Plums are ripening now on fruit trees around the country.
I have a huge bowl of plums on my kitchen bench and another tray in the sun ripening. We harvested the tree at the weekend and picked the lot before the birds started pecking into the dark beauties. I love the misty "bloom" that develops across the rich red skin denoting the fruit is well on the way to being ripe. Once they have all ripened I'll start making sauce and jam. I keep already-ripe plums in the vegetable box of the fridge until the whole crop is ready to go. Meanwhile, it's a good time to start tasting the first of the pick and poaching some in a light syrup to freeze for winter use.
In earlier times, our traditional Christmas pudding was made with plums. They were replaced with dried fruits but the name remained. I have seen recipes that include prunes (dried plums) but these days plums have little to do with plum pudding.
There are lots of recipes out there for plum chutneys, plum jams and plum sauce. Plums are gregarious fruit and tastefully go together with many others. Plums combine with berries, apples, pears, tamarillos, rhubarb and other stone fruits. They take to citrus and love combining with spices such as cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, star anise and tamarind. Bear this in mind, particularly when making jams, and try some combinations. To my mind plum sauce is superior to tomato and is great to use as a meat glaze or to add to sauces and gravies. The Chinese plum sauce that you can buy is made with a particular yellow plum and if you mix this with a tomato sauce you will get a basic sweet and sour concoction to use as a change from hoisin on a Peking duck.
Poached plums and rhubarb
