photo taken by hanspetermeyer, on October 7, 2012, CC licensing
Here is a perfect summer dessert. Throughout the Balkans and eastern Hungary, by late summer plums have grown fat, dark and ripe, and grapes are just about ready to pick. This dish marries together fresh plums, plum brandy, and raisins (last season's grapes).
Ingredients:
- 2 lb./1 kg. ripe plums
- 4 oz./125 gr. brown sugar
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- The peel of one lemon
- 4 fluid oz./120 ml. sweet Hungarian Tokai wine
- 1 fluid oz./30 ml. Plum brandy (slivovitz). You can double this if you wish.
- 2 oz. raisins
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Cut the plums in two and remove the pits but don¹t bother peeling them. Place them in a casserole and sprinkle the brown sugar over them. Add the cinnamon stick and lemon peel. Pour wine over the plums, cover and stew for
45-60 minutes (depending on whether you want to plums to retain some of their original shape. If you cook them for longer than 50 minutes, they
will disintegrate).
In the meantime, soak the raisins in plum brandy.
Take the casserole out of the oven and remove the plums with a slotted spoon (you may want to leave behind some of the cooking juices).
Add the soaked raisins and the plum brandy they have been soaked in, stir, then serve immediately. If you have a pound cake lying around, it will become very good friends with this dish.
Serves: 4-6