It\'s The Time Of Year To Go Plum Crazy

Tag : plum

NPR.org , October 8, 2008 · Growing up, I knew it was fall when the house smelled like warmcinnamon. Just as summer ended, my mother began baking multiplepans of Aunt Fanny's plum kuchen. She used odd-looking fruit she called Italian prune plums. Sometarts she served directly from the oven; many she froze. Then, assuddenly as it started, the baking frenzy was over. The plum tartseason is short.
I grew up, left home and forgot about the fragrant coffee cakeuntil I was marketing one day in the very early fall and sawItalian prune plums in the produce section. That week, food writerMarion Burros printed a recipe in The New York Times for a plum torte. It was so popular, she ran the recipe every yearuntil 1995. It called for Italian prune plums.
My childhood came flooding back, and I rummaged through my recipesuntil I found, in my mom's handwriting, Aunt Fanny's kuchen. My mother's recipe was made in a jelly-roll pan, while Burros' wasin a springform pan. Otherwise, the recipes were almost exactreplicas. Burros got the recipe just after she was married and,since we're both women of a certain age, it was probably a commonrecipe of a certain time. It's a homey, non-fussy, easy recipe,perfect for a busy world.
I followed Burros' use of the smaller pan, made a few adjustmentsto my mother's recipe (less butter, less sugar) and began whatbecame an annual tart-baking binge. These tarts are so easy to makeand freeze so well that you can make a lot of them in the brieftime the plums are available. This is worth doing.
Italian prune plums appear with the first yellow leaves on thetrees and are gone when the pumpkins are overflowing their patches— so you have to act fast. Look for them at farmers markets,supermarkets, warehouse stores and specialty stores. They're notalways easy to find.
The purple-black, egg-sized Italian prune plums are far easier tocook with than their summer cousins. Most plums are clingstone,meaning it's difficult to separate the flesh from the pit. Itclings. Italian prune plums, however, are freestone and easy topit.
Because they're firmer than other plums, Italian prune plums keeptheir shape in tarts, pies and cakes. They are also less juicy thanother plums, so they produce less liquid and more intense flavor.These properties have made them baking favorites.
Then there's the color. The yellow flesh of the raw plum turns agorgeous fuchsia when cooked. I made a sorbet that turned a deep,rich burgundy color.
These are the plums that star in Czech plum dumplings, Italian plumcake, French clafouti, jams of all nationalities, crisps and compotes.
While they lend themselves perfectly to desserts, Italian pruneplums also are good in savory dishes. I've made a sweet-and-sourplum sauce for pork or veal chops. A few diced plums make a bowl ofquinoa stand out.
They're also good to eat just out of the fruit bowl. I like theirslight tartness.
When buying Italian plums, look for fruit that is firm but nothard. Avoid plums that are too soft, or that have wrinkled or rough skin, or brown spots. Theywill have a light coating that looks like chalk dust. That's a goodthing.
Keep in mind that the time for Italian prune plums is short.Already, the season is almost over.
If you get some plums and start baking, though, you can have afreezer full of tarts to turn to on a cold winter day.