Adventures in plums
Essentially we have 2 kinds in the house. Larger elongated purple plums bought from the local grocery store, but locally grown, they're quite sweet and, for the most part, free stone. And smaller, more like very large grapes, purple plums grown by the neighbour the flesh is yellower, and they're quite tart and they're cling stone. For the moment we have equal amounts of each.
For the plum jam, I used a 50/50 mix. Lots of fun there, the pitting and chopping - well lets just say the resulting mess of pulpy fruit mass was a dirty yellow/brown disgusting looking mess and colour. Then we cooked them. It was almost instantaneous, as soon as we added heat, the skins started turning the mass bright bright pink, and then deep strawberry jam bright red, then finally as it finished cooking (5 minutes tops) the resulting jam was a deep rich warm merlot.
It was, in a word, enchanting to watch. The resulting jam is delightful, it has just the tiniest hint of a tart edge to it that keeps it from being too cloying, and the colour is extraordinary and very cheery. I do tend to think that the colour of jams and jellies, especially homemade is at least as important as their flavour. The neighbour who donated the fruit to this endeavour should be pleased, I know I am.
Now thoughts turn to what to do with the remainder. There's about 1.5 kg of each left. There's no shortage of ideas, all of them good ones, just need to make some decisions.
Clafouti sounds very good. I think this might demand the sweet plums.
Duck with plums was suggested, normally we do duck for Thanksgiving, so that's a possibility. That will require tart plums I think, and I can always get more from G* so I think we'll leave that to investigate a bit later on.
There's an interesting recipe for plums and apples (yes, I need to use those up too!). Harvest Fruit Dessert seems to be very much a shortbread crusted cheesecake with roasted apple and plum topping. Always a cheesecake fan, so that's a definite option, although it's not the Feychild's favourite.
And of course there's always my 'Go To' fall cake the BBC Good Food's Roasted Rhubarb and Custard Cake. I love this cake, it's lent itself gloriously to apples, I really can't see it not working with plums, or plums and apples.
Too many desserts, too many ideas, too many plans, not enough mouths to feed!
Originally posted to: The Plan® comment there or here
For the plum jam, I used a 50/50 mix. Lots of fun there, the pitting and chopping - well lets just say the resulting mess of pulpy fruit mass was a dirty yellow/brown disgusting looking mess and colour. Then we cooked them. It was almost instantaneous, as soon as we added heat, the skins started turning the mass bright bright pink, and then deep strawberry jam bright red, then finally as it finished cooking (5 minutes tops) the resulting jam was a deep rich warm merlot.
It was, in a word, enchanting to watch. The resulting jam is delightful, it has just the tiniest hint of a tart edge to it that keeps it from being too cloying, and the colour is extraordinary and very cheery. I do tend to think that the colour of jams and jellies, especially homemade is at least as important as their flavour. The neighbour who donated the fruit to this endeavour should be pleased, I know I am.
Now thoughts turn to what to do with the remainder. There's about 1.5 kg of each left. There's no shortage of ideas, all of them good ones, just need to make some decisions.
Clafouti sounds very good. I think this might demand the sweet plums.
Duck with plums was suggested, normally we do duck for Thanksgiving, so that's a possibility. That will require tart plums I think, and I can always get more from G* so I think we'll leave that to investigate a bit later on.
There's an interesting recipe for plums and apples (yes, I need to use those up too!). Harvest Fruit Dessert seems to be very much a shortbread crusted cheesecake with roasted apple and plum topping. Always a cheesecake fan, so that's a definite option, although it's not the Feychild's favourite.
And of course there's always my 'Go To' fall cake the BBC Good Food's Roasted Rhubarb and Custard Cake. I love this cake, it's lent itself gloriously to apples, I really can't see it not working with plums, or plums and apples.
Too many desserts, too many ideas, too many plans, not enough mouths to feed!
Originally posted to: The Plan® comment there or here