Spiced Plum Sauce

My Spiced Plum Sauce is cracking…if I may say so myself!

My plum tree giv-ith, trice. Yep, my amazing plum tree has been grafted with three different varietals, so not only does it give a wonderful plum harvest, it just keeps on going.

I’ve never had a plum tree before so this is all very new to me, let alone three different variants! So far I think I have identified two varietals, both harvesting in January. To be honest, I’ve been researching plenty and asking lots of questions and still not 100% confident. So if you are a plum buff, let me know and put me out of my misery!

• Plum#1: Billington’s: smaller round fruit, red with yellow tinge skin with under ripe, turning dark purple when ripe, with vibrant red inner flesh.
• Plum#2 Black Doris: heart shaped but elongated form, red skin, vibrant red inner flesh, stone comes away easily.
  
• Plum#3: the third plum varietal?…..perhaps yet to crop, I will soon see! Or, perhaps another variety that has already cropped masquerading as the other two!

Back to the challenge at hand though. Not only is my plum crop a KILLER this season, there has been some windfall due to the storm in the weekend. A couple of branches broke under the strain of the fruit still on the tree combined with grueling weather.

My #wastenotwantnot challenge (which applies all year round) is to use and preserve as much as physically possible…with my ultimate goal to be as self sufficient as comfortably possible. We collect rain water, manage sewerage without reliance on the local council, compost, grow, make, bake…and preserving is just a natural part of the whole chain.

Nothing preserves fruit in BULK like a sauce can.

So let’s just do it.

What do you do with litres of plum sauce?

• delicious as a dipping sauce – spring rolls or steamed dumplings
• a tasty stir-fry sauce
• a marinade for vegetable kebabs
• fold through with mayo or Greek yoghurt for an easy dip
• drizzle over hot chips or pan fried snapper
• and for the adventurous, try some on top of vanilla ice-cream!

Just like many good things, making sauce takes time. You can either cook whole and search for stray stones later, or de-stone the fruit from the beginning. I did the latter and was pleased for my efforts by the time bottling came! Cut in half, twist, remove the stone – it’s simple but does take time (hence I know there are 100 plums in this recipe)!

Also, to make this recipe gluten free I used a mix of cider and white vinegar as it’s malt vinegar that contains gluten.

Spiced Plum Sauce

Makes: 3 litres

Ingredients

• 3kg plums, approx 100 (and yes I counted)
• 6 garlic gloves
• 2 onions
• 1.5kg brown sugar
• 2L vinegar (1 litre cider vinegar, 1 litre white vinegar)
• 3 tsp each of ginger ground cloves
• 2 tsp chilli flakes,
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cracked pepper

Method

1. De-stone plums, finely chop the garlic, slice the onions and put in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add remaining ingredients.
2. Bring the fruit mixture to a boil (it may take some time due to the volume of liquid) then reduce to a simmer for an hour (or more) to reduce it down by 1/5.
3. Use a stick blender to blitz the mixture (careful not to burn yourself as the contents will be hot) so the sauce is smooth in texture. Continue to simmer until it is the consistency of a regular tomato sauce, or whatever is your preference.
4. Prepare and sterilise your glass bottles.

This delicious sauce needs at least a few weeks (or better still more) to mature and let the spices infuse. Remember to refrigerate once opened.

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