These plums, I believe, are also called “Reine Claude”. Claude must have loved them more than the purple ones. I can understand that.
See, I bought vanilla beans…
I went to Épices de Cru in Jean-Talon market and asked to smell the 7 kinds of vanilla beans they keep in large glass jars. I wafted. I’ve had Madagascar and Tahitian before. Those are the standard exotics, but some of the others I’d never seen around. There were also Indian, Papua New Guinean, Ugandan, and Sri Lankan, and Mexican vanillas. The price range was also pretty broad, but I ended up choosing completely based on the smell I wanted, and these happened to be the Ugandan and Sri Lankan. From what I remember the Mexican smelled like grainy sugar. Can vanilla smell grainy? The Tahitian was a more intense version of the same. The Madagascar was big and floral, but I worried it might seem a little hollow in a jam. Again, hollow vanilla? The P.N.G. smelled like the Madagascar…but just less aromatic. The Indian was somewhere between the sugary-ness of the Mexican and the rich flowers of Madagascar. Then the Ugandan and Sri Lankan were the ones that seemed strong enough, without being too sugary or bitter. I can’t quite put my finger on what I liked about them, but honestly, it probably didn’t matter that much which pods I chose. All of these kinds were so fresh that they would do a wonderful job probably. The fun part is just smelling these vanillas and feeling like you’re a million miles away in a warm, sunny, tropical place where such magical things may grow.
On to the recipe. It’s from here. There are 4 ingredients and no pectin. Easy.
Green Gage Plum and Vanilla Jam
2lb (about 1kg) Green Gage Plums
1lb (about 500g) sugar
juice from 1 lemon
2 vanilla beans
The only thing that’s annoying is that you need to pit every plum…
You’re supposed to cut the plums into big chunks but I just had them in half. Would have been better in chunks. One of these stays I’ll learn to read.
Then the plums go into a large pot…not the pits. Add the sugar and the lemon juice (I’m skeptical about adding the lemon juice now, since all the boiling kind of kills the intensity of the flavour, but I picked a high time to learn to read, didn’t I?). Stir well to combine. Cut a round piece of parchment paper the size of the diameter of the pot, and place it on top of the fruits (I have absolutely no idea why you do this with the parchment paper. Sure, the fruit needs to sit, but paper? Let sit for about an hour (or a day, if you’re me. I figured as long as they didn’t start to ferment I’d be golden).
Cut two vanilla beans lengthwise (my goodness this was so fun. You never want to wash your hands again. SO much better than chili peppers!), scrape the inside of the pods to get to all the seeds (funny thing about these pods…there were no seeds!!! I looked, but I was like a surgeon looking for an aromatic, sugary tumour – I really wanted to find it, but I didn’t want to tear the precious body apart. For the surgeon it’s probably a little more serious if you can’t find what you’re looking for…but, well, no, my jam holds a similar importance to me. I put my heart into it. Not like a surgeon could put a heart into something, but…wow, I’m done now, I swear…).
Scrape the pods and all the seeds into the pot with the fruits. Place the pot over the stove and bring to a boil over medium heat. Gently stir to make sure all the sugar is melted. Bring the heat down to a simmer, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until it reduces at least by half or until it reaches the thickness you like. Ambiguous, recipe…
To test to see if the jam is ready, put a small plate in the freezer for a few minutes to cool it. The take a small amount of jam on the tip of a spoon, and drop it on the plate. Put the plate back in the freezer for 30 seconds. Remove it and press down on the jam with your finger and it should be gel-y, not liquid-y. If it’s still a little runny, you might want to continue cooking for just a bit longer. Mine took forever and I figured it was because my plum chunks were too big, so I transferred the jam to the blender and pulsed it VERY briefly. I didn’t want puréed jam, but I wanted to get the natural pectin in the fruit out from where it was hiding. Then the jam went back on the stove for maybe 10 minutes, stirring religiously because it’ll burn now that it’s quasi-puréed, and I tried the cold plate trick again.
The canning thing…well, you CAN can this or just stick it in the fridge (apparently you’re supposed to remove the vanilla pods but I didn’t think the vanilla flavour was that strong as it was and I’d seen other recipes that said to add the pod to the canned jars for aesthetics anyway. If you can, sterilize the cans and rings in boiling water for 20 minutes, remove with tongs (no more touching). Add the lids to gently simmering water for 10 minutes. Fill the jars with the jam to the bottom lip, wipe the rims with a clean cloth or damp paper towel (no touching, remember?) and then use tongs or a jar lifter to place the lids on, followed by the rings. Now tighten with your hand (don’t burn yourself). Then jam lifter the jars back into the water you used to sterilize them in the first place, return the water to a boil, and start the timer for 20 minutes once it returns to a boil. Remove from pot, cool, SLIGHTLY tighten the rings. I did this with my tomatoes too soon and now I can’t open my tomatoes. It’s very sad since I tried to open one for a sambar recipe I made…the sambar ended up being not so great since the tomatoes would have added the necessary acidity to the dish…aw, well. Cooking for 1 means fewer people complain. I didn’t say NO ONE complains, but there’s always a trouble-maker, isn’t there?
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