Plum And Blackboy Peach Sauce (Spicey)

Ingredients:
2.75 kgs (or 6 lbs) mixture of plums and peaches (half of each)
12 cups of malt vinegar
6 cups of brown sugar
10 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp of ground mace
 2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp of ground cloves
One quarter of a teaspoon of paprika

Instructions:
Remove stones from the plums and peaches and place into a large saucepan on a moderate heat to start breaking down.  

Add all the remaining ingredients and slowly bring to the boil, stirring frequently. 

Turn the heat down and simmer for around 20 minutes till the mixture is nice and pulpy, still stirring often. Turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Once cooled enough put the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth. 

Return to the pan and bring back to the boil. 

Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Below : Andrew poses with the jars and bottles from our session.

 

Below : Some of the peaches and plums we used. 

 

Spicey Plum Chutney

I love plums! They are bursting with so much flavour and are delicious to use whether it be in a marinade, jam, chutney, sauce or some other delight.  I love their rich colour.  This Easter weekend Andrew and I decided to use some of this gorgeous fruit and this is what we made first.  Our Granny Smith apples were coming in just in time too.

Ingredients

1.5 kgs of plums

500 grams of apples (preferably Granny Smith)

1 large onion

5 cloves of garlic

1 litre of white vinegar

750 gms of white sugar

1 Tbsp ground all spice

1 Tbsp finely grated root ginger

1 Tbsp salt

1 tsp of curry powder

Method

Use plums which are nicely ripe, wash and drain them and then place in a large pot. Begin to cook them over a low heat, removing pips with a slotted spoon as they split apart and break down.  You can slice and remove the pips beforehand if you prefer.

Peel and core the apples, then peel the onions and garlic and coarsely chop all of them.  Add to the pan with the plums.

Add all the remaining ingredients.  Bring to the boil while stirring and watching the mixture doesn't stick and burn, then reduce to a slow simmer.  Simmer slowly for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until sufficiently thick. Stir frequently to avoid mixture sticking and burning.

Bottle in sterilized jars.