triple sec

Plum Soup with Tarragon and Blackberries

Plum soup with tarragon
Prep time: 90
Yield:1 ()

Ingredients:

  • 6 ripe red plums
  • 4 oz blackberries, plus more for garnish
  • 1 c dry riesling wine
  • 0.25 c sugar
  • 4 sprigs tarragon wrapped in cheesecloth and secured with twine
  • 2 T triple sec
  • 0.25 c water

Directions

Fill a large bowl with ice and water and set it aside. Bring a medium pot of filled with water to a boil. Drop the plums into the water blanch ing them until skin starts to get wrinkled, cracked and begins to peel away, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove plums from water and immediately place them into the prepared ice bath until cool 4-5 minutes. Remove plums from ice bath, reserving ice bath. Using your fingers gently peel the plums and cut them away from the pit in chunks. Place the plum chunks into a medium saucepan. Add 4 oz blackberries, wine, sugar, tarragon, triple sec and the water to the saucepan. Cover the pan, and bring to a low simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium low, and allow the fruit to simmer until plums are falling apart, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and transfer the contents to a clean bowl. Then place the bowl in the reserved ice bath, stirring occasionally, until cold. Remove tarragon sprigs from the cold mixture. Using an immersion blender puree the mixture until quite smooth and frothy. Serve garnished with extra blackberries.

Notes:

serves 4-6 This mixture would also make a great base for sorbet. Just freeze it according to the directions of you ice cream machine. Source: My inspiration for this dessert came from Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

thai basil floating on blood orange cocktail martiniI like a nice cocktail. A perfectly prepared, impeccably presented, cocktail. I like the whole process of a cocktail. The amassing of the very best ingredients. The high-tech gleam of good stainless steel bar tools. The shimmering, sparkling crystal of very good barware.

I like the entire ritual.

Maybe the allure is that certain bit of glamour attached to the ritual. Engulfed in nostalgia. Swank. Stylish. It’s that, yes, but so much more.

This is of course epitomized in the scintillating viscosity a very good martini. Always gin, never vodka.

But I have a confession. I am not that good a bartender. I am not saying I cannot mix a drink. I mix a perfectly respectable cocktail—most of the time.

I am trying to get the finer points of mixology into my lexicon. But I have a feeling an impeccable Perfect Martini can only be mixed by somebody who has the talent bred into his or her DNA.

Sippity Sup Continues »