Friday Foodie Fix
Today’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is plums. I have loved plums since I was a kid. The dark sweet plums were always a summer treat. Plums can be round or oval and 1 to 3 inches. They can be yellow, green, red, purple, and indigo blue. Fresh plums are available May through October so eat up now. Plums are very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. They are also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A and Vitamin K, and a very good source of Vitamin C. Don’t forget most of their calories do come from natural sugars. At only 30 calories each you may be wondering why you don’t eat them everyday.
One week at the farmers market I found both red and purple plums. They were amazing. I put them together for a wonderful plum sauce with a kick. Well it actually had too much of a kick. For some reason I thought 2 chocolate habaneros were better than one. My oldest son and I liked it but my husband doesn’t like food that hot. The only way to really cool it down would be to add some sour cream which would change the sauce completely.
Plum Sauce
1/2 onion and 1 clove garlic diced and softened by cooking in 1 tsp butter and 1 tsp oil.
Add that to your VitaMix along with 1-2 dozen organic plums (seed removed) 1 chocolate or regular habaneros (remove seeds and membranes-could start with 1/2 pepper), juice of 1 lime, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp clove, 1 TB honey, and salt. Blend until smooth and return to saucepan.
Taste to see if you have a good balance. You can add more honey, salt or spices. If you want to add more heat with the pepper, add some back to the VitaMix along with the pepper to blend, then return to saucepan. If you don’t have a VitaMix you can use a really good blender.
Now it’s your turn to share what you do with your plums? Do you cook with them or just use them raw? Do they bring back memories? I hope you will share your stories and your recipes.
Next week’s Secret Ingredient is ……Honey.
As promised here is a listing of the upcoming Secret Ingredients!
September 24- Honey
October 1- Tomatillos
October 8- Thyme
October 15- Grapes
October 22- Balsamic Vinegar
October 29- Pepitas
Perfect timing for a plum week! I have been quickly discovering these past few weeks that plums can be some of my favorite fruits!
Yum! I can't wait to try that plum butter. You are so creative! Thank you for sharing.
Hey Diane, it is SO plum time at the farmer's market these days — got some gorgeous Italian prune plums that I am going to stew. This is how my grandmother always dealt with a flood of fall plums; the stewing totally transforms them, in color and flavor. Here's the recipe link: http://wp.me/pDoO3-1B.
This sauce sounds delicious! I love plums, my favorite is to make a plum clafloutis and of course eaten out of hand with the juices running down my arm!
I didn't stop by last week because I didn't have any recipes for plums. Now I'm stopping by to see tomorrow's ingredient. Do you know many recipes I have using honey?! I will have to pick and choose for this FFF. Great to see the schedule, Diane! Thanks so much for doing that!
Shirley
Shirley- seems to me that plums and honey go really well together. If you match them up let us know.
Carol- sound like we use the same eating utensils.