Susan Jane White’s gifting jar of Wild Red Mead prunes is a recipe to keep the pipes in check over the Christmas period

From independent.ie

Susan Jane White’s gifting jar of Wild Red Mead prunes is a recipe to keep the pipes in check over the Christmas period

• It’s gift season and I’m nosediving into my Santa hat and glittered apron with violent giddiness. Homemade presents are my modus operandi, my maternal algorithm and form of expression. It’s how I show love and appreciation (none of which a scented candle from Goop can embody).
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Wild Red Mead is a fruity alcoholic bevvie made in Kinsale from fermenting honey with dark cherries and Wexford blackcurrants. As expected, it tastes like some cosmic spillage from the stars. It’s smooth and rich with a deep burgundy hue. Fruit meads were basically Ireland’s medieval red wines, alchemised from native wild berries, raw honey and keen tenacity.

Grab yourself a bottle this Christmas (kinsalemeadco.ie), and serve at room temperature in dinky little port glasses. Any leftovers can be rustled into these celestial red mead prunes, served warm with vanilla ice-cream. Prunes are obviously absurdly talented, with their Oscar-worthy role in powerhosing our pipes. But marry them with Irish mead, and an aria breaks out. The combination is devastatingly good, and will become a firm favourite every Christmas. Trouble is, I keep eating the gifts.

Wild Red Mead prunes

                                            Gift jars of prunes boiled in Kinsale Wild Red Mead. Photo: Susan Jane White

For 2 gift jars

You will need:

300ml Kinsale Wild Red Mead

5 tablespoons muscovado sugar

4 cloves

200g pitted prunes

​1 Tumble the Wild Red Mead, muscovado sugar and cloves into a small saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil for 3 minutes to burn the alcohol off. I realise that this may sound counter intuitive to an Irish reader at Christmas time, but the end result will still rock your tonsils and your toes.

​2 Reduce the heat to a polite simmer and add your prunes. You’ll find fabulous soft, pitted prunes in Lidl for €1.50. Harder prunes will need longer cooking time to absorb the mead.

​3 Simmer for about 10 minutes (longer if your prunes are hard, but you don’t want soft prunes disintegrating into the liquid). Take your pan of prunes off the heat and discard the cloves.

4 Allow the prunes to cool down and absorb all the juiciness before packing into 2 scrupulously clean jars, and tying a dinky Christmas ribbon around each neck. Store in the fridge for up to 10 days or gift them straightaway. Serve with vanilla ice-cream or thick Greek yoghurt and a side of Bing Crosby.

https://www.independent.ie/life/food-drink/recipes/susan-jane-whites-gifting-jar-of-wild-red-mead-prunes-is-a-recipe-to-keep-the-pipes-in-check-over-the-christmas-period/a533607798.html