Lots of plums, very simple recipes please!

[catsofa]

Friend gave me a carrier bag full of Victoria plums from her allotment.

Think I'll stew some and have with custard, but that won't use very many. May possibly make jam.

What else could I do with them? Needs to be very simple as I'm a crap cook with not much free time before they go off.

This is very yum and very easy (I don't bother with the plum jam and it always turns out fine). Plums freeze, so you don't have to make any rash decisions!

I made freezer jam - make jam in slap-dash fashion and freeze in little containers.

I made clafoutis too - easy and yummy.

Plum crumble too. You can demolish a lot of plums this way.

And we eat them raw!

Those look great, cheers!

I only have a small counter top freezer and it's already full, so I probably can't really freeze any.

I've already eaten about 100 of them raw, they are lovely :)

Today we've made plum custard pie.

Yum!

Pot them? They'll keep a good long while that way and you can stuff them in a cupboard rather than taking up freezer space. Crack them out at Christmas/New Years then and for winter desserts

I hadn't thought of that, can I use normal jam jars for potting? And do they need some sort of liquid to swim in?

ive just made Chinesey plum sauce! I had a whole bucket of plums picked today and it makes several bottles ..I do it every year and ieveryone loves it - it goes so quick! but I sort of make the recipe up and taste for balance salt sweet vinegar as i go along so cant give amounts .

I boiled up plums , onion, ginger garlic, chilli, soy sauce , sugar, star anise, 5 spice powder some wine vinegar and scezhwan pepper.. There are lots of recipes on the net (but none of then are for a whole bucket of plums!) .. lots left on tree though I might make jam next .. (or more plum sauce)

Now that is a good idea, something that'll keep in jars and that I can totally see myself using up over the winter. I have a new family this xmas so I need a few random presents too, and I know a few of them are foodies. I'll put some in nicer jars in case it turns out good enough to give.

Plum vodka/rum/gin?
Put plums in a BIG jar, add lots of sugar, fill up with alcohol of your choice, shake a few times a day until sugar has dissolved then put in a darkish place until Christmas. Strain and put into bottle/s. Drink as a liqueur on cold winter evenings :o

Mmm, like sloe gin! I would LOVE that if I were not pregnant. In fact I would still love it, but cannot have it. And I'm buggered if I'm going to make booze and then watch everyone else drink it without me.

Hrmph.

It turns out I'm really quite grumpy without regular input of wine

We just can't stop eating ours! Mmmmm. We've had a large bowl morning and night for the past 3 weeks.

I made a lovely plum, apple and bramble crumble last night but that was the first time I'd cooked any.

catsofa - make it, hide it, wet the baby's head with it :)

Cats - if you put it in alcohol it needs to sit for months, so will be ready for when you aren't pregnant.

I cracked open some blackcurrant gin the other day, to use to soak my fresh plums in for some clafoutis this evening, and we drank the remaining gin. And the blackberries were perfectly preserved.

I second feetheart as you should leave plum vodka at least 6 months to a year to mature (strain after 6 months then bottle)! If you are going to make it, remove 5-6 of the stones, bash them with a hammer - you get lovely almond-flavoured kernels in the middle. Add these to the vodka-plum-sugar mix to get a subtle almond flavour in the liqueur. And make sure you at least prick the plums before going in the jar.

Update: I made 9 jars of Chinese plum sauce to more or less this recipe, and it is delicious!

I didn't strain it because a) it's a PITA to shove stuff through tiny holes, b) I don't own anything with tiny holes that won't break easily (have broken a few sieves like this!) and c) I thought it might be nice with lumps in anyway. Then I changed my mind at the last minute and whizzed it all with a blender at the end instead, so it is smooth but thick. And delicious, did I mention that?

Star Anise was a little hard to find but a local Indian veg shop had a big packet for 34p.