Gaumenperlen autumn session:
Plum chutney
This summer ended suddenly after a very short rainy period with low temperature. The arrival of autumn this year was so quick, that it felt like the blow out sound of a bottle of champaign being opened: Plopp! Summer game over. The light, the colours, the smell in the air, the whole season seemed to ha have changed over night.
I love autumn, even if I am a summer type deep down in my heart. There are many reasons for this love and one surely is that autumn is the time of harvest.
Plums are one of my most beloved autumn fruits. Their taste between sweet and a bit of sour, their complementary inside and outside colour, the smell of fresh plum cake or a plum butter right out of the oven, all theses culinary highlights are connected with plums in my mind and on my tongue.
Last year I invented a plum chutney which was on of the favourites of my friends at the first gaumenperlen tasting. I refined it carefully a few days ago.
The most important thing for this chutney is time: you have to cook it down very very slowly.
It´s a wonderful thing to eat with strong cheese, beef or even a fine smoked beef ham.
Plum chutney ingredients
You need for round about 14 small glasses and organic ingredients as follows:
2kg of damson plums
2 kg of brown sugar
2 races of fresh rosemary (needles only)
0,5 kg of red onions
a bulb of garlic
100 grammes of fresh raped ginger
15 little red hot chili peppers
a cup of raisins
5 spoons of sea salt
8 spoons of aceto balsamico
2 spoons of hot curry
1 spoon of black pepper pearls
Olive oil
How to cook it
Rost the very small cut onions, garlic, chilies, black crashed pepper, (without pits), 5 spoons of brown sugar, the sea salt and the rosemary needles very slowly for round about 20 minutes. Stir it from time to time.
Add the aceto, half of the brown sugar, the halved plums and cook it very slowly - lid open - with very low heat, stir it form time to time.
After half an hour add the rest of the sugar and the curry. let it cook for at minimum one more hour until it is creamy. Taste it again if salt, aceto or more sugar is needed. Turn the heat to full power for 15 minutes, stir it permanently and then fill it into little preserving glasses.
Let it rest for at least 3 weeks before you open your first one. It needs a little bit of rest.
After the first tasting of gaumenperlen last year, a few friends mailed me their favourite dishes to eat with the plum chutney. One of my friends like to eat the plum chutney with stirred eggs and coriander in the morning, another one told me that she likes to eat it on the top of fresh italian bred with butter and fennel salami. A very dear friend of mine who also is a passionate cook likes to eat it with filet steak and green beans
My favourite combination is to serve it with grilled lamb filet. The wonderful, slightly strong taste of the lamb meat goes perfectly in harmony with the sweet& salty & sour mix-taste of the plum chutney.
Looking out of the kitchen window I imagine my next plum session tomorrow. Theme of the day: plum marmelade with dark brown sugar, very little cinnamon, black pepper, orange peel, fresh vanilla bean and plum brandy. If you reheat that and pure it over vanilla ice cream, and put add some fresh rosted walnuts and handmade caramel chips on the top I´m very sure you want to have autumn forever:-)
dolce vita ahoi • monika ebert • mobile minds
