Prunes Poached in Red Wine & Rosemary

Now the title of this post may have you thinking 'that doesn't sound like a baking recipe' and that's because it isn't. I bit the bullet this month and finally took part in the random recipe challenge. Hence the slightly bizarre sounding title. The challenge this month was to put your hand in the back of the storecupboard and pull out something that had been lurking there all neglected. In my cupboard this happened to be a third of a bag of prunes. I bought these ages ago and used most of the packet in a beef tagine from Jamie Oliver's Jamie Does book, a great recipe by the way. The prunes gradually worked their way to the back of the cupboard and eventually they ended moving house with us twice. We moved in October last year just up the road to a nicer place in Plymouth and then in June we moved 200 miles to Reading. The prunes followed us and ended up in the back of the cupboard both times, so I'm very glad to have finally been able to use them. I checked the expiry date on the packet last night and it said April 2012. After a quick sniff and a bite of one of them I decided they were fine. It's dried fruit so I was expecting them to be OK anyway. I don't pay too much attention to dates on food packaging except for raw meat and fish. This isn't acceptable for everyone but I'm not dead yet!

After flicking through a few book I came across this recipe for the poached prunes in Ani's Raw Food Desserts. I only had enough to make a half quantity which is just as well because my boyfriend doesn't like prunes or red wine. I wasn't sure how this would work as a dessert but I was pleasantly surprised. The honey added a gentle sweetness that worked well with the wine and rosemary. I had to substitute the agave syrup in the recipe for honey as I didn't have any. There is also a small amount of lemon zest as well just to give it a bit of a lift. As winter is drawing in I'll be making that beef tagine again and now I know what to do with the leftover prunes. This recipe ended up being quite a nice little treat on a Monday evening and as I made enough for 2 I'll be having the leftovers tonight.

Ingredients - serves 2

175ml dry red wine - I used a Chilean Merlot
2 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
100g pitted prunes

Mix together the wine, honey, lemon zest and rosemary in a small bowl. Add the prunes and leave to soak for at least an hour before serving. The recipe originally suggests topping with chopped almonds to serve but I didn't have any so just had the prunes as they were.

I'm sending this to Dom's Random Recipe challenge and also into Karen's Herbs on Saturday.