Bay Area: What to do with all those plums!
The San Francisco Bay Area has the perfect weather conditions for growing fruit, and indeed before it became a tech hub Silicon Valley was known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for its blooming fruit trees.
Many residents of the area have fruit trees in their backyards, and a common one is the plum. These are often mini plums, such as the Santa Rosa variety developed in that city, or the varieties that grow wild in this area. These trees yield fruit that is highly flavorful, but that is quite juicy and doesn’t store or travel particularly well. The smaller ratio of flesh to pit than larger fruit makes it more difficult to cook with.
So what to do when weather conditions lead to a bumper crop of plums, as they have this year? I thought I’d take a break from my usual focus on the jargon of Silicon Valley to, as a public service, share three delicious things to do with plums (that are not plum jam!)
They are: 1) Pork in plum sauce, 2) brandied plums, and 3) Mediterranean dried plums. (I also have links to a couple of other recipes at the end.)
Pork in Plum Sauce
Ingredients:
- Pork loin, enough to make 6 slices (about 2-3 pounds)
- one large red onion, cut into slices then each slice cut in 4
- olive oil
- a large bowl of plums
- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
- balsamic vinegar
Saute the pork loin in olive oil in a large skillet with deep sides. Remove from skillet and put aside. Saute the red onion until it begins to caramelize. Add back in the pork and the plums. I typically put in enough plums to completely fill the skillet, but that’s because I like a lot of sauce so use your judgement. Also, I don’t bother trying to pit the plums — instead we just spit them out while we are eating the dish. May not be the most elegant, but it works for us. But you could use a cherry pitter and pit them if you want.
Cook the plums and pork, uncovered, until the plums have cooked through. If the plums are especially juicy your sauce may be rather thin. Cook it some more until it boils down a bit, or you could add a bit of cornstarch to thicken it.
Add the basil and cook for a minute or two until it wilts. Finish with a few splashes of balsamic vinegar.
Although the recipe is simple, there is something amazing about this combination and it’s incredibly delicious.
Brandied Plums
This is a quick and easy way to preserve a lot of plums. In this photo I’m showing one of my smaller jars, but the main ones I use are much larger. All you need is an airtight jar and some brandy. Wash and dry the plums, pack them in the jar, add brandy to cover and keep away from light. (One could conceivably add spices such as cinnamon at this stage, but I haven’t tried that yet). The plums will be ready to eat in a few months. Some people like to add a sweetener at this point but I don’t think it’s necessary. This concoction is excellent over vanilla ice cream.
Mediterranean Dried Plums
These are inspired by the umeboshi (pickled plums) of Japan, which are made using salt and shiso leaves. Japanese plums are a different variety from the ones here in the Bay Area (strictly speaking they are a type of apricot), much less juicy and not at all sweet so not particularly tasty when eaten raw.
Umeboshi come in various types, from a very soft type to a small hard and crunchy type. One of my favorites when I lived in Japan was a particularly dry variety, sold in a small box (slightly smaller than a deck of cards) for 100 yen (about a dollar). I would often pick up a box at the convenience store near the train station, and chew on them on my walk home. They seemed to magically make me feel better — later I learned that they are highly alkaline so probably they were balancing my system after a long day toiling in a Japanese office.
This recipe is inspired by those magical little plums, but with a Mediterranean twist.
- Three large bowls of plums, washed and dried carefully with paper towels
- 1/4 cup sea salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2/3 cup olive oil
Mix all the ingredients except the plums together, and then toss with the plums to coat them.
Line three large baking sheets with parchment paper. Spread the plums out on them. Any extra of the salt and sugar mixture can be dabbed on top.
Cook at 220 degrees, with the oven door cracked open, for approximately 10 hours, or until the plums have become shriveled and dried out (they won’t ever become completely dried, they will always retain some stickiness I find). Watch them carefully. After a couple of hours, you will need to drain off the juice that has collected in the bottom of the tray. (Unfortunately, the juice is usually too salty to be usable although it could potentially be used as a marinade for meat). After about 6 hours, you may want to pick out the plums and transfer them to a fresh parchment paper lined tray, — this is the best way to get them out of the sticky juice soup. Towards the end, be careful that they don’t burn.
These are very astringent but quite delicious if you like intense flavors. I find they are best enjoyed sparingly. (Although I also like eating the half-cooked ones and can consume quite a few of those during the drying process.) I have found that ,due to the high concentration of salt and sugar, these can keep for 2–3 years.
Hoping that these recipes help you deal with your large crop of plums.
Here are a couple of others I found on the web that I’m thinking of trying as well.
Roasted plum and ricotta breakfast bruschetta
