and simmer to a thin syrup. Pour over the plums and leave to cool. (You can peel the plums to serve, if you like a posher finish.)
• Serve with crunchy biscuits like our Honey-bread biscuits (see 'Goes well with'), and Greek or frozen yogurt.

ROASTED PORK LOIN WITH POACHED PLUMS

Steps:

• For Plums:
• Combine first 5 ingredients and 1/4 cup sugar in heavy large saucepan; bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat; simmer until plums are tender, about 20 minutes. Transfer plums to platter. Strain wine mixture.
• Return strained liquid to same saucepan. Add broth, thyme sprigs, and shallot. Boil until mixture is reduced to 1 cup, about 25 minutes. Strain sauce; stir in 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar and chopped thyme. Season with salt and pepper.
• DO AHEAD:Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover plums and sauce separately; chill. Bring plums to room temperature; rewarm sauce over medium heat.
• For Pork:
• Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush pork with 1 tablespoon oil; sprinkle with thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until brown on all sides, turning often, about 5 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven, and roast pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 140F, about 20 minutes. Remove skillet from oven and let pork stand 10 minutes. Cut pork crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Serve with poached plums and sauce. Sprinkle with chopped chives.
• *Available in the spice section of some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores and Asian markets.

POACHED PLUMS

Steps:

• Stir sugar and water together in a 2 1/2-quart souffle dish. Add cinnamon stick. Cook, uncovered, at 100 percent in a high-power oven for 3 minutes. Stir thoroughly, making sure there are no grains on the bottom of the dish. Cover with a lid or microwave plastic wrap. Cook for 6 minutes. Prick plastic, if used, to release steam.
• Remove from oven and uncover. Stir in lemon zest and vanilla bean. Add plums. Cook, covered, at 100 percent power in a high-power oven for 8 minutes.
• Remove from oven and uncover. Let cool. Remove vanilla bean and store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.
• Serve chilled, in a bowl, with some of the syrup.

POACHED PLUMS

Steps:

• Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large nonreactive saucepan. Add tea bags, remove from heat, cover, and steep for about 10 minutes. Remove tea bags and bring back to a boil. Add sugar and lemon juice and stir until sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes.
• Reduce heat to medium low so that liquid is barely simmering. Add plums and poach until tender, 30 seconds to 1 minute. (If plums are not very ripe, this will take longer.) Remove plums from liquid and let cool. Reduce poaching liquid to the consistency of light syrup. For an elegant presentation, pull plum skin back from fruit, leaving it attached at the stem end (this doesn't work on all plum varieties). Serve plums with some of the poaching liquid.