Aruba is a part of the Netherlands Antilles (or Dutch Antilles) and hence also a part of the Netherlands. The island is located very close to the Venezuelan and Colombian coast and has about 100,000 inhabitants. Aruba has a drier climate than most of the Caribbean and is outside of the hurricane belt, which also contribute to its success as a tourist destination (including cruise ship destination), especially among Americans and Venezuelans. The culture has strong Dutch influences, including celebration of Dutch holidays, but also some influences of former Spanish rule. Carnival (Mardi Gras) is a big celebration and starts already in January. Oil products are the main import, but alcohol, cigars, phosphate and aloe are also important.

The Aruban cuisine has been influenced by e.g. South America, Spain and of course the Netherlands. E.g. bitterballen (Dutch meatballs), croquettes, pea soup and satay sauce (Dutch “national dish”, originally from Indonesia) are popular. In general soups tend to be hearty and stew-like. Seafood, coconut and plantains are eaten a lot like in the rest of the Caribbean. Eggplant, papaya, okra and sweet potatoes are also common ingredients. Annatto seeds (ruku) are used as an orange coloring for food. Food is usually served with funchi (cornmeal mush) or pan bati (pancakes), sometimes roti, an Indian flatbread now popular in just about all former Dutch colonies.

There are quite a few recipes for black bean salsas with mango, but in this Aruban version it is seasoned with lime juice and lime zest, which give it a lovely, very aromatic flavour. My mango was too ripe, which meant it started to disintegrate very quickly. I took this photo immediately, but two days later the whole thing was a slimy goo, although still very tasty. So perhaps a ripe but not too ripe mango would work the best… I really recommend making this dish, it’s simple yet very tasty. Despite the relatively large amount of vinegar and lime juice it doesn’t feel tart, because the beans “buffer” it.

Black bean salsa with mango and lime

1 can black beans (or about 1.5 cups/3.6 dl of freshly cooked black beans)
1 medium mango, peeled and finely chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
4 medium green onions, chopped
1 tbsp cilantro
1/2 tsp lime zest
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
cayenne pepper, to taste
(salt, to taste, if using non-canned beans)

Mix all the ingredients together. Let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, preferably 2 hours, in the fridge to let the flavours mix. Serve as a side dish or e.g. in tortillas or with tofu scramble. Serves four (depending on what you’re serving it with, of course).

Italy is a large country in Southern Europe, well-known for its history, culture (especially opera and classical painters), architecture, cuisine and fashion. The criminal organization Mafia is also very infamous and still holds significant power in many areas, though overall crime rates in the country are low. Besides the Mafia the Catholic church is also a major economic power. Regional differences are big and Italy as an unified country has only existed since 1861. Many small Romance languages are spoken in Italy. It also houses two tiny enclave countries: the Vatican (entirely located inside the city of Rome) and San Marino.

Italy is a very popular tourist destination, both for people living in nearby countries and internationally. Besides Rome many other large cities are common holiday destinations, such as Turin, Naples, Milan, Florence, Verona and Venice, as well as many rural areas. (Italy probably has more famous cities than any other country of its size.) Bologna should also be mentioned, as it has the oldest university in the world, founded in 1088.

Besides pizza, risotto and the usual tomato-based pasta dishes the Italian cuisine features numerous lesser-known dishes and there are big regional differences. Many kinds of cheeses, fresh herbs (not just basil) and high quality olive oil are very important. Truffles and porcini mushrooms are highly valued. Many people don’t realize is how commonly beans are eaten in many parts of Italy, e.g. with pasta and in soups (Italian restaurants elsewhere tend to serve the richer and fancier dishes instead of “pheasant food”). The most famous desserts must be tiramisú, made with mascarpone cheese, lady fingers and espresso (quite possible to veganize, too) and gelato (Italian ice cream), but there are also mousses, tarts and fruit desserts.

It was, of course, very difficult to choose an Italian dish to feature, but I knew it had to be from one of my favorite (and most underrated!) vegan cookbooks, Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Nonna’s Italian Kitchen. The book also has the absolute best ever vegan ice cream recipe which you don’t need an ice cream maker for – my Italian friend polished off the raspberry gelato almost supernaturally quickly!)

I have made quite a few walnut recipes for Vegventures, mostly from Balkan, Middle East and Caucasia, but I wanted to make something most people wouldn’t be familiar with. Besides, my Italian friend, who lives in Bologna, really likes pasta with walnut sauce. This recipe is a Ligurian specialty. It has a rather complex earthy flavour, much more than just walnut. Nuts and herbs are typical of Ligurian cuisine and pesto also originates from this region.

Salsa di noci

3/4 cup/1.8 dl chopped walnuts
2 cups/4.8 dl soymilk
1 chicken style broth cube (or enough broth powder for 1 cup broth)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 tsp chopped fresh marjoram or 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
soy parmesan or almesan
salt to taste (no pepper)

Toast the walnuts on a dry pan on medium-low heat constantly stirring until they just begin to change color and smell toasted. Remove from the pan. Grind the nuts with a blender, food processor or spice mill until fairly finely ground (but not powdered).

Combine the nuts, the soymilk, the broth cube/powder and garlic in a saucepan or frying pan and bring to boil. Keep at low boil until it has thickened to sauce consistency. Remove from the heat and add the spices and the “parmesan”.

Serve hot with flat pasta like fettuccine or tagliatelle. Makes 3-4 portions.

Kiribati is a rather unusual country geographically. It is a very poor island nation located in the center of the Pacific ocean comprised of 32 atolls and one coral island, dispersed over an area of 3.5 million square kilometers(!), with a permanent population of only about 100,000. It used to be called Gilbert islands and Kiribati is a local adaptation of the name. Until 1979 it belonged to the United Kingdom. Because Kiribati is near the international date line, it is the first country to “see” a new day – but sadly iti is expected to be the first country in which all land territory disappears due to global climate change. A mass evacuation to Fiji has been planned.

Pandan is a spice very popular in Thailand, Indonesia and some other countries in that region, especially in flavoring sweet dishes. If you see an Asian dessert which is green, it’s probably from pandan (I believe pandan itself only adds a faint green, but pandan extracts tend to include green coloring as well). Some describe its flavour as a bit-vanilla like and floral, but it says something that it smells exactly like jasmine rice (which is called pandan rice here in the Netherlands).

This recipe from the Global Table Adventure blog was my first time cooking with pandan, which I found in Chinatown. It was okay, but I wasn’t terribly excited about it, more bland than very aromatic. I think you could probably use more than five pandan leaves. I hate peeling raw pumpkin, so I quickly roasted it first.

Coconut pandan pumpkin

5 cups/1.2 l cubed kabocha pumpkin (or some other pumpkin)
1 can coconut milk (400 ml/15 oz)
1/3-1/2 cup/0.8-1.2 dl sugar
5 fresh or frozen pandan leaves, or more to taste

Peel and cube the pumpkin (it’s much easier to peel if you cut it into large chunks first and roast for 15 minutes in the oven). Tie the pandan leaves into a knot. Add all the ingredients into a pot.

Bring to boil and simmer until the pumpkin is soft (but preferably still chunky instead of mushy, as mine turned out), about 20 minutes, depending on whether you roasted it first, of course.

Serve as a dessert, hot or cold. Note that the coconut oil tends to set grainily when it cools, so it will look much better if served right away.

Botswana is a large landlocked country in Southern Africa, a former colony of the United Kingdom. Because 70% of the country is covered by the Kalahari desert, the population is only about two million, making Botswana one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Botswana used to be extremely poor, but now is classified as a middle-income country and has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Its main import is diamonds. It has diverse wildlife areas, which are also popular tourist destinations, but suffers from drought and desertification.The country has also suffered tremendously from HIV, the prevalence now being estimated at 24 % of adults.

The Botswanan cuisine is quite heavy on meat, including beef, goat, mutton, chicken and fish (which comes from the rivers) and mopane worms. The British introduced meat pies, which are still popular. A local delicacy is seswaa, very salty mashed up meat. The staple starches are sorghum and corn, often eaten as porridge, which may be fermented. Millet, wheat and rice are used too. Other common ingredients include sour milk, various types of beans, peanuts, spinach and other leafy greens, carrots, cabbage, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and lettuce. Watermelons are believed to have originated in Botswana and there are also other kinds of melons, some of them wild. Another popular fruit is marula.

This recipe, supposedly from a Botswanan mom (even though it doesn’t contain many ingredients listed as common in Botswana except for peanuts…), sounded quite interesting. The spices were like from Indian cuisine – ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, coconut and tamarind – but also tahini, peanut butter and sumac (though I’m not fully sure whether the sumac was supposed to replicate the tamarind, since the person cooking it replaced it with lemon).

The result is a tasty curry, though the flavours do seem a bit “all over the place”. Most distinct are the chili, the nuttiness from tahini and peanut butter and the incredible sourness from the large amount of tamarind (hence I added some sugar to the recipe). You might want to reduce it a bit…

Eggplant curry

2 small eggplants
3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp tahini (preferably the roasted kind, or add a bit of toasted sesame oil)
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 inch piece ginger, grated
2 tbsp grated coconut
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp chili powder
a tennis ball sized block of tamarind paste
(1 tsp sumac)
1 cup/2.5 dl water
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste

Cut the eggplants into two length-wise and make several slits on the fleshy side to make the heat and the flavours absorb better. Heat 2 tbsp of oil and fry the eggplants until soft. Set aside.

Add 1 tbsp more oil to the pan and fry the onion for a few minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and fry for a few more minutes. Add all of the other ingredients (except for the eggplant) and cook for a few minutes.

Add the eggplant and simmer covered for 5-10 minutes. Serve hot with a grain, garnished with chopped coriander leaves. Serves 4 people together with some other dish.

El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America, located on the Pacific side. It is a former colony of Spain. Most of the five million inhabitants are mestizos and slightly over half are Catholic, but there are also large Protestant and non-religious minorities. Despite its small size, El Salvador has over 300 rivers and two mountain ranges. Its economy is faring quite well, even though the country has faced many natural catastrophes, mostly earthquakes but also volcano eruptions, rainstorms and droughts. A few years ago it abandoned its former currency colón and now uses the U.S. dollar. Tourism in El Salvador is rapidly growing.

The most famous Salvadoran dish must be pupusas, corn tortillas usually filled with meat, refried beans or cheese, which are very popular in some parts of the U.S., though virtually unheard of in most of Europe. Another traditional dish is fried yuca (cassava/manioc). Both are often served with curtido, a pickled cabbage slaw. Soups are very popular and seafood and chicken are common ingredients. Alguashte is a seasoning made of ground pepitas (pumpkin seeds).

A typical Salvadoran breakfast consists of fried plantains with cream. Desserts tend to be custards, puddings or very rich, sweet cakes, sometimes just fruit. There is also a sweet version of quesadillas. Horchata is a popular drink, but unlike the rice-based Mexican horchata, the Salvadoran drink is made with morro seeds, which have a slightly licorice-like sweet taste.

I found several curtido recipes, which were quite similar, but with varying amounts of vinegar. Most of them had a lot of it so I used a full cup, but the result was so overwhelmingly vinegary I felt most people would probably like it better with just half of the amount.

Curtido

1/2 small white cabbage
1 large or 2 small carrots
1 small onion
1/2 cup/1.2 dl white, cider or pineapple vinegar (or more; see notes)
1/2 cup/1.2 dl water
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp brown sugar
0.5 tsp cayenne pepper

Grate the cabbage, chop the onion and shred the carrots. Bring some water to boil and pour it over the cabbage and onion. Let stand for a few minutes and then drain. Add all the other ingredients and more water if needed, so that it just covered. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours before serving as a side dish.

Macau is one of the two “special administrative regions of China” together with Hong Kong, which is about 60 km away. It is a former colony of Portugal and nowadays partially governed by China. Both Portuguese and Chinese are still official languages. Peculiarly the traffic is on the left-side, unlike both China and Portugal. The tiny country consists of the Macau peninsula (which was originally and island) together with two islands and has about 500,000 inhabitants. The economy is heavily based on gambling and tourism. Macau is also a tax haven. It has the second longest life expectancy in the world after Monaco.

As could be expected, the Macanese cuisine mixes both Chinese (especially Cantonese) and Portuguese influences, though there are also popular ingredients which don’t really feature in either of those, such as turmeric and coconut milk. Spices in general are used a lot, e.g. chili, ginger and cinnamon. Bacalhau, a dried and salted cod, is also used for flavouring.

This recipe comes from a random health-food website. It was my first time using choy sum, a type of cabbage, which you can find at Chinese markets. The recipe states you can also uses bok choy. I consulted Google as how to it should be chopped. People said the stem should be torn (not cut) into long segments, but I was brutal and cut both the leaves and the stem.

Choy sum is said to have a slightly mustardy flavour, but I found it quite bland. Luckily the rest of the dish was quite flavourful. Dried shiitake mushrooms are interesting – I find that they lose a bit of flavour, but turn out very chewy in an almost meat-like fashion. However, for those people who think “mushrooms are slimy”, fresh shiitakes might be a better choice. I used fresh water chestnuts, which are so flavourful compared to the canned ones – an actual sweet-ish flavour, not just bland crunch.

Choy sum Macau

1 bunch choy sum, washed and trimmed
0.5 cups dried shiitake mushrooms, sliced (or fresh ones)
0.5 cups red bell pepper, julienned
4 tbsp shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
0.5 cups water chestnuts
(some tofu, cubed)
oil for frying
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Sriracha sauce (chili garlic sauce)

Pour boiling water over the dried shiitake mushrooms and let rehydrate for 10 minutes (check that they remain covered, you may need to flip them). If you’re using fresh shiitakes, no need for this step.

Heat the oil in a a frying pan or wok over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, bell pepper and shallots and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and water chestnuts and cook 1 more minute. Add thechoy sum and cook for 1 minute. Add the soy sauce and Sriracha, mix and continue to cook stirring for 2-3 minutes or until vegetables are crisp tender.

Serve with rice or noodles. Serves 4 as a side dish, 3 as a main dish with tofu added.

Croatia is located in the Balkan area on the Mediterranean and is a part of former Yugoslavia. It declared independence in 1991. Croatia has become quite a popular tourist destination, largely owing to its beaches and numerous islands, but there are also many national parks with rivers, lakes (some of them turqoise-colored), mountains (including many cascades and waterfalls) and particularly a large number of deep caves, a good destination for those who love nature and stunning scenery. Croatia has a very low birth rate and since 1991 has even been exceeded by its death rate, though immigration compensates somewhat.

There are big regional differences in Croatian cuisine – the coastal regions tend to feature more Mediterranean food, while the mainland cuisine is more influenced by Hungary and Austria. The former area uses olive oil and the latter prefers lard. The cuisine is quite heavy on meat – lamb, veal, pork, poultry and game – though seafood is also popular on the coast. Other common ingredients include cheese, nuts, dried fruit, cabbage (including sauerkraut), mushrooms, peas, beans, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, buckwheat and corn semolina. Many spices and herbs are used, from rosemary to cinnamon. Croatia is a major wine producer with two wine growing regions, though beer is also very popular.

This recipe for a Bajadera torte comes from About.com. There are many kinds of recipes, but this one is supposed to be authentic. It is a no-bake torte that resembles Bajadera chocolates, but it is probably higher in fat than even chocolate! If you take biscuits, nuts and chocolate and add tons more fat and sugar, the result is bound to be rich. Very rich. It is good, of course, but even the smallest piece is like a leaden weight in your stomach, so be warned. Also, use a very good tasting margarine or even better, a combination of coconut oil and margarine, because the margarine does taste here.

Bajadera torte

7 oz/200 g vegan butter biscuits
1.5 cups/3.6 dl walnuts or blanched, peeled almonds
1.25 cups/3 dl sugar
4 oz/110 g margarine and/or coconut oil (see notes)
0.25 cup/0.6 dl water
3 oz/85 g dark chocolate

Glaze

3.5 oz/100 g dark chocolate
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp soymilk or water
6 tbsp margarine and/or coconut oil (see notes)

Grind the biscuits and nut with a blender or food processor until fairly finely ground.

In a heatproof bowl, microwave the sugar, margarine and water until melted. Stir well. Add the biscuit-nut mixture to this bowl and mix until well combined. Divide in half.

In a heatproof bowl, melt the 3 ounces chocolate and stir into one half of the biscuit-nut mixture.

Using slightly dampened fingers, spread half the plain biscuit-nut mixture in an even layer into the bottom of an 8-inch square pan.

Again, using slightly dampened fingers, spread the entire chocolate biscuit-nut mixture in an even layer. Then, again working with slightly dampened fingers, spread the remaining plain biscuit-nut mixture in an even layer on top.

For the glaze: In a heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate, sugar and water. Stir well and gradually add the margarine/coconut oil, stirring until completely smooth. Pour over torte and let cool. Refrigerate. Makes 16-20 small but filling slices.

There are no fewer than three different Guineas in Africa: Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea (and none of them should be confused with Papua New Guinea!). This recipe is from Guinea, sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to better distinguish it from all the other Guineas. Formerly a French colony, the fairly large country is located in West Africa and there are about 10 million inhabitants, predominantly Muslims. It has a had turbulent history since its declaration of independence in 1958. Despite abundant natural resources, e.g. diamonds, gold and bauxite, Guinea is one of the poorest countries in the world. HIV prevalence is lower than in many African countries, but illiteracy remains a major problem.

The Guinean cuisine is quite similar to other West African countries. The staple food is a starchy vegetable mash called fufu, though rice is also popular. Other common ingredients include peanuts, tomatoes, eggplants, okra, plantains, root vegetables, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, greens, fish, chicken, guinea fowl and goat meat. Food tends to be quite spicy – and is often flavoured with Maggi. Ginger is used too. Many dishes are very heavy, thanks to plentiful use of palm oil and peanut butter.

Kansiye is a stew based on tomatoes and peanut butter. I based mine on recipes from Food.com and FoodBuzz (the link doesn’t work any more), which are very similar, though one of them did not use chili. It was quite tasty, I even dared to feed it to my very picky omnivore husband, who had no complaints.

Kansiye

1 large onion
1 red chili
1 lb/450 g mock meat or pressed tofu
1 lb/450 g tomato passata
2.5 oz/75 g smooth peanut butter
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Fry the onion in the oil until translucent. Add the chili and mock meat and fry for 2-3 more minutes. Add all the other ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes. You may have to add some water if it seems too dry. Serve hot with rice (or fufu). Serves 4.

Considering its relatively small population (23 million), Australia is a very well-known country, perhaps because it is English-speaking, perhaps because of the perceived exotic side, with kangaroos, koalas etc. Then again, it is the sixth largest country in the world by total area, which besides the Australian continent includes the island of Tasmania and many smaller islands. Most people live in the Eastern states. Officially the reigning monarch is Queen Elizabeth II of England. Because of its large size, Australia has different climates and landscapes, from rainforests to mountain ranges, though overall it is quite flat. Most of the country is semi-arid or desert.

The Australian cuisine is not too well known outside of the country, aside of the fancy meringue dessert pavlova (which I did consider adapting, since nowadays there is such a thing as vegan meringue, but large meringue surfaces are still difficult). Another well-known thing is Vegemite, a yeasty sandwich spread similar to Marmite, said to be heavily an “acquired taste”. ANZAC biscuits I already made for New Zealand’s entry.

The Australian aboriginal diet, called “bush tucker” was quite a bit simpler (though very nutritious), consisting of wild vegetables, fruit, berries, herbs and spices, macadamia nuts, fish and meats like emu, kangaroo and crocodile, often wrapped in Melaleuca tree bark and baked in ground ovens. Macadamias and kangaroo meat are still popular and recently bush tucker food has become a trend. Modern Australian cuisine is heavily influenced by e.g. British, German and some Asian cuisines. Australia produces quite a lot of wine.

Corn fritters are a traditional (or at least a very popular modern) Australian dish. There are many different recipes on the net, but they almost always contain buttermilk, eggs, some mashed and some whole corn kernels as well as chives. These vegan corn fritters are adapted from a recipe from Australian Broadcast Corporation. The vegan “buttermilk” trick is included in many vegan cookbooks. According to this page, you should be able to use a nut milk or hemp milk almost as well, but most non-dairy milks won’t curdle well, because they’re too low on protein.

This was a tasty dish, in a bland, comfort-foodish way. Sure to please kids, as well. Despite the large amount of chives it is more like a slight accent than a distinct flavour. In the original they were served with “Chilli Jam, Crispy Bacon and Avocado Salsa”. I went for sweet chili sauce and avocado slices which was a very nice combination, but other sauces (from mayonnaise to ketchup and chutney), marinated onions, pickles, fresh tomatoes etc would probably work well, too. Just don’t serve them without any accompaniments.

Corn fritters

1/2 cup/1.2 dl soy milk
1 tsp cider vinegar or white vinegar
substitute for 2 eggs (including enough liquid), I used soy flour
2 cups/4.8 dl flour
1 tsp baking powder
salt
freshly ground pepper
2 cobs corn, kernels removed (or 1 can corn kernels, drained)
1 can creamed corn (or 2 corn cobs, with the kernels pureed)
1 bunch chives, chopped
oil for frying

Pour the vinegar into the soy milk, stir and let stand for 10 minutes. It should curdle a bit and will probably look quite unappetizing and clumpy, but that is alright. Mix in the egg substitute.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper together. Make a well in the centre. Add all the other ingredients (except for the frying oil) to the flour mixture. Gently mix ingredients together until combined (don’t overmix).

Heat a fry pan over medium heat with a tablespoon of oil. Add heaped tablespoonfuls of mixture to the pan in batches and flatten slightly. Frying 4-5 at once is fine.

Cook for 3 minutes or until firm and golden brown at the bottom. Turn and cook for another 3 minutes. Serve hot with above discussed accompaniments.

Makes about 20 fritters, enough for 4-5 people as a side dish, a part of breakfast or a snack/light lunch. Reheats well, especially on the frying pan, and should freeze well, too.

Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands, which consists of the tiny island Bonaire and an even smaller uninhabited islet in the Caribbean. It used to be a part of the Netherlands Antilles until 2010 when the country was dissolved. The population is only about 16,000 and speaks Dutch and Papiamentu, a Creole language derived from Portuguese. In the past Bonaire has belonged to Spain and Britain. It has several coral reefs which house seahorses. There are also large amounts of flamingos and a donkey sanctuary.

It is hard to find information about such a tiny country, but one page states: “The resulting culinary palette is a colorful one, incorporating the zesty cooking of Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal, robust northern European fare imported from Holland, exotic Indonesian spices which reached the island via the maritime traffic of the Dutch Empire, and bold, flavorful cooking carried to Bonaire from West Africa.” Common ingredients include e.g. salted meat, conch, iguana, plantains, okra, celery and cactus. Lime and coconut are often used as flavorings, but also herbs like parsley.

I chose this recipe from the aforementioned page, because it sounded unusual and exotic, though a bit simple. Or perhaps more like heavy on two ingredients (that I don’t like that much) would be closer to it. Probably not a dessert most Westerners would really enjoy, but if you like wine and prunes, why not? Still, I’d rather recommend trying this great recipe for a Balearic sauce with almonds, red wine, cinnamon and prunes.

Sòpi di binja

3 cups/7.5 dl water
15 prunes
1 cinnamon stick
4 tbsp cornstarch
2/3 cup/1.5 dl dry red wine
1/3 cup/0.9 dl sugar

In a large saucepan bring the water to a boil. Add the prunes and the cinnamon stick. Reduce the heat and simmer the prunes until soft. Remove from the heat and let cool. Discard the cinnamon sticks and remove the prunes from the liquid, setting them aside for later use.

Mix the cornstarch into the cooled cooking water (it is easier if you first mix it with a small amount of water). Return to the stove on medium heat and stir the liquid until it thickens. Add the wine, sugar, and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the prunes just before serving.