Poached Plums Recipes

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.

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.

PLUMS POACHED IN VANILLA, CINNAMON, ANISE

Steps:

• Cut plums in half and remove the stones. In a sauce pot bring the remaining ingredients to a boil. Add plums and cook quickly until tender. Pour out onto a sheet pan to stop cooking and allow to cool. Serve fruit with a bit of the poaching liquid.

POACHED FRUIT

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, combine wine, sugar, cinnamon sticks, lemon peel, and 5 cups water. Place over medium heat, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Gently place nectarines in the liquid. Add more water if needed to cover nectarines. Place a square of cheesecloth over the fruit, and top with a small plate to keep fruit submerged.
• Increase heat to high, and bring liquid to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook until nectarines are tender but not soft, about 5 minutes. Remove nectarines from liquid, and allow to cool
• Return liquid to a boil, and cook until reduced to a syrup that will coat the back of spoon, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and cool.
• Cut nectarines in half, and remove pit. Place two halves on serving plate. Drizzle with syrup. Top each half with a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprig of mint.

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.

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.

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.

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.