"plum" news and stories

Locally milled, boutique flour is a growing trend.

Grande dame of Italian cookbooks Marcella Hazan has a new memoir.

A classic Frank Bruni takedown of a restaurant that's more about seeing and being seen than the food.

Eric Asimov writes about a radical California winery.

The Minimalist does summer soup.

An uncooked plum sauce is perfect for drizzling over pork tenderloin. With recipe.

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Umeboshi are pickled ume, sour Japanese fruits somewhere between plums and apricots. Umeboshi are often eaten for breakfast, or as a pickle-like side-dish with boxed lunches. They're a common filling for onigiri (rice balls), a lunch staple. Umeboshi can be grated and mixed with soy sauce for dressing chicken or salad. They are considered highly medicinal, used for hangovers, digestive ailments and to "purify" the blood. Many older Japanese people eat one every morning, for energy, the same way samuris did hundreds of years ago.

You can pick up umeboshi, or umeboshi paste, at most Asian markets.

I was at a local food event today which show cased regional and local food products made by small / family businesses and farms. Every now and then I run across a product so good I have to share the news. The Bombay Emerald Chutney Company has not just one, but five great products. Their gourmet line of "Royal" Chutneys are fantastic: Royal Mint Chutney, Royal Tomato Chutney, Royal Plum Chutney, Royal Cranberry Chutney, and their new Royal Pomegranate Chutney. It's a Mom and Pop company who make their chutney by hand from their own family recipes using all natural ingredients that they personally buy themselves, and they have no preservatives.

My favorite is the Mint Chutney, made from Coriander, Lime Juice, Mint Leaves, Green Chilies, Salt & Spices. You would think that from such few and simple ingredients the flavor would be simple, but it's not. It has a very complex taste with just the right balance between the tangy lime, fresh mint, salt, and a nice but not lethal dose of spices. The Tomato Chutney has a very solid, summer ripe tomato presence, with the lemon, spices, salt, and cilantro bringing it all together.

These are not quite muffins, nor are the cupcakes. They are cup cakes. By this, I mean that they are individually portioned miniature cakes and do not quite fit into either of the two standard miniature cake categories. In spite of the semantic issue here, they look delicious. This particular batch of Plum Cup Cakes with Oatmeal and Almonds was baked by Zarah, of Food and Thoughts. The cakes are made with a combination of oat flour and plain flour, which gives them the sweet flavor of oats and a moist, tender consistency, without the texture of rolled oats. The recipe for these comes from the Italy-based food blog Lucullian Delights, but because plums aren't in season at the moment, you might want to bookmark it and come back to make the yourself later in the year, or simply try substituting another fruit (perhaps a berry) in place of the seasonal stone fruits. The cakes could be served as coffee cake for breakfast or brunch or with a small dollop of whipped cream for dessert.

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A pluot is a relatively new fruit, developed in the late 20th century by Floyd Zaiger, a hybrid between a plum and an apricot that is touted by growers as having all of the good properties of both fruits, and none of the drawbacks. They have a very high sugar content, are smooth-skinned and do not have the tartness that is often associated with plum skins. Their flesh is a little bit firmer than that of plums, similar in firmness to the flesh of a ripe nectarine, so they hold up better to being eaten out-of-hand or sliced up than plums do.