Kompot z suszu: the Polish Christmas Eve drink of dried plums, apples and pears
The drink a Polish Christmas Eve table is hard to imagine without: dried plums, apples and pears soaked overnight, simmered briefly with cinnamon and cloves, sweetened with honey and sharpened with lemon. Dark, smoky, sweet-and-sour. Not a preserve for jars but a preserve made of preserves: fruit dried in autumn so it would last until December. Best cold, the next day.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Fruit soaking overnight 720 min
- Cooking 30 min
- Cooling and mellowing 120 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneLook over the fruit
Rinse the fruit in a sieve under warm water to wash off dust and smoke residue. Smoked prunes give the compote its dark colour and smoky taste; unsmoked ones are milder, and both are traditional.
Ingredients: 200 g prunes · 100 g dried apples · 100 g dried pears · 50 g raisins · 2500 ml water · 1 pcs cinnamon stick · 4 pcs cloves · 3 tbsp honey · ½ pcs lemon, juice and zest
TipReady 'Christmas Eve mix' packets often have too many apples and too few plums. Buy separately: a 2 : 1 : 1 ratio of plums to apples and pears works well.
Prunes, apples, pears, raisins, rinsedSoak overnight
Put the fruit in a large pot, cover with all the cold water and leave 12 hours. Soaked fruit gives up its flavour quickly and stays whole after simmering; unsoaked, it needs longer cooking and falls apart more easily.
Cold water, overnight, fruit plumpingSimmer briefly with the spices
Add the cinnamon, cloves and lemon zest to the pot of fruit and soaking water. Bring to the boil and simmer over low heat 30 minutes, covered. The water should barely bubble, not boil: the compote should stay clear.
TipGo easy on the cloves: four per 2.5 litres is enough. More, and the compote tastes like a pharmacy.
Thirty minutes, barely bubblingSweeten and sharpen
Take off the heat, remove the lemon zest. Stir the honey and lemon juice into the warm, not boiling, compote. Taste: sweet, but with a clear sourness. Dried fruit varies in sweetness, so add the honey a spoon at a time.
Honey into the warm compote, lemon to tasteCool and serve cold
Cool completely, ideally overnight somewhere cold: the flavour evens out and deepens. Serve cold, with fruit in the glass. Keeps 5 days in the fridge; on Boxing Day it is better than on Christmas Eve.
Cold, with the fruit, on the Christmas Eve table
Before you start
With dried apricots and figs
50 g each of apricots and figs instead of some of the apples: lighter, sweeter, more southern in flavour. Not traditional, but very good.
With red wine
A glass of dry red wine instead of a glass of water, added for the last 10 minutes of simmering. A compote for grown-ups, almost mulled wine.
The fruit afterwards
Don't throw it away: the prunes and pears from the compote, chopped into porridge, a cheesecake or onto toast with curd cheese, are excellent.