Fruit Compote by bookseller

So I had a bunch of fruit -- say half a dozen each plums and white nectarines, plus smallish amounts of raspberries and blueberries, that I had bought in a fit of greed before the Dow collapsed, and that was about to turn up its toes. Plus which it was all somewhat challenged in the delicious department. So -- with the Down now having collapsed -- in a fit of newfound frugality, I decided that rather than pitch the lot, I would poach it, and make compote.

I boiled up a scant cup of sugar (well, for those mindful of my earlier post re lower-carb eating, I used Whey Low, my beloved sugar sub), a cup of fresh orange juice that I had, in a previous fit of frugality, frozen in an ice-cube tray, and three cups of water with a vanilla bean. I sliced the plums and nectarines, tossed them into the brew, and let it all simmer away, covered, for about 10 minutes. Removed the sliced fruit, boiled the brew down to about two cups of syrup, and let everything cool overnight. Once it was cool, I poured the juice that the plums and nectarines had given up overnight into the syrup, and tasted the syrup. It was a beautiful dark pink from the plum-skins and had a very pleasant plum-and-citrus flavor, but it was missing a little...something.

AhhhHA! In the back of the cupboard I had a large mason jar full of creme de cassis that I had made a couple of summers ago from organic black currants, vodka, and Whey Low. I poured in a healthy glug -- maybe a quarter-cup, certainly not more than that -- and stirred it up.

Oh. My. God. Delicious to the tenth power. I mixed the now-cooled plums and nectarines with the raspberries and blueberries, ladled Syrup of the Gods over everything, ladled the remaining cup of SoG into a teeny Tupperware for...for I'm not sure what I'll use it for, but I must avoid the temptation to just suck it down straight, and put both containers in the fridge. I am now counting the minutes until it will have chilled sufficiently to become my lunch, with some Greek yogurt. DAYUM. This is one of the best things I have ever made.

ETA the reason I am so devoted to Whey Low is that it tastes and functions exactly like sugar, but has the calories and carbs of Splenda (which I can't stand). Anyone wanting to make their own Compote of the Gods from the above description could certainly just use sugar with pretty much identical results.