Hot fruits
Fruit compote is one of the things I love to cook on summer evenings to enjoy with breakfast the day after. We are almost awash with juicy, colourful fruits at the moment. Cherries and apricots soon to be followed by pears and plums. And when I get a dose of wanderlust, I combine pineapple and mango. Once the compotes have been reduced, they are cooled and are a welcome sweet addition to crêpes, quark or yoghurt the next morning. Or you can serve the concentrated fruit flavours with ice cream. I kind of have a formula (of success) to make it. First into the pot are the fruits. To avoid having to purée or crush them later, slice the fruits into the shapes and sizes that you want at the end. Then add honey; it provides sweetness and gives the compote a great consistency when everything becomes thickened and slightly creamy. Finally, lemon or lime juice and herbs or some other spice are needed to round it all off and add some taste-enhancing acidity. Malabar pepper is a wonderful accompaniment to plums, apricots become even fruitier with the gentle spice of ginger, pears and matcha green tea are a perfect pairing and cardamom gives cherries a fine oriental note. First hot, then cold: reduced fruit are perfect for the summer stockpile. They keep for a very long time in the fridge. But you don’t need to worry about the best-before date – the compotes taste way too good to keep for too long.