Plum Perfection!

Courtesy of my Grandad, I have had a large bag of plums from his work sitting in the bottom of my fridge since Sunday. Besides the fact that any fruit or vegetable left in the vege bins of my fridge freezes within hours of being placed there; the plums have gone from quite ripe to unable to be touched without collapsing ripe. This posed a problem... What am I to do with all these plums I can physically prepare before cooking, but I want them to be as versatile as possible?!?!

Professor Google to the rescue!! The entire bag of plums was poured (frozen or half frozen, whatever state they were in) into a large pot, covered in cold water and brought to the boil. Once boiled I allowed the plums to simmer for 10 minutes, or until they disintegrated when pressure was applied to them with a fork. Then using a metal sieve, the plums and liquid were poured into a heat proof bowl until all the plum flavoured water was out of the pot. Reserve the liquid, you can use it later in several items.

Place the sieve back over the now empty pot. Inside the sieve is all the pulp, pips and skins of the plums (Now here comes the fun part) Using the back of a large spoon, rub the pulp into the sieve, forcing the usable pulp back into the pot. Continue to do this until you have sieved through all the manageable pulp (I was using a serving spoon to do this and it still took me a good 10-15 minutes of sieving to drain as much pulp as possible) Ensure you scoop the underside of the sieve into the pot so you don't lose that pulp!! Dump the pips and skins in the bin, as much as I love using all parts of fruit and veges and waste nothing, I'm afraid you don't get a choice this time.

So now you have a diluted plum liquid and pulp to work with!! I used the liquid on its own to make ice cubes that you could add to vodka and lemonade, or just plain water. Half filling ice block moulds with pulp and topping up with the diluted liquid I have made Lil'A friendly plum ice blocks!

With the last dribble of pulp and the reserves of the liquid, I used an old glass bottle to make plum juice!! Can drunk on its own or with a sweet liquor (if you are that way inclined) Also a great remedy for constipated little (or big) people, just make sure its diluted for the little ones!!

 Don't think this is just applicable to plums! Most stone fruits could be boiled and prepared in this manner. The trick is to ensure they are super ripe, more nutrients and a better flavour will result from the fruits after the boiling process. Enjoy!! xx