[Sca-cooks] 'Tis the Season (for produce, not sillies)

[Susan Fox]

On 8/3/06 3:40 PM, "Elaine Koogler" <ekoogler1 at comcast.net> wrote:

> Susan Fox wrote:
>> Very true, and I try to buy local whenever possible.  In Southern
>> California, this is not actually a hardship.  <smile>  Stone fruit and
>> berries are plentiful right now.  Today, I am pulling little red-gold
>> plums off the trees in my parents' back yard to put into box lunches for
>> a tourney this weekend and to make plum sauce to freeze for the rest of
>> the year.  OK so it won't be as bright red as the stuff in the local
>> Chinese fast food joint but it will be sooo good on the won-tons.  And
>> two-tons.  And 16-tons, whaddya get?  Another day older and deeper in...
>> plum goo.
>> 
>> Selene
> Can you share your recipe for the plum sauce?  I have one and would like
> to compare the two...
> 
> Kiri

Well, I play it by ear or rather by mouth, depending on how sweet the plums
are and how tart.  Plums, cooked to soften [not much], run through a sieve
to clear out the pits and skins.  Add sugar and rice vinegar as needed, cook
to thicken a little.  Other probable additives;  fresh ginger, Sichuan
pepper [and no capsicum].

This was a spinoff of plum butter, which takes the plum puree, adds sugar in
a 1:1 weight ratio, and cooks until thickened, stirring frequently.  One
time it didn't thicken at all, whereupon the other flavorants were added and
I called it Plum Sauce.  I meant to do that, yeah!

Selene