Plum & Pomegranate Clafouti

This is one of those recipes that I included on the blog but didn't ever complete the post, so it didn't reach the stage of being published.

It reaches back to 2012 (and it's now 2019), so you'll forgive me if I've forgotten the true in's and out's of the recipe, but what I do remember is that the end result was gorgeous.  What reminded me about it was the fact that we're about at the end of plum season again and I really haven't made the most of the little darlings, this year.  Hence, I was pondering on what I could make that involved plums - and suddenly remembered this Clafouti.

Well, here it is.  The recipe itself couldn't be any easier, in fact the hardest bit about it as I recall, was finding the right dish to put it in!  LOL  It certainly didn't stay in that dish for long - we made a serious hole in it that first serving.

Somewhere between pancakes and sponge pudding, a clafouti definitely fits into the "comfort food" brackets that you know I so love.  Go on, indulge yourself!




PLUM & POMEGRANATE CLAFOUTI  (Serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

500g red plums, stoned and quartered
2 tbsp of runny honey
1 tbsp of pomegranate molasses
1 tsp orange flower water
20g unsalted butter
2 medium eggs
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 heaped tbsp self raising flour
50g semi skimmed milk
3 tbsp greek yoghurt
a pinch of sea salt.

Method :

Place the plums, honey, pomegranate molasses and orange flower water into a bowl and mix until the plums are liberally coated, then tip the plum mixture into a large wide, shallow tart dish and level out.

Melt the butter either in a pan, or in the microwave.  Take care not to let it burn.

Into a large bowl, place the sugar, eggs and flour.  Whisk together until creamy and whilst whisking, add the milk, yoghurt, salt and melted butter.  Whisk until all ingredients are incorporated.

Pour the batter over the plums and place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is slightly domed and a pointed knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Serve warm with cream.

Printable version

Caramelised Plum & Nectarine Sponge, with Amaretto

Photograph by our son

Having been sent the lovely gift box of South African stone fruit from Red Communications, my mind immediately set to with regard to the best way of using them - apart from just eating the lot there and then, of course.  Which, I have got to tell you, was sorely tempting.

I pondered on fools, and tarts, and pies - but nothing really said "yes!" until I considered doing a sponge dessert for after our Sunday dinner.


Although they are all delicious, I didn't want to venture into steamed sponge pudding land (as I can't but help thinking that this is a dangerous road to travel, being such a short hop to syrup sponge pudding), so I began thinking along the baked sponge line - and upside-down cake in particular.


I used to make a seriously nice upside down cake using pineapple, but had stopped because they were just so huge, we'd spend all week eating the stuff.  Which was nice in a way - but seriously bad for our expanding waistlines.


So, upside-down cake it was, using plums (one of which tasted so much like bubblegum it was incredible) and white flesh nectarines.  However, how to provide enough juice to make the cake luscious and moist, and what flavouring to use in the sponge to make it interesting?


Answer?  Hubby's Amaretto.  Now he swears it isn't HIS Amaretto, but I'm sure at Christmas I heard him say he would be fighting off all comers who had intentions of getting near HIS Amaretto.  *chuckle*


So, the end result is slices of nectarine and plum fried off in a blindingly hot pan with a little butter and teensy bit of oil until they colour.  Then add some sugar and let it caramelise, then let the whole thing down with a splash of Amaretto - and include 3 tbsp of Amaretto in the sponge mix.  Completely and utterly gorgeous, both hot and cold two days later.

CARAMELISED PLUM & NECTARINE SPONGE, WITH AMARETTO (serves 6)


Ingredients :

1 knob of butter
1 tsp flavourless vegetable oil
1 large deep red plum, halved, stoned and cut into sixths
1 large nectarine, halved, stoned and cut into sixths
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp Amaretto + 3 tbsp Amaretto for the sponge
110g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
110g butter (room temperature) or soft margarine
90g caster sugar
2 large eggs


Method :

1.  Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan until sizzling and drop the fruit in gently.  Do not stir, just allow each slice to colour and then turn and do the other side.  It's important that the pan is hot, or the fruit will stew - and you don't want that.  The whole process just takes a few seconds.


2.  Add the sugar and toss the fruit while the sugar melts and caramelises, then add the Amaretto and toss the fruit to coat.  Pour the fruit and the sauce into the base of your baking tin, arrange the fruit prettily and put to one side while you make the sponge.


3.  This sponge couldn't be any easier.  Place all ingredients (bar the fruit) into a bowl and whisk until well incorporated.


4.  Pour over the top of the fruit and level the surface gently.  Then put into the oven to bake for 25-30 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.


5.  Allow to cool slightly and turn out onto a serving dish.  Don't let it cool too much, or the caramel will be too sticky to turn out.


Serve with double cream.


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South African Nectarines & Plums

I was recently sent a little box of South African fruit - three different types of plums and two different types of nectarines, to sample.

The gift box is beautifully presented (including a lovely green apron) and almost upstages the lovely fruit.  To receive the  box as a gift would be a lot of fun and I'm still wondering what the box could be used for as it is waaaay too nice to throw away!

As ever, the fruit is just gorgeous and you can taste the sunshine that made it.  Of course, it's also good for you being high in fibre and an excellent source of vitamins C and A.  There's a study available online regarding the health benefits of eating fruit & vegetables high in antioxidants such as you find in these fruits.  I have to admit that I'm all for reducing air miles for food, so I'm a bit betwixt and between where my opinion of the fruit is concerned for that reason, but there's no doubt that it is beautiful.  It made a lovely bright, fresh breakfast with an orange & banana added, plus a spoonful of natural yoghurt.  I could almost have been on that beach.  If you need inspiration on recipes that use these ingredients, Sophie Michell has prepared some lovely ideas available from http://www.beautifulcountrybeautifulfruit.co.uk/.

Ideas for use, gratefully accepted!

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Plum & Fig Jam ..... Naan Bread

Not both on the same plate - although I don't see why it can't be done, with the right ingredients in either!


The Plum & Fig Jam came about because of a gift of six figs from Willie - who comments on the blog regularly - and a lack of opportunity to use them in a dessert before they became too ripe to use.

I wanted the jam to have a good colour and had three plums which had seen better days, so combined the two fruits.

Here you see it adorning a little bowl of natural yoghurt - a princely dessert, prepared at a moment's notice.  We've since found that it is exceptionally good on Cornish Ice Cream, too!

Now next, we have hubby's second go at Naan Bread.  This one, instead of having cumin seeds in the dough, had Kalonji (also known as Nigella or black onion seeds) in the dough.  The Kalonji gave the dough a really authentic flavour and these were by far the best Naan he's produced yet.

I think we're both agreed that they could have done with a little more colour from an aesthetic point of view, but they didn't appear to lose anything by way of flavour.

Their soft fluffiness is infinitely preferable to the hard, dry old things you get in the supermarket.

Look what we've got!

Such treasure!  A Kenwood Chef - at last!

I don't know how long we have lusted after a Kenwood Chef.  Well, we've been together for nearly 13 years, so it's probably about that long.  Now, thanks to our friends Laura and David deciding to have a turnout of their kitchen, we are the proud owners of a beautiful shiny as-new Kenwood Chef.

Hubby is terribly excited, as the Kenwood came with a dough hook.  Well you know what an artisan baker he is - although I'm not sure artisan bakers are supposed to use things like Kenwood Chefs, aren't they supposed to sweat as they mix things by hand?  LOL  Anyway, we'll forgive him that, as anything that makes life a teensy bit easier has got to be a good thing.

You'll see above his first loaf of bread, made using the Kenwood.  He was so proud.  Now, I think we're on to loaf three or four of various incarnations of bread, in the search for the perfect "everyday" loaf.

I have to admit, that all I've done with it (so far) is make a smoothie - but what a smoothie!  I've always wanted to be able to add ice cubes to a smoothie - and ice cubes are definitely more than my little stick blender could cope with.  The Kenwood, however, just munched it's powerful way through them.

My smoothie was made with an enormous Cox's apple, three red plums, a banana, three dessertspoonfuls of plain live yoghurt, around 200ml of apple juice and three ice cubes.  Whizz it all up and it makes enough for two smoothies that will wake up the most jaded of taste buds!

Plum Lattice Pie

Goodness, but the name "Plum Pie" just doesn't describe this glory I'm about to detail.  I've been sitting here pondering on it's name and "Spiced Plum Pie" or "Spiced Plum Lattice Pie" sounds even worse, so I've settled on "Plum Lattice Pie", even though that doesn't begin to describe the subtle spice levels within the fruit.

Having re-discovered my pastry making mojo, I've been quite keen to practice the art. As you know, money is tight here these days and to just make pastry goods for the hell of it isn't do-able.  So, I have to make something that contributes to the menu and gives some kind of added payback for the investment in time, electricity and ingredients.

We popped into the supermarket for some milk recently and came out with a cut-price (40p) punnet of plums.  Well, they were just too good to miss, considering they'd been selling at the extortionate price of £1 previously.   As an aside - HOW do supermarkets consider 400g of plums to be worth £1?  People have plum trees in their garden and can't give the fruit away - so an entire quid on what is effectively a teeny handful seems to me to be utterly extortionate.

Anyway.  So I had extra-curricular plums in the fridge, and a buckshee piece of ginger (leftover from chutney making).  So, plum pie for dessert on Sunday was decided upon.  Now, here's how you do it ...

PLUM LATTICE PIE  (feeds 6)

Ingredients :

For pastry :
210g plain flour
half a tsp baking powder
55g cold salted butter
50g cold lard
1 tsp caster sugar
small amount of water

For filling :
500g plums, stoned and quartered
small piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1 flat tsp ground cinnamon
sugar to taste.

Method :

1.  Make the pastry the day before, by adding all the ingredients bar the water to a food processor and blitzing until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.  Alternatively, rub the fat into the flour & baking powder until you achieve the same result.  Add a small amount of water, just enough to bring the pastry together in a fairly thick but not sticky, dough.

2.  Wrap in cling film (do not compress, just pat lightly together into a mound) and put the pastry in the fridge until the following day.

3.  Pre-heat your oven to 180deg C (fan).  Cut your pastry mound into one third/two thirds and place a length of cling film on your work surface and turn the larger amount of pastry out onto it.  Cover with another length of cling film and begin to roll the pastry out to fit your pie dish.

Pastry case : part-baked and ready for filling

4.  Once the pie dish is lined, cover with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans then part-bake for 25 minutes.

5.  While the pastry case is baking, put the plums into a microwaveable bowl, together with the ginger and cinnamon and as much sugar as you think they're going to need.  I usually eat a piece of plum while I'm cutting them, so that I'll know how sour/sweet they are.  Give it all a mix, then put on to cook on High for 3 minutes or until they are just beginning to soften.

Plums - microwaved and ready to go

6.  Take the remaining pastry and roll out the same way as before, between two pieces of cling film.  This method is so much easier when it comes to clearing up!

7.  Cut the rolled out pastry into strips - you'll need around 8 separate strips - long enough to reach from one side of the pastry case to the other.

8.  Pour the plums into the pastry case, then brush a little milk onto the edges.  Lay pastry strips in alternate directions across the top, pressing them into the edge of the pastry case.

9.  Once your lattice is done, brush a little milk over to glaze and bake at 180deg C (fan) until the fruit is bubbling and the pastry is golden.

Serve with custard or cream.

Spiced Plum Chutney

Saturday afternoon was taken up with making Spiced Plum Chutney.

It was my first go at any kind of chutney, but having had such success with the small batch jam, I was filled with hope that the results would be good.  I chose a basic recipe from James Martin which I got creative with and added a few things.  I have to say, that apart from it being rather more “soupy” than I wanted, the flavours are terrific and it goes marvellously well with a lovely strong cheddar.

It was remarkably easy to do :

Ingredients

2 shallots, chopped fine.
2 tsp olive oil.
500g plums, stoned and quartered.
50ml cider vinegar.
50ml balsamic vinegar.
Half a tsp cinnamon.
Half a tsp ground coriander.
Small piece of ginger, grated.
100g dark brown sugar.

Method

1.  Begin by sweating off the chopped shallots in the oil.  Once softened and transparent, add the plums, vinegar, cinnamon, coriander, ginger and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

2.  Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 mins or so, stirring from time to time, until the mixture thickens slightly.

I didn’t go for the sterilised jars option, I just put mine into a lidded dish and now it lives in the fridge. I doubt very much that it will last long enough to go off!