For those who don't know about it: 'The chef & the mum' was started by Katrina Higham (the Chef) and Mish Lilley (the Mum) who take turns in choosing the core ingredient & anyone is welcome to join in (click on Katrina's blog if you want to join in!). A great way to share expertise & recipes.
There are links for you to check out the other recipes at the end of my post- so be sure to check out what everyone else made!.
Yumolicious.....we are at the end of the season now but my kids have certainly devoured a small village in Plums since Summer began.
We have planted quite a few stone fruit trees but I can see now that I really need a small orchard to keep up with how much fruit my kids eat! They go through 8kg of apples alone EVERY week!
I am not a huge sweets person so I was looking to use the plums in savoury dishes. I immediately thought of an old favourite.
Years ago when we lived in Sydney we used to meet a couple (some of our favourite peeps in the whole wide world!) at Martin Boetz's Longrain. It was 'their' restaurant and we were more than happy to eat with them there! The restaurant is Martin's (a German lad) take on Asian food and it is oh so good!
Especially delicious washed down with their signature cocktail- beautiful lime Caipiroska.
After a few visits I bought the cookbook and a few dishes have become real favourites & I usually recreate a Longrain meal for my Sydney friends when they visit me.
One of our friends absolute faves is the Longrain Spiced Barossa Chicken with Plum sauce.
Although the recipe is extremely labour intensive (I cook it over 2 days as it requires poaching the chook and then letting it cool before frying it) and not for beginners- the sauce is really simple and sooooo good. I served it with fluffy white rice and a salad of mesclun lettuce, lots of herbs, finely sliced red chilli & heaps of bean sprouts with a dressing of equal parts lime juice, fish sauce & sugar. The freshness & crunch of the salad works beautifully with the fragrantly spiced chicken.
I slow cooked some duck maryland in the sauce the following day with a star anise, garlic & ginger- SCRUMPTIOUS!
This time it was cooked for some other very special people in our lives who were visiting from NZ and were looking forward to some GourmetGirlfriend cooking. xxx
MARTIN BOETZ'S PLUM SAUCE:
- 500g palm sugar (substitute with brown if you don't have Palm)
- 100ml water
- 100ml fish sauce
- 100ml tamarind (tamarind gives a lovely sourness to balance out the rich sweetness of the sugar & plum)
- 10 blood plums (other varieties are fine)
- 100ml Hoisin sauce
Add the plums and Hoisin and cook until plums release their juices.
Cook unitl you have a honey like consistency. the mix should taste sweet, slightly sour and salty.
Pass through a strainer.
When re-heating add a few sliced plums to the sauce if desired.
Click on the ever growing links below to see what others came up with & if you want to join in email Katrina (link on her blog):
http://www.katrinahigham.com.au
http://www.mishdelish.com.au
http://www.tarisota.typepad.com
http://www.youwantsomemore.blogspot.com
http://www.papecancook.blogspot.com
http://franklyfeisty.blogspot.com
http://www.allconsuming.com.au
http://www.domesblissity.blogspot.com
http://www.girlswearbluetoo.com
Today's listening pleasure is the wonderful Martha Wainwright- i had the pleasure of seeing her live last week....AMAZEBALLS!:
I can vouch for that sauce! :-)
ReplyDeletetee hee!
ReplyDeleteWas bound to happen at some stage I think Mish as I can see we cook in a similar style. It is a GREAT sauce- simple & versatile.
This sounds delicious!
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