Prunes...excuse me, dried plums, are not the prettiest fruit in the world. They are wrinkled and black, wizened and dry like oversized raisins. They have a terrible reputation, too, as food for babies and the fiber-deprived. But it's a mistake to treat them as functional health food. Under proper treatment, prunes acquire a deep richness and silky soft texture, oozing sweet, dark plum juice. And when you combine that delicately tannic juice with red wine, well, they're downright indulgent.
I was inspired by Molly's recipe (in turn inspired by David Leibovitz) for stewed prunes. I made just a couple little tweaks, since I wanted to see what these would be like when stewed in wine. Ruby port (available for just a few dollars at Trader Joe's) is a wonderful complement to these prunes. When simmered down into a syrup it becomes even richer, like ripe red fruit.
The prunes literally melt in your mouth. They are warm and soft, totally appropriate for winter, and yet they hint of warmer times to come, and sunshine too. Serve them and their syrup over yogurt or a plain cake -- maybe a clementine cake. They make a wonderful dessert in a month when we're focusing on eating light.
Today I ate a bowl of my favorite steel-cut oatmeal, cooked with a little milk and cinnamon until creamy, and smeared a spoonful of prunes and their syrup on top. It's so delicious you hardly need any sugar at all.
Prunes Stewed in Port Wine
about 2-3 cups
1/2 pound dried prunes
1 clementine, sliced very thin
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup ruby port
2 tablespoons sugar (optional, to sweeten it up a bit)
Combine all the ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan. Add enough water to bring the liquid level just up over the prunes. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat for about half an hour, or until the prunes are very soft. Add more water as it simmers, if necessary.
Serve over yogurt, oatmeal, panna cotta, a plain cake, on toast, or anything else you can think of.
Related: Recipe: Cinnamon-Spiked Tomatoes
(Images: Faith Durand)
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Sweet lord, I loved "dried prunes" before I read this recipe. This is wonderful lagniappe. Oh, and if you've been told you need to get more potassium into your diet, but bananas (bleech) don't do it for you, these babies far surpass monkey food for potassium.
I've always loved prunes (I dont' need to fancy up the name), whether it is in cereal, eaten out of hand or in stewed with chicken thighs. I'll have to give this one a try.
Expat, the potassium thing is good to know! I loath bananas but have a recurring leg cramp I'm thinking might be due to a potassium deficiency. And this recipe looks glorious. Even the oatmeal, something I'm not usually head over heels for. Maybe I'll make it for dessert tonight.
This definitely looks more like dessert than breakfast. I'd probably get a little woozy off the port (I'm pretty sensitive to alcohol), which isn't a great way to start the day.
@Tiamat,
Deficiencies in calcium, and to a lesser extent, magnesium can also contribute to leg cramps.
I splurge and buy my dried plums/prunes "premium" in cans, so they're neither dry nor wrinkly, and while I understand how the "get your roughage" jokes are none too appetizing, has anyone who pooh-pooh's prunes (sorry) ever EATEN one? They are PLUMS! How many people don't like PLUMS?
(How nice to meet some fellow banana haters! For my pregnancy leg-cramps, I ate a lot of celery risotto--another high in potassium veg.)
Some notes: The surprising thing about this is that it isn't very sweet at all. I thought it would be really sugary, but it's surprisingly savory.
Hopefully all the alcohol simmers off, too; I definitely didn't feel a buzz.
And I'm with all of you prune-lovers; I like them on their own too! But it's just too easy to make prune jokes.
Looks delicious. :D
I, too, poach prunes in port. I serve them as dessert with mascarpone cheese. Amazing & fast--ten minutes work at most! Can be pricy, though: prunes port sugar vanilla bean cheese.
This looks fantastic, I'll give it a try. I've made a somewhat similar dish many times and loved it -- pears poached whole in a red wine syrup, where a handful of plumped prunes are added in the last few minutes of cooking. It's a dish my husband and I had in hole in the wall trattorias all over Rome when we were newlyweds, so I've got a sentimental attachment to it. Each restaurant would usually have a table set out in the middle of the dining room with a big bowl of curled puntarelle in ice water ready to be dressed for salad, a platter of long-stemmed artichokes in pools of lemony olive oil and a giant basin of ruby colored pears with prunes. So wonderful. Ah prunes, the most romantic of fruits!
Dried prunes and sweet coconut pudding.
Best combination ever! :P
My mom used to make this amazing dessert we called Prune Whip. It was prunes pureed with some other ingredients, basically baked up like a souffle. When it had become golden brown on the top, we would scoop it out warm in a bowl, and pour a bit of cold cream around it. Heaven.
love prunes. i recommend checking out the Far Breton recipe from bon appetit over at epicurious...it's amazing.