Poached Fruit with Mavrodaphne

One of September’s grapes is called fraoula, which means strawberry. I do not know why it is called strawberry but I suppose it could be because of its colour or taste.     We usually don’t eat grapes except for the seedless sultana grapes but for some unknown reason when I saw them at the farmers’ market last week, I was tempted to buy them. They reminded me of a variety of grapes which only exists in Cyprus and are called “verikon”. It is said that during the British occupation of the island, when the Brits tasted these grapes they kept repeating “very good, very good” and that was paraphrased to “verikon”.

We all tried the grapes and although they tasted great, we hate taking out the pips one by one.  It must ran in the family because we all loathe the pips. As I realized that it would be wasted, I google searched recipes with grapes and I found  one which appealed to me.  It was with a salmon recipe with this sauce (the recipe will be posted tomorrow).

I removed all the pips from the grapes but followed a different approach to the original recipe. I used a shallow non-stick frying pan, where I heated one tablespoon olive oil and sauteed the spices first, to bring out their best qualities and then boiled the grapes and wine on high heat until it was reduced to half.

Although the recipe called for red dry wine, which  I did have, my instinct told me that I should use a red sweet dessert wine.   I had Mavrodaphne and Coumandaria, a Cypriot wine.    I preferred to use Mavrodaphne, as Coumandaria is quite expensive in comparison to Mavrodaphne but still is an excellent dessert wine.

Mavrodaphne, meaning black laurel, is mainly produced in Peloponnese, in the regions of Achaia. This wine was first produced in 1861 by the Bavarian Clauss Gustav. Gustav used a local variety of grapes called mavrodaphne and now the winery is known as Achaia Clauss.

I cannot tell you how great the grapes tasted. Unfortunately I did not make a larger quantity as that was all the mavrodaphne I had at home but since then I have made it again and again and believe me if you try it you will be hooked.  It can be used to match savory recipes as well as desserts.

Since then, I have poached other fruit as well and depending of its use I have used different spices but always keeping the peppers, as I think they are the star of all spices.

Each time I shall be posting a new fruit, I shall be adding the recipe here and linking to this post.

Poached Red Grapes with Mavrodaphne (1st Recipe)

Preparation time: 15 minutes (just to remove the pips!!)

Cooking time: ½ hour

Ingredients:

• 25 grapes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups red sweet Mavrodaphne wine
• ½ tsp peppercorns (black, white, green, pink)
  
• ½ tsp crushed coriander seeds
• 1/8 tsp yellow mustard seeds
• 1/8 tsp salt

Directions:

1. In a non-stick frying pan add 1 tablespoon olive oil and sauté spices.
2. Add the grapes and mix for 1 minute.
3. Add the wine and boil on high heat until it is reduced to half (about ½ hour) mixing every now and then.

Recipes:

Seared Pecan Crusted Salmon with  Red Grapes and Mavrodaphne

Braised Chicken Livers with poached grapes

Poached Red Grapes with Mavrodaphne (2nd recipe)

Preparation time: 25 minutes (just to remove the pips!!)

Cooking time: ½ hour

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo red grapes (fraoula) pitted
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 750 ml mavrodaphne wine
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 6 -8 cloves
• 1 tsp mixed peppercorns
• 1 star anise

Directions:

1. In a large non-stick frying pan add 1 tablespoon olive oil and sauté spices.
2. Add the grapes and mix for 1 minute.
3. Add the wine and boil on high heat until the wine is reduced to half.
   

Recipe:

Spicy White Chocolate Cake with Caramelized Bananas

Poached Prunes with Mavrodaphne

Ingredients:

• 650 grams pitted prunes
• 350 ml Mavrodafphe
• 2 tsps brown cane sugar
  
• ½ tsp peppers
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 cloves
• A pinch of cumin

Directions:

1. In a non-stick frying pan  add 1 tablespoon olive oil and sauté spices.
2. Add the prunes and mix for 1 minute.
3. Add the wine and boil on high heat until it is reduced to half (about ½ hour).

Recipes:

Rocket, baby spinach and pear Salad with Prune Vinaigrette

Tags: Fraoula, fruit, Grapes, Greek wines, Mavrodaphne, Poached fruit, prunes, Sauces, Spices, Vinaigrette