Plum sauces: popular recipes and use in cooking

Add to the familiar dishes new flavors allow various additives, including sauces.Of course, you can buy them in the store, but it is much more practical to cook it yourself. For example, a useful and versatile plum sauce.

Plum-based sauce is a spicy addition to meat dishes and vegetables. Sauce from plums (sour, green) - this is a great opportunity to "attach" the crop, which is not suitable for fresh consumption or for cooking jam, jam.

For the preparation of certain types of sauce, it is recommended to take sour fruits, while for others - only ripe. In any case, do not apply overripe and begin to rot plums. It will spoil the taste of the sauce, give it a raw, moldy smell.

Grinding fruits can be done with a blender, but it is much better to pre-rub the boiled plum mixture through a colander. This will get rid of the skin, which, with simple grinding, will still be felt in the finished dish. After the composition is passed through a colander, it can be whipped with a blender. So it will be possible to ensure maximum uniformity of the sauce, as well as its airiness.

The classic recipe involves steaming plums and mashing them. Real creativity begins with the selection of spices and additional components that allow you to get more sharp or, on the contrary, tender sauces. Adding soy sauce and ginger allows you to get Chinese sauce or an analogue of sauce "Hoisin". The use of cilantro and oriental spices turns the sauce into a work of culinary art of Georgian cuisine.

When cooking sauces can burn and "spit". It is better to cook them in a cast-iron thick-walled pot, cauldron, and also periodically mix. Better wooden spoon or spatula. The spice of the dish is largely provided by the spices. Professional cooks recommend using not ready-made mixtures, but grind spices just before adding them to the dish. This will preserve their flavor.

Excessively liquid sauce can be "compacted" by adding finely chopped greens or nuts. If you do not expect long-term storage of food, you can also add a little flour or starch, which is poured into the plum mixture stirred on the fire. After adding these components it is necessary to once again puree the composition.

If long-term storage of the sauce is intended, then it is necessary to roll it into sterilized jars and ensure suitable storage conditions. Until the jars of sauce have cooled, they are wrapped and left in the room. After cooling down, immerse in the cellar or clean in the refrigerator.

For this dish you can use the slightly unripe fruit of the variety “Hungarian” or cherry plum. Plum goes well with vegetables - tomatoes, carrots, as well as sour-sweet apples, walnuts. In any case, a little sour plum fruits give the sauce a spicy taste.

This group of plum sauces can be attributed tkemali. It is a traditional Georgian or Abkhazian sauce, which is prepared from immature plums of the same name variety (tkemali, better known as cherry plum). It is more often served with meat, kebabs, barbecue.

The list of products for tkemali is as follows:

• 4 kg of plums;
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander;
• garlic head;
• 200 g mint;
• 2-2.5 teaspoons of sugar;
• Salt to taste (about 1 teaspoon will be enough);
• 450 ml of pure water.

Wash the plums, set aside unsuitable for use, then fold them into a saucepan, add water and bring to a boil over high heat.Then the fire is reduced to moderate, and the berries are boiled for 2-2.5 hours. They should burst, the skins and bones become easily separated from the pulp. Once this has happened, remove the plum mixture from the heat and cool it. As soon as the temperature of the composition becomes comfortable to work with it, it is frayed through a colander. All the flesh turns into a smooth mash. Spices, salt and sugar are added to it, as well as mint leaves, after which the sauce is stewed over moderate heat for another 7-10 minutes. Focusing on your own taste preferences, you can add pepper or a mixture of peppers.

As already mentioned, tkemali love and know how to cook both Georgians and Abkhaz. However, the Abkhazian sauce is usually prepared from cherry plum, and Georgian - from the “Hungarian” or similar varieties. Tkemali is also made from green plums, adding thorns to it. To classic can be attributed, and chutney sauce, which is an Indian sauce with the addition of spices and fruit. Ideal for duck, lamb, pork and vegetable side dishes.

Plum Chutney:

• 0.5 kg plums;
• 100 g pineapples;
• 50 ml of pineapple juice;
• 2 tablespoons of honey;
• star aniseen;
• 20 g fresh chopped ginger;
• cinnamon stick;
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar;
• 1 tablespoon of brandy.

For this recipe, it is convenient to use canned pineapple, taking from there pieces of fruit and juice.

Wash plums, remove bones from it, cut into halves or quarters. Fold the fruit in a saucepan, sprinkle with spices, add honey, alcohol, juice and pineapple pieces. Leave on for 30-60 minutes so that the fruits are soaked with spices and given juice. After the above, add water and bring to a boil. From the moment of boiling, reduce the heat and torment for another half an hour.

Catch from a mixture of star anise and cinnamon and punch it with a blender. Extinguish for 10 minutes, at the very end you need to make balsamic vinegar. Dish can be served at the table.

Many of these recipes are suitable for use immediately after preparation, and for rolling for the winter. When you make a dish for the future, it is better to take small jars - 0.5-0.7 l.

Spicy sauce:

• 2.5 kg of "Hungarian";
• 2-3 chilli pods;
• 2 bell peppers;
• 250 ml of water;
• 2 tablespoons of sugar;
• 1 tablespoon of salt and seasoning "Provencal herbs".

Berries are moved, washed and separated from the bones. After they need to shift into a thick-walled dishes, pour water and put on a slow fire. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until softened. Peppers should be washed, cut, remove the seeds and chop, put to plums. After that, beat the mixture with a blender and then wipe it through a sieve. This will help to achieve a smooth and uniform composition.

The next step is to add salt, sugar and spices, after which the dish is boiled for another half hour. Banks need to be sterilized, spread out in a little cold sauce and close the lids.

Sauce of plums with apples is not sweet, but rather saturated. For him should be prepared:

• 1.2 kg of plums and apples;
• 2 kg of tomatoes;
• 220 g sugar;
• 50 ml of table vinegar 9%;
• 3 onions;
• 1 teaspoon black pepper;
• a pinch of red pepper;
• 1 tablespoon salt;
• half a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Fruits, vegetables and berries should be washed. Remove the hearts from apples, fruit from the tomatoes, plums from the bones, and peel the bulbs. Cut everything into pieces and scroll through a meat grinder. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then, reducing the heat, boil for 2 hours. After the specified time it is necessary to punch the mixture with a blender, salt and put spices, put on fire for another 45 minutes.

At this time, prepare the jars and lids.Before you turn off the sauce, enter the vinegar, mix everything thoroughly and immediately pour it into the jars.

Chinese plum sauce:

• 1.2 kg plums;
• 100 g of sugar;
• 40 g chopped ginger root;
• 2-3 cloves of garlic;
• 120 ml of rice vinegar;
• 2 star star;
• 2 asterisk cloves;
• cinnamon stick;
• 1-1,5 tsp. Ground coriander.

Preparation of the "Hungarian" or other varieties in this recipe is reduced to washing under water, removing pits and skin. The latter can be removed by scalding the fruit with boiling water and leaving it for 10-15 minutes in this water.

After that, the fruit should be put in a thick-walled pot and immediately add all the ingredients (chop garlic, peel ginger root and chop also) and put it on a moderate fire for half an hour or until the plums turn into puree. After that, it is necessary to remove the spices from the composition - star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, and then beat the sauce with blender until smooth. Chinese sauce can also be served directly to meat or stored for winter.

Simple meat sauce:

• 1 kg of plums;
• 2-3 tablespoons of sugar (preferably brown);
• 10 g hops-suneli;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• 30 ml of water;
• salt, pepper to taste.

Berries need to be washed, extracted from the bones, and then mash using a blender. Salt, add spices, chopped garlic, mix everything and put on fire. It is necessary to boil until the mass becomes homogeneous and its shade becomes brownish. This dish is not intended for long-term storage, you need to eat it no later than 3-5 days.

The unusual taste of plum sauce harmoniously combined with any meat. It is recommended to make the sauce spicy by adding pepper. However, you can do without it or adjust its content at its discretion. One of the simplest recipes involves the use of the following products:

• 1.5 kg plums;
• 2-3 cloves of garlic;
• 2 tablespoons of sugar;
• salt to taste (usually 1 tsp);
• 1 teaspoon of "hop-suneli" and coriander;
• 1 chili;
• 70 ml of water.

Go through the berries, removing damaged and rotten. Even a small amount of rot can ruin the taste of the whole sauce. Then they are washed under water, they are removed bones. It is more convenient to cut the fruit into halves.

The berries prepared in this way are folded into a container having a thick bottom and walls, filled with water and brought to a boil over moderate heat. After the bubbles appear on the surface of the mixture, leave the minimum heat, cover it with a lid and simmer for another half an hour, stirring occasionally.

While the plums are being prepared, it is necessary to wash and peel, and then chop the peppers, push the garlic through. Ready-made plums must be pureed by sifting through a colander or breaking through an immersion blender.

The resulting puree should be boiled again for half an hour, stirring regularly. After the indicated time, the remaining ingredients are added to the mixture. The resulting composition is boiled for another 20 minutes without a lid on a low fire, then re-mash and stew for another 10 minutes.

For those who are keen on cooking, plum sauce is an opportunity to invent many new dishes, because you can add a variety of fruits and vegetables to it, changing the shade of the finished dish.The usual combination of plums and tomatoes, then the sauce is more liquid, and if you add garlic and pepper, then it will taste like adjika.

The sauce with apples is more dense, sweet and sour. It is better to use later, sourish varieties of apples.

If you add a lot of greens to the sauce (first of all, parsley and cilantro) and season it with spices (hops-suneli, a mixture of peppers), you get a dish with pronounced oriental notes. This sauce is indispensable to kebabs, dishes on the fire.

The use of soy sauce, cinnamon, star anise, and ginger will make the eastern sauce more refined.

The sauce can be served as an independent snack, as well as to meat dishes, side dishes. It is recommended to put it on pieces of bread or bread, complementing a sprig of greenery, sesame seeds.

All Georgian meat dishes are in harmony with this sauce - kebabs, chakhokhbili, chakapuli, as well as snacks like shawarma. Vegetable side dishes made on the fire or grill also get a more interesting flavor when adding plum sauce. However, even with everyday food, such as boiled potatoes, rice, pasta, a little spicy plum sauce goes very harmoniously.

It is not recommended to combine such sauces with dishes that have their own delicate and diverse taste. In this connection, the supply of a multifaceted tkemali to a red fish is quite controversial. The latter more “asks” for more tender and less colorful cream sauces. But the rather simple and insipid taste of pollock, telapia plum sauce “revive”. Plum-vegetable sauce like tkemali can be added to soups instead of or in half with tomato paste, and can also be used to stew meatballs. It goes well with dolma.

Plum sauce, the recipes of which were discussed above, goes well with meat dishes. It is added to the finished dish in the manner of store counterparts or ketchup. However, if you use these sauces as marinade, and stew meat directly in it, it will have a more refined taste.

The beef or veal in this recipe is tender and juicy with a pleasant garlic aroma. You must prepare the following ingredients for this recipe:

• 0.5 kg of beef pulp;
• 1 head of red or purple onions;
• 150 ml of soy sauce;
• 10 mg of honey;
• 2.5-3 tablespoons of plum sauce, prepared according to one of the above recipes;
• to taste salt and black pepper;
• oil for greasing the pan.

Beef should be washed, remove the film and cut into plates with a thickness of 1 cm. You can use steaks or pieces of meat. The resulting pieces should be placed in a suitable dish for baking and pour the marinade. The latter is prepared by mixing plum and soy sauce, honey and salt with pepper.

Marinate the meat should be 2-2.5 hours. However, the longer this process, the tastier and more aromatic the dish will turn out. You can leave the meat in the marinade overnight.

Marinated meat should be fried in a well heated and oiled pan until golden brown. Fry the onion sliced ​​in rings here. Serve the beef with onions, you can sprinkle with herbs and sesame seeds.

Spicy plum sauce harmonizes with chicken meat, making the dry chicken itself juicy and flavorful. Emphasize the amazing taste of whole-roasted chicken with whole fruits that are also present in the dish. The list of ingredients for cooking looks like this:

• 1 medium-sized chicken (although this recipe can be used to cook its individual parts - breast, legs);
• 4-5 tablespoons of plum sauce;
• 400 g fresh plums;
• 2-4 cloves of garlic;
• 1, 5 teaspoons ground coriander;
• to taste salt and black pepper.

Wash the carcass and blot with a paper towel. Then rub with a mixture of salt and coriander, put in garlic, previously cleaned and pressed through a press.

From inside and outside, grate the bird sauce and leave it to marinate in this form for a couple of hours.

Now you can do the preparation of plums. They need to be washed, remove the bones, cut into 2 halves.

The chicken should be placed on a baking sheet or in a special form, plums should be placed here, covered with foil and baked for 50-60 minutes at 200 degrees. 10-15 minutes before the readiness, it is recommended to remove the foil so that the chicken gets an appetizing crust, browned.

Serve the chicken on a platter, sprinkle with herbs and spread the baked plums on the sides. It would be nice to put a separate plum sauce on the table.

In the next video you will find a recipe for a delicious tkemali sauce.