Prune Sauce Recipes

Steps:

• Place 3 cups of water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, add the tea bags, and steep for 5 minutes. Discard the tea bags, add the prunes and honey, turn the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 3 minutes to plump the prunes.
• Pour the prunes and all the liquid into a medium bowl and stir in the Armagnac, vanilla, orange juice, vanilla bean, and cinnamon sticks. With a vegetable peeler, cut 4 large strips of zest from 1 lemon and add to the mixture. Cut the lemon in half, cut 4 (1/2-inch-thick) slices, and add to the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 6 to 12 hours. (If you're not serving the prunes that day, refrigerate them in their liquid.)
• To serve, place the prunes in shallow dessert bowls and serve cold, at room temperature, or slightly warmed, spooning the macerating liquid over them. Add a scoop of ice cream, a drizzle of Armagnac, a drizzle of honey, and a sprinkling of grated lemon zest. (You'll be surprised how much flavor this adds!) Serve immediately.

Steps:

• In a large nonreactive mixing bowl, combine short ribs, carrots, celery, thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns. Cut 4 of the onions into 1-inch chunks, and add to bowl. Cut 2 heads of garlic (with peel) in half crosswise, and add to bowl. Pour wine over all, and mix well. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
• Remove short ribs from marinade, and drain well. Pat dry with paper towels, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. Strain marinade into a clean bowl, reserving vegetables. Remove thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns, and reserve. In a large casserole over high heat, heat 2 tablespoons of duck fat, and add short ribs. Sear short ribs until well browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove short ribs, and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add 1 tablespoon of duck fat to casserole, then add the reserved vegetables. Saute, stirring constantly, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add reserved marinade, and stir well. Boil marinade until reduced by half, about 15 minutes. Add veal stock, short ribs and reserved thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns. Cover, and braise in oven until ribs are very tender, about 2 1/2 hours.
• Remove short ribs from casserole, and set aside. Pour vegetables and liquid through a fine strainer into a large bowl. Discard all solids, and return liquid to a clean casserole. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, and reduce by half, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
• Cut remaining 3 onions into large dice. Separate the cloves of the remaining head of garlic, and peel and thinly slice. In a large saute pan over medium-low heat, add remaining 1 tablespoon duck fat. Add mushrooms, and saute until lightly browned. Remove from pan, and set aside. Add diced onions to pan, and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add sliced garlic to onions, and saute for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and prunes, and saute just until heated.
• Add sauteed onion, garlic, prunes and mushrooms to the casserole containing the reduced wine mixture. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Add short ribs, and mix gently. Place over medium-low heat, and simmer just until thoroughly heated. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Pat chicken thouroughly dry with paper towel and sprinkle sides with salt and pepper In a 10 to 12-inch skillet melt two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of oil over high heat.
• Add chicken skin-side down and reduce heat to moderate.
• Fry until sides are golden brown.
• (Don't worry if the inside is pink, we will be cooking the chicken more later) Transfer the chicken to a plate.
• Add the celery, carrot, and onion to the fat remaining in pan, stirring occasionally, and cook until the vegetables are soft but NOT brown.
• Return the chicken to the pan and lay the parsley and bay leaf on top.
• Pour in 1/2 cup of chicken broth.
• Bring to a boil over high heat.
• Lower the heat and simmer for thirty minutes, basting it from time to time with the juices in the pan Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups of water, the 1 1/2 cups of prunes, the lemon juice, and the sugar.
• Place on high heat.
• Bring prunes to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until prunes are tender.
• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
• Remove the chicken from the skillet and arrange attractively on an ovenproof platter.
• Scatter the cooked prunes over the top.
• Cover the platter loosely with foil and put it into the oven.
• Press hard on the vegetables with a spoonback releasing the juices.
• Discard vegetables.
• Set juices aside.
• Melt two tablespoons of butter in the skillet and add the flour.
• Cook on high heat until flour is golden brown.
• Pour in the 1/2 cup of reserved prune juice and the 1/2 cup of reserved pan juices (if there is less then 1/2 cup, make up for it by augmenting it with the chicken broth) Boil until sauce is smooth and thickened.
• Serve at once.

Steps:

• Peel, core, and slice apples.
• In a large pot, bring apples, lemon juice, prunes, vanilla and 2 cups water to a boil over high. Reduce heat and simmer until apples are very soft and falling apart, 25 to 30 minutes.
• Mash with a potato masher or pulse in a food processor until smooth with small chunks remaining. Add sugar.
• Let cool, then transfer applesauce to airtight containers.