I am not alone when I work to preserve the wonderful fruits of autumn.
Let me assure you that once her curiosity had been photographed for her mum, she was removed and the plums were re-washed. Yes, I know wild animals are all over wild fruits until I get them inside, but I wash them off, too.
2 comments September 24th, 2008
This is an experiment. These are three kinds of wild plums which I have pitted, covered in strong alcohol and then a long-cooked heavy syrup with spices. I don’t know what it will become over time, but here is a photo showing you how it all began.
I hadn’t planned to photograph it, but I became enraptured by the irregular glitter of the morning sun on the glass. It looks smooth until you see the way the light dances on it. It made me notice the forms and colors of the plums and go get the camera.
That’s a lot of pleasure from something Paola and I found on our Sunday morning walk and stuffed into our pockets!
2 comments September 3rd, 2008
plum fig geranium
Figs are finished until September brings a second crop, if we are lucky. That’s why I was in a rush to make some Caramelized Fig and Lemon Conserve. That’s the big jar in the middle of the chorus line. I serve it with variously aged or not Pecorino cheeses as either an antipasto or sometimes dessert at home. It’s a slightly bitter sophisticated taste and not at all what some expect if you call it fig jam. It ain’t.
You can make any amount that makes sense to you by just dividing or multiplying the quantities below, but considering the length of time it cooks, it probably doesn’t make sense unless you are making at least a pound or half kilo of figs, because it would otherwise use too much fuel. Or, you could freeze the figs now and make the conserve when your wood stove or your oven are on more often. Recipes and more photos after the jump.
Caramelized Fig and Lemon Conserve
1 kilo or 2 pounds ripe figs, halved or quartered
4 lemons, thinly sliced
.5 kilo or 1 pound sugar
Put these all into a heavy pan and bring it slowly to a simmer. Set the heat the lowest possible, or even use a flame tamer. Cook for at least a couple of hours, checking back and stirring once in a while, until it is caramelized and has altered both color and flavor.
Scrape the conserve into sterilized jars and top with sterilized lids. Before lidding, hold the jar with one oven-gloved hand, and slap it smartly with the other in hopes of eliminating air bubbles within. I can never make it perfectly, but frankly, this doesn’t usually last long enough for that to be much of a problem.
The year of the plum
That’s the jar in the front, closest to you. This has been the year of the plum in Umbria. Trees are bearing plums that have never borne plums before. I may have been here only 7 1/2 years, but my neighbors have been here almost 50 years, and they didn’t know those were plum trees, either.
The year of the plum has meant that this is the year of no cherries and few grapes. The vintage will be poor in quantity this year, although it could still be high quality. You cannot know until we are closer to vintage time of mid-September.
But plums we surely have! The little yellow plum tree I planted from a pit 7 years ago became so loaded with fruit it fell over. As soon as all the fruit is picked we have to top three of its trunks. I’ve frozen so many plums I can’t even estimate how many, and I’ve made jam twice — once for the neighbors and once for me. I make desserts from or freeze the prettier ones, and make jam of the ones with scars. All my fruit is organic, so it tends to be smaller and much less perfect than what I could buy in a supermarket. Wasps like to sting the ripe plums and make some of the juice ooze onto the skin where they can get it. The plum then forms a crystal clear bead or a little dark spot and gets on with ripening.
The frozen plums will wait for the occasion to make this plum cake, or a tart, a crisp, a crumble or a cobbler. I’ve already made the plum cake twice using fresh ones from my blue plum tree. I have to make another to swap with a neighbor down the road for some of his prune plums.
The easiest thing of all, however, is the jam, and you can accomplish it while watching a TV show or reading a book, because other than a few stirs and the bottling time, it almost makes itself.
Spiced Plum Jam
1 kilo or 2.2 pounds plums, pits removed
.5 kilo or 1.1 pound sugar
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
a few scrapings of nutmeg
Before you do anything about the jam, get glass jars and lids ready, by which I mean wash them really well, and then put them into a big pot completely covered with water and boil them. They must reach the boil and boil ten minutes before they are used to jar the jam. This sterilizing normally take about 30 minutes longer than the jam takes to make. You will also need a wide-mouthed funnel, tongs and a ladle. Mine are all metal and get boiled with the jars. I also place a doubled clean dish towel on the counter near the cooker so that I have a safe and soft spot to work with the hot glasses and lids. Set it up and walk away and let it do its thing.
Put the pitted plums into a heavy pot that is at least 4 times bigger than the mass of the plums. Heat them slowly and then simmer until they look cooked and start to shed their skins, about 10-15 minutes. Pour them into a large-holed sieve or colander and use a rubber spatula to press the flesh through while leaving the skins behind. You should end up with just a small amount of dryish skins remaining. This can be done even more easily using a simple manual food mill.
Return the plum flesh to the same pot as before, add the sugar and the spices and stir in. Heat to a full, rolling boil– a boil that you cannot stir down. Cook at full boil for twenty minutes. The jam is done.
One at a time, use the tongs to remove and drain a jar, then using the funnel and ladle, fill the jar within 1/4″ or a scarce centimeter of the top. Using a dampened paper towel, clean the edge of the jar, then grab a lid with the tongs and screw it on just to snug. Turn the jar upside down on the towel to one side. Obviously, you need either mitts or hotpads to handle these hot babies! When the jam is all bottled properly, there may be a bit leftover. Spoon it down. Gnam! After 5 minutes, turn the jars right side up, and tighten the lids down well.
Jams are often used in Italy to make crostata. They make a sweetish pasta frolla, spread the jam over it, top with a lattice crust of the frolla and then bake it. It lasts forever. Never goes stale. I rarely like it. I am therefore trying to convince my cooking neighbors not to make jam of all the fruit, but to freeze some of it. I have translated some US and UK recipes to show what other people do with fruit and they sound somewhat convinced. Sort of. I think almost any of the desserts I know would be healthier than a crostata! One third sugar and the fruit is cooked twice? How nutritionally sound is that? In comparison a fruit cobbler is health food.
5 comments August 25th, 2008
I just clicked on that revolving photo presentation in the margin a moment ago. I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at. It was a portion of spoonbread! I haven’t even thought of spoonbread since I posted that article and recipe. It was just delicious. Why haven’t I even thought of it?
What food occupies the top layer of the mind right now?
Tomatoes. I bought a book yesterday that is just different recipes using tomatoes. They are late this year, so they are just beginning to ripen and should stay with us until November, when we will take advantage of Puglia’s longer summer and buy from the Pugliese farmers every Saturday. I’ve already Post-It marked several pages to try, and have started wondering if any of the newly discovered regional dishes will make up readily for twenty.
Lamb. I still have half the lamb I bought this spring. I am pondering slow-cooking a leg in the fireplace for lunch in the garden. Or I could invite just one person and flash cook the rack.
Green beans, or fagionlini. I helped Amelia pick hers this morning right after I picked mine. Mine provided two fists full, hers a whole basin full. We discussed various recipes in which the bigger and more mature beans are good. Amelia went in to prepare Fagiolini alla Greca for lunch! I decided to make a puree one day and a sformato another day. Mine, who live under a walnut tree, are never going to provide that many, but this time of year you can pick anyone’s beans and they’ll thank you for it. If they are not completely stripped they stop making new beans.
Pickles. The cucumbers are really coming on and the dill is almost heading. If the plums don’t hurry up and riped, I may make some pickles from them, too. There are too many to just eat, even if you made plum cake everyday until they were over.
Suppers. When the heat recedes and you can take pleasure in making food just-so for happy people who are happy to eat what you make. Here below is a supper from a few weeks ago. What pleasant people they were! Think what size that table must be to hold fifteen and still have room for another fifteen. What a gorgeous villa that is, and what a terrific kitchen it has! If you ever need eight bedrooms, just ask.
What makes you think of food, and what food are you thinking of this season?
11 comments July 22nd, 2008
This is a recipe that came together so fast and was eaten so instantly I could almost forget I made it up. The very first version was everything I wanted or expected it to be. That’s something of a record for me in baking. My worst grade in high school was chemistry. This, however, is a success. Not too sweet, fluffy, not overly rich or fatty—in fact most of the weight is in fruit. It should serve six easily or eight with cheese or ice cream and any Italian would like it for breakfast, too.
I took it around to seven various neighbors and they all agree: this is really good. The fact that it is really easy and designed to be made by anyone with an oven, even if they have never made a cake before, is just garnish. It started with yellow plums I froze last summer when they were so good and so everywhere you hardly knew what to do. I made a bit of syrup for them, so they’d come out as nice as they went in. I usually don’t, but they do stay prettier if you do. I thawed them about half way so I could taste them and see what I had to work with. They were firm, tart and very juicy, all good characteristics to work with.
Here’s what you need:
An 8” or 20 cm round shallow pan that can go into the oven—I used a cake tin
A moderate sized bowl
A 1/3 cup measure
A liquid measuring cup
Two table knives
A fork
A teaspoon
An oven set at 425°F or 220°C
Here are the ingredients:
1 cup of plain flour (3 scoops with that 1/3 cup measure)
1/3 cup sugar
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1/3 cup butter
½ cup of the juices of the plums
1 egg
About 14 plum halves
A little sugar
Butter really well the bottom and sides of the baking dish you plan to cook this in.
Put the flour, sugar, spices, baking powder and salt into the bowl and mix them up a bit. Add the butter, cut into pieces, and using the two knives, cut the butter into the dry stuff until it’s incorporated and looks mealy. You can also do that in the food processor, but it’s not in my list above.
Break the egg into the liquid measure and add the plum juice. Use the fork to mix it up well. Dump it onto the dry stuff and use the fork to stir it just enough so that it’s wet. It may still look lumpy and that’s okay. Then scrape it all into the baking dish and arrange the plums on top so that they look nice. Sprinkle a little sugar over the plums. Put it into the oven and cook it for about 30 minutes. Stick a toothpick in the center and if it comes out clean, it’s done, if not, give it another 5 minutes.
Let this sit 10 minutes before turning it onto a cooling rack. The juice cooks into a syrup and clings at first, but after a few minutes it releases the bottom. You can make this, wash the dishes, cool it a bit and serve it all in such a short time…
This is nice warm and I would have loved some Fior di Latte gelato or some vanilla ice cream with it. I thought of sieving powdered sugar over it, but the plums were so jewel-like I couldn’t bear to do it.
If you make it with fresh plums, use milk in the place of the juices. Or try it with any fruit that’s hanging around, fresh or frozen. Maybe cherries? Peaches?
10 comments March 29th, 2008
I have lived here for just short of seven years. For all those years I have shopped for vegetables and fruits in the street markets, on Thursday and Saturday, and the covered market everyday but Monday. Local stuff abounds in growing season, but although we’re warmer, we are at about the same latitude as Maine, which means the days shorten and things stop producing very well if at all.
I was kicking myself because for one reason or another, I’d missed a lot of the season’s produce. Tomatoes are just about over, even though we’re still far from frost. But a couple of weeks ago when there was a market displacement due to a feast for St. Bartolomeo, I found that the trucks that sell outside the walls are from Puglia. They may be bragging, but Puglia says they have a seven month summer. I dropped by today and goodness gracious, great balls of fire! What incredible produce!
I dragged home three different kinds of plums, a small sack of hot cherry peppers and three kilos of tomatoes. Everything is being washed now in preparation for various preserving techniques. I was also given a beautiful bunch of the most honey-like grapes I’ve ever tasted. I tried to buy them, but the boy shrugged me off with a smiling, “Enjoy.”
Just yesterday an old man at the parking in Pienza let me out without payment. Was it just the joking about why he wasn’t there when I drove in? Or am I becoming a cute little old lady who is given things as she moves through life? I’m really not sure what to wish for.
4 comments September 15th, 2007
One of this weekend’s clients is lactose intolerant, so the meal had to be dairy free, other than fully ripened cheeses. That’s not as simple as you might think. Italian desserts, for example, largely do have milk, cream, butter, mascarpone or ricotta in them.
I juggled some recipes to pull off this easy dessert that they all liked very much. It’s very toasted walnut in essence when it’s done.
The crust:
Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F
.5 cup lard (butter is the usual fat here, so feel free)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1.25 cups of plain flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts– the last of the old crop and the new ones will be ready any day now.
Using a mixer, whip the lard and brown sugar together until well-blended. Add the flour, salt and baking soda and mix well. Stir in the nut meats.
In hindsight I will tell you to grease a pie or tart pan, because this crunchy crust fell apart when I cut and served it. Anyway, press the mixture with your hands into the greased pan, and put it into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. It will look like a nut cookie.
Just before you want to serve it, make the honey glaze using:
.5 cup honey
the grated rind of one lemon
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Put them all in a pan and bring to a simmer and allow to simmer for a few minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t catch on and burn. You may be able to cut the plums while it cooks, or you may need to take it off the heat before the plums are ready. I guess it depends how fast you are with a knife.
You need a little less than a pound of plums. Cut in half about eight Stanley prune plums, remove the stones and cut the plums into nice crescents, about 3 per half plum. Arrange the plum crescents in overlapping circles to completely cover the crust. Pour the hot honey glaze over everything. Serve with a little pitcher of heavy cream for the dairy tolerant.
Sorry, no photos, because once again, I get way too busy when I’m working. Photos happen at home when it’s only me to worry about, or willing victims.
2 comments September 3rd, 2007
This is a dessert that was adapted from a fig tart to use those slim, blue, frosted prune plums you find at the end of summer. You can make the pastry, which here is pasta brisé, or buy it at the grocery store or a bakery.
Pastry for a tart pan, fitted into the pan, trimmed to 3/4″ larger than the pan, then folded under and fluted.
soft goat cheese– not the ripened one with crust, but the fresh one you can spread. In Italy look in the fridge for “di Capra”
grated rind of 1 lemon
fresh blue prune plums about a pound, but who’s counting– eat the ones you have leftover
sugar
heavy cream
Preheat the oven to 180°C or 375°F.
Spread the goat cheese onto the bottom of the pastry you’ve arranged in the tart pan. It will be less than 1/4″ thick.
Sprinkle the grated lemon rind over the cheese layer.
Cut the plums in half, remove the stone, and place them in a pattern on the goat cheese, cut side down.
Sprinkle lightly with sugar.
Put it into the hot oven and cook for about 25 Minutes or until the plums have softened. Cool to just warm, and before cutting pour a little fresh cream over it so that it pools a bit around the plums. Serve with a little pitcher with more fresh cream.
This is great for weight gaining diets.
3 comments August 31st, 2007
