Plum Time

It was a nice surprise to find 4 plum trees in the back of Mr. Wonderful property. He planned those a few years ago and each year, his sister would come by and pick the plums for canning. With all the rain this year, there were over abundant of plums on the tree. When we got from our trip, the fruits were in need to be picked.

He picked a bagful for me. As usual, he worked this weekend. I am home testing and writing. Plum is a versatile fruit; it can be a great dessert ingredient, as well as a wonderful addition to a savory dish.

I am going to make some plum jam and my version of Chinese plum sauce.

Plum Jam

3 lbs of plums

2.5 cups of sugar

Juice of a lemon

4 ½-pint mason jars

2 1-pint jars

Directions:

Sterilize Jars in dishwasher with sanitized cycle, or you can wash and boil the jars and cap. Drain.

 To remove the skin of the plums:

In a large pot, bring ½ pot of water to a boil. Divide the plum in a few batches, depending on the side of your pot.

Fill a separate bowl with cold water ¾ way up.

Drop the plums in the hot water, let stand for about a min. If the plums are not over ripe, wait for another min of so.

 Remove the plum from hot water 

Drop them in the cold water.

 Peel the skin off.  Cut the flesh of the fruit and remove the stone.

 Making Jam:

 Place 5 cups of plum “meat” in a medium pot. 

Add sugar

 Add lemon juice

 Bring to a boil and let it cook till thicken, about an hour.

You can make the jam to a thicker consistence by adding no-sugar pectin if you like.

Fill the jars. 

 You can process the jam in a hot water bath, or freezer for later used. Store in the fridge.

I also made a variation today by taking ½ cup of the jam and add ½ cup of blueberry.

 Bring to boil and let it cook for about 20 mins. Fill the jars as above

There were a few not too perfect over ripe plums in the batch.

I simply cut off the bad and over ripe pieces to make some Chinese plum sauce

 Chinese Plum sauce

A cup of cut up plums, it’s ok to have skin and stone attached

½ cup of apple cider vinegar

½ cup of sugar

1 tsp grounded ginger

½ tsp grounded clove

1 ½-pint mason jar

Directions:

In a non-corrosive pot, mix plum with apple vinegar and sugar.

 Add grounded ginger

 Add clove

 Bring to a boil and let it cook for about 30 mins. Remove the stone if you preferred.

 Transfer the hot sauce to the mason jar.

 Process in a hot water bath if you prefer or store in the fridge.

Enjoy

Aloha