In answer to Casa's Midday Muse I'd like to share photos of the bounty that is just starting to come in from our garden. Yes. It's a bit late. But we had so much going on mid-May with family events (a wedding, a baby shower, and the birth), garden refreshment, patio reclamation, and completeing a few interior redesign projects that our planting was delayed until mid-June. That's very late and well into the growing season in Pennylvania to be sure.
Still - our garden has come in all of its bountiful glory. Our tomato plants are loaded with fruit that is just beginning to mature. We also have had a steady crop of yellow & green bell peppers, banana peppers, jjalapenos and habaneros since about mid-July. I also don't want to forget the plums. Our plum tree is absolutely overloaded with Italian prune plums and I am setting up my kitchen to make some wonderful sweet and spicy Plum & Habanero Jam.
Habaneros do pack quite a kick so a little will go a long way. But the sweetness of the plums will offset it just a bit and the natural citrus-like flavor of the hababeros will add an interesting depth of flavor to the traditional. I'm also going to add just a touch of nutmeg just to shake things up a bit.
08/17/2008
My Spicy-Sweet Plum Sauce, Chunky Plum Chutney, and Sweet Plum Refrigerator Jam were quite a hit yesterday.
I made a 3 course dinner for my husband with the secret ingredient being --guess what-- plums.
- First course featured a fresh salad of arrugula and red onion tossed with a bit of classic Greek vinagrette, slices of French feta, garnished with a drizzle of Chunky Plum Chutney.
- The second course consisted of chipped top round of beef, marinated in garlic and olive oil. This was seared and tossed with a sautee of red onions and yellow and green banana peppers, finished with my Spicy-Sweet Plum Sauce, served atop a toasted portugese roll.
- Dessert featured a generous mound of vanilla ice cream and mango sorbet, garnished with a drizzle of Sweet Plum Refrigerator Jam, served on top of chewy sugar cookies.
My husband got quite a kick out of the Top Chef inspired feast and even requested another go round of the menu for his lunch today.
All in all I harvested about 10 pounds of plums, all turned out into the jam. One of the things that I think made my various jams such a hit is the fact that I cut back on the sugar tremendously, using only 1/2 cup of sugar per pound of plums.
Honestly, I had so much jam I needed to share so I gave a 12 oz jar (1 of each variety) to my next door neighbor. She and her husband thoroughly enjoyed the mixtures and I have been invited to partake of as many peaches from her tree as I like. Interesting this: She and I had a rather interesting exchange of veggies last year when I planted eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. She, in turn for the fresh veggies, gifted me with a couple quarts of home-canned tomatoes. I'm saving them until the anniversary date of 09/08 to actually try them but they are very well done and I do appreciate it very much.
Another neighbor stopped by yesterday and I gave him a jar of the Sweet Plum Refrigerator Jam. His wife loved it and promptly issued me an invitation to take from their pear tree as I wished. The husband, newly acquainted with my love of pears, even dropped by with a bag of ripe pears this morning.
Needless to say this has turned into a wonderful exchange between us and I am delighted to share. Most of the fruit that I picked this morning is not quite ripe but once it has ripened I'll be making more of versions of my refrigerator jams, sweet-spicy sauces, and chutneys and will share them out in kind. I can't tell you how much I am enjoying this or how much I imagine I will enjoy it come the deep freeze of a Pennsylvania winter.
So tonight's dinner was a rather simple meal and one that I think would be best described as "a very original stir fry". Boneless, skinless breasts of chicken, drawn and pounded to 1/4 inch in thickness, were marinated in a blend of dry mustard and garlic with a touch of soy sauce. While that was marinating I sauteed a melange of fresh peppers from my garden, corn, and .plums in olive oil. Then added to that, a healthy handful of fettucine. I fried and tossed the mixture until the vegetables were crisp-tender then I removed the vegetables and pasta from the pan and seared the chicken, deglazing the pan with a touch of summer ale and Chunky Plum Chutney [about 4 tablespoons or so]. When the chicken was done I removed it to a plate and added the veggies and pasta back in to soak up the liquid and then served it immediately garnishing with a healthy bunch of fresh arrugula.
My husband gave it a rating of "most delicious" in the "most adventurous food" catagory and dubbed the dish "Pollo Plum Loco". That's all for the good as far as I'm concerned.
Beautiful,love these photos!