Full Recipe
Author
Nigella Lawson | 2016-11-18
Description
This is a doubly gratifying recipe for the waste-averse: the French toast (a slightly fancier take on the simple breakfast dish of my childhood) is made with the remains of a loaf otherwise too stale to eat and the cranberry-sharp, cinnamon-scented compote uses up plums that were bought more in the spirit of optimism than good sense. If the weight of plums seems a lot for what is a using-up recipe, it is because the plums I first used for this were as big and shiny as billiard balls, and about as hard (if this is the kind of animal you're dealing with, too, then quarter rather than halve the fruits to poach them); and if you're lucky enough to have a plum tree, this would gratifyingly use up a glut.
While I love the scarlet-fleshed plums, which the cranberry juice glowingly enhances, any plum will do, and you could go for apple juice were you wanting a less sherbetty-sharp edge to the poached fruit's juices.
Similarly, do not think you should consider this compote only to go with the French toast: eat with Greek yogurt or granola at breakfast, with creme anglais for a weekend-lunch dessert, or, frankly, any time.
