MADERIA SOAKED RAISINS

There really is no secret here - Raisins soaked in Madeira - a fortified wine from Portugal. Simple to make, they are ideal for spoonng over vanilla ice cream, filling yorkshire curd tarts, serving with cheese cakes. The uses really are endless. This batch will keep in the fridge in an air-tight jar for months.

Ingredients:

1 bottle of Madeira
1 lb Thomson raisins.

Method:

Pour the madeira into a pan over a mdium heat and heat until it's just a bit too warm to stick your finger in. Add the raisins, give it another finger test, take off the heat and pour into a jar, cool, seal and chill. That's it.

Do not let the madeira come to boiling point or the alcohol will begin to evaporate which takes the buzz out of the whole dish. Even worse, if the pan gets too hot the alcohol will ignite and you'll have a huge flambe on your hands. Any idea how long a whole bottle of Madeira will burn? Too long.