Procrastination Plum Sauce

While trying to avoid work the other day I realised I really must do something with the plums wrongly delivered by Salisbury's and while I don't actually love plums I really like plum sauce and it would be a useful addition to my fridge so I turned to Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook which never seems to let me down in fruit or veg crises.

Very quick and easy to make and I rather pleasingly found that the recipe needed exactly the amount of plums in my punnet which was nice. This can be brushed on lamb, beef, pork or fish before barbecuing or grilling, or can enrich the juices from your pork, goose or duck and can even be thinned a little with a light oil and used as a dipping sauce. I will probably eat most of it in the middle of the night with a spoon... or maybe with a pickled onion dunked in it... I'm not pregnant I swear.

Plum Sauce

For 500ml

450g ripe plums
2-3 garlic cloves
2 dried chillies or 1 fresh red chilli
3 heaped tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
4 tbsp soy sauce
salt


You need a heavy based saucepan but not a very big one. I used a fresh red chilli because I had one in the fridge and 3 cloves of garlic because I love garlic. I used a big jar as I only wanted one of these... I'm not sure it's going to last very long once Joe gets back from being away for work.

1. Halve the plums and remove their stones - I found it easiest to cut them in half and then remove the stones over the pan so you don't lose any juices. I kept the skins on but I'm sure you can dig the flesh out of them if you prefer. 

2. Chop the garlic and the chilli, or, if you are using dried chillies, crush using a pestle and mortar.

3. Put all the ingredients into a heavy-based saucepan and simmer for at least half an hour until rich and thick and most of the liquid has evaporated.

All the ingredients in the pan

4. Pour into warm sterilized jars, seal and cover. this keeps very well in the fridge for 3-4 weeks and freezes for up to a year.