It was a busy weekend, full house, lots of company and an unexpected gift! Friends came over for dinner Saturday night and brought us a basket of plums from their trees! They were beautiful and perfectly ripe.
Knowing we wouldn’t be able to eat them all I consulted my favorite canning book; Small Batch Preserving, and decided to make Asian Plum Sauce.
The recipe was easy and I had everything I needed on hand. So while everyone else was eating breakfast on Sunday I made some Asian Plum Sauce!
Asian Plum Sauce
1 ½ pounds purple plums
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups finely chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup raisins
2 tsp soy sauce
¼ tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp each: ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger and allspice.
Finely chop the plums. Measure out 1 ¼ cups. Combine plums, sugar, vinegar and salt in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil gently, uncovered for about three minutes.
Add onion, garlic, raisins, soy sauce, chili powder, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and allspice to saucepan. Return to a boil, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered for about 45 minute or until mixture is thickened. Stir occasionally.
Remove hot jars from canner and ladle sauce into jars leaving ½ inch headspace.
Process 10 minutes for half pints and pints following your water bath canning directions. Makes 3 ½ cups.
Now I can enjoy this unexpected gift all winter!
Nancy on the Home Front 