Conference turris::cooks

One option is to flame the brandy before adding it, thus eliminating the 
alcohol.

						     
							- JP

    I have a great fruit compote recipe that fits your criteria:
    
    	- no grapefruit
    	- bourbon added before cooking
    	- uses a wide variety of both dried and canned fruit
    
    It's a relatively simple recipe and delicious.  Leftovers
    are good as an ice cream topping.
    
    Now that everyone's anxious to see it, I'll have to find it
    tonite and post it over the weekend.  Someone jog my memory
    next week if it doesn't show up.
    
    Donna

    HERE IT IS!!!  This has always been an extremely popular dessert
    for me.  Hope you enjoy it.
    
    			HOT FRUIT COMPOTE
    
    8-oz. can pineapple slices		3 cinnamon sticks
    16-oz. can apricot halves		12 whole cloves
    11-oz. pkg mixed dried fruit	3/4 c. bourbon
    16-oz. can peach slices, drained
    16-oz. can pitted cherries, drained
    1 cup seedless green grapes (frequently omitted by me)
    Sour Cream (optional)
    
    Drain pineapple slices and apricots, reserving syrups.  Place
    dried fruit in large saucepan, add syrups, cinnamon sticks,
    cloves and bourbon.  Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
    
    Add pineapple slices, apricots, peaches, cherries and grapes,
    then simmer 5 more minutes.  Serve warm, topped with a dollop of
    sour cream.
    
    Serves 12.  Leftovers delicious served hot or cold over ice cream.
                                                                      

    I had great succes using Comstocks Pie fillings warmed in the microwave
    as a fruit compote for French Toasts, crepes etc. 
    
    The blueberry and apple tend to be the best.  Adding an amount of your
    favorite *spirits* should be a *nice* touch.
    
    I think I'm going to have to try that.
    

    Does Comstock make a peach pie filling?  I'll bet that would
    be interesting warmed up with a little rum in it..  Hmmmmm?
    
    /Laura
    

    I had a warm, fresh fruit compote on my vacation, and while I didn't
    get the recipe from the cook, it appeared to be fruit and juices in
    a simple syrup.  It was incredible!  She put in bananas (and they
    didn't turn brown, indicating that there was lemon juice in the syrup),
    pineapple, peaches, pears, apples, oranges, grapefruit, and grapes.  It
    was served with whole wheat French toast for breakfast.  Any
    fruit-flavored liqueur would be good with this (I have some blueberry
    schnapps that would be very good in something like this).
    
    My grandmother makes a warm compote from dried fruits - prunes,
    apricots, raisins.  She simmers them in water to plump them, and adds a
    little sugar.  Not too sweet, very tasty.  This would be good with a
    little apricot brandy, I think.
    
    Good luck,
    
    Susan

    I'm faily sure I've seen Comstocks peach pie filling.  I believe there
    is also mince-meat and raisens.
    
    From experience (taste tested) Blueberry,Cherry,Apple,Peach are the
    best.  I haven't tried adding the liquor.
    
    Though I make a lot of things from scratch I can rationalize *fudging*
    (I decided to avoid cheating) in this area.
    
    

    re..3
    
    Just because the bananas don't turn brown, does not mean there is lemon
    juice.  If the bananas are mixed with other citrus fruits or pineapple,
    they won't turn.

Some suggestions:

Mix pineapple juice with some arrowroot (clearer than cornstarch) or
cornstarch (canned juice, 1 cup: 2 teaspoons cornstarch) a little at
a time to make a paste, then mix in the rest of the juice.  Heat over
medium to low heat until thickened and bubbling.  Add Superfine sugar
to taste (if necessary).
Stir in drained, canned -in-juice fruit like peach slices, pineapple 
chunks, pitted dark cherries and maybe add fresh fruit like grapes or 
firm slices of plum.  You can even toss in a handful of raisins.
Heat to warm before serving....you can add rum (a good brand of dark
rum is preferred - smoother) brandy, or fruit schnapps just before heating
and serving.  Add a jigger only - not too much spirits.  If your are
not a drinker, try adding a nice squirt of fresh lemon or lime juice
to "smarten" up the flavor.

You can use apricot nectar, pineapple-orange juice, or other juice of
choice for the base sauce.  Check a cookbook for the ratio of arrowroot
to liquid.  It makes a crystal clear sauce - very nice if you are using
one of the cranberry juice mixtures as the base sauce...or cherry juice.

If you make your own sauce for the fruit, even adding sugar to taste,
you will use half the sugar of a commercial pie filling and have more
fruit in your fruit sauce.

    Autumn Compote (Boston Globe/Oct.18th/Food Section
    
    4 large apples
    1 cup water
    1/4 cup sugar
    1 stick cinnamon broken into 3 or 4 pieces
    1 tablespoon butter
    1/4 tsp. salt (or more to taste)
    3 large oranges, peeled, sectioned, and seeded
    grated rind of 1 lemon
    1/4 cup red wine
    1/4 cup orange-flavored liqueur
    1/2 cup chopped walnuts
    
    Peel, core and slice apples; reserve the skins.  Put skins and water
    into a small pan, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook over low
    heat for about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, combine apple slices, sugar,
    cinnamon, butter and salt in another saucepan.  Add the liquid from the
    skins.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cook, stirring
    occasionally over low heat until the apples are just barely tender,
    about 5 to 8 minutes.  Remove the cinnamon pieces.  Combine with orange
    sections, lemon rind, red wine, liqueur in bowl.  Serve warm or
    refrigerate.  Before serving, garnish with walnuts.  Serves six.