The last kilo …

I have all sorts of ideas floating around - one in particular uses a classic Asian plum sauce, traditionally served with duck.

So, using 400g, here it is :

Asian plum sauce

400g plums, stoned and quartered

50g demerara sugar

75ml (3fl oz) white wine vinegar

pinch of chilli flakes

1 whole star anise or ½ tsp of ground star anise

Cook for 20/25 minutes until the plums are soft. Leave to cool and then pass through a sieve – reserve the sauce. The recipe will give you 200ml of sauce. I have frozen it.

Here are two photos – the beginning and the end, before passing through a sieve.

How luscious does it look?!

Moving swiftly on, I now have 600g of plums left so I'm going to “open freeze” the plums – like I did previously in “Share the spoils” it's always helpful to include a method.

Open freezing plums/damson plums

Wash them and pat dry. Halve the plums and remove the stones. Place them on a shallow tray – try and make sure they aren't touching and then place in the freezer. Leave them overnight – you'll then finish up with perfect frozen plums, to use whenever the mood takes. Bag the frozen beauties and pat yourself on the back.

It's so satisfying.

You do realise that I'm going to bore the pants off you with all sorts of recipes using plums and damsons for the foreseeable future!