How Do You Make Ovoce Na Spiritujse (Traditional Polish Christmas Eve Dessert)?
This dish is part of the traditional Polish Wigilia, a 13-course meal served on Christmas Eve. The twelve kinds of fruit stand for the 12 apostles, while the cognac represents Christ, who brings life to men. The other way to think of this dessert is “brandied dried fruit” and it’s as simple as that! Measure out equal amounts of the twelve different kinds of dried fruits and chop into roughly equal sizes. You can go either by weight or size, it really doesn’t matter. Some fruits might include: dates, raisins, currants, prunes, apricots, apples, figs, pears, mangoes, papaya, almost anything but banana. Put the fruits in a bowl. Pour cognac in to cover. If you have 3 oz. of each dried fruit it will take a 750-ml bottle; 4 oz. of each dried fruit will take 1 litre of cognac. Use an off-brand but good-tasting cognac. Remember, the fruit will soak up the flavour of the cognac so it’s important to make sure the cognac tastes good to start with, or the dessert will be ruined. Mix the fruits up
