Polish Kompot: Chilled Plum and Apple Fruit Drink for Lunchboxes

Put the plums, apples and cold water in a large pot. Starting from cold water rather than boiling draws the fruit color out slowly and keeps the liquid clear.

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 1 pound (450 g) ripe purple plums, halved and pitted
• 2 medium apples, cored and cut into thick wedges
• 8 cups (2 liters) cold water
• 1/3 cup (65 g) granulated sugar, or to taste
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 whole cloves
• 2 wide strips lemon peel
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Pinch of fine sea salt

Instructions

1. Put the plums, apples and cold water in a large pot. Starting from cold water rather than boiling draws the fruit color out slowly and keeps the liquid clear.
2. Add the cinnamon stick, cloves and lemon peel and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, about 10 minutes.
3. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, until the plums have collapsed and the liquid has turned a deep ruby.
4. Stir in the sugar and the pinch of salt and simmer 2 minutes more, just until dissolved. The salt is not detectable but sharpens the fruit noticeably.
5. Turn off the heat and let the kompot steep, undisturbed, for at least 30 minutes so the spices settle and the color deepens.
6. Stir in the lemon juice, then strain through a sieve into a pitcher. Do not press the fruit through, or the drink will turn cloudy.
7. Taste and adjust with a little more sugar or lemon; ripe late-summer plums need far less sweetening than early ones.
8. Chill at least 4 hours or overnight, and serve cold over ice, or slightly warm on the first cold morning of the term.
9. The strained fruit is not waste. Polish cooks spoon it over yogurt or pierogi, or blend it into a quick compote for breakfast the next day.
10. Kompot is the everyday Polish table drink, poured at family dinners and packed in school thermoses long before commercial juice boxes existed, and it changes with whatever the orchard is giving. September belongs to plums, whose skins carry both the tannin and the deep ruby color that make the finished drink taste like more than sweetened water. Made without sugar it is essentially fruit tea; made this way it is the reason a generation of Polish kids grew up thinking juice should taste faintly of cloves.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 95 kcal
• Protein: 1g
• Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 24g
• Fiber: 2g
• Sugar: 21g
• Sodium: 35mg