How to 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 represent Christ, who brings life to men.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 12 different kinds of dried fruits
• Cheesecloth
• Bowl
• Cognac
• Knife or scissors
• Spoon

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Mix the fruits up and cover the bowl with cheesecloth. Stir once per day until the cognac is completely absorbed. Do not refrigerate as you want the fruit to begin to ferment.

Tips & Warnings

• You'll need to make this at least four days in advance of when you plan to serve it. Three weeks is not too long. If the fruit begins to dry out, add a little more cognac.
• Don't use dried bananas--they don't reconstitute well.

[sneedc]

on 12/31/2008 Though I can't pronounce it, I love the history behind it and it definitely sounds like something worth trying! Very good article, thank you for sharing!