Plum Dandy

Please, don’t forget about Michelle’s Simply Beautiful Plum Cake. It’s brilliant. I mean that.

fig. a: simply beautiful

fig. b: a simple slice of cake

I mean, just look at that. It’s great with coffee and tea, too.

fig. c: part of this complete meal

If you’re lucky enough to still have plums available where you live, don’t hesitate. Find the finest plums you can get your hands on,

fig. d: fine specimens

like these beauties I found at a Polish grocer.

If you can’t find plums, use the best, juiciest prunes you can find, like the justifiably famous pruneaux d’Agen.

If you’re not into prunes, make it with apples.

All I know is that this is a cake that’s capable of generating powerful emotions. When I brought a plum cake to work a couple of weeks ago, one of my T.A.s sent me the following stream-of-consciousness message afterwards: “Please pardon the impropriety of this response. F*** me that was amazing you did an amazing job I loved it I got the last piece way to go that was freaking amazing.”

You’ve been warned.

aj

The Devil Made Me Do It Again

fig. a: free-range plums

Let’s just say you’ve managed to find yourself some lovely early fall plums. It’s not difficult these days—there are still a lot of Italian prune plums around.

And let’s say you’re a fan of chutney.

If you’ve never had it before, plum chutney is truly one of the world’s great preserves, and an absolute joy as part of a cheese platter, especially when served with a sharp cheddar. And if you’ve never made it before, it’s very easy to prepare, and incredibly satisfying.

For my latest batch, I started off by using the basic method from “Micro-batch Jellies & Jams.” I bought 3 litres of plums at the farmers’ market. I halved them and pitted them. I weighed them and then added 40% of their weight in sugar, mixed everything thoroughly and allowed them to macerate in the refrigerator.

The next day, after they’d released their juices, I turned to Nigel Slater’s Hot, Sweet Plum Chutney recipe. You can find it in Ripe. You can also find it on the Serious Eats website. Though I made a few fairly significant changes, I used Slater’s recipe as my blueprint.

The thing is, though Slater’s recipe has a bit of spice to it, I wanted my batch to be even kickier. I wanted it to have some of the fire & brimstone of Devil’s Chutney. So I bumped up the chilies and added a habañero to the mix. I also added some ginger. The results were XXXactly what I was looking for.

XXXtra Spicy Plum Chutney

3 litres of plums

1 tbsp neutral cooking oil, such as canola

1/2 vidalia onion

l nub ginger, peeled and minced

1 sweet red pepper, finely chopped

1 habañero pepper, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1-2 dried red chilies (preferably arbol, or something similar)

3/4 cup golden raisins

2 tsp yellow mustard seeds

2/3 cup apple cider vinegar

2/3 cup red wine vinegar

black pepper

salt

Heat oil over medium in a large-ish flat-bottomed saucepan and sauté the onion for a few minutes until beginning to turn transparent. Add ginger, chopped sweet and hot peppers, and garlic. Sauté for another minute or two. Add dried chilies (I used 2), raisins, mustard seeds, vinegars, and a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper.

Bring to a boil, turn down to low and simmer gently for an hour. Adjust the seasoning with salt and sugar (if necessary).

Sterilize your jars and lids.

Continue to simmer gently for another 30 - 60 minutes. Check to see if the chutney has achieved a proper set. You can do so by running a rubber spatula across the bottom of the saucepan with a swift motion. If the chutney parts momentarily allowing you to see a swath of stainless steel, your chutney is ready to can.

Think of yourself as Moses parting the Red Sea. If that sounds preposterous, possibly even sacrilegious, think of yourself as Charlton Heston pretending to be Moses parting a Red Sea of chutney.

When you’ve achieved a proper set, taste your chutney one last time, and adjust the seasoning as needed.

When your chutney is à point, spoon the chutney into your sterilized jars and seal.

My batch made nearly 5 x 250-ml jars.

Within hours, i’d already busted into one of my jars for my first cheese & chutney platter of the season.

fig. b: cheese, chutney, crackers 1

fig. b: cheese, chutney, crackers 2

XXXtra Spicy Plum Chutney is delicious with cheese and crackers. It’s also fantastic with curries of all kinds. And if all that wasn’t enough, it’s lovely with a wide variety of meat & game, including turkey and pork chops.

This chutney is absolutely, perfectly to my liking. Sweet, savoury, piquant. If you want it even more fiery—devilishly so—make your own adjustments. Add some more dried red chilies and/or another habañero chili or two. Or cut to the chase and add a 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne.

aj

What We Need Now 2: Plum Cake

This is an elegant, truly delicious, and unbelievably simple recipe for a “pantry cake” (a fruit-based, crispy/tender slab cake that doesn’t require any obscure ingredients) that Michelle devised for our friends at Elena and the Remember Skin Contact? cookbook they created this spring as a fundraiser for the Montreal Restaurant Workers Relief Fund after the shutdown went into effect. (Great people! Great cause!)

Imagine a luscious, plum-laden European coffee cake, and you kind of get the gist of this cake and the vision behind it.

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fig. a: no imagination necessary—here it is!

Imagine a cake that’s incredibly easy to make and knocks it out of the park every time.

Michelle had berries in mind when she first invented the recipe, because it was April, berries were due to begin arriving on the scene by June and early July, and the thought of making this cake with blueberries or blackberries seemed like a natural. But she wanted a recipe that would accommodate other fruit options as well, and one of the variations that she was most interested in trying was with plums. Why plums? Well, we love plums, we love plum desserts and plum dishes, and we often find ourselves dreaming of plums—sugar plums, and otherwise. I mean, we did name our preserves line Švestka, after all.

fig. b: early branding

What we didn’t know at the time was that while 2020 has been an absolutely lousy year for virtually everything, it turned into a pretty good plum year. We have an old plum tree that had never really produced in the time we’d known it, but that exploded with fruit this summer.

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fig. c: bumper crop

And plums at the farm stands, farmers’ markets, and co-ops have been tasty and plentiful. In fact, this latest batch of the plum cake was inspired by these lovely, Italian-style Valor plums that we came across on the weekend. So tiny! So sweet! Plus, they look a lot like the Švestka plum!

fig. d: Valor is my name

So, if Italian plums are in season or available where you live, they’d be perfect for this recipe.

But the genius of this recipe is that it will definitely work like a charm with berries of all kinds, and it could just as easily become a cherry or pear cake (and around here, it has). And if you don’t have any kirsch on hand, you could also use other liquors, like rum or bourbon, depending on the fruit. In other words, it’s an incredibly versatile recipe. Stick to the original “luscious, ____-laden European coffee cake” vision behind the recipe, and you should be in good stead.

We highly, highly recommend the original plum version, though. We’re a little partial, of course, but we both think it’s kind of perfect, and I’m quite sure it’s my favourite variation.

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fig. e: Plum Cake, by the slice

Michelle’s Simply Beautiful Plum Cake

batter:

1/2 cup A.P. flour

1/2 cup semolina flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 generous pinch salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar 

1 tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp (or more!) kirsch

1/2 cup butter, melted

toppings:

a pint of fresh plums, pitted and halved (both tart and sweet varieties can be used—just adjust accordingly [see below])

a handful of sliced almonds

1 tablespoon sugar (a little more if your plums are extra tart)

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Butter 8” x 8” square cake pan.  Lay a piece of parchment paper inside that’s large enough to cover the bottom and the sides of the pan.  Butter the parchment paper, too.

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.

Whisk eggs with sugar until mixture lightens in colour and becomes creamy.  Whisk in sour cream until fully blended.  Whisk in kirsch until fully incorporated.  Whisk in melted butter until mixture is homogeneous.  This whole process should take no more than about 3 minutes. 

Add dry ingredients, and whisk once more until just smooth.

Pour batter into parchment-lined cake pan.

Place plums, cut-side down, over the surface of the batter.  Sprinkle sliced almonds over top.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over top almonds and plums.

Place in the oven on the middle rack.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Place on a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Cut into squares, serve, and enjoy.  This cake is perfect on its own with a cup of coffee or tea, or an after-dinner drink.  But it’s also excellent with vanilla ice cream, or freshly whipped cream.

It’s simple. It’s beautiful. It’s also delicious. What are you waiting for?

aj

The Time is Now 2: Fruit Cobbler

Here's the plan.

It's early September.  Find yourself the freshest, ripest fruit you can get your hands on.

Could be peaches.  Could be blackberries.  Could even be some early apples.

If you're lucky, it could be the last of your very own plums.  Plums that you picked off your own tree, and cradled just as carefully as you possibly could.

fig. a:  fresh plums

Now make a cobbler with them.  A drop-biscuit cobbler.  Using the recipe that follows.

The recipe comes courtesy of Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer.  But, this being the Social Media Age, I received it from Michelle via Facebook.  When I did, it looked like this:

fig. b:  all mod coms

Pretty cute, huh?

The cobbler that results is a thing of beauty.  It's everything you want in a cobbler.  Crusty and sweet on top, bursting with fruit flavour down below.

fig. c:  let 'em be

This is a recipe that embodies the simple elegance of late-summer cooking--when you're working with the best ingredients, and mostly you just want to let them be.

Remember:  the time is now.

Our plums are finished, but there's no question that we enjoyed them while they lasted.  

Hello, peaches!

aj