I simply love how September blends summer into autumn and slowly brings the inevitable change of seasons. It lets the summer linger while mornings bring first frost and evenings cover with mist. Until one day you can actually feel the crispy air in your lungs and you know that the autumn has fully arrived.
There is nothing more luring than the early autumn garden. The warm palette of colours. The sun-kissed grass. The trees laden with plums, pears and apples. It is one of those childhood memories that I cherish for life. I would be five or six and I would be playing in the garden and any time I felt peckish I could just pick a fruit or two right from the tree.
The picture below shows little Ela picking plums. Or maybe some other fruit. It is really hard to tell as Ela would, and apparently still does, call any fruit plum.
Later on, I might not be playing in the garden anymore but I would still pick random fruit right from the tree. And plum tree in particular. I developed a distinctive taste for late September plums. Those small, dark and slightly frost bitten plums that might be even wrinkled on the outside but are nothing but rich and sweet inside. While I would have them freshly picked with Earl Grey Tea, my granny, Zosia, would make them into a decadent slow cooked jam that I could shamelessly eat all. Kind of like in This Is Just to Say poem by William Carlos Williams.
For many years it has been my guilty pleasure to eat the whole jar of plum jam. Spoon after spoon. I was solely responsibly for making sure that those dozens of jars filled with plum jam would not go to waste and that there is none left before the winter is gone. Not that my granny minded. She would gladly spend early mornings in the kitchen to stock up the pantry. Somehow I always thought it was a very complicated recipe and after Zosia died I never imagined making it myself. It was only recently when I came across the recipe in the old family cookbook and found out that it isn’t complicated at all. I also learnt that it is actually so much less guilty pleasure than I ever thought as there’s very little sugar and the so called “frying” is in fact slow cooking. All you need for this Pantry Perfect recipe is plums, sugar and lots and lots of time.
Slow Cooked Plum Jam
3-4 kg of plums
a few tbs of sugar
The following recipe comes from our old family cookbook Kuchnia Śląska (Cieszyńskiego) by Emilia Kołder.
The best time to make the plum jam is at the end of September or the start of October when the plums are the sweetest. Make sure to use the small oval blueish plums ( I got my węgierki from the local Polish store). It is fine if they’re wrinkled as the flavour and sweetness are even better.
Day One
Wash, dry and pit the plums.
Place the plums is a big and rather wide heavy bottom pot. You might grease the pot with butter to avoid the plums sticking. A wide pot will help to reduce the liquid and the mixture will get thicker more quickly.
Very gently bring to boil stirring the plums with a wooden spoon. You will not need any water or sugar as the plums are juicy enough. Just keep stirring to make sure the plums won’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
Simmer and stir for 2 – 3 hours. As you stir you will break the plums and will see the mixture steam. The plums will start to reduce and get darker thicker.
Day Two
Leave to cool till the next day and then repeat the process of simmering and stirring for another 2 – 3 hours. The plums will reduce and thicken again.
Day Three
On the third day repeat the process again. Keep an eye on the pot and keep stirring as the mixture is now very thick and sticky. At the end of the slow cooking taste and add as much sugar as you think is needed. The sweeter the plums the less sugar you will need. You might not even add the sugar at all. Simmer and stir for another 10 minutes then turn off the heat and leave to cool a bit.
Fill the sterilized jars with the jam and place in a warm oven – 100°C / gas mark ¼ – for about 1 hour. That will preserve the jam.
The plum spread is great with rolls, brioches or challah and will bring some summer sweetness to your breakfast table.
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