Monday, October 18, 2010

Pretty in Pink: A Plummy Drink

I got a little bored over the weekend and decided to look at some more of the menu items for the contest going on at Kitchen Play.

The deal is that Kitchen Play posts a menu each month, and each of the six menu items has already been prepared by bloggers who post the recipes and prep instructions on their sites. Everyone else is invited to make one or more of the recipes, blog about it, and post links hither and yon.

After I got clarification that you're supposed to be inspired by the recipes rather than trying to create them as close to the original as possible, I liked the contest idea a lot better. I'm not into the idea of making food just for a photo or a contest; I want to make something I really want to eat (or in this case, drink). I want it to be something I know I'm going to enjoy.

And of course, when I'm trying to use already-in-stock pantry and produce items, it's nice to be able to make the changes to recipes and still get in on the contest fun.

Speaking of contests, the prizes for this month's contest are from Sur la Table and include V-Slicers and a Le Creuset French Oven. Not exactly a complete kitchen makeover, but those are nice prizes. Definitely worth giving it a shot, and to be honest, I appreciated the inspiration to do something I hadn't planned on.

This recipe is based on this Nectarine Bourbon Cocktail. After making my version, I realized that I could have left out the butter. I'll do that next time. I used plums, because I had a bunch of them in the fridge that were beginning to look like they might want to be prunes some day. They weren't going bad, but they were less than wonderful looking. I started peeling them and removing pits, but then realized that the skins would add a nice color, and it would be easier to cook them down and then strain than it would be to peel and pit the slippery little monsters.

Pretty in Pink: A Plummy Drink
To make the plum puree:
8 plums, cut in half
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon honey (or more, to taste)
For the drink:
Plum puree
Ice
Bourbon (or your choice of whatever)
Fizzy water or soda

Melt the butter in a pan and add the honey. Add the plums and cook until they soften. Pass the mixture through a strainer and discard the seeds and skin. Refrigerate until chilled. Taste for sweetness. I left mine tart, but that's up to you. You can also add honey or simple syrup when you make the drink.

To make the drink, put a few spoons of the puree into a glass and add your liquor of choice (add extra sweetener now, if you want to). Or leave out the liquor for a refreshing nonalcoholic drink. Add ice cubes and top with soda water, lemon-lime soda, or whatever you prefer.

You can garnish the drink if you want. I'm not big on garnishes for my own drinks, but if I was making this for company, a slice of lime would be pretty.

The plum puree would also be nice topped with sparkling wine or champagne.
Yum

1 comment:

Arm70 said...

Nice! I wouldn't have thought bourbon would be good here but it looks good!

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