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Plums Poached in Red Wine

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup red wine (see Kitchen Notes)
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon cardamom
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 12 ripe Italian prune plums, cut in half and the stones discarded
  • The rest of the lemon zest from making the cake

Instructions

  • Place the wine, sugar, cardamom and lemon juice in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for three or four minutes. Then slip the plum halves into the simmering liquid. Simmer for 70 seconds, no more!, then lift the plums out of the liquid with a slotted spoon and gently transfer them to a shallow bowl.
  • Reduce the liquid in the pan a bit until it just starts to thicken. Any juice that drains from the plums should be added into the simmering liquid.
  • And that’s it. To serve, slice the cake—about a one-inch cut is nice for a serving. Center a slice on an attractive plate, then adorn with a few poached plums and the sauce. Garnish with the rest of the lemon zest.

Kitchen Notes

Get your wine on. For a lot of recipes here at Blue Kitchen, when we call for red wine in cooking, we are fine with using wine that is inexpensive and convenient. But for this recipe, don’t use anything you wouldn’t want to drink. I’m not calling for a 2003 Côte Rôtie, but, in a recipe with so few ingredients, the quality of the wine makes a difference.