PLUM GOOD!

Plum Good!

            As the old saying goes: “Be careful what you wish for”! All of August we bemoaned the lack of that real summer warmth, that is necessary to  ripen this year’s garden bounty. By September mother nature relented, but in her whimsical way forgot to include enough moisture in form of rain to take care of the growth spurt in response to sudden heat and humidity. To quote Gilbert and Sullivan (Princess Ida): ”Oh, isn’t your life extremely flat, with nothing whatever to grumble at!”

            Anyway, fall and its fruit are upon us with all the myriad of choices of not only fresh fruit, but all those mouthwatering deserts that seem to get forgotten the rest of the seasons. Peaches and plums, our two most popular stone fruits, make an appearance before the long and popular season for visiting apple orchards.  Unfortunately local peaches have been scarce this year. Our peach tree had only 2 blossoms this spring demonstrating the reason for this year’s poor showing. On the other hand, plums seem to be plentiful and offer the opportunity to revisit some old and favorite recipes.

            Fresh red or black plums make a delicious and light desert when sliced, combined with orange sections and sprinkled with slightly sweetened coconut. Briefly grilled they present a pleasing accompaniment to chicken or pork, and work just as well as peaches in that capacity.  However, my favorite is a black plum (or prune plum) upside down cake.

                                                Plum upside down cake

            Cut 5 large black plums in half, remove the stone and slice each half in ¼ inch slices. Melt 1/3 cup butter in an 8 or 9 inch metal cake pan and stir in ½ cup packed brown sugar until melted. Stir in 1 Tblsp. maple syrup. Layer the plum slices in the butter mixture in concentric circles covering the entire bottom. If using prune plums, cut them in half only and set them in the mixture cut side up, again using enough plums to cover the entire bottom. Any spaces between the fruit can be filled with pecan halves (optional). To prepare the batter: In a small bowl whisk together 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1 ¼ tsp. baking powder and ¼ tsp. salt. In a medium bowl cream ¼ cup butter with ½ cup sugar and 2 eggs, one at a time. Beat in ½ tsp. almond extract. Then using a wooden spoon stir in the flour mixture alternatively in 2 or 3 portions with  ¼ cup milk, starting and ending with flour until batter is smooth.  Spread batter evenly over the plums. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean, showing that the cake is done. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and then invert on a plate with a rim for some juice that will settle around the cake. Serve warm or cool with or without whipped cream.

            An even simpler baked plum desert can be made using a recipe similar to the traditional Apple Brown Betty, which is really a bread pudding. The juicier texture of plums makes this a simple and moist desert.

                                                Plum Brown Betty

            Toast and cube 6-7 slices of stale bread from a 1 lb loaf. Toss in a 3 qt. bowl with ¼ cup melted butter and ½ tsp. ground nutmeg. Butter a 11x6x2 inch glass baking dish or equivalent and spread ¼ of the crumbs in the pan. Toss the rest of the crumbs with 1 cup sugar. Wash and halve 8-10 red plums (~1 lb), remove the stones and slice each half in 5-6 slices. Spread ½ of the plum slices over the bread in the pan, cover with ½ of the bread and sugar mixture  Follow with the second layer of plums and another layer of bread and sugar mixture. Dot with additional butter if desired. Cover tightly with non-stick aluminum foil and bake the covered dish  in a pre-heated oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes until fruit starts bubbling up. Remove the cover and continue baking for an additional 10 minutes. Remove to a cake rack and allow to cool. Serve warm with whipped topping or if served cool, a scoop of ice cream is also tasty

Plums may be less popular than peaches, but make some very delicious, satisfying and plumb good deserts. .

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

IMPROVISATIONAL LOBSTER BISQUE

Improvisational Lobster Bisque

            This column comes thanks to the generosity of our friend Dan, who inadvertently  handed me the challenge. Lobster bisque is that ultimate high end soup in restaurants that combines the delicate flavor of Maine lobster in a savory blend that pleases both eye and palate. Despite enjoying it on special occasions in Maine and occasionally elsewhere, I had actually never made the bisque, despite having a house here for almost twenty years..

            My usual summer enjoyment of lobster comes at a lobster pound in summer, or when some of our friends cook it at their house. The only requirement is that I’m allowed to eat it completely in a place that will not offend the table setting by thorough dissection of everything: legs, flippers, any roe and even the back meat. Alas, I have only cooked two of them at home, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is some inability to quickly wrestle the suspecting lobster in the pot. The result has been a lack of basic ingredients to start lobster bisque at home, which is a couple of whole cooked lobsters for the preparation.

            This was unexpectedly remedied a couple of weeks ago. Our Philadelphia kids were visiting and Dan obligingly was willing to take grandson Cole with him in the boat for another view of  lobstering, since a couple of years before he had found the process with bait and all somewhat intimidating. The morning was most successful in more ways than one! This time we saw our grandson grinning from ear to ear and gloriously grimy from head to toe, as he relished the experience of coming ashore with Dan and the winning catch.

            It was a beautiful Maine day, with the sun shimmering on the bay at our friends Jean and Dan’s home, when it was decided to have an impromptu lobster cookout and picnic on their outdoor table.  We had already packed a basket to go on a picnic after the morning anyway and the location and the occasion could not have been more perfect in the shade with the island silhouetted against a cloudless sky and a small sailboat across the bay. We had a marvelous lunch and I was spared having to wrestle any lobsters in the pot.

AND,  I was given two cooked lobsters to take home, which led to my discovering how to make lobster bisque! After having the claws for lunch next day I clearly faced the challenge and immediately consulted a couple of recipes. Marjorie Moser’s “Good Maine Food” (the 1947 reprinted edition) made it clear and straightforward, but required 2 cups of oyster crackers for the thickening. Clairborne and Franey had a page of ingredients and complicated instructions, so I improvised with some hints from both recipes.

                        Improvisational lobster bisque

Remove the tail meat (and claws, if not already eaten) from 2 cooked lobsters and set aside. Break apart the remainder of each carcass in large chunks. In a 4 quart pot sauté a chopped onion in 1 Tblsp. olive oil for 5 minutes, add  1 large celery rib cut in 2 inch pieces and 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1 bay leaf and a sprig of thyme and sauté for an additional minute. Add in all the cracked lobster chunks, 1 large cleaned carrot cut in half, stir in 1 cup white wine and enough hot water to cover all the solids. Bring to boil and stir in 2 Tblsp. concentrated tomato paste. Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes, remove from heat, set aside the carrot pieces and strain and discard the rest of the solids. When liquid is somewhat cooled, puree it with the carrot and cut up lobster tails. In the cleaned pot melt 4 Tblsp. butter, make a roux with 1/3 cup flour and slowly add some of the lobster puree while stirring to make a smooth sauce. When sauce is thickened, stir in the remaining liquid and heat to just boiling. (This can be done a day ahead and the bisque refrigerated and reheated the following day).  To finish, add 1 Tblsp. Asian fish sauce, 3/2 cup dry sherry and 1 cup heavy cream. Heat to just before boiling and serve.

The soup looks elegant when served with part of a lobster claw as garnish, but since I had eaten mine for lunch the previous day, the garnish was a large crouton and a sprig of dill. It still looked elegant and tasted of the best flavors of Maine.

Inadvertent challenges certainly make life in the kitchen interesting.

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)