Private chef Lilian Hiw has fun with friends picking plums and comes up with a delicious recipe for plum sauce to have with roast duck
I’m in York with my son at the moment, and also spending some time with my god-sister Diana and her equally wonderful husband Tony. They live in York and run a charming guest house here.
Today, Diana brought me to a communal allotment garden where, at this time of year, the plum trees are absolutely laden with fruit.
The plums were everywhere. Huge clusters were hanging from the branches, almost like bunches of grapes. When we picked them, they were warm from sitting in the sunshine all day, and they tasted absolutely delicious.
The flavour was incredible. So much more intense than the plums you get in the supermarket. They were sweet and luscious, almost honey-like, juicy and bursting with that lovely plum flavour. I think there is something quite magical about eating fruit straight from a tree. It doesn’t need anything doing to it. You just wipe it on your clothes and eat it!
Well, actually, in our case, we split the fruit in half and checked for worms before devouring it – because Diana had found a worm in hers previously!
We did have another ‘small’ problem.
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Diana and I are both ladies of five foot and almost no inches. We could see these enormous clusters of beautiful ripe plums hanging tantalisingly above our heads, but there was absolutely no way we were going to reach them.
Fortunately, someone had thoughtfully left two long wooden sticks beside the trees.
Well, what else were we supposed to do?
We picked up the sticks and started tapping on the branches. And suddenly it was raining plums!
Plums were dropping everywhere. We were laughing, running around trying to catch them and picking them up from the grass. It was actually rather satisfying. . . and what precious memories.
But, of course, the biggest and best bunches were still sitting much higher up.
Diana then spotted a bench and, with great determination, dragged it underneath the tree. She climbed up, stretched, reached and tried every possible angle.
Still too high.
At this point, we decided that perhaps we should stop pretending we were professional plum pickers and come back the following day with a ladder.
So that is the plan.
What to do with all those plums
And now, of course, I have been thinking about what I’m going to do with all these beautiful plums.
There are so many possibilities. In western cooking, plums are wonderful in a classic crumble, tart or pie, and they make a gorgeous jam or chutney. You can roast them with a little sugar and vanilla and serve them with ice cream, yoghurt or porridge. They are also delicious with pork, particularly when you want that lovely combination of sweet and savoury. And if you find yourself with lots of plums, a homemade plum chutney will see you through the colder months and is fantastic with cheese.
But you know me, my mind naturally goes towards Asian flavours.
Plums with an Asian twist
Plums work beautifully with Asian ingredients because their sweetness and natural acidity balance salty, spicy and savoury flavours. In Chinese cooking, we know and love plum sauce with roast duck, but it’s equally delicious with crispy pork and roast goose. Plums can also be cooked into sweet and sour sauces and used as a glaze for sticky pork ribs. One of my favourite combinations is plum with ginger, soy, Chinese five-spice and a touch of chilli.
Japan has its own special relationship with plums. There is umeshu, a sweet Japanese plum liqueur, made by steeping ume plums with sugar and alcohol. It has a lovely sweet-tart and almost almondy flavour and is delicious served chilled, over ice or used in cocktails.
My easy plum sauce for roast duck
If tomorrow’s ladder mission is successful, I’ll be putting some of those plums to very good use. Here’s my easy plum sauce for roast duck.
You’ll need:
500g ripe plums, stones removed and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons Chinese rice vinegar
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 small garlic clove, finely grated
½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice
100ml water
Method:
1. Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for around 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the plums have completely softened and the mixture has thickened.
2. Taste it.
3. If your plums are particularly sweet, add a little more vinegar. If they are quite tart, add another spoonful of sugar. Cooking is always about tasting and adjusting.
4. For a smooth sauce, blend it until silky. I actually quite like leaving mine slightly textured, so you get little pieces of plum through the sauce.
5. Serve it alongside crispy roast duck with warm Chinese pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and, of course, plenty of plum sauce.
A little prosperity on the table
And plums have another special place in my kitchen.
Every Chinese New Year I make my Prosperity Salad. The dressing contains plum sauce, brandy, soy sauce, shallot oil and toasted sesame oil. I love using plum sauce because its sweetness and acidity balance beautifully with the salty soy sauce, warming brandy and fragrant sesame and shallot oils.
The plum also has an auspicious significance. Its golden or ruby-red colour represents wealth and prosperity, its sweetness signifies a happy and prosperous year ahead, and the plum itself symbolises resilience, renewal and new beginnings.
From the moment I tasted those sun-kissed plums, I knew they deserved some tender loving care. Now we just need to convince Tony to join us with that ladder!
Because those big bunches hanging at the top of the tree? They’re definitely coming home with me.
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