Making Plum Sauce, Making Do

Once every ten to twelve years I cook up a big batch of plum sauce and store it in the freezer. My recipe is in a little cookbook that came with a wok, and was included because plum sauce is a staple of some Chinese cooking. To my taste, though, plum sauce is a lovely chutney to serve with curried chicken and to use as a topping for curried deviled eggs. The last time I made curried chicken I was dismayed to find that our plum sauce supply was exhausted.

Italian prune plums make the best plum sauce so I’ve been waiting all summer for prune plums to show up in the grocery store produce department. Yesterday, when they did show up, I bought six pounds of them but couldn’t remember what other ingredients I would need to make sauce.

Prune Plums

This morning it turned out that I didn’t have fresh ginger, a chili pepper, or enough brown sugar, but I did have ground ginger, green chili powder, and almost enough brown sugar, which could be supplemented with a little white sugar. Making do with these substitutions saved me a twenty-mile trip to town and back.

Now that a pot of plum sauce is simmering on the stove, our house smells heavenly, and I can sit and rest my weary feet.

Today’s batch could last until I’m ninety, by which time I will be too decrepit to make more. You may want to make some, though, so I’m including the recipe. Remember that this recipe is flexible and forgiving so long as you use prune plums, cider vinegar, and sugar. You can tinker with spices to your heart’s content.

Plum Sauce

5 pounds of prune plums, cut in half and seeded

1 small onion, cut into eighths

2 cups cider vinegar

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 knobs of ginger, peeled and finely chopped (or 1 tablespoon powdered ginger)

1 heaping tablespoon mustard seeds (or 1 or more tablespoons ground mustard)

1 small can of chili peppers, drained (or some chili pepper flakes)

1 small jar of diced pimentos

1 to 4 cloves of garlic, minced

Briefly whirl small batches of the plums and onion in a food processor and dump them into a large cooking vessel. Add the remaining ingredients, stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let the sauce simmer, uncovered, for about 1½  hours, or until the sauce is reduced by about a third and is somewhat thickened. Stir the sauce frequently during the cooking process.

The sauce may be canned or frozen.

Copyright 2014 by Shirley Domer