Cook 2 cups of water with 1 cup of wine. Add 1 cup of sugar and a pinch of cinnamon and some strawberries, cherries and blackberries. Let simmer in the juice until fruit is done. Put in a glass dish and pour over the syrup. Serve cold.
A simple poached-fruit compote in sweet wine syrup. The only real skill is knowing when to stop cooking each fruit, since the recipe treats three very different berries as one.
- The wineAn unspecified "wine" here could reasonably be a light red or a fruity white; a Sp tburgunder or a dry Riesling both work. Red gives the syrup a better colour against the berries.
- Cook the fruit separatelyCherries need 8-10 minutes to soften; strawberries and blackberries collapse in two or three. Simmer the cherries first, lift them out, then poach the softer berries briefly in the same syrup.
- "Until fruit is done"Done here means just tender and still holding shape, not broken down. If the strawberries have gone pale and shapeless they have been in too long.
- Reduce the syrupTwo cups of water to one of wine gives a thin liquid. After removing the fruit, boil the syrup hard for a few minutes to concentrate it before pouring over — otherwise the dish is fruit floating in sweet water.
- CinnamonA pinch of ground cinnamon will cloud the syrup. A single stick, simmered in and removed, keeps it clear.
- Stoning the cherriesThe original assumes you know to pit them. Sour cherries suit this better than sweet, since the syrup is already heavily sugared.
- Yield and servingThe fruit quantity is unspecified, so the yield depends entirely on how much you use; enough berries to fill the three cups of syrup gives roughly a quart, serving four to six. Chill several hours; it is better the next day, and good with whipped cream or a plain sponge.
Compote — which comes via Old French composte from Latin composita, "put together," the same root as compost — is fruit cooked whole or in pieces in sugar syrup, distinct from a preserve in that it is meant to be eaten within a day or two rather than stored. Southern Germany and Austria treat compote as a near-daily item, served both as a dessert in its own right and as an accompaniment to roast meat and to fried dishes such as Wiener Schnitzel. The wine here is what marks it as Bavarian rather than simply stewed fruit.