Plums in White Peppercorn and Vanilla Syrup

Preparation

1. Step 1

   With a mortar and pestle or with bottom of a heavy skillet coarsely crush peppercorns. With a knife halve vanilla bean lengthwise. In a small kettle simmer pepper, vanilla bean, water, and sugar, stirring until sugar is dissolved, 10 minutes. Pour syrup through a fine sieve into a bowl and return to kettle.

   Step 2

   Pit plums and cut each plum into 12 wedges. Have ready a large bowl of ice and cold water. Bring syrup just to a simmer and stir in plums. Simmer plums just until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. With a slotted spoon transfer plums to a large metal bowl sit in bowl of ice water and stir gently until cool. Boil syrup until reduced to about 3 cups and remove kettle from heat. Cool syrup to room temperature and stir into plums. Plums may be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered. Serve plums chilled or at room temperature.