There is a season, turn, turn, turn, and right now it’s time to pick bucket loads of plums and deal with them. Most fruits have alternate years of bountifulness, with plum gluts appearing every second year. This year’s pear and apple crops look rather dismal in contrast. There are far too many plums to preserve. Some will be halved and de-stoned, then frozen. Others poached and popped into the freezer, ready for winter puddings such as crumbles, cobblers and charlottes. The first crops matured a few weeks before Christmas. Now the Japanese varieties are at their peak. We planted three different varieties 5 years ago- Formosa, Mariposa and Satsuma; all are sweet, dark-skinned and red fleshed, and all have been carefully netted and kept at picking height. My daughter also handed over most of her crop –Ā 7 kilo to be precise. To date, I have made plum sauce, plum and port topping for a Pavlova, plum Clafoutis, and plum muffins, as well asĀ Baked Plums withĀ Labne, my favourite breakfast dish.

To kick off the Sagre delle Prugne, my plum festival, is this simple Chinese style plum sauce. Wonderful with Har Gow dumplings, or smeared on a big fat sausage, used in a Chinese stir fry, or as a substitute for everyday tomato sauce or ketchup. It went quite nicely with this morning’s potato and spring onion cakes.

Multiply this recipe if you are doing a large batch. My last lot of sauce, based on 5 kilo of plums, required a huge preserving pan, a worthwhile investment.
Chinese plum sauce.
Ingredients
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Ā 1 kg plums, stoned and halved
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Ā 1 red onion, finely chopped
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Ā 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely grated
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Ā 1 cup brown sugar
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Ā 1 cup apple cider vinegar
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Ā 1/2 cup water
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Ā 1 tablespoon lemon juice
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Ā 1 teaspoon salt
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Ā 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice
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Ā 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
Plum sauce, batch 1
- Place all ingredients in a large saucepan over high heat. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring, for 30 minutes or until plums collapse.
- Use a stick blender to blend until smooth, or put through a moulis, pressing well to extract as much as you can from the last skins. I prefer the texture of the latter method. If you think the sauce needs further thickening and reducing, return to the large saucepan and continue to cook down until slightly thicker.
- Pour hot sauce into sterilised bottles. Seal, label and date.

Past plum recipes on Almost Italian include:
Ay, to have an abundance of plums! I’ve been buying plenty of them this year because they are so sweet! Waiting on sugar plums now (hopefully I haven’t missed them!). Those Mirabelle seeds I planted a couple of years ago have sprung into saplings now. I should try to post one to you when the weather is cooler.
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Oh yes, Liz, I would love a Mirabelle. Somehow I associated plum cooking with Hungary and so think of you and your parents.
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Fabulous recipe(s) Francesca, both the sauce and the breakfast special. I love the versatility of plums, so many ways to enjoy them. I used to freeze stewed plums into icy poles for my grand daughters, lots of brownie points there…
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oohh must try this too, great idea Sandra
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The plums look divine. Just beautiful!
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Thankyou my dear.
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Speaking of plums, I know what you’re all thinking, “the very dark purple ones that pick so easily and have sort of turned mushy and uhmmm…” I get so emotional, sob sob, when I can see them right in front of me, sob sob, but can touch. Scream, wail, get out of control
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Thanks Daniel- sending plums.
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You’ve made me yearn for spring and summer and for our plum trees to produce again. Last year they had a very small crop, the year before a bumper one. I thought it was the early blossoming and the crazy weather, but now I am hopeful that what you say will apply to us and this year we will get plenty of fruit again!
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We had crazy weather last year too. We didn’t really get a Spring- so winter seemed to drag on until November. This may account for the plum bounty, but doesn’t explain why the pears and apples are ordinary. Winds and blossom factors are important too, as you say. Now, back to that table full of plums!!
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This post makes me wish I had a plum tree! The sauce sounds deliciously sweet and spicy.
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Thankyou. It is a very easy and handy sauce- almost a cross between a sweet sauce and a chutney. The 5 spice powder provides the Chinese element.
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No plums here! Last year I was gifted some and they were beautiful. I might just plant a tree if i can think of somewhere to put it.
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PS that sauce sounds delicious!
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I think you need a plum tree. They are happy after about 4 years. A Japanese one or a blood plum are the most useful.
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Francesca, have you tried drying them and using them instead of prunes? I wonder whether it would work. Dried prunes last for years in vacuum sealed bags.
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It might work- may just freeze the excess so I can just add them to a pudding in winter. My dehydrating attempts have not been that good.
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I just purchased some plum root stock and a few scions. Hopefully there is a plum tree in our future. Your own look gorgeous. I have pinned the recipe for plum sauce. Did you not hot water can it? If not, how long is the shelf life do you think?
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we don’t tend to use the canning method in Australia for jams and sauces. Jams last a few years, sauces and pickles maybe one year. With the sugar and vinegar content, they keep well. So long as the jars and lids are thoroughly sterilised, they are safely preserved. Modern lids have little rubber inner seals. They become completely airtight when put onto hot jars with hot sauces/jams.
we do use the canning method for whole fruits and vegetables – like plums in jars or tomatoes etc- where there is no sugar used.
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Oh why didn’t I have your recipe? Damn lol
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I remember your post… well now you have Bill, go to all the op shops and get jars, bottles and lids for him to do all your preserving, then send him here.
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Ha ha ha …
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Next year I’m making your Chinese Plum Sauce… I will have eaten the chilli plum sauce I made this year by then… probably without much help, I love it so much.
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It’s a very basic sauce Dale, but useful. Chilli plum- yes please.
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Very tasty.
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How did I miss this wonderful post! Great to have a plum sauce recipe. Will need to bookmark for next season. Do you think it would work well with Damson?
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Any plums should do, I think so long as they are red fleshed. It is a basic sauce but good.
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That plum sauce looks AMAZING!
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Thanks, it is an easy sauce to whip up.
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