Marak Perot – Simple Eastern European Jewish dessert recipe for Marak Perot, also known as Compote or Fruit Soup, with apricots, dried plums and lemon juice.
This recipe is one of the first dishes that appeared on my blog. It has been updated and rephotographed for 2014!
Not long after I started this blog, I wrote about a traditional Shabbat dinner that I cooked with my friends Etti and Bella Hadar. Etti had a family a memoir written by her late uncle, Dov Shimon Levin, a soldier in the Jewish Infantry Brigade who fought the Nazis during World War II. In his memoir, he wrote a detailed account of his life in the Pinsk region of Poland prior to the war. Being a lover of Ashkenazi cuisine, Uncle Dov wrote some amazing descriptions of the foods he enjoyed as a child. Etti and I pieced together a menu from the memoirs and recreated a traditional Polish Shabbat dinner using their family recipes.
Reading through Uncle Dov’s memoir, we came upon a dish called marak perot. It was the first time I’d ever heard the term. Marak perot is Hebrew for “fruit soup,” which is a pretty accurate description. It’s more widely known as “compote,” a dessert made from dried and fresh fruits, water, sugar and lemon juice. The fruit is slowly simmered as a soup, then chilled. It makes for a very refreshing dessert, a light and lovely way to end a heavy meal.
The marak perot recipe that appears here is from the Levin family memoirs. Once you get the basic concept feel free to improvise on the dish, adding your favorite fruits and spices to change things up. It can also be pureed for a sauce-like texture. Oh, and… by the way… the recipe includes prunes. Don’t cringe, please. When did prunes earn such a stigma? Let’s all agree to drop the collective prune disdain, shall we? Or we can just call them dried plums, if that makes you more comfortable… a little rebranding, long overdue, for an under-appreciated and tasty treat!
Are you familiar with this dessert? What do you call it– marak perot, compote, fruit soup or something different?
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Marak Perot - Compote
Ingredients
- 3 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
- 2 cups dried plums
- 1 cup dried apricots
- 3/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup sugar (you may omit or use your favorite sweetener to taste if desired)
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
Instructions
- Place apples, dried plums, dried apricots and raisins in a pot and cover 4 cups water. Bring to a boil, stir in sugar till dissolved.
- Reduce heat to medium low and cover. Simmer for 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally, until the water becomes a thick syrup and the prunes begin to dissolve. Remove the lid for the last 10-15 minutes of cooking so the liquid reduces.
- Remove fruit from heat and let it slowly return to room temperature. Squeeze the fresh lemon juice in, adding more to taste if desired. The lemon juice brightens up the flavor tremendously.Put the fruit in the refrigerator until it is fully chilled, at least 2 hours. Serve by ¾ cup portions in glass compote dishes.
Leslie Satz says
I pulled the “short straw” and was tasked with making compote for the family Seder. Tried your recipe with a few changes: skipped the sugar b/o my Paleo son, and added the juice of 1/2 fresh orange and substituted pears for apples. Also added 2 cardamon pod, 1/2 inch ginger root that I made slices into, but didn’t cut through, and a cinnamon stick while simmering. Later picked those 3 things back out before serving. The BEST! Folks asked for leftovers. Thanks for a great recipe.
Paula says
That sounds delicious, I love spiced fruit.
AnnieB says
I’m trying to equal my mother’s recipe, this comes closest though she didn’t add sugar because we ate it as a savory side dish to dinner. Mother was Litvak in her cooking, and used half the sugar of her Galitziana sister-in-law! But we always used golden raisins; if she didn’t have those she didn’t make it at all!
laura hall says
this is a great recipe!!!!!! it comes out looking just like your pictures. i could eat stewed cow patties if they were done with apricots and prunes.
people who say nietch to prunes should withhold judgment until they have tried them soaked in amaranth and dipped in tempered dark chocolate.
Sherry Oakes says
Compote, aka stewed fruit, was a staple in my house growing up. Now, my lapsed catholic husband loves it! BTW, my mother told me that as a girl, she and her friends used the prune juice (floimen yoich?) to set their hair. Better than beer!
Bill says
My Litvak Grandma called it Compote, and I made it when my wife brought a box of prunes back from America. Memories–all good! Thanks.
Shlomit Manson says
Hi Tori,
Compote, excellent recipe. My mother used dried apple slices since fresh apples were a luxury. She also used to add water and at the end of the process poured the liquid into a separate pitcher leaving just enough to cover the fruit. The liquid was one of my favorite cold drinks when I was a kid. I still do it this way. Thank you for the recipe and the memories.
Tori Avey says
Thank you Shlomit! So nice to hear from you. 🙂
Cathy says
My Swedish mom taught me to make “Swedish Fruit Soup” and we love it. So do our guests! We add a little cinnamon and cardamom, and a dollop of whipped cream on top (very Swedish!).
Tori Avey says
Cathy, I have a Swedish background on my mom’s side! I will have to try it that way next time. 🙂
nori says
growing up in the Netherlands we would call this Tutti frutti. I served it with Tory’s brisket, her beet salad and chicken soup and it was a great meal. I rarely uses recipes as is, but it I did this time.
Tori Avey says
So happy to hear that Nori!
Laura Campbell says
I made this and it is delicious! I think I may have cooked it on too high a heat as my apricots are not whole. No matter. I used cooking type apples and the 1/4 c sugar, however next time I will leave out the sugar – plenty sweet. (I added more lemon juice to compensate.). Dinner guests will love this.
Tori Avey says
Great Laura! I’ve also tried it without the sugar and it is great that way too.
Adam says
What a great traditional dish.
My grandmother calls this either “Compot” or “Liftan”.
This is the first time I see this dish being referred to as “Marak Perot”, which is strange considering I live in Israel.
Pamela Valentine says
Looks like Fruit Soup, my Swedish grandmother used to make.
Lauren Shapiro-Milana says
Compote. Will relieve matzas ails.
Lynne G Siegel says
Stewed fruit.
Chavi Woolf Feldman says
Compote….
Sue Schroeba says
1. No idea what “stigma” is attached to prunes – love them, fresh, dried, cooked. Doesn’t matter.
2. As the offspring of people who raise them, I’ve spent a good deal of my life correcting this: A prune is always a prune, be it fresh or dried or still hanging on the PRUNE tree it grew on! It is indeed a form of plum – one that has a tenderer skin and higher sugar content than most of the various round ones, thus NOT shipping well fresh, but lending itself to drying, so it is more often dried than the others. But it is a PRUNE, either way.
Tori Avey says
Hi Sue– I too love prunes. But you have to admit, some people look at them with disdain– “old folks” food, taken for digestive purposes, etc. Personally I think it’s silly, but the stigma does exist whether we like it or not. Thanks for the clarification on plum vs. prune, that is super interesting. I remember a while back when the California prune board started a big push to “rebrand” them as dried plums:
http://www.californiadriedplums.org/
As the daughter of an agri-business professor I love learning tidbits like this!
Abigail Sable Roberts says
Shared!
Rachel Rabinowitz says
It’s called a side dish, not a real dessert. Where’s the chocolate? 😉
Dalia Jones says
Both Marak Perot and Compot it was called at our home. It was a staple for the Seder, assigned to either my mother or my auntie (both of Polish-German origin). And it looked exactly like the one in your picture! Really brings back memories. Now, at home, we just love eating fresh fruit, no sugar added, but I must make this some day, for old times’ sake. Thank you, and Hag Sameach.
Mike Janning says
Tori: Or, you could try Chambord, or Grand Marnier, depending on the fruits.
Carol Asin says
We’ve always had this at our Seders….and I was always told that “Fruit Compote” was a necessity in order to counteract the effects of overeating matza!!